MONTE-CARLO
We put up for the night at the Hôtel de Paris, where the prices are
exorbitant. We had dinner at a small hotel which boasted of a table
d’hôte at 2 francs 25 centimes per head. Sixty boarders sat down at
table, inveterate roulette-players all of them. The game was the sole
conversation during the meal. After dinner we went to the Casino to
see the fireworks and listen to the splendid orchestra playing in the
concert-hall. I tried my luck at the gambling-tables and lost about
ten francs, but Sergy gained heaps of money. The run of bad luck had
completely emptied the purse of an old lady sitting on my right—she
looked so wretched, the poor old thing!