Before her was a magnificent building of white marble with many steps leading to a wide entrance, glistening against the background of dark sky, spangled with golden stars.
Mrs. McMahon clutched her daughter"s arm. "There!" she said, almost in an awed whisper. "Now you see it for the first time. That is the Casino!"
For a moment all three were silent. The spirit of chance, the terrible fever of the gambler was in their blood, and even the tough old major, an _habitue_ of every gambling h.e.l.l in Europe, shared for a moment the emotion of his companions as they surveyed the supreme Temple of Chance.
They went up the steps, Ethel alert to everything she saw, and turned into a long office to the left, rather more like a small bank than anything else.
Two or three civil, quickly glancing Frenchmen, in black frock coats, were standing in this room before the counter. Ethel was conscious of a quick all-embracing scrutiny from three pairs of dark eyes, she heard her name spoken in French by one of the officials, and shortly afterwards two purple cards, bearing the mystic words:
"_Cercle des Etrangers,_ _Valable pour un jour,_"
and with their names written upon the back in thin clerkly script, were handed to them.
From there, into a vestibule where cloaks were exchanged for metal discs with a number upon them, and then in their evening frocks, but still wearing their hats, the two ladies pa.s.sed with their cavalier into the Atrium.
The huge hall, with its galleries, marble columns and tesselated floor, its gleaming lights in the roof, and its little groups of people dotted here and there under the galleries or in the centre s.p.a.ce, reminded Ethel of a dance she had once attended in England at the magnificent town hall of a great Northern city. Everyone was in evening dress, everyone talked animatedly, new arrivals kept constantly pouring in. But at one end of this enormous hall, where the huge marble pillars cl.u.s.tered more thickly, was a series of great swing doors of an abnormal height, doors which constantly opened noiselessly and closed again. And round the doors were innumerable officials in their long frock coats, standing there watching and waiting as the votaries of Chance pressed inwards to the very sanctum of the Temple.
Mrs. McMahon nodded. "Come, Ethel," she said in a voice that was positively hoa.r.s.e with excitement, "the rooms are in there; let us go."
The two ladies walked up the long hall, presented their cards to an official who glanced at them and bowed, and then one of the great doors swung open and they entered. Although it was early yet, the rooms were fairly full.
Ethel found herself in an enormous salon of great height, and with a polished parquet floor. It resembled nothing so much as an immense ball-room in some royal palace. The walls were covered by huge pictures let into the gilded panelling, separated from each other by pilaster after pilaster of gold. The ceilings, also, where electric lights glowed brilliantly, were painted, and the general effect was one of almost overpowering magnificence. Beyond this huge salon she saw, under an immense archway, there was another and even larger one crossing it at right angles, and beyond that still another. The size and splendour of the place made her catch her breath and dazzled her eyes. "How wonderful!" she whispered to her mother.
Her next impression was that she was in some church! Despite the gorgeous decoration certainly not in the least ecclesiastical, the size and shape, the curious hush and silence that pervaded everything, helped the impression. There was only the very lowest murmur of conversation perceptible. Women in astonishingly gorgeous toilets, with gold purses hanging from their wrists by jewel-studded chains, moved slowly up and down the parquet floor with a rustling of skirts. The air was full of mingled perfume and suggested that odour of incense in a cathedral.
As all these impressions crowded into her mind, the girl"s eyes became more used to the surroundings, and she saw, at intervals under the high dome-like roof, long tables were set, each one as long as two billiard tables. There were four of them in this first salon, and many more stretched away in the vista of brilliance. The air was quite clear, n.o.body was smoking, and she could see everything very distinctly.
Around each table was a thick cl.u.s.ter of people, men and women, almost entirely hiding it from view.
She turned to the table nearest her.
Around it, without any intervals, people were sitting in chairs. Behind them stood other people, at some tables two deep. Above the tables were suspended huge lamps with green shades--like the lights over a billiard table, though not so brilliant.
"Why, they are oil lamps!" Ethel said in a low voice to her mother. "How strange and antiquated!"
Mrs. McMahon smiled.
"If they had electric lights immediately over the tables," she said, "or even gas, some of the gangs of bad characters who infest Monte Carlo would find means to cut the pipes or wires, and in the confusion anybody could take what money he pleased." She clutched her daughter"s arm tightly. "Child," she said, in an impressive voice, "at any one of these tables at the present moment, lying about, unprotected, in notes and gold, there is at least fifty thousand pounds!"
At that moment the major drew their attention to the fact that at a table immediately ahead of them there was a little stir and movement.
A very tall and handsome young man had risen from his chair. His face was a little flushed and his eyes sparkled, while he tried in vain to conceal the smile of pleasure and excitement upon his lips. Several of the other people at this table, who all appeared to know him, rose also and began to congratulate him in low voices.
"That is the Archduke Theodore," the major said in a husky whisper. "He is a cousin of the Tsar. For the last week he has been winning enormous sums, and apparently he has done so again to-night. His pockets are simply bulging with notes!"
Mrs. McMahon looked significantly at Ethel. Then she saw her chance.
