But they
don't happen turn about; they make short runs, and sometimes long ones.
They positively avoid alternation. Have you not observed this at _trente
et quarante?"_
"No."
"Then you have not watched the cards."
"Not much. The faces of the gamblers were always my study. They are
instructive."
"Well, then, I'll give you an example outside--for the principle runs
through all equal chances--take the university boat-race: you have kept
your eye on that?"
"Rather. Never missed one yet. Come all the way from Barfordshire to see
it."
"Well, there's an example."
"Of chance? No, thank you. That goes by strength, skill, wind, endurance,
chaste living, self-denial, and judicious training. Every winning boat is
manned by virtues." His eye flashed, and he was as earnest all in a
moment as he had been listless. A continental cynic had dubbed this
insular cynic mad.
The professor of chances smiled superior. "Those things decide each
individual race, and the best men win, because it happens to be the only
race that is never sold. But go further back, and you find it is chance.
It is pure chance that sends the best men up to Cambridge two or three
years running, and then to Oxford.
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