might be bagged at night. Both at the rouge et noir table and roulette
the same sort of company might be met with. These gambling-houses were
the very fountains of immorality: they gathered together, under the
most seductive circumstances, the swindler and the swindled. There
were tables for all classes - the workman might play with 20 sous, or
the gentleman with 10,000 francs. The law did not prevent any class
from indulging in a vice that assisted to fill the coffers of the municipality
of Paris.

The floor over the gambling-house was occupied by unmarried women.
I will not attempt to picture some of the saddest evils of the society
of large cities; but I may add that these Phrynes lived in a style of
splendour which can only be accounted for by the fact of their participating
in the easily-earned gains of the gambling-house regime. Such was the
state of the Palais Royal under Louis XVIII. and Charles X. : the Palais
Royal of the present day is simply a tame and legitimately-commercial
mart, compared with that of olden times. Society has changed; Government
no longer patronizes such nests of immorality; and though vice may exist
to the same extent, it assumes another garb, and does not appear in
the open streets, as at the period to which I have referred.

At that time, the Palais Royal was externally the only well-lighted
place in Paris. It was the rendezvous of all idlers, and especially
of that particular class of ladies who lay out their attractions for
the public at large. These were to be seen at all hours in full dress,
their bare necks ornamented with mock diamonds and pearls; and thus
decked out in all their finery, they paraded up and down, casting their
eyes significantly on every side. Some strange stories are told in
connection with the gambling houses of the Palais Royal. An officer
of the Grenadier Guards came to Paris on leave of absence, took apartments