"Come," she said, "we can sit down at this table. This is a very fortunate chance." They went to the table and found two chairs unoccupied, slipping into them quickly in the momentary diversion created by the Archduke"s success, and for the first time Ethel McMahon sat actually a guest of the unknown G.o.ddess of Fortune, and about to woo her.
To the girl"s unaccustomed eyes the scene was bewilderingly strange. The long expanse of green baize cloth stretched away on either side of her.
It was marked with numbered squares and triangles, while at one end were two huge diamonds of red and black in either corner. She faced a row of people, men and women in correct evening costume, save that the women, like herself, wore the large hats which are _de rigueur_ in the Casino.
Jewels gleamed bewilderingly almost everywhere. Exactly opposite her was a woman who was simply plastered with diamonds, and yet next this gorgeous vision with the painted face and laughing eyes, with a king"s ransom round her throat and in her hair, sat an elderly yellow-faced woman in a black dress and without a single ornament--more quietly and even shabbily dressed than Mrs. McMahon herself. There were two fresh-faced English boys, who looked like soldiers, there was an enormous black-bearded Bulgarian, with eyes like black velvet and hands like fat claws.
And all these people, on the green baize before them, had wads of notes or piles of gold, save only the old lady, before whom were only a few five-franc pieces--the minimum stake allowed at Monte Carlo.
And on the numbers themselves money was already beginning to be placed from every part of the table. Sometimes the people pushed it themselves on the chosen numbers, sometimes, when they were too far away, they gave it to one of the silent croupiers who sat round among the people and pushed the coins to the destined spot with their long india-rubber-tipped rakes.
Dividing the long table in the centre was the wheel itself, and the croupier in charge of it was already fingering the ivory ball. Behind him, on a higher seat, sat the official in charge of all the others engaged at this table, and from his lips came the occasional croak of the famous "_Faites vos jeux, messieurs: faites vos jeux_."
Ethel had three golden louis in her purse. It was all the money that they had brought with them.
Her mother had told her that beginners nearly always won the first time they played--a very common superst.i.tion among gamblers, and one which, for some reason or other, seems to be amply justified.
"What shall I do, mother?"
"Do whatever you like," Mrs. McMahon answered quickly. "I mustn"t influence you or it will spoil the luck."
Ethel hesitated, and as she did so the croupier swung the capstan and spun the ball.
A low, humming whirr broke the silence.
"Quick! quick!" whispered Mrs. McMahon, "make your stake or it will be too late."
Hardly knowing what she did, Ethel pushed her three louis on to the green cloth, and as she did so the ball began to rattle on the diamond-shaped pieces of silver at the side of the bowl, and the croupier called out sharply, "_Rien ne va plus_," announcing that no more stakes could be put upon the table.
Ethel had pushed her three golden louis exactly upon the edge of the line which divided six numbers, from 13 to 18, unconsciously played what is called a _transversale simple_.
If any of these six numbers turned up she would win five times her original stake. And now--it all pa.s.sed in a few seconds--the ball was rattling among the compartments, clicking like a pair of castanets. There was a final click as it fell into the slot, the croupier put out his finger and stopped the capstan, announcing the number--"_Rouge--dix-huit!_"
Red had turned up, but with that Ethel had no concern as she had not backed the colour, but 18 had won, though for a moment she did not realise it.
Then followed what to her was an extraordinary scene. The long rakes of the croupiers shot out from every part of the table, threading their way in and out among the ma.s.ses of gold, silver and bank notes with extraordinary rapidity and the most delicate manipulation.
A small fortune was swiftly swept away into the bank until the table was comparatively bare. It was all done with the precision of a machine, without a single mistake, and hardly was it completed when the stakes of those who had won were being added to in a golden shower.
It takes a croupier at Monte Carlo a whole year to learn his business, but when he has learnt it no juggler upon the stage can provide a more startling exhibition. Coins flew from rapidly moving hands in a continuous stream, as if liquid gold was being squirted from a hose. No single coin rolled off its appointed square, but fell flat and motionless within an inch of the stake at which it was aimed. And now the rakes were pushing money towards the fortunate, not gathering it in any more, and, almost ere eager or indifferent hands had gathered up what Fortune had sent them, stakes were again being spread over the board for the next coup. To Ethel, who had not in the least known what had happened, there suddenly came a shower of gold falling just before her upon her original three louis.
She stared at it bewildered, and the big Bulgarian opposite smiled at her ignorance.
Not so Mrs. McMahon. "That is yours, Ethel," she said; "that is yours.
You"ve won, after all." And as if in a dream the girl drew the glittering pile towards her. Fifteen louis, and her own three coins back again! Fifteen louis! More than thirteen English pounds--come to her as if by magic in less than a minute; her own, her very own to do as she liked with.
"I can"t believe it!" she whispered to her mother. "It can"t be true--all this--more than a quarter"s salary in a minute!"
Old Mrs. McMahon was trembling with excitement, but there was triumph in her voice.
"My dear," she said, in those very tones of calm superiority which she had used when the lottery ticket had at last turned up trumps, "this is nothing. What did I tell you!"