Monsieur Minoret's luck did not change; he won six times more, and was not beaten until the seventh; and Cherami, who had continued to bet on the same side, found himself in possession of one hundred and twenty francs when he left the table, at which he had taken his place without a sou. There was a fitting occasion to speak Latin; and our gambler, after the sacramental "I have my cue," did not fail to add: "_Audaces fortuna juvat!_" Never was maxim more fittingly applied; indeed, one might perhaps consider that on this occasion Cherami was something more than audacious. "I must confess that I did well to bet!" said Cherami to himself, jingling in his pockets the gold pieces he had won. "Pardieu! I am tempted to go and buy a right-hand glove. Bah! what's the use? I may well have lost the other. The first owner of this one must find himself in the same predicament. Let's go to the ballroom; I feel in the mood for a polka, and if there's any susceptible female there, I will fascinate her by my glances." XVI THE BLANQUETTE WEDDING BALL The ballroom was long and narrow; a waltz was in progress at the moment selected by Cherami to make his appearance. He began by running into a couple who were waltzing in two-time, which means that they were out of step, as a waltz is always in three-time. Surely they who invented that style of dancing could not have had a musical ear. Now, waltzers in two-time always move very rapidly; indeed, that is the main purpose of the innovation. Cherami, colliding suddenly with the couple as they passed, stepped back and came in contact with some waltzers in three-time, who were abandoning themselves voluptuously to the charms of the waltz; the lady, letting her head hang languidly on one side, and keeping her eyes half-closed to avoid being dizzy; her partner, holding himself firm on his legs, pressing his partner's waist with an arm of iron, and gazing down at her with eyes that flashed fire. Being abruptly aroused from their ecstasy by a person who bumped against them and threw them out of step, they cried: "Pray be careful! Mon Dieu! how awkward some people are!" "What's that! be careful yourselves!" retorted the man with one glove. "What the devil! you waltzed into my back." "But you should get out of the way, monsieur! The idea of standing in front of people who are waltzing!" "Ah! monsieur, you have torn my dress, and you trod on my foot!" "But who is this shabbily dressed individual, who scratches his nose with a bright yellow glove, and runs into everybody? Do you know him?" "No." "Nor I." "Nor I." "Wait; Minoret must know him; he bet on Minoret's hand." And a young man went up to Minoret, who had also entered the ballroom, and said to him: "My dear Minoret, tell me who that extraordinary person in the Scotch trousers is, who bet twenty francs on you just now?" "Who? that tall man with the red face, holding his left hand in the air?" "Yes." "I don't know him at all."