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Updated: June 13, 2025
Mary was paid nine times thirty-five louis, six thousand three hundred francs, and the others who, superstitiously following her lead, had risked five-franc pieces and louis on l'ami de la maison, shared her luck in different degrees. "Zero once more, please, Madame," said Mary to her companion. "But no! impossible! It will be something else." "Perhaps. Still I will try." She was right.
And then they became silent, for close by where they now stood, a little apart from the table, an angry altercation was going on between Monsieur and Madame Wachner. It was the first time Sylvia had ever heard the worthy couple quarrelling in public the one with the other. "I tell you I will not go away!" L'Ami Fritz was saying between his teeth. "I feel that to-night I am in luck, in great luck!
"That's what they call 'zero. You can bet on it like any number; but when it comes, if you're not on it, all your stakes go biff! except on the simple chances, when you are put in 'prison, or else you can take back half. Lots of people like zero better than anything, because they think the croupiers try to spin it, for the good of the bank. It's called l'ami de la maison."
But a few low grunts and an enormous yawn are heard. Somebody even ejaculates: "Ah! Coquin de sort!" and sighs wearily at his hard fate. He greets me by a low, hearty, "He, l'ami. Comment va?" With his clipped moustache and massive open face, energetic and at the same time placid in expression, he is a fine specimen of the southerner of the calm type.
"But I confess I deserved it this time! Joking apart, I think 'L'Ami Fritz' is very fond of his" he hesitated, then ended his sentence with "Old Dutch!" Sylvia could not help smiling. "It is too bad of you," she exclaimed, "to talk like that! The Wachners are very nice people, and I won't allow you to say anything against them!" Somehow they were friends again. His next words proved it.
Il eut l'emploi qui certes n'est pas mince, Et qu'a la cour, ou tout se peint en beau, On appelloit etre l'ami du prince; Mais qu'a la ville, et surtout en province, Les gens grossiers ont nomme maquereau.
They all waited on one another, though Madame Wachner insisted on doing most of the work. But L'Ami Fritz, for once looking cheerful and eager, mixed the salad, putting in even more vinegar than oil, as Mrs. Bailey laughingly confessed that she hated olive oil!
It was exactly two minutes; and when at last the door opened, slowly, and revealed the tall, lanky figure of L'Ami Fritz, they both heard the soft, shuffling tread of the gendarmes closing in round the house. "I pray you to come in," said Monsieur Wachner in English, and then, addressing Bill Chester, "I am pleased to see you, sir, the more so that your friend, Mrs. Bailey, is indisposed.
Here were the tub-thumpers of the Revolution holding forth at every public place; the strident voices of ballad-singers at the street corners; hawkers of the latest pamphlets hot from the Quai des Augustins; the sellers of journals crying the Père Duchesne, L'Ami du Peuple, the Jean Bart, the Vieux Cordelier. Crowds gathered round Bassett's famous shop for caricature at the corner of the Rue St.
"But now hurry, or all our evening will be gone!" They left the house, and hastened down the garden to the gate, where L'Ami Fritz received his wife with a grumbling complaint that they had been so long. And he was right, for the Casino was very full. Sylvia made no attempt to play. Somehow she did not care for the Club when Count Paul was not there.
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