He gave it to her, and then stood watching to see what she would do with it.  She set to work with great deliberation; first pulling a handful of sugar-plums out of her pocket, and arranging them in a little heap at her side on the table, and then proceeding with much gravity to stake them on the numbers.  She would put down a bonbon and give the board a twirl; “ving-cinq,” she would say; the ball flew round and fell into a number; it might be ten, or twenty, or twenty-five, it did not much matter; she looked to see what it was, but right or wrong, never failed to eat the bonbon—­an illogical result, which contrasted quaintly with the intense seriousness with which she made her stakes.  Sometimes she would place two or three sugar-plums on one number, always naming it aloud—­“trente-et-un,” “douze-premier,” “douze-apres.”  It was the oddest game for a small thing not six years old; and there was something odd, too, in her matter-of-fact, business-like air, which amused Graham.  He had seen gambling-tables during his three weeks’ visit to Germany, and he felt sure that this child must have seen them too.

“Eh!  What an insupportable heat!” cried a harsh high-pitched voice behind him.  “Monsieur Jules, I will repose myself for a few minutes, if you will have the goodness to fetch me a glass of eau sucree.  Je n’en peux plus!”

Graham, recognizing the voice, turned round, and saw the Countess G——­ leaning on the arm of a young man with whom she had been dancing.

“But it is really stifling!” she exclaimed, dropping into an arm-chair by the table as her partner retired.  “Monsieur does not dance, apparently,” she continued, addressing Horace.  “Well, you are perhaps right; it is a delightful amusement, but on a night like this——­ Ah! here is little Madelon.  I have not seen you before to-day.  How is it you are not dancing?”

“I don’t want to,” answered the child, giving the roulette-board a twirl.

“But that is not at all a pretty game that you have there,” said the Countess, shaking her head; “it was not for little girls that Mademoiselle Cecile placed the roulette-board there.  Where is your doll? why are you not playing with her?”

“My doll is in bed; and I like this best,” answered the child indifferently. “Encore ce malheureux trente-six!  Je n’ai pas de chance ce soir!”

“But little girls should not like what is naughty:  and I think it would be much better if you were in bed too.  Come, give me that ugly toy; there is Monsieur quite shocked to see you playing with it.”

Madelon looked up into Horace’s face with her wide-open gaze, as if to verify this wonderful assertion; and apparently satisfied that it had been made for the sake of effect, continued her game without making any reply.

“Oh, then, I really must take it away,” said the Countess; “allons, be reasonable, ma petite; let me have that, and go and dance with the other little boys and girls.”