"Samuel, you _are_ quite well inside, aren't you?"

"Quite, Myra. But, I _have_ invented a sort of system for _roulette_,
which we might--"

"There's only one system which is any good," pronounced Archie. "It's the
system by which, when you've lost all your own money, you turn to the man
next to you and say, 'Lend me a louis, dear old chap, till Christmas;
I've forgotten my purse.'"

"No systems," said Dahlia. "Let's make a collection and put it all on one
number and hope it will win."

Dahlia had obviously been reading novels about people who break the bank.

"It's as good a way of losing as any other," said Archie. "Let's do it
for our first gamble, anyway. Simpson, as our host, shall put the money
on. I, as his oldest friend, shall watch him to see that he does it.
What's the number to be?"

We all thought hard for several moments.

"Samuel, what's your age?" asked Myra, at last.

"Right off the board," said Thomas.

"You're not really more than thirty-six?" Myra whispered to him. "Tell me
as a secret."

"Peter's nearly two," said Dahlia.