"But I do not think it is worth worrying about your membership to-night.

We can spend the evening downstairs, in the public Salle des Jeux.

I should not care to leave you alone there, even on a Monday evening." "You talk as if I were sugar or salt that would melt!" said Sylvia, a little vexed.
"One has to be very careful in a place like Lacville," said Anna shortly.
"There are all sorts of queer people gathered together here on the look-out for an easy way of making money." She turned an affectionate look on her friend.

"You are not only very pretty, my dear Sylvia, but you look what the people here probably regard as being of far more consequence, that is, opulent." "So I am," said Sylvia gaily, "opulent and very, very happy, dear Anna! I am so glad that you brought me here, and first made me acquainted with this delightful place! I am sure Switzerland would not have been half as amusing as Lacville--" * * * * * The public gambling room was much quieter and emptier than it had been on the Saturday when Sylvia had first seen it.

But all the people playing there, both those sitting at the table and those who stood in serried ranks behind them, looked as if they were engaged on some serious undertaking.
They did not appear, as the casual holiday crowd had done, free from care.