person in alpaca received the most chilling glances. But those Parthian
arrows shot from feminine eyes had little power to wound their object
just now. The girl looked up from her perforated card very seldom; and
when she raised her eyes, it was always to look in one direction--
towards the great glass doors opening from the outer saloon. Loungers
came and went; the doors swung open and closed again as noiselessly as
it is possible for well-regulated doors to open and shut; footsteps
sounded on the polished floors; and sometimes when the young person in
alpaca lifted her eyes, a passing shadow of disappointment darkened her
face. A modern Laurence Sterne, on a new Sentimental Journey, might
have derived some interest from the study of the girl's countenance;
but the reflective and observant traveller is not to be encountered
very often in this age of excursionists; and Maria and her goat may
roam the highways and byways for a long time before she will find any
dreamy loiterer with a mind attuned to sympathy.

The shabbily-dressed girl was looking for some one. She watched her
father's play carefully--she marked her card with unfailing precision;
but she performed these duties with a mechanical air; and it was only
when she lifted her eyes to the great shining plate-glass doors which
opened into this dangerous Paradise, that any ray of feeling animated
her countenance. She was looking for some one, and the person watched
for was so long coming. Ah, how difficult for the arithmetician to
number the crushing disappointments, the bitter agonies that one woman
can endure in a single half-hour! This girl was so young--so young; and
already she had learnt to suffer.

The man played with the concentrated attention and the impassible
countenance of an experienced gamester, rarely lifting his eyes from
the green cloth, never looking back at the girl who stood behind him.