1936 On the Continent

board-residence ranges from 80 to 120 francs a day for first-class hotels, to 50 and 60 francs. It is unnecessary for me to give addresses. They are legion, and wherever you go you will come across them.”
Information
    Here let me draw attention to the fact that precise practical details of this nature can be obtained at most railway stations at the enquiry office (“bureau de renseignements”), where a free guide-book will be presented to any traveller on request; these include a complete list of Belgian and Luxemburg hotels with details concerning prices and the comforts they can provide. If a traveller likes reading, he will also be abundantly supplied with leaflets and booklets published by the various tourist centres which might interest him. His only trouble after that will be to fix his choice on any of the spots enthusiastically described as the “most beautiful in the country”—if not in the world. Needless to say, in this account we do not go to that extreme, and we describe things in less glowing terms, but as they strike us. (The tourist will always find information and leaflets, free of charge, at the Office Belgo-Luxembourgeois de Tourisme, 48, Place de de Brouckère, in Brussels.)
    “This digression is of no use to me,” says Muriel. “I put myself into your hands. You tell me I shall need roughly a pound a day in order to live comfortably; I have noted that, and we’ll say no more about it.”
    “Of course, if you go losing 500 francs at baccarat, you’ll need much more.”
    “Naturally.”
    “If you’re fond of champagne it’ll be the same; or if you were a man and wanted to offer flowers or jewels to the ladies.”
    “Do the men offer jewellery to ladies as easily as that?”
    “No, dear. But if you know them a little, or you’re invited to dine, it is considered good form to offer flowers. Flowers, and a few pleasant words, is the gift most appreciated by ladies on the Continent, as also the implicationthat you consider them gracious, agreeable, intelligent—which they are often enough.”
    “What an optimist you are, Pierre.”
    “I’m optimistic after the fashion of the gentleman who, when he sees half a bottle of whisky, says, ‘It’s half full’—whereas for the pessimist it’s half empty.”
    “I see. Let’s have dinner now.”
    Before going in to dinner we changed. Muriel came down in a very smart dinner gown—for Ostend is a fashionable resort and people generally dress for dinner. The men wear dinner jackets. In Brussels one is not so tied in the matter of dress. The restaurant we chose was the Bonne Auberge, and the following day the Renommée, both excellent.
Gambling
    After dinner we went to the Kursaal, where solemn concerts are held every night. Great singers are heard at these concerts, often among the best in the world. After the concert, and even a little before the end, to be truthful, Muriel asked me to take her to the gambling rooms.
    Nothing easier, there are at Ostend two playing-rooms: one at the Kursaal, the other, the Casino Imperial (which is just behind the Kursaal), adjoins the hotel we are staying at. Both these rooms have their individual characteristics, so we were inscribed as members at both. All that was required of us was to fill in forms giving our names, addresses and ages. It is absolutely necessary to be of age in order to obtain membership cards. In exchange for this information cards were handed to us. These give access to the rooms that are so dangerous to the weak-willed and to those possessed by the gambling instinct.
    The Kursaal room is enormous. Five or six roulette tables are always running, and at least fifteen baccarat tables. You meet here all manner of people. Some obviously hard up, trying to win a twenty-franc piece or two; others playing in one “coup” from 50 to 100,000 francs. Before these last lean years I have watched bancos of 1,000,000 francs being played there. And this fortune was just a heap of coloured counters of different shapes, a magnet to the eyes of the less fortunate. The spiritof the gambling rooms remains the same, but the stakes are much smaller. It is even possible to play with a capital of ten francs, though at this rate it would take years to win a fortune. It is perhaps an exaggeration to say that the player always loses, but this is nevertheless the general result of the game. From a spectacular point of view the rooms are a sight not to be missed—the great mass of human beings hiding