"not past the Rubicon;" for twenty-nine does not comply with
any one of these conditions. He loses, and his money is coolly
swept away from him by the croupier's rake. With reference to
the last chances I enumerated in the last paragraph, I should
mention that the number _EIGHT_ would lie in the second column--
there being three columns,--and in the first dozen numbers.

`There are more chances, or rather subdivisions of chances, to
entice the player to back the "numbers;" for these the stations
of the ball are as capricious as womankind; and it is, of course,
extremely rare that a player will fix upon the particular number
that happens to turn up. But he may place a piece of money _a
cheval_, or astride, on the line which divides two numbers, in
which case (either of the numbers turning up) he receives
sixteen times his stake. He may place it on the cross lines
that divide four numbers, and, if either of the four wins, he
will receive eight times the amount of his stake. A word as to
_Zero_. Zero is designated by the compartment close to the
wheel's diameter, and zero, or blank, will turn up, on an
average, about once in seventy times. If you have placed money
in zero, and the ball seeks that haven, you will receive thirty-
three times your stake.'

The twin or elder brother of _Roulette_, played at Hombourg,
_Rouge et Noir_, or _Trente et Quarante_, is thus described by Mr
Sala:--

`There is the ordinary green-cloth covered table, with its
brilliant down-coming lights. In the centre sits the banker,
gold and silver in piles and _rouleaux_, and bank-notes before