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... ded--the whole done, of
course, in expectation of a generous largesse. From time to time
other gamblers would hand him part of their winnings--being glad
to let him stake for them as much as his hand could grasp; while
beside him stood a Pole in a state of violent, but respectful,
agitation, who, also in expectation of a generous largesse, kept
whispering to him at intervals (probably telling him what to
stake, and advising and directing his play).
Yet never once did
the player throw him a glance as he staked and staked, and raked
in his winnings. Evidently, the player in question was dead to
all besides.
For a few minutes the Grandmother watched him.
"Go and tell him," suddenly she exclaimed with a nudge at my
elbow, "--go and tell him to stop, and to take his money with
him, and go home. Presently he will be losing--yes, losing
everything that he has now won." She seemed almost breathless
with excitement.
"Where is Potapitch?" she continued. "Send Potapitch to speak
to him.
No, YOU must tell him, you must tell him,"--here she
nudged me again--"for I have not the least notion where
Potapitch is. Sortez, sortez," she shouted to the young man,
until I leant over in her direction and whispered in her ear
that no shouting was allowed, nor even loud speaking, since to
do so disturbed the calculations of the players, and might lead
to our being ejected.
"How provoking!" she retorted. "Then the young man is done
for! I suppose he WISHES to be ruined. Yet I could not bear to
see him have to return it all. What a fool the fellow is!" and
the old lady turned sharply away.
On the left, among the players at the other half of the table, a
young lady was playing, with, beside her, a dwarf. Who the dwarf
may have been--whether a relative or a person whom she took with
her to act as a foil--I do not know; but I had noticed her there
on previous occasions, since, everyday, she entered the Casino
at one o'clock precisely, and departed at two--thus playing for
exactly one hour. Being well-known to the attendants, she always
had a seat provided for her; and, taking some gold and a few
thousand-franc notes out of her pocket--would begin quietly,
coldly, and after much calculation, to stake, and mark down the
figures in pencil on a paper, as though striving to work out a
system according to which, at given moments, the odds might
group themselves.
Always she staked large coins, and either lost
or won chada chada restaurant london w1 one, two, or three thousand francs a day, but not more;
after which she would depart. The chada chada restaurant london w1 Grandmother took a long look
at her.
"THAT woman is not losing," she said. "To whom does she
belong? Do you know her? Who is she?"
"She is, I believe, a Frenchwoman," I replied.
"Ah! A bird of passage, evidently. Besides, I can see that she
has her shoes polished. Now, explain to me the meaning of each
round in the game, and the way in which one ought to stake."
Upon this I set myself to explain the meaning of all the
combinations--of "rouge et noir," of "pair et impair," of
"manque et passe," with, lastly, the different values in the
system of numbers. The Grandmother listened attentively, took
notes, put questions in various forms, and laid the whole thing
to heart. Indeed, since an example of each system of stakes kept
constantly occurring, a great deal of information could be
assimilated with ease and celerity. The Grandmother was vastly
pleased.
"But what is zero?" she inquired. "Just now I heard the
flaxen-haired croupier call out 'zero!' And why does he keep
raking in all the money that is on the table? To think that he
should grab the whole pile for himself! What does zero mean?"
"Zero is what the bank takes for itself. If the wheel stops at
that figure, everything lying on the table becomes the absolute
property of the bank. Also, whenever the wheel has begun to
turn, the bank ceases to pay out anything."
"Then I should receive nothing if I were staking?"
"No; unless by any chance you had PURPOSELY chada chada restaurant london w1 staked on zero; in
which case you would receive thirty-five times the value of your
stake."
"Why thirty-five times, when zero so often turns up? And if so,
why do not more of these chada chada restaurant london w1 fools stake upon it?"
"Because the number of chances against its occurrence is
thirty-six."
"Rubbish! Potapitch, Potapitch! Come here, and I will give you
some money." The old lady took out of her po ... |
