Imposing as was the exterior, it was on the interior that Mr. Scobell
more particularly prided himself, and not without reason. Certainly, a
man with money to lose could lose it here under the most charming
conditions. It had been Mr. Scobell's object to avoid the cheerless
grandeur of the rival institution down the coast. Instead of one large
hall sprinkled with tables, each table had a room to itself, separated
from its neighbor by sound-proof folding-doors. And as the building
progressed, Mr. Scobell's active mind had soared above the original
idea of domestic coziness to far greater heights of ingenuity. Each of
the rooms was furnished and arranged in a different style. The note of
individuality extended even to the _croupiers_. Thus, a man with
money at his command could wander from the Dutch room, where, in the
picturesque surroundings of a Dutch kitchen, _croupiers_ in the
costume of Holland ministered to his needs, to the Japanese room, where
his coin would be raked in by quite passable imitations of the Samurai.
If he had any left at this point, he was free to dispose of it under
the auspices of near-Hindoos in the Indian room, of merry Swiss
peasants in the Swiss room, or in other appropriately furnished
apartments of red-shirted, Bret Harte miners, fur-clad Esquimaux, or
languorous Spaniards. He could then, if a man of spirit, who did not
know when he was beaten, collect the family jewels, and proceed down
the main hall, accompanied by the strains of an excellent band, to the
office of a gentlemanly pawnbroker, who spoke seven languages like a
native and was prepared to advance money on reasonable security in all
of them.

It was a colossal venture, but it suffered from the defect from which
most big things suffer; it moved slowly. That it also moved steadily
was to some extent a consolation to Mr. Scobell. Undoubtedly it would
progress quicker and quicker, as time went on, until at length the