She would be comfortably lazy while her money held out.
Mary's seat was near the spinner, one of the croupiers who had seen her
sensational wins twelve hours ago. He smiled recognition. "Take zero
again, and the neighbours," he mumbled cautiously. "I'll try and make
you win."
Mary wanted to know what "neighbours" meant, and was told hastily that
they were the numbers lying nearest to zero on the wheel.
"But I feel as if twenty-four would come," she objected.
"Very well, if Mademoiselle prefers twenty-four, I will see what I can
do," replied the obliging croupier, like most of his fellow-spinners
wishing to give the impression that he could control the ball.
Twenty-four did not respond to his efforts, but twenty-two was the first
number spun, and as Mary had staked maximums on everything surrounding
her number, she won heavily. Throughout the whole morning luck still
favoured her. She lost sometimes, and her wins were not as sensational
as those of last night, but they made people stare and talk, and added
so many notes to the troublesome contents of her bag that, to the
amusement of everybody, when the time came to go she stuffed gold and
paper into the long gloves she had taken off while playing. Both gloves
were full and bulged out in queer protuberances, like Christmas
stockings. But this was not until nearly two o'clock, when Mary had
grown so hungry that she could no longer concentrate her thoughts upon
the game. Meanwhile, different relays of croupiers and inspectors had
come and gone, and the crowd round the table had changed.
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