had only to approach a roulette table, begin to play, and
then openly grab some one else's winnings, for a din to be
raised, and the thief to start vociferating that the stake was
HIS; and, if the coup had been carried out with sufficient skill,
and the witnesses wavered at all in their testimony, the thief
would as likely as not succeed in getting away with the money,
provided that the sum was not a large one--not large enough to
have attracted the attention of the croupiers or some
fellow-player. Moreover, if it were a stake of insignificant
size, its true owner would sometimes decline to continue the
dispute, rather than become involved in a scandal. Conversely,
if the thief was detected, he was ignominiously expelled the
building.
Upon all this the Grandmother gazed with open-eyed curiosity;
and, on some thieves happening to be turned out of the place,
she was delighted. Trente-et-quarante interested her but little;
she preferred roulette, with its ever-revolving wheel. At length
she expressed a wish to view the game closer; whereupon in some
mysterious manner, the lacqueys and other officious agents
(especially one or two ruined Poles of the kind who keep
offering their services to successful gamblers and foreigners in
general) at once found and cleared a space for the old lady
among the crush, at the very centre of one of the tables, and
next to the chief croupier; after which they wheeled her chair
thither. Upon this a number of visitors who were not playing,
but only looking on (particularly some Englishmen with their
families), pressed closer forward towards the table, in order
to watch the old lady from among the ranks of the gamblers. Many
a lorgnette I saw turned in her direction, and the croupiers'
hopes rose high that such an eccentric player was about to
provide them with something out of the common. An old lady of
seventy-five years who, though unable to walk, desired to play
was not an everyday phenomenon. I too pressed forward towards
the table, and ranged myself by the Grandmother's side; while
Martha and Potapitch remained somewhere in the background among
the crowd, and the General, Polina, and De Griers, with Mlle.
Blanche, also remained hidden among the spectators.
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