XXIX 
  
THE GENEROUS GAMESTER 
  
  
YESTERDAY, among the crowd of the Boule-
vards, I felt myself brushed by a mysterious 
being whom I had always wished to know, and 
whom I instinctively recognized, although I had 
never seen him. Doubtless there was in him an 
analogous desire as regards myself, for as he 
passed he gave me a significant wink which I 
hastened to obey. I followed him attentively, 
and soon I descended at his heels into a sub-
terranean dwelling-place where shone a luxury 
of which none of the above-ground dwellings of 
Paris can show a rival. It seemed strange to 
me that I should so often have passed this 
wondrous den without ever perceiving its door. 
There an exquisite though heavy atmosphere 
reigned, which made one forget almost in-
stantly all the fastidious horrors of life. One 
breathed there a sombre happiness, somewhat 
like that which the lotus-eaters must experi-
ence when, disembarking upon an enchanted 
isle, lighted by the gleam of eternal afternoon, 
they feel born in them to the soothing and me-