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The Gambler · The Gambler

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  Chapter one at length. I returned from two weeks leave of absence to find
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  that my patrons had arrived three days ago in Roulettenberg. I received from them
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  a welcome quite different to that which I had expected. The General eyed me
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  coldly, greeted me in rather haughty fashion, and dismissed me to pay my
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  respects to his sister. It was clear that from somewhere money had been acquired.
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  I thought I could even detect a certain shamefacedness in the General's glance.
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  Maria Philipovna, too seemed distraught and conversed me with an air of detachment.
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  Nevertheless, she took the money which I had handed her, accounted it,
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  and listened to what I had to tell To luncheon. There were expected that
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  a day a monsieur Mezetsov, a French lady and an Englishman. For whenever
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  money was in hand, a banquet in Muscovite style was always given. Polina
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  Alexandrovna, on seeing me, inquired why I had been so long away.
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  Then, without waiting for an answer, she departed. Evidently this was not
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  a mere accident, and I felt that I must throw some light upon matters.
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  It was high time that I did so, I was as sign of
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  small room on the fourth floor of the hotel, for you must know that
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  I belonged to the General's suite. So far as I could see, the
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  party had already gained some notoriety in the place, which had come to look
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  upon the General as a Russian nobleman of great wealth. Indeed, even before
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  luncheon, he charged me, among other things, to get two thousand franc
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  notes charged for him at the hotel counter, which put us in a position
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  to be thought millionaires at all events. For a week later, I was
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  about to take Misha and Nadia for a walk when a summons reached me from
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  the staircase that I must attend the General. He began by deigning to inquire
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  of me where I was going to take the children, And as he did
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  so, I could see that he failed to look me in the eyes.
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  He wanted to do so, but each time was met by me with such
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  a fixed, disrespectful stare, that he desisted in confusion. In pompous language,
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  however, which jumbled one sentence into another, and at length grew disconnected.
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  He gave me to understand that I was to lead the children altogether away
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  from the casino and out into the park. Finally, his anger exploded,
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  and he added sharply, I suppose you would like to take them to the
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  casino to play roulette. We'll excuse my speaking so plainly, but I know
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  how addicted you are to gambling. Though I am not your mentor, nor
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  wish to be, at least I have the right to acquire that you shall
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  not actually compromise me. I have no money for gambling, I quietly replied,
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  but you soon will be in receipt of some, retorted the General,
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  reddening a little, as he dived into his writing desk and applied himself to
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  a memorandum book. From it, he saw that he had one hundred and
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  twenty rubles of mine in his keeping. Let us calculate, he went on,
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  we must translate these rubles into thalars. Here take one hundred dollars as
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  a round sum. The rest will be safe in my hands. In silence,
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  I took the money. You must not be offended as what I say,
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  he continued, You are too touchy about these things. What I have
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  said, I have said merely as a warning to do so is no more
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  than my right. When returning home with the children. Before luncheon, I
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  met a cavalcade of our party riding to view some ruins. Two splendid carriages
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  magnificently horsed, with mille Blanche, Mara Philipovna and Paulina Alexandrovna in one of
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  them, and the Frenchman, the Englishman and the General in attendance on horseback.
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  The passers by stopped to stare at them, for the effect was splendid.
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  The General could not have improved upon it. I calculated that with the
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  four thousand francs which I had brought with me, added to what patrons seemed
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  already to have acquired, the party must be possession of at least seven thousand
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  or eight thousand francs, though that would be none too much for the mille
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  Blanche, who, with her mother and the Frenchman, was also lodging in
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  our hotel. The latter gentleman was called by the Laquay as Monsieur le Comte,
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  and mille Blanche's mother was dubbed Madame la comtesse. Perhaps in very truth
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  they were a comte e contesse. I knew that Monsieur le Comte wouldn't take
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  no notice of me, when we met at dinner, as also that the
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  General would not dream of introducing us, nor of recommending me to the Comte.
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  However, the latter had lived awhile in Russia and knew that the person
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  referred to as Eautichel is never looking upon as a bird of fine feather.
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  Of course, strictly speaking, he knew me, but I was an uninvited
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  guest at the luncheon. The General had forgotten to arrange otherwise, or I
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  should have been despatched to dine at the table a d'Hote. Nevertheless, I
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  presented myself in such guise that the g looked at me with a touch of
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  approval. And though the good Maria Philipovna was for showing me my place,
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  the fact of my having previously met the Englishman mister Astley saved me. And
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  thenceforth I figured I was one of the company. This strange englishman I had
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  first met in Prussia, where he had happened to sit visa v in a
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  railway train in which I was traveling to overtake our party. While later I
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  had run across him in France and again in Switzerland twice within the space of
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  two weeks. To think, therefore, that I should suddenly encounter him again
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  here in Roulettenberg. Never in my life had I known a more retiring man,
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  for he was shy to the pitch of imbecility, yet well aware of
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  the fact, for he was no fool. At the same time, he
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  was gentle, amiable sort of individual, And even on our first encounter in
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  Prussia, I had contrived to draw him out, and he had told me
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  that he had just been to the North Cape and was now anxious to visit
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  the fair at Nizini Novgorad. How he had come to make the General's acquaintance
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  I do not know, but apparently he was much struck with Polina. Also,
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  he was delighted that I should sit next to him at table, for
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  he appeared to look upon me as his bosom friend. During the meal,
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  the Frenchman was in great feather. He was discursive and pompous to everyone.
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  In Moscow too, I remembered he had blown a great many bubbles. Interminiably
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  he discoursed on finance and Russian politics, and though at times the General made
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  feints to contradict him, he did so humbly and as though wishing not wholly
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  to lose sight of his own dignity. For myself, I was in a
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  curious frame of mind. Even before luncheon I was half finished. I had
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  asked myself the old eternal question, why do I continue to dance attendance upon
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  the General instead of having left him and his family long ago. Every now
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  and then I would glance at Polina, but she paid me no attention,
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  until eventually I became so irritated that I decided to play the boar. First
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  of all, I suddenly, and for no reason whatever, plunged loudly and
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  gratuitously into the general conversation. Above everything, I wanted to pick a quarrel
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  with the Frenchman, And with that end in view, I turned to the
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  General and exclaimed, in an overbearing sort of way. Indeed, I think
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  I actually interrupted him that that summer it had almost been impossible for a Russian
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  to dine anywhere at tables d'Hote. The General bent upon me a glance of
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  astonishment. If one is a man of self respect, I went on,
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  one risks abuse by so doing, and is forced to put up with insults
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  of every kind, both at Paris and on the Rhine, and even in
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  Switzerland. There are so many Poles with their sympathizers the French at these tables,
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  d'Hote that one cannot get a word in edgewise if one happens only to
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  be a Russian. This I said in French. The General eyed me doubtfully,
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  for he did not know whether to be angry or merely to feel surprised
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  that I should so far forget myself. Of course, one always learns something
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  everywhere, said the Frenchman in a careless, contemptuous sort of tone. In
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  Paris, too, I had a dispute with a Pole, I continued,
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  and then with a French officer who had supported him. After that a section
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  of the frenchmen present took my part. They did so as soon as I
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  told them the story of how once I threatened to spit into Monsignor's coffee,
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  to spit into it. The General inquired with grave disapproval in his tone and
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  a stare of astonishment, while the Frenchman looked at me unbelievingly. Just so,
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  I replied, you must know that on one occasion, when for two
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  days I had felt certain that at any moment I might have to depart for
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  Rome on business, I repaired to the Embassy of the Holy Sea in Paris
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  to have my passport visa. There I encountered a sacristan of about fifty and
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  a man dry and cold of me. In After listening politely but with great
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  reserve to my encounter myself, this sacristan asked me to wait a little.
