A "Clip": Graham Greene's "Quiet American"

Unfortunately Kindle erases the breaks. Oh, well ...

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We played for the division of matches and then the real game started. It was uncanny how quickly Vigot threw a four-two-one. He reduced his matches to three and I threw the lowest score possible. ‘Nanette,’ Vigot said, pushing me over two matches. When he had got rid of his last match he said, ‘Capitaine,’ and I called the waiter for drinks. ‘Does anybody ever beat you?’ I asked. ‘Not often. Do you want your revenge?’ ‘Another time. What a gambler you could be, Vigot. Do you play any other game of chance?’ He smiled miserably, and for some reason I thought of that blonde wife of his who was said to betray him with his junior officers. ‘Oh well,’ he said, ‘there’s always the biggest of all.’ ‘The biggest?’ ‘“Let us weigh the gain and loss,”’ he quoted, ‘“in wagering that God is, let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose you lose nothing.”’ I quoted Pascal back at him—it was the only passage I remembered. ‘“Both he who chooses heads and he who chooses tails are equally at fault. They are both in the wrong. True course is not to wager at all.”’ ‘“Yes; but you must wager. It is not optional. You are embarked.” You don’t follow your own principles, Fowler. You’re engagé, like the rest of us.’ ‘Not in religion.’ ‘I wasn’t talking about religion. As a matter of fact,’ he said, ‘I was thinking about Pyle’s dog.’