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Volume I Volume II

The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz

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Lady gamestresses

CHAPTER X. page 19

`Another figure at the gaming table, which daily drew our
attention, was a pale, anxious old woman, who seemed no longer to
have strength to conceal her eager agitation under the air of
callous indifference, which all practised players endeavour to
assume. She trembled, till her shaking hand could hardly grasp
the instrument with which she pushed or withdrew her pieces; the
dew of agony stood upon her wrinkled brow; yet, hour after hour,
and day after day, she too sat in the enchanted chair. I
never saw age and station in a position so utterly beyond the
pale of respect. I was assured she was a person of rank; and my
informant added, but I trust she was mistaken, that she was an
_ENGLISH_ woman.'[102]

[102] Belgium and Western Germany, in 1833.

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