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【英文原文1】
Lucky Number
My last ten dollars．．．which number．．．which number，I agonized．The croupier1) spun the wheel．There was a large crowd．A lot of money riding on number seven．Should I go with it？It had always been our lucky number，and maybe it would be lucky again，just one more time．We'd met on the seventh，married on the seventh，and both our birthdays were on the seventh．Then again，I'd been losing on seven all night．I put my money on eight．
It hadn't been a good evening．I had entered the casino2) with a sense of foreboding3) which deepened during the night，as I gambled away my meager savings．It was the first time I'd been back after the disaster of １９９３，when I'd lost Estelle's money as well as my own．Worse than that，I lost her respect．That was a big lesson for me to learn．Money could be lost and won easily．The respect of your beloved could be lost easily，but was not easily won back．
I thought she would leave me．I begged her to stay．I pleaded with her．I threw myself on her mercy．I made promises－－big promises．She stayed．I kept my promises．I stayed away from the racecourse4)．I handed her my salary，which she handled very well．I was pleasantly surprised at how well you could live on a modest wage when you didn't waste it gambling．
I thought I was cured．Estelle never referred to that night，but she had never forgotten it either and I could feel its presence，like a small dark cloud on the horizon of our otherwise sunny existence．So why was I here？I wouldn't have been，unless it was absolutely necessary．believe me．The simple fact was that I had crashed Estelle's car that morning．It was extensively damaged．A not so simple fact was that Estelle's car was not just any old car－－it was a beautiful yellow MGB that had belonged to her father．She never allowed me to drive it．I wanted to impress a client and had foolishly seized the opportunity to “borrow” it while she was out of town for the day．Everything would have been fine but for the lamp post that I ran into on my way home．Another not so simple fact was that at the moment of impact I suddenly remembered that I hadn't posted off the insurance premium due last week．It was still in my briefcase5)．The small dark cloud was rapidly becoming a black thunderhead，flickering with lightning．My only resource was a couple of hundred dollars I'd saved by skipping lunches and cutting down on smokes．A man should always have a little something in reserve，for a rainy day，like today．I really had no alternative．I took the money，gritted my teeth6)，said a prayer，and headed for the casino．I soon found that my luck had not deserted me －－my bad luck，that is．You'd think that after an absence of almost three years I would be due some beginner's luck．But no sirree7)．Everywhere I turned，everything I tried，I lost．
