As we still stood by the door a hush fell on the company; men and women seemed to catch their breath and bend more intently over the table.  There was a pause; then someone called the number “Thirty-one,” and the buzz of voices broke out again—­a mixture of exclamations and disappointed murmurs.  Then, and not till then, did the woman at the head of the table speak, and when she spoke her words were addressed to us.

“Come in, gentlemen, come in.  You have not chosen your moment well, for the Bank is winning; but you are none the less welcome.”

Her eyes as she turned them again upon us did not alter their expression.  They were—­though I can scarcely hope that this description will be understood—­at once perfectly vigilant and absolutely impassive.  But even more amazing was the voice that contradicted both these impressions, being most sweetly and delicately modulated, with a musical ring that charmed the ear as the notes of a well-sung song.  The others, hearing us addressed, turned an incurious gaze upon us for a moment, and then fastened their attention anew upon the table.

Thus welcomed, we too stepped forward to the centre of the room and began to watch the game.  I have never seen roulette played elsewhere, so do not know if its accessories greatly vary, but this is what I saw.

The table, which I have described as oblong, was lined to the width of about a foot around the edge with green baize, and on this were piled heaps of gold and silver, some greater, some less.  Sunk in the centre was a well, in which a large needle revolved upon a pivot at a turn of the hand.  The whole looked like a large ship’s compass, but instead of north, south, east, and west, the table around the well, and at a level with the compass, was marked out into alternate spaces of red and black, bearing—­one on each space—­the figures from 1 to 36, and ending in 0, so that in all there were thirty-seven spaces, the one bearing the cipher being opposite to the strange woman who presided.  As the game began again the players staked their money on one or another of these spaces.  I also gathered that they could stake on either black or red, or again on one of the three dozens—­ 1 to 12, 13 to 24, 25 to 36.  When all the money was staked, the woman bent forward, and with a sweep of her arm sent the needle spinning round upon its mission.

Thrice she did this, thrice the eager faces bent over the revolving needle, and each time I gathered from the murmurs around me that the bank had won heavily.  At the end of the third round the hostess looked up and said to Loveday—­

“You have been here before, and, if I remember rightly, were unfortunate.  Come and sit near me when you have a chance, and perhaps you may break this run of luck.  Even I am tiring of it.  Or better still, get that dark handsome friend of yours to stake for you.  Have you ever played before?” she asked, turning to me.