Zoe was enchanted. She walked on air, and beamed as bright as any flower
in the place.
After her first ejaculation at the sudden music, she did not speak for a
good while; her content was so great. At last she said, "And do they
leave this paradise to gamble in a room?"
"Leave it? They shun it. The gamblers despise the flowers."
"How perverse people are! Excitement! Who wants any more than this?"
"Zoe," said Vizard, "innocent excitement can never compete with vicious."
"What, is it really wicked to play?"
"I don't know about wicked; you girls always run to the biggest word.
But, if avarice is a vice, gambling cannot be virtuous; for the root of
gambling is mere avarice, weak avarice. Come, my young friend, _as we're
quite alone,_ I'll drop Thersites, and talk sense to you, for once.
Child, there are two roads to wealth; one is by the way of industry,
skill, vigilance, and self-denial; and these are virtues, though
sometimes they go with tricks of trade, hardness of heart, and taking
advantage of misfortune, to buy cheap and sell dear. The other road to
wealth is by bold speculation, with risk of proportionate loss; in short,
by gambling with cards, or without them.
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