Part 3

When I arrived in Paris I never expected to see them again. But the blind Madonna of the Pagan is not always concerning herself with roulette banks.

I remained in Paris till February. My sister helped me out of her private purse. Probably she would not have done so had she known how deeply I had pledged the old homestead. I began to feel like myself again. I cabled my brokers to buy July wheat, and mailed a thousand for margin.

From Paris I went to Nice. I met some Americans there. The gambling fever seemed to possess them all. I was dragged into the maelstrom. I became mad and unreasoning.

I arrived at Monaco with exactly one hundred louis. By this time I had mortgaged the estate to the last penny. I was nearing that precipice over which all gamblers finally tumble: ruin. Ruin makes a man reckless, defiant, devil-may-care. Heavens! what luck I had had! The gold had melted away "like snow upon the desert's dusty face."

Right in the middle of this fever came a call from Wall Street for more margin. I cabled back to my brokers to go, one and all, to the hottest place they could think of. I dared not ask my sister for any assistance, for she abhorred gambling of all kinds. Besides, I had some pride left. You wouldn't have believed all this of me, would you? But it is all true enough.

I had very serious thoughts of cashing in all my checks, and making the prince pay for my funeral. I shook my fist at his yacht which lay in the harbor below.

I made an inventory, and found that I possessed one hundred louis, and some twenty-odd pieces of miscellaneous coin. I wandered about till night, when I ate a remarkably good dinner, topping it off with a pint of chambertin and champagne mixed. This gave me a splendid courage.

At ten I took a promenade through the gardens and listened to the band, which is one of the finest in the world. They were playing Strauss waltzes. It was warm. To the north lay the mountain, to the south the Mediterranean trembled in the moonlight; the lights of the many private yachts twinkled. It was a mighty fair world--to those of cool blood and unruffled conscience. I jingled the louis, smoked three or four cigars, then directed my steps toward the Casino.

I immediately sought out that table which is close to the famous painting of the girl and the horse. I forget what you call the picture. The croupier was wizened and bald. Somehow I fancied that I saw 29 in the construction of his eyes and nose. So I placed a louis on that number. I won. Immediately I put fifty louis on the odd and fifty on the black, leaving my winnings on the lucky number. The ball rolled into zero. Very coolly I searched through my pockets. I put what silver I found on black. The ball tumbled into number 1, which is red.

I was, in the parlance of the day, absolutely strapped. My dinner had not been paid for, even. I lit a cigar. I even recalled seeing an actor play this piece of bravado. I arose from my chair, and flecked the ashes from my shirt bosom. I stared at the girl and the horse for a brief space and felt of my watch! Hello! I still had that, and with its jewels it was worth about four hundred dollars. I hurried back to the hotel and saw the proprietor. After an hour's dickering he consented to loan me five hundred francs on it. I wisely paid my bill for three days in advance.

I returned to the Casino.

"Monsieur," said a handsome woman, whose eyes had proved pitfalls for many an unwary one, "only one louis, and look! I know a way to make Monsieur le Croupier push the rake toward me. Eh?"

"Here," said I, giving her the louis. She flew away, and I laughed. Gambling never had any dignity or disinterestedness.

Of all those I had left at the table only three remained. The other faces were new. And how that pile of gold and bank-notes at the side of the croupier had grown!

A crabbed old lady arose, crumpling her system card in her hand, and I popped into her vacant chair. I cast about a casual glance. Seated next to me was a very beautiful young girl. She was alone, and appeared most emphatically out of place in this gilded Hades. Her eyes were blue and moist and starlike, but there was fever in her cheeks and lips. There was very little gold before her, and this dwindled as I watched. She was playing 17, 20 and 32, persistently and doggedly; and each time the rake drew in her money I could see her delicate nostrils quiver and her lips draw to a thin line. From time to time she cast a hasty glance over her shoulder, a shamed and hunted look. In watching her I came very near forgetting why I was seated at the table.

"Make your game, gentlemen; make your game,--the game is made."

