Excerpt from Loaded Dice: A Novel The French a gallant race laughed Ogilvie, with discreet semitone. In the sense of a Louis Quinze, perhaps, yes; but hardly in the sense of a Chesterfield. People were pouring out into the lobbies, and our two friends let themselves drift along on the human stream. Just as they passed a box on the lower tier Ogilvie bowed to a lady seated there. She had a face that made Philip start; it seemed flowering so brilliantly out of the dimness. He had noticed it a little while ago, but distance had then clad it with no such Spell as now. They soon passed into the great foyer where gleams the marble statue of Voltaire. What a magnificent old cynic he looks, mur mured Ogilvie. And the attitude of those claw like hands! They seem as if they'd just finished strangling a sentiment. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.