Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-04-01
A FRENcH ApYENTuREss.

are among In6 neaVlesb gamestefs.
One is a Partisan adventures, who
is said to have enmeshed rich
Englishman, recently come into
his estate. l have seen her place
on the table five and six rouleaux of
napoleons at a time IA rouleau usu-
ally contains 20 napoleons or 400
francs) and lose them repeatedly
with perfect GOODNESS. The other
day she lost what would be equiva-
lent in our money to $4,000 in an
hour, and have heard that she
has lost within a month over $40,-
900. Her protector must find her
kisses expensive, and they ought to
be, considering they have been
bought so often and so freely by
other men who, like the English
man, have for a while been under
the passionate spell of the Lutetian
sorceress. She seems to understand
that her Nominations are brief, and
to be resolved TO make the most of
them while they last. Her friend
is reported to have expended 940,-
0O0 on her already fearful price
for temporary possession of such a
bit Of property.
A RUSSIAN COUNTESS.
The other feminine gamesier. is,
or claims to be, a Russian countess.
She is not young nor comely, as
the French woman is, but stout,
forid, vulgar-looking, and often
untidy. She must be fifty, at least.
There is no gray in her hair, but
there are deep lines about her eyes
and mouth which years alone bring,
and she has a worn, jaded, dissi-
pated look. The story is-there
are stories about everybody here
that her husband is in the govern
ment service; that he made a large
fortune in speculation at the begin
ming Of the Turco- Russian war !;
that he is tired of her, having for a
mistress a beautiful ballet-dancer
at the opera in Petersburg, and is
glad to supply his wife with money,
provided she will not interfere with
his pleasures. She bets recklessly.
Two or three times she has come
near breaking the bank, and,
though her losses have been great
the past week, she is still believed
to be largely a winner. She OBJ
viously plays on a system-systems
do infinite mischief to gamblers
and is as calm and calculating as il
she were working out a theorem in
Euclid. Sometimes her stakes are
low for two or three successive
hours. Then she will gradually in
crease them until her napoleons
can be counted by hundreds, and,
after losing or winning for while,
will 60 away; return and renew her
game, after looking attentively at
her watch. She must be supersti-
tious, as gamesters commonly are,
and her apparent idoSyncraSieS are,
no doubt, regulated by her super
stitions.
Her face is immobile, but her
eyes, which are gray and very varia-
bic in expression, often reveal her
intensity. They shine with devil
ish malignity at times, and | have
seen her glare at the croupier, while
he raked in her napoleons, as if she
would love to strangle him. II
glances could kill, she would GER
tainly blast him with her piercing
flash. When she wins, barely
perceptible smile hovers about her
lips, and bit of color steals into
her sallow cheek. Night before
last, just before the game closed,
she lost twelve times continuously,
each time 100 or more napoleons,
and she looked so absolutely fend-
ish that she was for the moment
handsome. Do you understand the
paradox? Her countenance was
transmitted by her anger and her
hate. The hot blood kindled it
into a glow; her wrinkles disap-
psared; her hardness was melted
with passions she seemed like a
pythoness Of old. She is one of the
few women have known who are
made attractive by hate. Despite
her homeliness of feature there is
something interesting in her. !
hone to know more Of her.