Whirr-rr-rr! went the evil sphere. It dropped into 20. The girl at my side gasped, but too soon. The ball bounded out, and zig-zagged till it rolled complacently into the zero. The young girl had played her last louis and lost. A chivalric impulse came to me to thrust half of my money toward her. I had done as much for a woman of the half-world. But the gambler's selfishness checked the generous deed. The blind Madonna was biding her time, as you shall presently see.

The girl arose, brushing her eyes. She turned, and in a moment had disappeared in the moving throng of sightseers.

"Make your game, gentlemen!"

I came back to the sordidness of things. 17, 20, 32; where had I seen this combination before?--Good heavens, that was not possible!

Where was her brother? If this should be the girl of the railway coach! I half arose, as if to follow. Chance whispered in my ear: "Of what use?" I laid a stake on 29. In less than forty minutes I had nothing left but three days' board at the hotel. I fingered my gold cuff-buttons. The rubies were at least worth two hundred francs--No; I would not part with them. They were heirlooms. They should be buried with me.

I forgot all about the beautiful girl and her despair. I, Robert Chadwick, of an old and respected family, once wealthy, had reached the end of my rope. It would make interesting reading in the papers. Not a penny to my name, not a roof over my head, unless I swallowed my pride and begged of my sister. I could send home for nothing, because I had nothing.

"Make your game, gentlemen," said the bald-headed croupier.

I sat there, stupidly watching the ball. It rolled into zero, and the fat English brewer added three hundred and fifty louis to his ill-gotten gains. I experienced the wild desire to spring upon him and cram his wealth down his fat throat. What right had he to win when he had millions backing him? I felt through my clothes again, and the croupier eyed me coldly.

"Never mind, monsieur," I said to him, with a snarling laugh; "I have paid for my chair to-night."

"Twenty-nine wins, black and odd!"

My number! It repeated. The brewer laughed as he heard my oath.

"Here is your louis, monsieur," cried a voice over my shoulder. A louis dropped in front of me. I looked up. It was the irregular lady to whom I had given the gold upon entering.

I threw a kiss at her as she danced away. She had won three thousand francs at red-and-black. I spun the coin in the air and let it rest where it fell. From where I sat it looked as if it had split upon 17 and 20. Twenty came up, and I expected to receive at least half the stake. But the croupier warned me back with the rake. He and an attendant peered searchingly at the coin, then beckoned to me to observe. The breadth of a hair separated the rim of the coin from the line. I had lost.

"Damnation!" I arose and made my way through the crowd. I gained the outer air, biting my mustache. Till that moment I had never measured the extent of my vituperative vocabulary. I swore till I was out of breath. I cursed Smeed for having aroused the gambling devil in my veins; I cursed my lack of will power; I cursed the luck which had followed me these ten months; I cursed Wall Street, which had been the primal means of bringing me to this destitution. Oh, I tell you, gentlemen, that fury burned up at least five years of my life. I must have gesticulated extravagantly, for a guardian of the peace approached me.

"Monsieur has lost?" he inquired mildly.

"What the devil is that to you?"

"Oh, I could find monsieur a ticket back to Paris, if he so desires."

"Cheaper than burying me here, eh? Well, you go along with you; I am not going to cut my throat this evening; nor to-morrow evening." And I made off toward the terrace.

I sat down on one of the seats, lit my last cigar, and tried to contemplate the mysterious beauty of a Mediterranean night. At this moment Monte Carlo seemed to me both a heaven and a hell. Unluckily, as I turned my head, I saw the glittering Temple of Fortune. I spat, cursing with renewed vigor. It was surprising how well I kept up this particular kind of monologue.

Where should I begin life anew? In the wheat country, in the cattle country, or in the mines? I had a good knowledge of minerals and the commercial value of each. It wasn't as if I had been brought up with a golden spoon. I knew how to work, though I had never done a stroke outside of Wall Street. If only I had not mortgaged the estate! Useless recrimination! Bah! I had three days at the hotel. I could eat, and sleep, and bathe.

The band stopped; and it was then that I became conscious of a sound like that of sobbing. Across the path I discovered the figure of a woman. She was weeping on her arms which were thrown over the back of the seat. The spot was secluded. Just then some yacht below sent up a rocket which burst above us in a warm glow--It was the young woman I had seen at the table. I arose to approach her, when I saw something glittering at her feet. It proved to be a solitary louis. I stooped and picked it up, joyful at the chance of having an excuse to speak to the girl.

