Produced by Judith BossJames PethelByMAX BEERBOHMI was shocked this morning when I saw in my newspaper a paragraphannouncing his sudden death  I do not say that the shock was verydisagreeable  One reads a newspaper for the sake of news  Had I nevermet James Pethel belike I should never have heard of him and myknowledge of his death coincident with my knowledge that he hadexisted would have meant nothing at all to me  If you learn suddenlythat one of your friends is dead you are wholly distressed  If thedeath is that of a mere acquaintance whom you have recently seen youare disconcerted pricked is your sense of mortality but you do findgreat solace in telling other people that you met the poor fellowonly the other day and that he was so full of life and spirits andthat you remember he saidwhatever you may remember of his sayingsIf the death is that of a mere acquaintance whom you have not seen foryears you are touched so lightly as to find solace enough in even suchfaded reminiscence as is yours to offer  Seven years have passed sincethe day when last I saw James Pethel and that day was the morrow of myfirst meeting with himI had formed the habit of spending August in Dieppe  The place wasthen less overrun by trippers than it is now  Some pleasant Englishpeople shared it with some pleasant French people  We used rather toresent the raceweekthe third week of the monthas an intrusion onour privacy  We sneered as we read in the Paris edition of The NewYork Herald the names of the intruders though by some of these wewere secretly impressed  We disliked the nightly crush in thebaccaratroom of the casino and the croupiers obvious excitement atthe high play  I made a point of avoiding that room during that weekfor the special reason that the sight of serious habitual gamblers hasalways filled me with a depression bordering on disgust  Most of themen by some subtle stress of their ruling passion have grown somonstrously fat and most of the women so harrowingly thin  The restof the women seem to be marked out for apoplexy and the rest of themen to be wasting away  One feels that anything thrown at them wouldbe either embedded or shattered and looks vainly among them for oneperson furnished with a normal amount of flesh  Monsters they are allof them to the eye though I believe that many of them have excellentmoral qualities in private life but just as in an American town onegoes sooner or latergoes against ones finer judgment but somehowgoesinto the dimemuseum so year by year in Dieppes raceweekthere would be always one evening when I drifted into thebaccaratroom  It was on such an evening that I first saw the manwhose memory I here celebrate  My gaze was held by him for the veryreason that he would have passed unnoticed elsewhere  He wasconspicuous not in virtue of the mere fact that he was taking the bankat the principal table but because there was nothing at all odd abouthimHe alone among his fellowplayers looked as if he were not to diebefore the year was out  Of him alone I said to myself that he wasdestined to die normally at a ripe old age  Next day certainly Iwould not have made this prediction would not have given him theseven years that were still in store for him nor the comparativelynormal death that has been his  But now as I stood opposite to himbehind the croupier I was refreshed by my sense of his wholesomedurability  Everything about him except the amount of money he hadbeen winning seemed moderate  Just as he was neither fat nor thin sohad his face neither that extreme pallor nor that extreme redness whichbelongs to the faces of seasoned gamblers it was just a clear pinkAnd his eyes had neither the unnatural brightness nor the unnaturaldullness of the eyes about him they were ordinarily clear eyes of anordinary gray  His very age was moderate a putative thirtysix notmore  Not less I would have said in those days He assumed no airof nonchalance  He did not deal out the cards as though they boredhim but he had no look of grim concentration  I noticed that theremoval of his cigar from his mouth made never the least difference tohis face for he kept his lips pursed out as steadily as ever when hewas not smoking  And this constant pursing of his lips seemed todenote just a pensive interestHis bank was nearly done now there were only a few cards leftOpposite to him was a welter of partycolored counters that thecroupier had not yet had time to sort out and add to the rouleauxalready made there were also a fair accumulation of notes and severallittle stacks of goldin all not less than fivehundred poundscertainly  Happy banker  How easily had he won in a few minutes morethan I with utmost pains could win in many months  I wished I werehe  His lucre seemed to insult me personally  I disliked him and yetI hoped he would not take another bank  I hoped he would have the goodsense to pocket his winnings and go home  Deliberately to risk theloss of all those riches would intensify the insult to meMessieurs la banque est aux encheres  There was some brisk biddingwhile the croupier tore open and shuffled two new packs  But it was asI feared the gentleman whom I resented kept his placeMessieurs la banque est faite  Quinzemille francs a la banqueMessieurs les cartes passent  Messieurs les cartes passentTurning to go I encountered a friend one of the raceweekers but ina sense a friendGoing to play I askedNot while Jimmy Pethels taking the bank he answered with a laughIs that the mans nameYes  Dont you know him