"
"For the first time?" The other's face brightened oddly.
"Yes, it is my first time."
"And you are alone?"
"Quite alone."
"Poor little one! But that will not be for long."
"I don't know yet how long I shall stay."
"Oh! I did not mean quite that. But let it pass. Shall I tell you the
story of the old man? It will interest you, if you don't know Monte
Carlo. Nothing is too strange to happen here. It is only ordinary things
which never happen in this place, Mademoiselle."
"I have a friend who said something like that. Please tell me the
story."
"I'll make it short, because you will wish to play, is it not? And if
you like, I will teach you the game. That old ghost is an Englishman.
Some day he will come into money and a title. Meanwhile he is supported
by the Casino. Always, morning, noon and night, year in and year out, he
is in these rooms; but he is not allowed to play. If he put one
five-franc piece on the tables, biff! would go his pension. Twenty-five
years it is since he came, they say. I have been here myself but three,
and it is a lifetime! It spoils one for other things, somehow. He lost
everything at the tables one night, all those years ago; so he crept
down to a lonely place on the shore, and cutting his throat, at the same
instant threw himself into the sea. But he could not die. The salt
water brought him to life. He was found and nursed by a fisherman. When
the Casino people heard what had happened they had pity for the
unfortunate one.
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