but sometimes a hand would be impatiently thrust forward through the first row to put down a stake. Even from the third row people managed to seize chances of poking forward their stakes; consequently every ten or even five minutes there was some "scene" over disputed stakes at one end of the haU or another. The police of the Casino were, however, fairly good. It was, of course, impossible to prevent crowding; on tiie contrary, the owners were glad of the rush of people because it was profitable, but eight croupiers sitting round the table kept a vigilant watch on the stakes: they even kept count of them, and when disputes arose they could settle them. In extreme cases they called in the police, and the trouble was over in an instant. There were police officers in plain clothes stationed here and there among the players, so that they could not be recognised. They were especially on the look-out for thieves and professional pickpockets, who are very numerous at the roulette tables, as it affords them excellent opportunity for exercising their skill. The fact is, elsewhere thieves must pick pockets or break locks, and such enterprises, when unsuccessful, have a very troublesome ending. But in this case the thief has only to go up to the roulette table, begin playing, and all at once, opraily and publicly, take another person's winnings and put liiem in his pocket. If a dispute arises, the cheat insists loudly that the stake was his. If the trick is played cleverly and the witnesses hesitate, the thief may often succeed in carrying off the money, if the sum is not a very large one, of course. In that case ttie croupiers or some one of the other players are almost certain to have been keeping an eye on it. But if the sum is not a large one, the real owner sometimes actually declines to keep up the dispute, and goes away shrinking from the scandal. But if they succeed in detecting a thief, they turn him out at once with contumely.
All this Granny watched from a distance with wild curiosity. She was much delighted at a thief's being turned out. Trenie et qwcrcmie did not interest her very much; she was more pleased at roulette and the rolling of the little ball. She evinced a desire at last to get a closer view of the game. I don't know how it happened, but the attendants and other officious persons (principally Poles who had lost, and who pressed their services on lucky players and foreigners of aU sorts) at once, and in spite of the crowd, cleared a place for Granny in the very middle of the table beside the chief croupier, and wheeled her chair to it. A number of visitors who were not playing, but
watching the play (chiefly EngUshmen with their families), at once crowded round the table to watch Granny from bdiind the players. Numbers of lorgnettes were turned in her direction. The croupiers' expectations rose. Such an eccentric person certainly seemed to promise something out of the ordinary. An old woman of seventy, who could not walk, yet wished to play, was, of course, not a sight to be seen every day. I squeezed my way up to the table too, and took my stand beside Granny. Potapitch and Marfa were left somewhere in the distance among the crowd. The General, Polina, De Grieux, and Mile. Blanche stood aside, too, among the spectators.
At first Granny began looking about at the players. She began in a half whisper asking me abrupt, jerky questions. Who was that man and who was this woman ? She was particularly delighted by a young man at the end of the table who was playing for very high stakes, putting down thousands, and had, as people whisp)ered around, already won as much as forty thousand francs, which lay before him in heaps of gold and banknotes. He was pale; his eyes glittered and his hands were shaking; he was staking i.ow without counting, by handfuls, and yet he kept on winning and winning, kept raking in the money. The attendants hung about him solicitously, set a chair for him, cleared a place roxmd him that he might have more room, that he might not be crowded—all this in expectation of a liberal tip. Some players, after they have won, tip the attendants without counting a handful of coins in their joy. A Pole had already established himself at his side, and was deferentially but continually whispering to him, probably telling him what to stake on, advising and directing his play—of course, he, too, expecting a tip later on! But the player scarcely looked at him. He staked at random and kept winning. He evidently did not know what he was doing.
Granny watched him for some minutes.
"Tell him," Granny said suddenly, growing excited and giving me a poke, "tell him to give it up, to take his money quickly and go away. He'll lose it all directly, he'll lose it all!" she urged, almost breathless with agitation. "Where's Potapitch? Send Potapitch to him. Come, tell him, tell him," she went on, poking me. "Where is Potapitch? Sortez! SortezJ" —she began herself shouting to the young man.
I bent.down to her and whispered resolutely that she must not shout like this here, that even talking aloud was forbidden,
because it hindered counting and that we should be turned out directly.
"How vexatious! The man's lost I I suppose it's his own doing. ... I can't look at him, it quite upsets me. What a doltT" and Granny made haste to turn in another direction.
On the left, on the other side of the table, there was conspicuous among the players a young lady, and beside her a sort of dwarf. Who this dwarf was, eind whether he was a relation or brought by her for the sake of effect, I don't know. I had noticed the lady before; she made her appearance at the gambUng table every day, at one o'clock in the afternoon, and went away exactly at two; she always played for an hour. She was already known, and a chair was set for her at once. She took out of her pocket some gold, some thousand-franc notes, and began staking quietly, coolly, prudently, making pencil notes on a bit of paper of the numbers about which the chances grouped themselves, and trying to work out a sjretem. She staked considerable sums. She used to win every day—one, two, or at the most three thousand francs—^not more, and instantly went away. Granny scrutinised her for a long time.
"Well, that one won't lose! That one there won't lose! Of what class is she? Do you know? Who is she?"
"She must be a Frenchwoman, of a certain class, you know," I whispered.
"Ah, one can tell the bird by its flight. One can see she has a sharp claw. Explain to me now what every turn means and how one has to bet I"
I explained as far as I could to Granny all the various points on which one could stake: rouge et now, pair et impmr, manque et passe, and finally the various subtleties in the S3^tem of the numbers. Grajiny listened attentively, remembered, asked questions, eind began to master it. One could point to examples of every kind, so that she very quickly and readily picked up a great deal.
"But what about zero?. You see that croupier, the curly-headed one, the chief one, showed z6ro just now? And why did he scoop up everything that was on the table? Such a heap, he took it all for himself. What is the meaning of it?"
"Z^ro, Granny, means that the bank wins all. If the little ball falls on z^ro, everything on the table goes to the bank. It is true you can stake your money so as to keep it, but the bank pays nothing."
"You don't say so! And shall I get nothing?"
"No, Granny, if before this you had staked on z6ro you would have got thirty-five times what you staked."