Why
then, with all this invitation to escape, did I remain crouched in
my dark retreat with eyes fixed on the narrow crack before me
which, under some impulse of movement in the walls about, had
widened sufficiently for me to see all that I have related? I do
not know, unless I was hypnotised by the glare of expression on
those men's faces.
I remember that it was my first glimpse of the human countenance
under the sway of wicked and absorbing passions. Hitherto my
dreams had all been of beauty--of lovely shapes or noble figures
cast in heroic mould. Henceforth, these ideal groups must visit my
imagination mixed with the bulging eyes of greed and the
contortions of hate masking their hideousness under false smiles
or hiding them behind the motions of riotous jollity. I was
horrified, I was sickened, and I was frightened to the very soul,
but the fascination of the spectacle held me; I watched the men
and I watched the play and soon I forgot the tempest also, or
remembered it only when my small retreat flared into sudden
whiteness, or some gust, heavier than the rest, toppled the bricks
from the chimneys above us and sent them crashing down upon the
rain-soaked roof.
The stranger was winning. I saw the heap of bills beside him grow
and grow while that of his opponent dwindled. I saw the latter
smile--smile softly at each toss of his losings across the board;
but there was no mirth in his smile, nor was there any common
satisfaction in the way the other's hand closed over his gains.
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