“ ‘I do not think,’ Christine confided afterwards to a friend, who re-confided it to Bertie van Tahn, ‘that I shall ever be able to touch paté de foie gras again. It would bring back memories of that awful evening.’

“For the next two or three days the nieces made plans for returning to England or moving on to some other resort where there was no casino. The aunt was busy making a system for winning at petits chevaux . Number eight, her first love, had been running rather unkindly for her, and a series of plunges on number five had turned out even worse.

“ ‘Do you know, I dropped over seven hundred francs at the tables this afternoon,’ she announced cheerfully at dinner on the fourth evening of their visit.

“ ‘Aunt! Twenty-eight pounds! And you were losing last night too.’