midnight
In the gaming-rooms there were still a large number of people , but not half as many as had been present in the morning . At eleven o'clock there usually remained behind only the real , the desperate gamblers -- persons for whom , at spas , there existed nothing beyond roulette , and who went thither for that alone . These gamesters took little note of what was going on around them , and were interested in none of the appurtenances of the season , but played from morning till night , and would have been ready to play through the night until dawn had that been possible . As it was , they used to disperse unwillingly when , at midnight , roulette came to an end . Likewise , as soon as ever roulette was drawing to a close and the head croupier had called `` Les trois derniers coups , '' most of them were ready to stake on the last three rounds all that they had in their pockets -- and , for the most part , lost it . For my own part I proceeded towards the table at which the Grandmother had lately sat ; and , since the crowd around it was not very large , I soon obtained standing room among the ring of gamblers , while directly in front of me , on the green cloth , I saw marked the word `` Passe . '' `` Passe '' was a row of numbers from 19 to 36 inclusive ; while a row of numbers from 1 to 18 inclusive was known as `` Manque . ''