On this occasion the beautiful
widow herself occupied a place at the _rouge et noir_ table, and
Reginald beheld enough to enlighten him as to her real character. He
saw that with this woman the love of play was a passion: a profound and
soul-absorbing delight. He saw the eyes which, in repose, seemed of so
cold a brightness, emit vivid flashes of feverish light; he saw the
fair blush-rose tinted cheek glow with a hectic crimson--he beheld the
woman with her mask thrown aside, abandoned to the influence of her
master-passion.
After this night, Reginald Eversleigh was a frequent visitor at the
apartments of the Austrian widow. For him, as for her, the fierce
excitement of the gaming-table was an irresistible temptation. In her
elegantly appointed drawing-rooms he met rich men who were desperate
players; but he met few men who were likely to be dupes. Here neither
skill nor bribery availed him, and he was dependent on the caprices of
chance. The balance was tolerably even, and he left Paris neither
richer nor poorer for his acquaintance with Paulina Durski.
But that acquaintance exercised a very powerful influence over his
destiny, nevertheless. There was a strange fascination in the society
of the Austrian widow--a nameless, indefinable charm, which few were
able to resist. A bitter experience of vice and folly had robbed
Reginald Eversleigh's heart and mind of all youth's freshness and
confidence, and for him this woman seemed only what she was, an
adventuress, dangerous to all who approached her.
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