The supper-party which Roger insisted on standing
that night in honour of his aunt and the three Miss Brimley
Bomefields was remarkable for the unrestrained gaiety of two
of the participants and the funereal mirthlessness of the
remaining guests.
`` `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 _p
t 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.'
`` `Oh, I shall get it all back,' she said optimistically;
`but not here.
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