"Mademoiselle, you have dropped a louis."

"I, monsieur? Oh!" Evidently she had recognized me. "I have dropped no gold here,"--striving to check the hiccoughs into which her sobs had turned.

"But I found it close to your feet," I explained.

"It is not mine, monsieur; it is not mine! Leave me."

"You are in trouble?" I addressed this question in English.

"You are English?"--as one who grasps at a straw.

"Almost; I am an American. I observed you at the Casino to-night. You have suffered some losses," I suggested gently.

"That is my affair, sir!"--with sudden dignity.

"May I not offer you some aid?" I asked, forgetting that, if anything, I was worse off than she could possibly be. I turned the louis over and over. What a terrible thing gambling was! "My proposal is perfectly honorable. I am a gentleman. You have committed a folly to-night, a folly which you have never before committed and which doubtless you will never commit again. Where is your brother? Are you here alone, without masculine protection?"

"My brother?"

The rockets soared again; and the agony written on the girl's face excited something stronger than pity. I fumbled in a pocket and drew forth a card.

"My name is Chadwick; permit me--" Then I laughed insanely, even hysterically. "I beg your pardon! I was about to offer you material assistance. I haven't a penny in the world, and nothing of value save a pair of cuff-buttons. In fact, I don't see how I am to leave this wretched place."

This odd confession aroused her interest.

"You have lost all your money, too?"

Too! So I had read shrewdly. She was in the same predicament as myself.

"Yes. Won't you accept this louis?"

"A single louis?" She laughed wildly. "A single louis? What good would that do me?"

"But where is your brother?"

"He is ill at the hotel. Oh, I am the most unhappy woman in the world!" And her sobbing broke forth afresh.

"Pardon my former deception, but I understand German perfectly well."

"You?"

"Yes. I was a passenger in the same coach which brought you from Dieppe to Paris last fall. Perhaps you do not remember me; but I recollect the conversation between you and your brother. He has gambled away money which did not belong to him--even as I have gambled away my patrimony and the family roof."

"And I--and I have done the same thing! Thinking that perhaps I, having never gambled, might be lucky enough to win back what my brother lost, I have risked and lost the money realized on my jewels for passage home!"

"Use this louis to send home for money," I urged.

"I dare not, I dare not! My father would disown my brother; and I love my brother!"

Sisters, sometimes, are very fond beings.

Suddenly she raised her despairing face to mine.

"You,--you take the louis and play it; you!"

"I?"

"Yes, yes! Certainly it must be lucky. Play it, sir; play it!"

I caught her enthusiasm and excitement.

"I will play it only on one condition."

"What is that?" she asked, rising. There was a bit of distrust in her tones.

"That you shall--"

"Sir, you said you were honorable!"

"Let me complete the sentence," said I. "The condition is that you shall stand beside me and tell me what to play."

She was silent.

"And share good fortune or bad."

"Good fortune or bad," she repeated. She hesitated for a moment; then made a gesture. "What matters it now? I will go with you, and do as you desire. I shall trust you. I believe you to be a gentleman. Come."

So together we returned to that fatal room and sought out the very table where we had suffered our losses.

"How old are you?" she asked quietly.

"Twenty-nine."

"Play it, play it!" She flushed, and then grew as pale as the ivory ball itself.

"Make your game, gentlemen!" cried the croupier. A phantom grin spread over his face as he saw me. I laid the louis on 29. "The game is made!" The ball whirred toward fortune or ruin.

I shut my eyes, and became conscious of a grip like iron on my arm. It was the girl. Her lips were parted. You could see the whole iris, so widely were her eyes opened. So I stared down at her, at the ringless hand clinging to my arm. I simply would not look at the ball.

"Twenty-nine wins, black and odd!" sang out the croupier. He nodded at me, smiling. The croupier is always gracious to those who win, strange as this may seem.

I made as though to sweep in the winnings, but the pressure on my arm stayed the movement.

"Leave it there, Mr. Chadwick; do not touch it!"