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  I was in a great hurry to depart, but of course I sat down,
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  pulled out a copy of l'pinion Nationale, and fell to reading an extraordinary
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  piece of invective against Russia, which had happened to contain. As I was
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  thus engaged, I heard someone enter an enjoining room and ask for monsignor,
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  after which I saw the sacristan make a low bow to the visitor, and
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  then another bow. As the visitor took his leave, I ventured to remind
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  the good man of my own business also, whereupon, with an expression of
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  if anything increased dryness, he again asked me to wait. Soon, a
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  third visitor arrived, who, like myself, had come on business. He
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  was an Austrian of some sort, and as soon as ever he had started
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  his errand he was conducted upstairs. This made me very angry. I rose
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  approached the Sacristan and told him that, since Monsignor was receiving callers, his
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  lordship might just well finish off my affair as well. Upon this, Sacrastin
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  shrunk back in astonishment. It simply passed his understanding that any insignificant Russian should
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  dare to compare himself with other visitors of Monseignor's. In a tone of utmost
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  effrontery, as though he was delighted to have a chance of insulting me.
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  He looked me up and down, and then said, do you suppose that
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  Monseignor is going to put aside his coffee for you? But I only cried
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  the louder. Let me tell you that I am going to spit into that
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  coffee. Yes, and if you do not get me my passport visa this
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  very minute, I shall take it to the monsignorm himself. What while he
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  is engaged with a cardinal, screeched the Sacristan again, shrieking back in horror.
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  Then, rushing to the door, he spread out his arms as though
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  he would rather die than let me enter. Thereupon, I declared that I
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  was a heretic and a barbarian. Suis heretic at Barbert? I said and
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  at these barb bishops and cardinals and monsignores and the rest of them meant nothing
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  at all to me. In a word, I showed him that I was
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  not going to give way. He looked at me with an air of infinite
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  resentment. Then he snatched upon my passport and departed with it upstairs. Minut
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  later the passport had been visaid here it is now if you care to see
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  it, and I pulled it out of the document and exhibited the Roman zisa.
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  But the general began, what really saved you was the fact that you
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  proclaimed yourself a hare taken a barbarian, remarked the Frenchman with a smile.
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  Selenetapas si bete. But is that how Russian subjects ought to be treated?
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  Why when they settle here they dare not utter even a word. They are
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  ready even deny the fact that they are Russians. At all events at my
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  hotel in Paris, I received far more attention from the company after I had
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  told them about the fracas with the Sacristan, A fat Polish nobleman who had
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  been the most offensive of all who were presented at the table d'Hote at,
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  once went upstairs while some of the frenchmen were simply disgusted when I told them
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  that two years ago I had encountered a man at whom in eighteen twelve a
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  French hero fired for the mere fun of discharging his musket. That man was
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  then a boy of ten, and his family are still residing in Moscow.
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  Impossible, the French spluttered. No French soldier would fire at a child.
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  Nevertheless, the incident was as I say, I replied. A very respected
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  exit captain told me the story, and I myself could see the scar left
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  on his cheek. The frenchman then began chattering volubly, and the general supported
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  him. But I recommended the former to read, for example, extraction the
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  memoirs of General Porovski, who in eighteen twelve was a prisoner in the hands
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  of the French. Finally, Maria Philipovna said something to interrupt our conversation.
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  The General was furious with me for having started the altercation with the Frenchman.
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  On the other hand, mister Astley seemed to take great pleasure in my brush
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  with Monsieur, and, rising from the table, proposed that we should go
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  and have a drink together. That same afternoon, at four o'clock I went
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  to have a customary talk with Polina, and the talk soon extended to his
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  stroll. We entered the park and approached the casino, where Polina seated herself
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  upon a bench near the fountain and sent Nadi a wait a little distance to
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  play with some other children. Misha also dispatched to play by the fountain,
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  and in this fashion we, that is to say, Polina and myself contrived
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  to find ourselves alone. Of course, we began by talking on business matters.
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  Polina seemed furious when I handed her only seven hundred gulden, for she
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  had thought to receive from Paris as the proceeds of the pledging of her diamonds
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  at least two thousand gulden or even more. Come what may, I must
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  have money, she said, and get it somehow I will, otherwise I
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  should be ruined. I asked her, what happened during my absence? Nothing
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  except that two pieces of news have reached us from Saint Petersburg. In the
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  first place, my grandmother is very ill and unlikely to last another couple of
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  days. We had this from Timothy Petrovitch himself, and he is a reliable
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  person. Every moment, we are expecting to receive news of the end.
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  All of you are on the tiptoe of expectation, I queried, of course,
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  all of us, in every minute of the day. For a year
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  and a half now, we have been looking for this, looking for it,
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  Yes, looking for it. I'm not her blood relation, you know,
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  I'm merely the General's stepdaughter. Yet I am certain that the old lady
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  has remembered me in her will. Yes, I believe that you will come
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  in for a good deal, I said, with some assurance. Yes,
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  for she is fond of me. But how come you too think so?
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  I answered this question with another one, that Marquis of yours? I said,
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  is he also familiar with your family secrets? And why are you yourself
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  so interested in them? Was her retort, as she eyed me with dry
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  grimness. Never mind, If I'm not mistaken, the General has succeeded in
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  borrowing money of the Marquis, it may be, so. Is it likely
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  that the Marquis would have lent the money if he had not known something or
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  other about your grandmother? Did you notice, too, that the three times
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  during luncheon when speaking of her, he called her laa boulenka, meaning dear
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  little grandmother, but loving friendly behavior. To be sure, yes, that
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  is true. As soon as ever he learned that I was likely to inherit
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  something from her, he began to pay me in his dress. Is I
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  thought you ought to know that? Then he has only just begun his courting.
