Free of Marguerite, I should have been free of gambling.
Thus, in the midst of all that, I preserved a considerable amount of self-possession; I lost only what I was able to pay, and gained only what I should have been able to lose.
For the rest, chance was on my side.

I made no debts, and I spent three times as much money as when I did not gamble.

It was impossible to resist an existence which gave me an easy means of satisfying the thousand caprices of Marguerite.

As for her, she continued to love me as much, or even more than ever.
As I told you, I began by being allowed to stay only from midnight to six o'clock, then I was asked sometimes to a box in the theatre, then she sometimes came to dine with me.

One morning I did not go till eight, and there came a day when I did not go till twelve.
But, sooner than the moral metamorphosis, a physical metamorphosis came about in Marguerite.