To turn the conversation, and because he wished to speak to Phillis alone, he approached her table and talked with her about her work.

Saniel then gave Madame Cormier some advice, and rose to go.

Phillis followed him, and Florentin was about to accompany them, but Phillis stopped him.

“I wish to ask Doctor Saniel a question,” she said.

When they were on the landing she closed the door.

“What is the matter?” she asked in a hurried and trembling voice.

“I wished to tell you that I start for Monaco at eleven o’clock.”

“You are going away?”

“I have received two hundred francs from a patient, and I am going to risk them at play.  Two hundred francs will not pay Jardine or the others, but with them I may win several thousands of francs.”

“Oh!  Poor dear!  How desperate you must be—­you, such as you are, to have such an idea!”

“Am I wrong?”

“Never wrong to my eyes, to my heart, to my love.  O my beloved, may fortune be with you!”

“Give me your hand.”

She looked around, listening.  There was no one, no noise.

Then, drawing him toward her, she put her lips on his: 

“All yours, yours!”

“I will return Tuesday.”

“Tuesday, at five o’clock, I shall be there.”

CHAPTER XVI

THE SMILES OF FORTUNE

No one knew so little about play as Saniel.  He knew that people played at Monaco, and that was all.  He bought his ticket for Monaco, and left the train at that place.

On leaving the station he looked all about him, to see what kind of a place it was.  Seeing nothing that looked like a gambling-house as he understood it, that is, like the Casino de Royal, the only establishment of the kind that he had ever seen, he asked a passer-by: 

“Where is the gambling-house?”

“There is none at Monaco.”

“I thought there was.”

“There is one at Monte Carlo.”

“Is it far?”

“Over yonder.”

With his hand the man indicated, on the slope of the mountain, a green spot where, in the midst of the foliage, were seen roofs and facades of imposing buildings.

Saniel thanked him and followed his directions, while the man, calling another, related the question that had been addressed to him, and both laughed, shrugging their shoulders.  Could any one be so stupid as these Parisians!  Another one who was going to be plucked, and who came from Paris expressly for that!  Was he not funny, with his big legs and arms?

Without troubling himself about the laughter that he heard behind him, Saniel continued his way.  In spite of his night on the train, he felt no fatigue; on the contrary, his mind and body were active.  The journey had calmed the agitation of his nerves, and it was with perfect tranquillity he looked back upon all that had passed before his departure.  In the state of satisfaction that was his now, he had nothing more to fear from stupidity or acts of folly; and, since he had recovered his will, all would go well.  No more backward glances, and fewer still before.  The present only should absorb him.