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  Why I thought he had been doing so a long while. You know
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  he has not, retorted Polina angrily. But where on earth did you pick
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  up with this Englishman, she said, after a pause. I knew you
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  would ask about him. Whereupon I told her my previous encounters with Astley while
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  traveling. He's very shy, I said, and susceptible. Also, he
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  is in love with you. Yes, he is in love with me,
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  she replied. And he is ten times richer than the Frenchman. In fact,
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  what does the Frenchman possess? To me? It seems at least doubtful
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  that he possesses anything at all. Oh, no, there is no doubt
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  about it. He does possess some chateau or other. Last night the General
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  told me that for certain. Now are you satisfied? Nevertheless, in your
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  place I should marry the Englishman. And why, asked Polina, Because though
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  the Frenchman is the handsomer of the two, he is also the baser,
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  whereas the Englishman is not only a man of honor, but ten times the
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  wealthier of the pair. Yes, but then the Frenchman is a marquis and
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  the cleverer of the two, remarked Polina imperturbably. Is that so, I
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  repeated, Yes, absolutely. Polina was not at all pleased at my questions.
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  I could see that she was doing her best to irritate me with the
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  brusquerie of her answers, but I took no notice of this. It amuses
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  me to see you grow angry, she continued. However, inasmuch as I
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  allow you to indulge in these questions and conjectures, you ought to pay me
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  something for the privilege. I consider that I have a perfect right to put
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  these questions to you. Was my calm retory. For that reason, I
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  am ready to pay for them, and also care little what becomes of me,
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  Polina giggled. Last time, you told me, when on the Slangenberg,
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  that at word from me, you would be ready to jump down a
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  thousand feet into the abyss. Some day I may remind you of that,
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  saying in order to see if you will be as good as your word.
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  Yes, you may depend upon it that I shall do so. I hate
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  you because I have allowed you to go to such lengths. And I also
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  hate you, and still more because you are so necessary to me for the
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  time being. I want you, so I must keep you. Then she
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  made a movement to rise. Her tone had sounded very angry. Indeed,
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  of laid her talks with me and invariably ended on a note of temper and
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  irritation. Yes, of real temper. May I ask you who is this
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  mill Blanche? I inquired, since I did not wish Polina to part without
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  an explanation. You know who she is, just mill Blanche. Nothing further
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  is transpired. Probably she will soon be Madame General, that is to say,
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  if the rumors that Grandmamma is nearing her end should prove true. But
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  Blanche, with her mother and her cousin the Marquis, know very well that
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  as things now stand, we are ruined. And is the General at last
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  in love that has nothing to do with it. Listen to me, take
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  these seven hundred florins and go and play roulette with them, when as much
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  for me as you can for I am badly in need of money, saying,
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  she called Nadia back to her side and entered the casino, where she
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  joined the rest of our party. For myself, I took in amusing astonishment
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  the first path to the left. Something had seemed to strike my brain when
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  she told me to go and play Roulette. Strangely enough, that something had
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  also seemed to make me hesitate and to set me analyzing my feelings with regard
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  to her. In fact, during the two weeks of my absence, I
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  had felt far more at ease than I did now On the day of my
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  return, although while traveling I had moped like an imbecile, rushed about like
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  a man in a fever, and actually beheld her in my dreams. Indeed,
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  on one occasion this happened in Switzerland, when I was asleep in the
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  train, I had spoken aloud to her and said all my fellow travelers laughing.
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  Again. Therefore I put to myself the question do I or do I
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  not love her? And again I could return myself no answer. Or rather,
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  for the hundredth time, I told myself that I detested her. Yes,
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  I detested her. There were moments, more especially at close of our
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  talks together, when I would gladly have given my life to have strangled her.
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  I swear that, had there at such moments been a sharp knife ready
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  at my hand, I would have seized that knife with play pleasure and plunge
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  it into her breast. Yet I also swear that if on the Schlangenberg she
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  had really said to me leap into that Abyss, I should have leapt into
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  it, and with equal pleasure. Yes, this I knew well, one
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  way or the other, the thing must soon be ended. She too knew
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  it was some curious way. The thought that I was fully conscious of her
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  inaccessibility and of the impossibility of my ever realizing my dreams, afforded her.
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  I am certain the keenest possible pleasure. Otherwise it is likely that she,
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  the cautious and clever woman that she was, would have indulged in this familiarity
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  and openness with me. Hitherto, I concluded she had looked upon me in
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  the same light that the old Empress did upon her servant, the Empress who
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  hesitated not to unrobe herself before her slave, since she did not account a
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  slave of a man. Yes, often Polina must have taken me for something
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  less than a man. Still, she had charged me with the commission to
• 16:47
  win what I could at roulette. Yet all the time I could not help
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  wondering why it was so necessary for her to win something, and what new
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  schemes could have sprung to birth in her ever fertile brain. A host of
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  new and unknown factors seemed to have risen during the last two weeks. Well
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  it behooved me to divine them and to probe them, and that as soon
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  as possible, yet not now, at the present moment, I must repair
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  to the roulette table. End of chapter one, Chapter two, I confess
• 17:11
  that I did not like it. Although I had made up my mind to
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  play, I felt averse to doing so on behalf of someone else. In
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  fact, it almost upset my balance, and I entered the gaming rooms with
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  an angry feeling at my heart. At first glance, the scene irritated me.
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  Never at any time have I been able to bear the flunkyishness which one
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  meets in the press of the world at large, but more especially in that
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  of Russia, where almost every evening journalists write on two subjects, in particular,
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  namely on the splendor and luxury of the casinos. To be found in
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  Rhenish towns and on the heaps of gold which are daily to be seen lying
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  on their tables. Those journalists are not paid for doing so. They write
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  thus merely out of a spirit of a disinterested compliance, for there is nothing
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  splendid about the establishments in question. And not only are there no heaps of
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  gold to be seen lying on their tables, but also there is little money
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  to be seen at all. Of course, during the season, some madman
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  or another may make his appearance, generally an Englishman or an Asiatic or a
• 18:07
  Turk, and as had happened during the summer of which I write, win
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  or lose a great deal. But as regards to the rest of the crowd,
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  it plays only for petty gulden, and seldom does much wealth figure on
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  the board. When on the present occasion I entered the gaming rooms for the
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  first time in my life, it was several moments before I could even make
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  up my mind to play for one thing, the crowd oppressed me. Had
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  I been playing for myself, I think I should have left at once and
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  never have embarked upon gambling at all, for I could feel my heart beginning
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  to beat, and my heart was anything but cold blooded. Also, I
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  knew I had long ago made up my mind that never should I depart from
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  Rouletteenberg until some radical, some final change had taken place in my fortunes.
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  Thus it must and would be. However ridiculous it may seem to you that
• 18:51
  I was expecting to win at Roulette. I look upon the generally accepted opinion
• 18:53
  concerning the folly and the grossness of hoping to win, and gambling as a
• 18:57
  thing even more absurd. For why is gambling a whit worse than any other
• 19:00
  method of acquiring money? How, for instance, is it worse than trade?
• 19:04
  True, out of one hundred persons only one can win. Yet what
• 19:08
  business is that of yours or of mine? At all events? I can
• 19:11
  find myself at first simply looking on, And I decided to attempt nothing serious.