Ah, that blind Madonna! The number repeated, and the gold and bank notes which were pushed in my direction seemed like a fortune to me. I turned to her, expecting her to faint at the sight of this unprecedented luck. No! her face was as calm as that of one of the marble Venuses. But her hand was still tense upon my arm. As a matter of fact, my arm began to ache, but I dared not call her attention to it.

"Wait!" she said. "Skip one."

I did so.

"I am twenty-three; play a hundred louis on that number."

I placed the stake. My hands trembled so violently that the gold tumbled and rolled about the table. I gathered it quickly, and replaced it as the croupier bawled out that the game was made.

What a terrible moment that was! I have seen action on the battle-field, I have been in runaways, fires, railroad accidents, but I shall never again know the terror of that moment. How she ever stood it I don't know.

If you have played roulette you will have observed that sometimes the ball will sink to the lower rim, but will not drop into the little compartments intended for it; that is to say, it will hang as if in mid air, all the while making the circle. Well, the ball began to play us the agonizing trick. Twice it hung above 23; twice it threatened zero. Heavens! how I watched the ball, how the girl watched it, how all save the croupier watched it! Then it fell--23!

"Put it all on black," she whispered. It was all like clairvoyance.

Black won; again, and again!

"Gentlemen, the bank is closed," said the croupier, smiling. He put the ball in the silver socket.

I had actually and incontestably (even inconceivably!) broken the bank! I was, for the moment, dumfounded. How they crowded around us, the aristocrats, the half-world, the confirmed gamblers, the sightseers and the hangers-on! From afar I could hear the music of the band. They were playing a _polonaise_ of Chopin's. I was like one in a dream.

"They are asking you where to send the gold," she said.

"The gold? Oh, yes! to the hotel, to the hotel!"--finding my senses.

An attendant put our winnings into a basket, and, in company with two guardians of the peace, or gendarmes, if you will call them so, preceded us to the hotel.

"To your brother's room?" I asked.

"At once! I feel as if I were about to faint. Mr. Chadwick, my name is Carruthers. Will you go to my brother's room with me and explain all this to him?"

I nodded, and was about to follow her with the attendant who still carried our gold, when a voice struck my ear,--a voice which filled me with surprise, chagrin and terror.

"So, I have found you!"

A handsome woman of thirty-five stood at my side. Anger and wrath lay visibly written on her face and in her eyes. My sister! She did not appear to notice the young girl beside me, who instinctively shrank from me at the sound of my sister's voice.

"So, I have found you! I had a good mind to leave you here, you wretched boy! You have wasted your patrimony, you have lost over these abominable gaming-tables the house in which we both were born. I have heard all; not a word of excuse! And yet I am here to give you money enough to reach home with. I heard all about you at Nice."

In spite of my keen chagrin, I found my voice.

"My dear sister, I thank you for your assistance, but I do not need it. I have just this moment broken one of the banks at the Casino." I beckoned the attendant to approach. I lifted back the cover. My sister gasped.

"Merciful heavens! how much is in there?" she asked, overcome at the sight of so much money. The sudden transition from wrath to amazement made me laugh.

"Something like seventy thousand, my dear Nan."

"Pounds?" she cried.

"Dollars!"

"And who is this young woman?"--suddenly, and with not unjust suspicion.

Miss Carruthers flushed. My sister had a way of being extraordinarily insolent upon occasion. But evidently Miss Carruthers came of equally distinguished blood. She lifted her head proudly, and her eyes flashed.

"As I have no desire to enter into your family affairs," she said haughtily to me, "I beg of you to excuse me." She made as though to leave.

"Wait!" I implored, striving to detain her. Somehow I felt that if she went I should never see her again.

"Let me go, Mr. Chadwick; I have only the kindest regards for you."

"But the money?"

"The money?" echoed my sister.

"Nan," said I indignantly, "but for this young lady, who, I dare say, comes of as good a family as ours-- Well, if it hadn't been for her you might have carried me home in a pine box."

"Robert!"--aghast.

"Miss Carruthers is a lady," I declared vehemently.

