called _croupiers_, whose business it is to pay and to collect
money.

Behind the _tailleurs_ and _croupiers_ are inspectors, to see
that too much is not given in payment, besides an indefinite
number of secret inspectors, who are only known to the proprietors.
There are also _maîtres de maison_, who are called to decide
disputes; and _messieurs de la chambre_, who furnish cards to
the _pontes_, and serve them with beer, &c., which is to be
had _gratis_. Moreover, there is a _grand maître_, to whom the
apartments, tables, &c., belong.

When a stranger enters these apartments, he will soon find near
him some obliging men of mature age, who, with an air of prudence
and sagacity, proffer their advice. As these advisers perfectly
understand _their own_ game, if their _protégés_ lose, the mentors
vanish; but it they win, the counsellor comes nearer, congratulates
the happy player, insinuates that it was by following his advice
that fortune smiled on him, and finally succeeds in borrowing a
small sum of money on honour. Many of these loungers have no
other mode of living.

There is likewise another room, furnished with sofas, called
_chamber des blessés_, which is far from being the most
thinly peopled.

The bank pays in ready money every successful stake and sweeps
off the losings with wooden instruments, called _rateaux_
(rakes).