• 19:17
  Indeed, I felt that if I began to do anything at all,
• 19:18
  I should do it in an absent minded, haphazard sort of way. Of
• 19:22
  that I felt certain. Also it behooved me to learn the game itself,
• 19:26
  since despite a thousand descriptions of Roulette, which I have read with cecless avidity,
• 19:30
  I knew nothing of its rules and had never seen it played in the
• 19:33
  first place, everything about it seemed to me so foul, so morally mean
• 19:37
  and foul. Yet I am not speaking of the hungry, restless folk who,
• 19:41
  by scores, nay even by hundreds, could be seen crowded around the
• 19:45
  gaming tables, for in a desire to win quickly and to win much,
• 19:48
  I can see nothing sorted. I have always applauded the opinion of a certain
• 19:52
  dead and gone but cockshare a moralists who replied to the excuse that one may
• 19:56
  always gamble moderately by saying that to do so makes things worse, since in
• 20:00
  that case the profits too will always be moderate. Insignificant profits and sumptuous profits
• 20:04
  do not stand on the same footing. No, it is all a matter
• 20:07
  of proportion. What may seem a small sum to a rothschild may seem a
• 20:11
  large sum to me. And it is not the fault of stakes or of
• 20:15
  winnings that everywhere men can be found of winning, can be found depriving their
• 20:18
  fellows of something, just as they do at roulette. As to the question
• 20:22
  whether stakes and winnings are in themselves immoral is another question altogether, and I
• 20:26
  wish to express no opinion upon it. Yet the very fact that I was
• 20:30
  in full of a strong desire to win causes gambling for gain in spite of
• 20:33
  its attendant squalor to contain, if you will, something intimate, something sympathetic
• 20:37
  to my eyes, for it is always pleasant to see men dispensing with ceremony
• 20:41
  and acting naturally in an unbuttoned mood. Yet why should I so deceive myself?
• 20:47
  I could see that the whole thing was a vain and unreasoning pursuit.
• 20:49
  And what, at the first glance seemed to me the ugliest feature in this
• 20:53
  mob of roulette players was a respect for their occupation, the seriousness, and
• 20:57
  even the humility with which they stood around the gaming tables. Moreover, I
• 21:03
  had always drawn sharp distinctions between a game which is de mauvais genre and a
• 21:07
  game which is permissible to a decent man. In fact, there are two
• 21:11
  sorts of gaming, namely the game of the gentleman, the game of the
• 21:12
  poleeps, the game for gain, the game for the herd. Heron has
• 21:17
  said I draw sharp distinctions. Yet how essentially base are the distinctions. For
• 21:21
  instance, a gentleman may stake say five or ten luis dois seldom more unless
• 21:26
  he is a very rich man when he may stake, say a thousand francs.
• 21:30
  But he must do this simply for the love of the game itself,
• 21:33
  simply for sport, simply in order to observe the process of winning or of
• 21:37
  losing, and above all things, as a man who remains quite uninterested in
• 21:40
  the possibility of his issuing a winner. If he wins, he will be
• 21:42
  at liberty perhaps to give vent to a laugh, or to pass a remark
• 21:45
  on the circumstance to a bystanderd, or to stake again, or to double
• 21:49
  a steak. But even this he must do solely out of curiosity and for
• 21:53
  the pleasure of watching the play of chances and of calculations, and not because
• 21:56
  of any vulgar desire to win. He must look upon gaming table, upon
• 22:02
  roulette, upon trentiicorente, as more relaxations which have been arranged solely for his
• 22:07
  amusement. Of the existence of the lures and gains upon which the bank has
• 22:10
  founded and maintained, he must profess to have not in England. Best of
• 22:14
  all, he ought to imagine his fellow gamblers and the rest of the mob
• 22:15
  which stands trembling over a coin to be equally rich and gentlemanly with himself,
• 22:21
  and playing solely for recreation and pleasure. This complete ignorance of realities, this
• 22:25
  in innocence view of mankind, is what, in my opinion, constitutes the
• 22:29
  truly aristocratic. For instance, I have even seen fond mothers so far indulge
• 22:33
  their gaillus elegant daughters, misses of fifteen or sixteen, as to give them
• 22:37
  a few gold coins and teach them how to play. And though the young
• 22:41
  ladies may have won or have lost, they have been invariably laughed and departed
• 22:44
  as though they were well pleased. In the same way I saw our general
• 22:47
  once approach the table in a stolid, important manner. A laquay darted to
• 22:51
  offer him a chair, but the General did not even notice him. Slowly
• 22:53
  he took out his money bags and slowly attracted three hundred francs in gold,
• 22:56
  which he staked on the black and won. Yet he did not take up
• 23:00
  his winnings. He left them there on the table. Again the black turned
• 23:03
  up, and again he did not gather in what he had won. And
• 23:07
  when in the third round the red turned up, he lost at a stroke
• 23:11
  twelve thousand francs. Yet even then he rose with a smile and thus preserved
• 23:15
  his reputation. Yet I knew that his money bags must be chafing his heart
• 23:18
  as well as that had the stake been twice or thrice as much, again,
• 23:22
  he would still have restrained himself from venting his disappointment. On the other
• 23:26
  hand, I saw a Frenchman first win and then lose thirty thousand francs,
• 23:30
  cheerfully and without a murmur. Yes, even if a gentleman should lose his
• 23:34
  whole substance, he must never give way to annoyance. Money must not be
• 23:38
  subservient to gentility, as never to be worth a thought. Of course,
• 23:42
  the supremely aristocratic thing is to be entirely oblivious of the mire of rabble with
• 23:47
  its setting. But sometimes reverse course may be aristocratic to remark, to scan,
• 23:51
  and even to gape at the mob for preference through lorgnette, even as
• 23:56
  though one were taking the crowd and its squalor for a sort of raree show
• 24:00
  which had been organized specially for a gentleman's diversion. Though one may be squeezed
• 24:03
  by the crowd, one must look as though one were fully assured of being
• 24:07
  the observer, of having neither part nor lot with the observed. At the
• 24:11
  same time, to stare fixedly about one is unbecoming, For that again is
• 24:15
  ungentlemanly, seeing that no spectacles worth an open stare. Are no spectacles in
• 24:21
  the world which marriage from a gentleman to pronounce an inspection. However, to
• 24:25
  me personally, the scene did seem to be worth undisguised contemplation, more especially
• 24:29
  in view of the fact that I had come there not only to look at
• 24:32
  but also to number myself sincerely and wholeheartedly with the mob. As for my
• 24:37
  secret moral views, I had no room for them amongst my actual practical opinions.
• 24:41
  Let that stand as a written I am writing only to relieve my conscience.
• 24:45
  Yet let me say also this that from the first I have been consistent
• 24:48
  in having an intense aversion to any trial of my acts and thoughts by a
• 24:51
  moral standard, another standard altogether has directed my life. As a matter of
• 24:55
  fact, the mob was playing in exceedingly foul fashion. Indeed, I have
• 24:59
  an idea that sheer robbery was going on around the gaming table. The crew
• 25:02
  piers who sat at the two ends of it had not only to watch the
• 25:04
  stakes but also to calculate the game, an immense amount of work for two
• 25:08
  men. As for the crowd itself, well, it consisted mostly of Frenchmen.