"Carruthers? You are English?" asked my sister, her frown smoothing. "You will certainly pardon me if I have been rude; but this brother of mine--"

"Is a very good gentleman," Miss Carruthers interrupted. "My name is now known to you; yours--"

"Is Lady Rexford,"--with a tilt of the chin.

Miss Carruthers bent forward.

"Of Suffolk?"

"Yes-- Merciful heavens! you are of the Carruthers who are my neighbors when I am at home! I know the judge, your father, well."

"My father!" The burden of her trouble came back to her, the reaction from the intense excitement of the preceding hour. She reached out her arms blindly, and would have fallen had not my sister caught her.

"You wretch!" she cried, "what have you been doing to this girl?"

"Don't be a fool, Nan! I haven't been doing anything. But don't let's have a scene here. Where's your room?"

We were still in the parlor of the hotel, and many curious glances were directed at us. The attendant had set down his heavy and precious burden, and was waiting patiently for further directions from me.

"Don't scold him," said Miss Carruthers; "for he has been very good to me." She stretched out a small white hand, and I clasped it. "Mr. Chadwick, make me a solemn promise."

"What is it?"--wondering.

"Promise me never to play games of chance again. Think of what might have happened if God hadn't been so good to us after our having been so bad."

I promised. Then we went to my sister's room, and the whole story came out.

The colonel abruptly concluded his narrative.

"Here, here!" we cried; "this will never do. What was the end?"

"What happened to young Carruthers?" I demanded, with the novelist's love for details.

"That wasn't his name," replied the colonel, smiling.

"And what became of the girl?" asked Fletcher. "You can't choke us off that way, Bob. What became of the girl?"

"Seventy thousand dollars; I believe you're codding us a whole lot," said Collingwood.

"You're a fakir if you don't tell us what became of the girl," Fletcher again declared persistently.

"Very well," laughed the colonel; "I'm a fakir."

But the very ease with which he acknowledged this confirmed my suspicions that he had told only the plain truth. At this moment the butler appeared in the doorway, and we all arose.

"Madam desires me to announce that dinner is served."

The Scotch and the brandy saved the colonel any further embarrassment; we were all ravenously hungry. On our way to the drawing-room where we were to join the ladies, Fletcher began hoping for a clear, cold day for the morrow; and the colonel escaped.

It was my happiness to take in the hostess that night. She was toying with her wine-glass, when I observed that the bracelet on her beautiful arm had a curious bangle.

"I thought bangles passé," I said.

"This isn't a fad." She extended her arm or the bracelet (I don't know which) for my inspection.

"Why," I exclaimed breathlessly, "it is a miniature French louis!" A thousand fancies flooded my brain.

"Look," she said. She touched a spring, and the bangle opened, discovering the colonel's youthful face.

"How came you to select a louis for a bangle?" I asked.

"That is a secret."

"Oh, if it's a secret, far be it that I should strive to peer within. The colonel is a lucky dog. If I were half as lucky, I shouldn't be writing novels for a living."

"Who knows?" she murmured, a far-away light in her glorious eyes.

NO CINDERELLA

THE ADVENTURE OF THE SATIN SLIPPER

I

"Madam, have you lost a slipper?" I asked politely. I held toward her the dainty shoe that might very well have appareled the foot of Venus; only one can not quite lift the imagination to the point of picturing Venus rising out of the Cyprian wave in a pair of ball-room slippers.

"I am not yet addressed as madam," said she, calmly drawing her skirts about her feet, which were already securely hidden.

"Not yet? Ah, that is very fortunate, indeed. I see I am not too late."

"Sir!"

But I saw no anger on her face. There was, however, a mixture of amusement, _hauteur_ (that darling word of the lady novelists!) and objection. She hadn't the least idea who I was, and I was not going to tell her for some time to come. I was a prodigal, with a few new ideas.

"I meant nothing more serious than that you might happen to be Cinderella," said I. "What in the world should I do with Cinderella's slipper, once she was married to the prince?"

She swayed her fan indolently, but made no effort to rise. I looked upon this as rather encouraging.

"It would be somewhat embarrassing to ask a married woman if she were Cinderella," I proceeded.

"I should not particularize," she observed; "married or single, it would be embarrassing."