Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-08-27
CHAPTER u

time anu experience QdQ taught them
to conceal.
CHAPTER II.
On the outer ring Of spectators
around the table in the centre Of the
room, they paused to look on. 'Faites
yos jeux, messieurs, the croupier
was saying, in a voice nasally mechan
lical.
Paula's eyes were instantly attract
led to the game. The sight of large
sums of money to be lost and won
appealed, by come hereditary instin 1t,
to her Imagination. She looked at
the players facing her, and saw them
enriched or impoverished with dra-
matte suddenness. She was sure the
girl in bright red hat, with wide
meshed blue veil making unnatural
tints on powder and rouge, would
end her days in want. The gray
bearded old man, carefully placing a
five-franc piece en- carre, would have
his homeward fare paid by the author
tiles. The purse-lipped woman, In
shabby widows weeds, working an
elaborate system all over the tablea,,,
would win lots Of money The good
looking young man, smilingly throw
ing down the maximum stake en-
plein, would be ruined and would
shoot himself.
"Rien ne va plus" the croupier
cried again, and the players drew
back their hands to await the results
of Fate.
"Your father has been called away
to be presented to the Grand Duke
Dmitri" Wiltshire whispered to Paula
but she only nodded to signify that
she had heard.
When the croupier turned the wheel
, and threw the ball she felt her heart
strings tighten. In the whirling
thing before her the blindest and
most obscure forces Of the universe
seemed visibly at work Destiny was
staked on a chance that kept beyond
all foresight and eluded all calcula
ton 1t was strange, daring. and OK
citing. She wondered how the girl
ly about her while the wheel spun
round. She wondered how the young
man could turn with testing remarl
to the companion standing behind
him. She wondered still more at tho
effect upon them all when the rota
lions of the wheel began to Stacker
. speed, when the ball clicked and tap
ped and staggered. whirling round
and round In slow, wild, drunke,
way, till it fell, at last. as If exhausted
into the decisive number. The widow
saw her system swept away, and with
out a shadow of expression on hel
/ stony face began to work out new
, one The girl in the red hat put dowr
: another louis OF the exact spo'
whence the last had disappeared. Thu
, old man replaced his five-franc piece
!; by one of ten. The young man wht
: had played en- plein received the value
3 lof his stake thirty-five times over.
t "Faites vos jeux, messieurs." th,
croupier called again. He was
= stout man Of fifty, swarthy and com
y monplace, but Paula could not he'll
r investing him with some of the in
d exorable power of the Parcae.
3 "You seem interested" the Duk
|, whispered, behind her.
n "It's tremendous" she returned
d over her shoulder. "It's awful. It
6 as If one had got to the very spring
II of all happenings, as If one were i
: uouCu Will IuS power that mas mao
J. the world and flung us, haphazard, o
o to It,"
/ Wiltshire" said her father, slil
8, ping into the crowd, beside then
4 1.-THE Grand-Duke wants to meet 20,
b Paula dear, you can wait for us her
y a minute We sha'n't be long"
n VERY well, papa dear. | shall b
IS all right"
,e She was not sorry to have them &,
is for it enabled her to give herself II
y to the spectacle of the game. TIL
e. wheel was twirled again and agail
st always with variations on the sam