• 25:14
  Yet I was not then taking notes merely in order to be able to
• 25:15
  give you a description of Roulette, but in order to get my bearings as
• 25:18
  to my behavior when I myself should begin to play. For example, I
• 25:22
  had noticed that nothing was more common than for another's hand to stretch out and
• 25:26
  grab one's winnings. Whenever one had won. Then there would arise a dispute,
• 25:30
  and frequently an uproar, and it would be a case of I beg
• 25:32
  of you to prove and to produce witness to the fact that the steak is
• 25:34
  yours. At first, the proceedings were pure Greek. To me, I
• 25:37
  could only divine and distinguish that stakes were hazarded on numbers, and on odd
• 25:41
  or even, and on colors. Polina's money. I decided to risk that,
• 25:45
  even only to the amount of one hundred gulden. The thought that I
• 25:48
  was not going to play for myself quite unnerved me. It was an unpleasant
• 25:52
  sensation, and I tried hard to banish it. I had a feeling that
• 25:56
  once I had begun to play for Polina, I should wreck my own fourtie.
• 26:00
  Also, I wonder if anyone has ever approached a gaming table without falling
• 26:03
  an immediate prey to superstition. I began by pulling out fifty golden and staking
• 26:08
  them on. Even the wheel spun and stopped at thirteen. I had lost,
• 26:14
  with a feeling like a sick qualm, as though I would like to
• 26:15
  make my way out of the crowd and go home. I staked another fifty
• 26:18
  golden, this time on red. The red turned up. Next time,
• 26:22
  I staked one hundred golden just where they lay, and again the red turned
• 26:26
  up. Again. I staked the whole sum, and again the red turned
• 26:29
  up, clutching my four hundred golden. I placed two hundred of them on
• 26:32
  twelve figures to see what would come of it. The result was the croupier
• 26:36
  paid me out three times my total stake. Thus, from one hundred golden
• 26:38
  my store had grown to eight hundred. Upon that, such a curious,
• 26:42
  such an inexplicable, unwonted feeling overcame me that I decided to depart. Always,
• 26:48
  the thought kept recurring to me that if I had been playing for myself
• 26:49
  alone, I should never have had such luck. Once more, I staked
• 26:53
  the whole eight hundred golden on the even the wheel stopped at four, I
• 26:56
  was paid out another eight hundred golden, and, snatching up my pile of
• 27:00
  sixteen hundred, departed in search of Polina Alexandrovna. I found the whole party
• 27:04
  walking in the park and was able to get an interview with her only after
• 27:07
  supper. This time the Frenchman was absent from the meal, and the General
• 27:11
  seemed to be in a more expansive vein. Among other things, he thought
• 27:15
  it necessary to remind me that he would be sorry to see me playing at
• 27:18
  gaming tables. In his opinion, such conduct would greatly compromise him, especially
• 27:22
  if I were to lose much, and even if you were to win much,
• 27:26
  I should be compromised, he added, in a meaning sort of way.
• 27:29
  Of course, I have no right to order your actions, but you
• 27:32
  yourself will agree that. As usually, he did not finish his sentence,
• 27:34
  I answered dryly that I have very little money in my possession, and that
• 27:37
  consequently I was hardly in a position to indulge in my conspicuous play, even
• 27:42
  if I did gamble. At last, when ascending to my room. I
• 27:45
  succeeded in handling Polina her winnings and told her that next time I should not
• 27:48
  play for her. Why not, she asked, excitedly, because I wished
• 27:52
  to play for myself, I replied, with a vain glance of astonishment.
• 27:56
  That is my sole reason. Then are you so certain that you're playing will
• 28:00
  get us out of your difficulties, she inquired, with a quizzical smile.
• 28:03
  I said, very seriously, yes, and then added, possibly my certainty
• 28:07
  about winning may seem to you ridiculous, Yet pray leave me in peace.
• 28:12
  Nonetheless, she insisted that I ought to go halves with her in the day's
• 28:15
  winnings and after me eight hundred gulden, on condition that henceforth I gambled only
• 28:19
  on those terms. But I refused to do so once and for all,
• 28:22
  stating as my reason that I found myself unable to play on behalf of anyone
• 28:26
  else. I am not willing so to do, I added, but in
• 28:30
  all probability I should lose. Well, absurd though it be, I place
• 28:33
  great hopes on your playing of Roulette, she remarked, musingly. Wherefore you
• 28:37
  ought to play as my partner and on equal shares, wherefore, of course,
• 28:41
  you will do as I wish. Then she left me without listening to
• 28:45
  any further protest on my part. End of chapter two, Chapter three on
• 28:55
  the Moral, she said not a word to me about gambling. In fact,
• 28:59
  she purposely avoided me, Although her old manner to me had not changed.
• 29:03
  The same serene coolness was hers on meeting me, a coolness that was
• 29:07
  mingled even with a spice of contempt and dislike. In short, she was
• 29:12
  at no pains to conceal her aversion to me that I could see plainly.
• 29:18
  Also, she did not trouble to conceal from me the fact that I was
• 29:22
  necessary to her, and that she was keeping me for some end which she
• 29:26
  had in view. Consequently, they became established between us, relations which to
• 29:32
  a large extent were incomprehensible to me, considering her general pride and aloofness.
