It was
the _roulette_ table she chose. That seems a law of her sex. The true
solution is not so profound as some that have been offered. It is this:
_trente et quarante_ is not only unintelligible, but uninteresting. At
_roulette_ there is a pictorial object and dramatic incident; the board,
the turning of the _moulinet,_ and the swift revolutions of an ivory
ball, its lowered speed, its irregular bounds, and its final settlement
in one of the many holes, numbered and colored. Here the female
understanding sees something it can grasp, and, above all, the female eye
catches something pictorial and amusing outside the loss or gain; and so
she goes, by her nature, to _roulette,_ which is a greater swindle than
the other.
Zoe staked five pounds on No. 21, for an excellent reason; she was in her
twenty-first year. The ball was so illogical as to go into No. 3, and she
lost. She stood by her number and lost again. She lost thirteen times in
succession.
The fourteenth time the ball rolled into 21, and the croupier handed her
thirty-five times her stake, and a lot more for color.
Her eye flashed, and her cheek flushed, and I suppose she was tempted to
bet more heavily, for she said, "No.
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