One of the notes she tossed upon the “rouge,” and the other two she crushed into her pocket.
“What!” I gasped, “are you playing? And with such stakes?”
“Why not?” she laughed, perfectly cool, and watching the ball, which had already begun to spin.
With a final click it fell into one of the red squares, and two notes were handed to her.
The one she had won she passed across to the “noir,” and there won again, and again a second time, until people at the table began to follow her lead. Gamblers are always superstitious when they see a young girl playing. It is amazing and curious how often youth will win where middle-age will lose.
Five times in succession she played upon the colours with a thousand francs each time, and won on each occasion.
I tried to remonstrate, and urged her to leave with her winnings; but her cheeks were flushed, and she was now excited. One of the notes she exchanged with the croupier for nine hundreds, and five louis. The latter she distributed à cheval, with one en plein on the number eighteen.
It won. She left her stake on the table, and again the same number turned up. Three louis placed on zero she lost, and again on the middle dozen.
But she won with two louis on thirty-six. Then what she did showed me that, if a novice at a convent, she was, at any rate, no novice at roulette, for she shifted her stake to the “first four”—a favourite habit of gamblers—and won again.
Then, growing suddenly calm again, she exchanged her gold for notes, and crushing the bundle into her pocket, turned with me from the table.