• 29:38
  For example, although she knew that I was madly in love with her,
• 29:42
  she allowed me to speak to her of my passion, though she could not
• 29:45
  well have showed her contempt for me more than by permitting me, unhindered and
• 29:51
  unrebuked, to mention to her my love. You see her attitude expressed how
• 29:57
  little I regard your feelings as well as how little I care for what you
• 30:02
  say to me or for what you feel for me. Likewise, though she
• 30:07
  spoke as before concerning her affairs, it was never with complete frankness. In
• 30:11
  her contempt for me. There were refinements. Although she knew well that I
• 30:15
  was aware of a certain circumstance in her life, of something which might one
• 30:19
  day cause her trouble. She would speak to me about her affairs whenever she
• 30:25
  had need of me for a given end, as though I were a slave
• 30:29
  or a passing acquaintance. Yet tell them me only in so far as one
• 30:33
  would need to know them if one were going to be made temporary use of
• 30:38
  Had I not known the whole chain of events, or had she not seen
• 30:42
  how much I was pained and disturbed by her teasing insistency, she would never
• 30:48
  have thought it worth while to soothe me with this frankness, even though,
• 30:52
  since she not infrequently used me to execute commissions that were not only troublesome but
• 30:57
  risky, she ought, in my opinion, to have been frank in any
• 31:03
  case. But forsooth it was not worth her while to trouble about my feelings
• 31:08
  about the fact that I was uneasy, and perhaps thrice is put about by
• 31:12
  her cares and misfortunes, as she was herself. For three weeks I had
• 31:18
  known of her intention to take to roulette. She had even warned me that
• 31:22
  she would like me to play on her behalf, since it was unbecoming for
• 31:25
  her to play in person. And from the tone of her words, I
• 31:29
  had gathered that there was something on her mind besides a mere desire to win
• 31:33
  money, as if money could matter to her. No, she had some
• 31:37
  end in view, and there were circumstances at which I could guess, but
• 31:41
  which I did not know for certain. True the slavery and a basement in
• 31:45
  which she held me might have given me such things often do so the power
• 31:51
  to question her with abrupt directness, seeing that inasmuch as I figured in her
• 31:56
  eyes as a mere slave and nonentity, she could not very well taken offense
• 32:00
  at any rude curiosity. But the fact was that though she let me question
• 32:06
  her, she never returned me a single answer, and at times did not
• 32:09
  so much as notice me. That is how matters stood. Next day there
• 32:15
  was a good deal of talk about a telegram which four days ago had been
• 32:19
  sent to Saint Petersburg, but to which there had come no answer. The
• 32:22
  General was visibly disturbed and moody, for the matter concerned his mother. The
• 32:29
  Frenchman too was excited, and after dinner the whole party talked long and seriously
• 32:34
  together, the Frenchman's tone being extraordinarily presumptuous and off hand to everybody. It
• 32:40
  almost reminded one of the proverb invite a man to your table, and soon
• 32:45
  he will place his feet upon it. Even to Polina he was brusque,
• 32:50
  almost to the point of rudeness. Yet still he seemed glad to join us
• 32:53
  in our walks in the casino, or in our rides and drives about the
• 32:59
  town. I had long been aware of certain circumstances which bound the General to
• 33:04
  him. I had long been aware that in Russia they had hatched some scheme
• 33:07
  together, although I did not know whether the plot had come to anything,
• 33:12
  or whether it was still only in the stage of being talked of. Likewise,
• 33:15
  I was aware in part of a family secret, namely, that last
• 33:21
  year the Frenchman had bailed the General out of debt and given him thirty thousand
• 33:24
  roubles wherewith to pay his treasury dues. On retiring from the service. And
• 33:30
  now, of course the general was in a vice, although the chief part
• 33:35
  in the affair was being played by Mademoiselle Blanche. Yes, of this last
• 33:39
  I had no doubt. But who was this Mademoiselle Blanche. It was said
• 33:45
  of her that she was a frenchwoman of good birth, who, living with
• 33:49
  her mother, possessed a colossal fortune. It was also said that she was
• 33:53
  some relation to the Marquis, but only a distant one, a cousin or
• 33:58
  cousin German, or something of this. Likewise, I knew that up to
• 34:02
  the time of my journey to Paris, she and the Frenchman had been more
• 34:07
  ceremonious towards our party. They had stood on a much more precise and delicate
• 34:12
  footing with them, But that now their acquaintanceship, their friendship, their intimacy,
• 34:17
  had taken on a much more off hand and rough and ready air.
• 34:22
  Perhaps they thought that our means were too modest for them, and therefore unworthy
• 34:25
  of politeness or reticence. Also, for the last three days I had noticed
• 34:31
  certain looks which Astley had kept throwing at Mademoiselle Blanche and her mother, and
• 34:37
  it had occurred to me that he must have had some previous acquaintance with the
• 34:42
  pair. I had even surmised that the Frenchman too must have met mister Astley
• 34:46
  before. Astley was a man so shy, reserved, and taciturn in his
• 34:52
  manner that one might have looked for anything from him. At all events,
• 34:57
  the Frenchman accorded him only the slightest of readings, and scarcely even looked at
• 35:01
  him. Certainly, he did not seem to be afraid of him, which
• 35:07
  was intelligible enough. But why did Mademoiselle Blanche also never look at the Englishman,
• 35:13
  Particularly since the apropos of something or another the marquis had declared the Englishman
• 35:17
  to be immensely and indubitably rich. Was not that a sufficient reason to make
• 35:22
  Mademoiselle Blanche look at the Englishman? Anyway? The General seemed extremely uneasy,
• 35:29
  and one could well understand what a telegram to announce the death of his mother
• 35:31
  would mean for him. Although I thought it probable that Polina was avoiding me
• 35:37
  for a definite reason, I adopted a cold and indifferent air, for I
• 35:42
  felt pretty certain that it would not be long before she herself approached me.
• 35:47
  For two days. Therefore I devoted my attention to Mademoiselle Blanche. The poor
• 35:52
  general was in despair. To fall in love at fifty five, and with
• 35:57
  such a vehemence, is indeed a misfortune. And add to that his widowerhood,
• 36:02
  his children, his ruined property, his debts, and the woman with
• 36:07
  whom he had fallen in love. Though Mademoiselle Blanche was extremely good looking,
• 36:13
  I may or may not be understood when I say that she had one of
• 36:15
  those faces which one is afraid of at all events, I myself have always
• 36:21
  feared such women. Apparently about twenty five years of age. She was tall
• 36:25
  and broad shouldered, with shoulders that sloped. Yet though her neck and bosom
• 36:30
  were ample in the proportions, her skin was dull yellow in color, while
• 36:35
  her hair, which was extremely abundant, sufficient to make two coiffures, was
• 36:40
  as black as indian ink. Add to that a pair of black eyes with
• 36:45
  yellowish whites, a proud glance, gleaming teeth, and lips which were perennially
• 36:50
  palmaded and redolent of musk. As for her dress, it was invariably rich,
• 36:55
  effective and chic, yet in good taste. Lastly, her feet and
• 37:01
  hands were astonishing, and her voice a deep contralto. Sometimes when she laughed
• 37:07
  she displayed her teeth, but at ordinary times her air was taciturn and haughty,
• 37:12
  especially in the presence of Polina and Maria Philipovna. Yet she seemed to
• 37:17
  me almost destitute of education and even of wits. Though cunning and suspicious,
• 37:24
  this apparently was not because her life had been lacking an incident. Perhaps,
• 37:29
  if all were known, the Marquis was not her kinsman at all, nor
• 37:32
  her mother her mother. But there was evidence that in Berlin, where we
• 37:37
  had first come across the pair, they had possessed acquaintances of good standing.
• 37:43
  As for the Marquis himself, I doubt to this day if he was a
• 37:45
  marquis, although about the fact that he had formerly belonged to high society,
• 37:51
  for instance in Moscow and Germany, there could be no doubt. Whatever what
• 37:55
  he had formerly been in France, I had not a notion. All I
• 38:00
  knew was that he was said to possess a chateau. During the last two
• 38:04
  weeks, I had looked for much to transpire, but am still ignorant whether
• 38:07
  at that time anything decisive ever passed between Mademoiselle and the General. Everything seemed
• 38:15
  to depend upon our means, upon whether the General would be able to flourish
• 38:19
  sufficient money in her face. If ever, the news should arrive that the
• 38:22
  grandmother was not dead, Mademoiselle Blanche, I felt sure would disappear in a
• 38:28
  twinkling. Indeed, it surprised and amused me to observe what a passion for
• 38:32
  intrigue I was developing. But how I loathed it all? With what pleasure
• 38:37
  would I have given everybody and everything the go by? Only I could not
• 38:44
  leave Paulina. How then could I show contempt for those who surrounded her?
