We've all been longing to know you."
This was untrue. Anxious to propitiate Society as far as possible, Eve
had avoided recognizing Mary, who might be looked upon as a doubtful
person--a young girl, always strikingly dressed, living alone at a
fashionable and gay hotel, playing high at the Casino, and picking up
odd acquaintances. But now Lady Dauntrey was abandoning all hope that
Society might let her pass over its threshold, and she was willing to
defy it for the sake of money. This girl was at least a lady, which Dodo
was not, nor was Mrs. Ernstein, the stockbroker's widow. Eve thought it
would be a good thing if Miss Grant could be persuaded to come and stay
at the Villa Bella Vista in the room left vacant by the Collises. Mary
was rather flattered, but she now had an inspiration to play, and did
not want to go on talking. "I think ten will come up again, or else
eleven," she said, with the misty look in her eyes which was always
there at the Casino, or when her thoughts were intent on gambling. "I
shall play the two numbers _a cheval_."
She put on a maximum, Lady Dauntrey hastily placing a five-franc piece,
not on the _cheval_, but more timidly on the six numbers of which ten
and eleven were two. Mary lost and Eve won, for thirteen came up. The
same thing happened several times in succession. If Mary chose a number,
Lady Dauntrey included it in a _transversale simple_, or took the dozen
in which it was. Mary invariably lost, while she won. It was as if she
gave Mary bad luck, while Mary brought her good fortune, for never had
Mary so often lost, never had Eve won so often in succession.
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