instance, I have seen even fond mothers so far indulge their
guileless, elegant daughters--misses of fifteen or sixteen--as to
give them a few gold coins and teach them how to play; and
though the young ladies may have won or have lost, they have
invariably laughed, and departed as though they were well
pleased. In the same way, I saw our General once approach the
table in a stolid, important manner. A lacquey darted to offer
him a chair, but the General did not even notice him. Slowly he
took out his money bags, and slowly extracted 300 francs in
gold, which he staked on the black, and won. Yet he did not take
up his winnings--he left them there on the table. Again the
black turned up, and again he did not gather in what he had won;
and when, in the third round, the RED turned up he lost, at a
stroke, 1200 francs. Yet even then he rose with a smile, and
thus preserved his reputation; yet I knew that his money bags
must be chafing his heart, as well as that, had the stake been
twice or thrice as much again, he would still have restrained
himself from venting his disappointment.
On the other hand, I saw a Frenchman first win, and then lose,
30,000 francs cheerfully, and without a murmur. Yes; even if a gentleman
should lose his whole substance, he must never give way to
annoyance. Money must be so subservient to gentility as never to
be worth a thought. Of course, the SUPREMELY aristocratic thing
is to be entirely oblivious of the mire of rabble, with its
setting; but sometimes a reverse course may be aristocratic to
remark, to scan, and even to gape at, the mob (for preference,
through a lorgnette), even as though one were taking the crowd
and its squalor for a sort of raree show which had been
organised specially for a gentleman's diversion. Though one may
be squeezed by the crowd, one must look as though one were fully
assured of being the observer--of having neither part nor lot
with the observed. At the same time, to stare fixedly about one
is unbecoming; for that, again, is ungentlemanly, seeing that no
spectacle is worth an open stare--are no spectacles in the world
which merit from a gentleman too pronounced an inspection.
However, to me personally the scene DID seem to be worth
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