• 38:51
  Espionage is a base thing, But what have I to do with that?
• 38:57
  Mister Ashley too, I found a curious person. I was only sure that
• 39:00
  he had fallen in love with Paulina. A remarkable and diverting circumstance is the
• 39:06
  amount which may lie in the mien of a shy and painfully modest man who
• 39:10
  has been touched with the divine passion, especially when he would rather sink into
• 39:15
  the earth than betray himself by a single word or look. Though mister Ashley
• 39:20
  frequently met us when we were out walking, he would merely take off his
• 39:23
  hat and pass us by, though I knew he was dying to join us.
• 39:28
  Even when invited to do so, he would refuse. Again in places
• 39:32
  of amusement, in the casino, at concerts, or near the fountain,
• 39:37
  he was never far from the spot where we were sitting. In fact,
• 39:40
  wherever we were in the park, in the forest, or on the Schlangenberg,
• 39:45
  one needed but to raise one's eyes and glance around to catch sight of
• 39:50
  at least a portion of mister Ashley's frame sticking out, whether on an adjacent
• 39:54
  path or behind a bush. Yet never did he lose any chance speaking to
• 40:00
  myself, And one morning, when we had met and exchanged a couple of
• 40:05
  words, he burst out in his usual abrupt way, without saying good morning.
• 40:10
  That Mademoiselle Blanche, he said, well, I have seen a good
• 40:14
  many women like her. After that he was silent as he looked me meaningly
• 40:19
  in the face. What he meant I did not know, But to my
• 40:22
  glance of inquiry he returned only a dry nod and reiterated, it is so
• 40:30
  presently, however, he resumed, does Mademoiselle Poulina like flowers? I really
• 40:37
  cannot say, was my reply? What you cannot say, he cried in
• 40:40
  great astonishment. No, I have never noticed whether she does so or not,
• 40:46
  I repeated, with a smile. Hum, then I have an idea
• 40:52
  in my mind, he concluded lastly with a nod. He walked away with
• 40:58
  a pleased expression on his face. The conversation had been carried on in execrable
• 41:02
  French end of chapter three, Chapter four. To day has been a day
• 41:13
  of folly, stupidity, and ineptness. The time is now eleven o'clock in
• 41:16
  the evening, and I am sitting in my room and thinking. It all
• 41:21
  began this morning with my being forced to go and play roulette for Polina Alexandrovna.
• 41:27
  When she handed me over her store of six hundred gulden, I exacted
• 41:30
  two conditions, namely that I should not go to halves with her in her
• 41:35
  winnings, if any, that is to say, I should not take anything
• 41:38
  for myself, and that she should explain to me that same evening why it
• 41:44
  was so necessary for her to win, and how much was the sum which
• 41:47
  she needed for I could not suppose that she was doing all this merely for
• 41:52
  the sake of money, yet clearly she did need some money and that as
• 41:59
  soon as possible, and for a special purpose. Well, she promised to
• 42:02
  explain matters, and I departed. There was a tremendous crowd in the gaming
• 42:07
  rooms. What an arrogant, greedy crowd it was. I pressed forward towards
• 42:13
  the middle of the room until I had secured a seat at a croupier's elbow.
• 42:16
  Then I began to play in timid fashion, venturing only twenty or thirty
• 42:21
  gulden at a time. Meanwhile, I observed and took notes. It seemed
• 42:25
  to me that calculation was superfluous and by no means possessed of the importance which
• 42:30
  certain other players attached to it, even though they sat with ruled papers in
• 42:37
  their hands. Whereon they set down the coups calculated the chances, reckoned and
• 42:43
  lost exactly as we more simple mortals did, who played without any reckoning at
• 42:47
  all. However, I deduced from the scene one conclusion which seemed to me
• 42:52
  reliable, namely that in the flow of fortuitous chances, there is, if
• 42:59
  not a ciss at all, events, a sort of order. This,
• 43:02
  of course, is a very strange thing. For instance, after a dozen
• 43:07
  middle figures, there would always occur a dozen or so outer ones. Suppose
• 43:12
  the ball stopped twice at a dozen outer figures, It would then pass to
• 43:15
  a dozen of the first ones, and then again to a dozen of the
• 43:19
  middle cypher's, and fall upon them three or four times, and then revert
• 43:23
  to a dozen outers. Whence, after another couple of rounds, the ball
• 43:28
  would again pass to the first figures, strike upon them once, and then
• 43:31
  return thrice to the middle series, continuing thus for an hour and a half
• 43:37
  or two hours one three two, one three two. It was all very
• 43:43
  curious. Again, for the whole of a day or a morning, the
• 43:49
  red would alternate with the black, but almost without any order, and from
• 43:52
  moment to moments, so that scarcely two consecutive rounds would end upon either the
• 43:58
  one or the other. Yet next day, or perhaps the next evening,
• 44:01
  the red alone would turn up and attain a run of over two score,
• 44:07
  and continue sel for quite a length of time, save for a whole day.
• 44:13
  Of these circumstances, the majority were pointed out to me by mister Astley,
• 44:16
  who stood by the gaming table the whole morning, yet never once staked
• 44:22
  in person for myself. I lost all that I had on me, and
• 44:25
  with great speed to begin with, I staked two hundred gulden on even and
• 44:30
  one. Then I staked the same amount again, and one, and so
• 44:36
  on, some two or three times. At one moment I must have had
• 44:39
  in my hands gathered there within a space of five minutes, about four thousand
• 44:45
  goulden. That, of course, was the proper moment for me to have
• 44:49
  departed. But there arose in me a strange sensation, as of a challenge
• 44:53
  to Fate, as of a wish to deal her a blow on the cheek
• 44:58
  and to put out my tongue at her. Accordingly, I set down the
• 45:01
  largest stake allowed by the rules, namely four thousand gulden, and lost.
