THE STORY OF MANON LESCAUT.
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style. For some time they talked of nothing but my advantages of person and of manner. It was generally agreed that there was every promise of my success, as there was something about my face and air that savored of the man of honor, and that would prevent any one's suspecting me of unfair play. Finally, they expressed their thanks to M. Lescaut for having made the acquisition of a novice of my merits for the Order, and appointed one of the Chevaliers to devote several days to giving me the requisite instructions.
The principal theatre of my exploits was to be the Hôtel de Transilvanie, where there was a faro table in one saloon, and various other games of cards or of dice in the gallery.[1] This gaming-house was kept for the
- ↑ For a full appreciation of these allusions to gaming and its customs at the time in which the story of "Manon Lescaut" is laid, the reader must have some acquaintance with the peculiar state of society then existing, and the open toleration during the reigns of Louis XIV. and XV. of gambling-houses from which many of the nobility and, in some cases, the Government itself, drew considerable revenues. The following quotations from Robert Houdin's remarkable book, "The Tricks of the Greeks Unveiled," may not be inappropriate in this connection:
"The most powerful cause of the increasing numbers of sharpers in Paris was the opening of the public salons known as the Hôtels of Grèves and of Soissons. It produced a perfect revolution among the members of the light-fingered fraternity, who had heretofore exercised their profession in secluded places, their operations being, for the most part, simply and clumsily performed. Now, however, the keenest of them united for the formation of a League, and the invention of new devices whereby to appropriate the funds of the unwary; and from their consultations resulted many combinations until then unknown.
"Piquet, lansquenet, faro, and other popular games became actual gold-fields for the associated deceivers. Even roulette, a game invented especially for the public to play in all security, became subject to their machinations. . . .
