quickly as possible, "we won't stay long tonight. I just came
around to introduce my friends to Miss Lottie. I must get back
right away."

For some reason or other he seemed very anxious to leave us. I
surmised that the gambling fever was running high and that he had
hopes of a change of luck. At any rate, he was gone, and we had
obtained admittance to the ladies' pool room.

We strolled into one of the rooms in which the play was on. The
game was at its height, with huge stacks of chips upon the tables
and the players chatting gayly. There was no large crowd there,
however. Indeed, as we found afterward, it was really in the
afternoon that it was most crowded, for it was rather a poolroom
than a gambling joint, although we gathered from the gossip that
some stiff games of bridge were played there. Both men and women
were seated at the poker game that was in progress before the
little green table. The women were richly attired and looked as if
they had come from good families.

We were introduced to several, but as it was evident that they
were passing under assumed names, whatever the proprietor of the
place might know of them, I made little effort to remember the
names, although I did study the faces carefully.

It was not many minutes before we met Miss Lottie, as everyone
called the woman who presided over this feminine realm of chance.
Miss Lottie was a finely gowned woman, past middle age, but
remarkably well preserved, and with a figure that must have
occasioned much thought to fashion along the lines of the present