Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/39

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Paris Bourse, and she told it to our representative yesterday.

"She is an American, and was eating candy when she met M. J—— L——. 'Ah!' said he, 'give up stick and buy stock.' She 'took the tip,' she says, and staked her fortune—every penny—on the deal. A fortnight later she came back one night to her flat in the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, from the Olympia, where she plays a leading part. A telegram from her bankers was waiting. It said: 'You have been successful.' 'Next day,' says Miss W., 'I called on those bankers and picked up the £20,000 I had made.'


"Inveterate Gambler.

"'Wonderful, wasn't it?' said Miss W., and our representative agreed that it was. 'Oh, but it was a mere nothing!' she said. 'I have gambled since I was seven. Then I used to bet in pop-corn and always won. At seventeen I was quite 'a dab' at spotting winners on the Turf.

"'Monte Carlo? Oh, yes. I won a trifle there this year—£800 or so. And Trouville! Why, you may not believe it, but I won £4,000 there this year in a few weeks.

"'Of course, I don't know the tricks of the Stock Exchange, though I was once chased by a bull,' observed Miss W., with a smile. 'Still, I think I'll stick to it.'

"Opposite the Bourse is a shop where fashionable Parisians buy their furs. She spent £1,600 in a sable coat and hat on the day that the Bourse made her. Her other purchases include:—