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



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.'

"

"'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:—