4. The Gamblers
"Won't you come over to see me to-night? Just a friendly little game, my dear--our own crowd, you know."
There was something in the purring tone of the invitation of the woman across the hall from Constance Dunlap's apartment that aroused her curiosity. "Thank you. I believe I will," answered Constance. "It's lonely in a big city without friends."
"Indeed it is," agreed Bella LeMar. "I've been watching you for some time and wondering how you stand it. Now be sure to come, won't you?"
"I shall be glad to do so," assured Constance, as they reached their floor and parted at the elevator door.
She had been watching the other woman, too, although she had said nothing about it.
"A friendly little game," repeated Constance to herself. "That sounds as if it had the tang of an adventure in it. I'll go."
The Mayfair Arms, in which she had taken a modest suite of rooms, was a rather recherche apartment, and one of her chief delights since she had been there had been in watching the other occupants.
There had been much to interest her in the menage across the hall. Mrs. Bella LeMar, as she called herself, was of a type rather common in the city, an attractive widow on the safe side of forty, well- groomed, often daringly gowned. Her brown eyes snapped vivacity, and the pert little nose and racy expression of the mouth confirmed the general impression that Mrs. LeMar liked the good things of life.
Quite naturally, Constance observed, her neighbor had hosts of friends who often came early and stayed late, friends who seemed to exude, as it were, an air of prosperity and high living. Clearly, she was a woman to cultivate. Constance felt even more interest in her, now that Mrs. LeMar had pursued a bowing acquaintance to the point of an unsolicited invitation.
"A friendly little game," she speculated. "What IS the game?"
That night found Constance at the buzzer beside the heavy mahogany door across the hall. She wore a new evening gown of warm red. Her face glowed with heightened color, and her nerves were on the qui vive for the unlocking at last of the mystery of the fascinating Mrs. LeMar.
"So glad to see you, my dear," smiled Bella, holding out her hand engagingly. "You are just in time."
Already several of the guests had arrived. There was an air of bonhomie as Bella presented them to Constance--a stocky, red-faced man with a wide chest and narrow waist, Ross Watson; a tall, sloping-shouldered man who inclined his head forward earnestly when he talked to a lady and spoke with animation, Haddon Halsey; and a fair-haired, baby-blue eyed little woman gowned in becoming pink, Mrs. Lansing Noble.
"Now we're all here--just enough for a game," remarked Bella in a business- like tone. "Oh, I beg pardon--you play, Mrs. Dunlap?" she added to Constance.
"Oh, yes," Constance replied. "Almost anything--a little bit."
She had already noted that the chief object in the room, after all, appeared to be a round table. About it the guests seemed naturally to take their places. "What shall it be to-night--bridge?" asked Watson, nonchalantly fingering a little pack of gilt-edged cards which Bella had produced.
"Oh, no," cried Mrs. Noble. "Bridge is such a bore."
"Rum?"
"No--no. The regular game--poker."
"A dollar limit?"
"Oh, make it five," drawled Halsey impatiently.
Watson said nothing, but Bella patted Halsey's hand in approval, as if all were on very good terms indeed. "I think that will make a nice little game," she cut in, opening a drawer from which she took out a box of blue, red and white chips of real ivory. Watson seemed naturally to assume the role of banker. "Aren't you going to join us?" asked Constance.
"Oh, I seldom play. You know, I'm too busy entertaining you people," excused Bella, as she bustled out of the room, reappearing a few minutes later with the maid and a tray of slender hollow-stemmed glasses with a bottle wrapped in a white napkin in a pail of ice.
Mrs. Noble shuffled the cards with practiced hand and Watson kept a calculating eye on every face. Luck was not with Constance on the first deal and she dropped out.
Mrs. Noble and Halsey were betting eagerly. Watson was coolly following along until the show-down--which he won.
"Of all things," exclaimed the little woman in pink, plainly betraying her vexation at losing. "Will luck never turn?"
Halsey said nothing.
Constance watched in amazement. This was no "friendly little game." The faces were too tense, too hectic. The play was too high, and the desire to win too great. Mrs. LeMar was something more than a gracious hostess in her solicitude for her guests.
All the time the pile of chips in front of Watson kept building up. At each new deal a white chip was placed in a little box--the kitty --for the "cards and refreshments."
It was in reality one of the new style gambling joints for men and women.
The gay parties of callers on Mrs. LeMar were nothing other than gamblers. The old gambling dens of the icebox doors and steel gratings, of white-coated servants and free food and drink, had passed away with "reform." Here was a remarkable new phase of sporting life which had gradually taken its place. Constance had been looking about curiously in the meantime. On a table she saw copies of the newspapers which published full accounts of the races, something that looked like a racing sheet, and a telephone conveniently located near writing materials. It was a poolroom, too, then, in the daytime, she reasoned.
Surely, in the next room, when the light was on, she saw what looked like a miniature roulette wheel, not one of the elaborate affairs of bright metal