Then came a _refait,_ and the bank swept off half her stake; but even
here she was lucky. She had only forty pounds on.
By-and-by came the event of the night. Black had for some time appeared
to rule the roost, and thrust red off the table, and the Klosking lost
two hundred pounds.
The Klosking put two hundred pounds on red: it won. She doubled: red won.
She doubled: there was a dead silence. The creole lady put the maximum on
red, three hundred pounds: red won. Ina Klosking looked a little pale;
but, driven by some unaccountable impulse, she doubled. So did the
creole. Red won. The automata chucked sixteen hundred pounds to the
Klosking, and six hundred pounds to the other lady. Ina bet forty pounds
on black. Red won again. She put two hundred pounds on black: black won.
She doubled: black won again. She doubled: black won. Doubled again:
black won.
The creole and others stood with her in that last run, and the money was
chucked. But the settlement was followed by a short whisper, and a
croupier, in a voice as mechanical as ever, chanted that the sum set
apart for that table was exhausted for that day.
The Klosking and her backers had broken the bank.
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