Rosemary | Page 3

for the dimmed light like dull gold, gold
sifted into dust by passing through many hands.
He had got his ticket of admission to the Casino, after arriving
yesterday evening; but the Rooms had not pleased him then. He had not
played, and had merely walked through, looking at the people; but now
he went to a trente et quarante table, and reaching over the shoulders of
the players--not so many as in the roulette rooms,--he put a five
hundred franc note on couleur. It won. He let the money lie, and it won
again. A third time and a fourth he left the notes on, and still luck was
with him. He was in for a good run.
As it happened, nobody else had been playing higher than plaques, the
handsome hundred franc gold pieces coined for the Principality of
Monaco; and people began to watch the new comer, as they always do
one who plays high and is lucky. On the fifth deal he had won the
maximum. He took off half, and was leaving the rest to run, when a
voice close to his shoulder said, "Oh, do take it all off. I feel it's going
to lose now. To please me."
[Illustration: He took off half, and was leaving the rest to run, when a
voice close to his shoulder said, "Oh, do take it all off." Page 12.
--Rosemary.]
He glanced aside, and saw an exceedingly pretty, dark face, which
looked vaguely familiar. With a smile, he took up all the notes, and
only just in time. Couleur lost; inverse won.
"Oh, I'm so glad," said the owner of the pretty face. She spoke English
with a slight, but bewitching foreign accent; and her eyes shone at him

like brown jewels under the tilted brim of a hat made all of pink and
crimson roses. She was rather like a rose, too, a rich, colourful, spicy
rose, of the kind which unfolds early. He knew that he had seen her
before, and wondered where.
After all, it was rather nice to be spoken to by someone other than a
hotel manager or a waiter; someone who was good to look at, and
friendly. He lost interest in the game, and gained interest in the girl.
"Thank you," said he. "You've brought me luck."
"I hope you don't think I speak always to strangers, like that," said the
girl in the rose hat. "But you see, I recognized you at once. I don't know
if you remember me? No, I'm afraid you don't."
"Of course I remember you, only I can't think where we--"
"Why, it was in Paris. You saved my mother's little dog from being run
over one day. We were both so grateful. Afterwards we saw you once
or twice at tea at the Ritz, and you took off your hat, so you must have
remembered then. Ah me, it's a long time ago!"
"Not so very," said the young man. "I remember well, now." (He
wished her mother had not been quite such an appalling person, fat and
painted.) "It was only last October. I'd just come to Paris. It was my
first day there, when I picked up the little dog. Now, on my first day
here, you pay me back for what I did then--as if it needed paying
back!--by making me pick up my money. That's quite a coincidence."
They had moved away from the tables now, and were walking very
slowly down the room. The young man smiled at the girl, as he crushed
up the notes and stuffed them into his pocket. He saw that she was
much prettier than he had thought her in Paris, if he had thought of her
at all; and her dress of pale pink cloth was charming with the rose hat.
Somehow, he was glad that she was not in white--with an ermine stole.
"So it is, quite a coincidence, and a pleasant one for me, since I meet
again one who was once so kind," she said. "Especially it is good to

meet a friend--if I may call you a friend?--when one is very sad."
"Of course you may call me a friend," said he, kindly. "I'm sorry to
hear you are sad."
"That is why I told you the other meeting seemed a long time ago,"
explained the girl. "I was happy then. Now, I am breaking my heart,
and I do not know what to do. Oh, I ought not to talk like this, for after
all, you are a stranger. But you are English, or you are American; and
men of those countries never misunderstand a woman, even if she is in
trouble. We can feel ourselves safe with them."
"I'm American," he answered, "and I'm glad you feel