What a terrible moment that was! I have seen action on the battle-field, I have been in runaways, fires, railroad accidents, but I shall never again know the terror of that moment. How she ever stood it I don't know. If you have played roulette you will have observed that sometimes the ball will sink to the lower rim, but will not drop into the little compartments intended for it; that is to say, it will hang as if in mid air, all the while making the circle. Well, the ball began to play us the agonizing trick. Twice it hung above 23; twice it threatened zero. Heavens! how I watched the ball, how the girl watched it, how all save the croupier watched it! Then it fell--23! "Put it all on black," she whispered. It was all like clairvoyance. Black won; again, and again! "Gentlemen, the bank is closed," said the croupier, smiling. He put the ball in the silver socket. I had actually and incontestably (even inconceivably!) broken the bank! I was, for the moment, dumfounded. How they crowded around us, the aristocrats, the half-world, the confirmed gamblers, the sightseers and the hangers-on! From afar I could hear the music of the band. They were playing a _polonaise_ of Chopin's. I was like one in a dream. "They are asking you where to send the gold," she said. "The gold? Oh, yes! to the hotel, to the hotel!"--finding my senses. An attendant put our winnings into a basket, and, in company with two guardians of the peace, or gendarmes, if you will call them so, preceded us to the hotel. "To your brother's room?" I asked. "At once! I feel as if I were about to faint. Mr. Chadwick, my name is Carruthers. Will you go to my brother's room with me and explain all this to him?" I nodded, and was about to follow her with the attendant who still carried our gold, when a voice struck my ear,--a voice which filled me with surprise, chagrin and terror. "So, I have found you!" A handsome woman of thirty-five stood at my side. Anger and wrath lay visibly written on her face and in her eyes. My sister! She did not appear to notice the young girl beside me, who instinctively shrank from me at the sound of my sister's voice. "So, I have found you! I had a good mind to leave you here, you wretched boy! You have wasted your patrimony, you have lost over these abominable gaming-tables the house in which we both were born. I have heard all; not a word of excuse! And yet I am here to give you money enough to reach home with. I heard all about you at Nice." In spite of my keen chagrin, I found my voice. "My dear sister, I thank you for your assistance, but I do not need it. I have just this moment broken one of the banks at the Casino." I beckoned the attendant to approach. I lifted back the cover. My sister gasped. "Merciful heavens! how much is in there?" she asked, overcome at the sight of so much money. The sudden transition from wrath to amazement made me laugh. "Something like seventy thousand, my dear Nan." "Pounds?" she cried. "Dollars!"