• 45:08
  Fired by this mishap, I pulled out all the money left to me,
• 45:13
  staked it all on the same venture, and again lost. Then I rose
• 45:17
  from the table, feeling as though I were stupefied. What had happened to
• 45:22
  me I did not know, But before luncheon I told Polina of my losses,
• 45:28
  until which time I walked about the park. At luncheon I was as
• 45:30
  excited as I had been at the meal three days ago. Mademoiselle Blanche and
• 45:37
  the Frenchman were lunching with us and it appeared that the former had been to
• 45:40
  the casino that morning and had seen my exploits there. So now she showed
• 45:47
  me more attention when talking to me, while, for his part, the
• 45:51
  Frenchman approached me and asked outright if it had been my own money that I
• 45:55
  had lost. He appeared to be suspicious as to something being on foot between
• 46:00
  Polina and myself, but I merely fired up and replied that the money had
• 46:06
  been all my own. At this the general seemed extremely surprised and asked me
• 46:12
  whence I had procured it, whereupon I replied that though I had begun only
• 46:16
  with one hundred gulden, six or seven rounds had increased my capital to five
• 46:22
  thousand or six thousand gulden, and that subsequently I had lost the hole in
• 46:27
  two rounds. All this, of course, was plausible enough. During my
• 46:32
  recital, I glanced at Paulina, but nothing was to be discerned on her
• 46:37
  face. However, she had allowed me to fire up without correcting me,
• 46:44
  and from that I concluded that it was my cue to fire up and to
• 46:46
  conceal the fact that I had been playing on her behalf. At all events,
• 46:52
  I thought to myself she, in her turn, has promised to give
• 46:54
  me an explanation to night, and to reveal to me something or another.
• 47:00
  Although the General appeared to be taking stock of me, he said nothing yet
• 47:06
  I could see uneasiness and annoyance in his face. Perhaps his straightened circumstances made
• 47:10
  it hard for him to have to hear piles of gold passing through the hands
• 47:15
  of an irresponsible fool like myself within the space of a quarter of an hour.
• 47:21
  Now, I have an idea that last night he and the Frenchman had
• 47:24
  a sharp encounter with one another. At all events, they closeted themselves together
• 47:30
  and then had a long and vehement discussion, after which the Frenchman departed in
• 47:35
  what appeared to be a passion, but returned early this morning to renew the
• 47:38
  combat. On hearing of my losses, however, he only remarked with a
• 47:44
  sharp and even a malicious air, that a man ought to go more carefully
• 47:50
  next. For some reason or another, he added that though a great many
• 47:52
  Russians go in for gambling, they are no good at the game. I
• 47:59
  think that Roulette was devised specially for Russians, I retorted, and when the
• 48:04
  Frenchman smiled contemptuously. My reply, I further remarked that I was sure I
• 48:08
  was right, also that speaking of Russians in the capacity of gamblers, I
• 48:14
  had far more blamed for them than praise of that he could be quite sure.
• 48:21
  Upon What do you base your opinion? He inquired, upon the fact
• 48:25
  that to the virtues and merits of the civilized westerner there has become, historically,
• 48:30
  added, though this is not his chief point, a capacity for acquiring
• 48:36
  capital. Whereas not only is the Russian incapable of acquiring capital, but also
• 48:42
  he exhausts it wantonly and of sheer folly. Nonetheless, we Russians often need
• 48:49
  money. Wherefore we are glad of and greatly devoted to a method of acquisition
• 48:53
  like roulette, whereby in a couple of hours one may grow rich without doing
• 48:59
  any work. This method, I repeat, has a great attraction for us.
• 49:04
  But since we play in wanton fashion and without taking any trouble, we
• 49:08
  almost invariably lose. To a certain extent. That is true, assented the
• 49:14
  Frenchman with a self satisfied air. Oh no, it is not true,
• 49:19
  put in the general sternly. And you, he added to me, you
• 49:22
  ought to be ashamed of yourself for traducing your own country. I beg pardon,
• 49:28
  I said, Yet it would be difficult to say which is the worst
• 49:31
  of the two, Russian ineptitude or the German method of growing rich through honest
• 49:37
  toil. What an extraordinary idea, cried the General, And what a Russian
• 49:43
  idea, added the Frenchman. I smiled, for I was rather glad to
• 49:47
  have a quarrel with them. I would rather live a wandering life intense,
• 49:52
  I cried, than bow the knee to a German idol. To what idol?
• 49:59
  Exclaimed the General, now seriously angry to the German method of heaping up
• 50:06
  riches. I have not been here very long, but I can tell you
• 50:09
  that what I have seen and verified makes my tartar blood boil. Good Lord,
• 50:15
  I wish for no virtues of that kind. Yesterday I went for a
• 50:20
  walk of about ten versts, and everywhere I found that things were even as
• 50:24
  we read of them in good German picture books. That every house has its
• 50:29
  fodder who is horribly beneficent and extraordinarily honorable. So honorable is he that it
• 50:36
  is dreadful to have anything to do with him. And I cannot bear people
• 50:39
  of that sort Each such fotter has his family, and in the evenings they
• 50:45
  read improving books aloud over their roof trees, their murmur elms and chestnuts.
• 50:51
  The sun has sunk to his rest, a stork is roosting on the gable,
• 50:55
  and all is beautifully poetic and touching. Angry general, let me tell
• 51:01
  you something that is even more touching than that. I can remember how of
• 51:06
  an evening my own father, now dead, used to sit under the lime
• 51:09
  trees in his little garden, and to read books aloud to myself and my
• 51:14
  mother. Yes, I know how things ought to be done. Yet every
• 51:20
  German family is bound to slavery and to submission to its fotter. They work
• 51:24
  like oxen and a mass wealth like Jews. Suppose the fotter has put by
• 51:30
  a certain number of gulden, which he hands over to his eldest son,
• 51:35
  in order that the said son may acquire a trade or a small plot of
• 51:38
  land. While one result is to deprive the daughter of a dowry and so
• 51:44
  leave her among the unwedded. For the same reason, the parents will have
• 51:49
  to sell the younger son into bondage or the ranks of the army, in
• 51:52
  order that he may earn more towards the family capital. Yes, such things
• 51:58
  are done, for I have been making inquiries and the subject. It is
• 52:02
  all done out of sheer rectitude, out of a rectitude which is magnified to
• 52:07
  the point of the younger son believing that he has been rightly sold, and
• 52:12
  that it is simply idyllic for the victim to rejoice when he is made over
• 52:15
  into pledge. What more have I to tell? Well? This that matters
• 52:24
  bear just as hardly upon the eldest son. Perhaps he has his Gretchen,
• 52:30
  to whom his heart is bound, but he cannot marry her for the reason
• 52:34
  that he has not yet amassed sufficient gulden. So the pair weiit on in
• 52:38
  a mood of sincere and virtuous expectation, and smilingly deposit themselves in pawn the
• 52:45
  while Gretchen's cheeks grow sunken and she begins to wither. Until at last,
• 52:51
  after some twenty years, their substance has multiplied and sufficient gulden have been honorably
• 52:57
  and virtuously accumulated. Then the fotter blesses his forty year old heir and the
• 53:02
  thirty five year old Gretchen, with the sunken bosom and the scarlet nos,
• 53:07
  after which he bursts into tears, reads the perileescent on morality, and dies.
• 53:15
  In turn, the eldest son becomes a virtuous fotter, and the old
• 53:20
  story begins again. In fifty or sixty years time, the grandson of the
• 53:24
  original fotter will have amassed a considerable sum, and that sum he will hand
• 53:30
  over to his son, and the latter to his son, and so on
• 53:35
  for several generations, until at length there will issue a baron Roth's child,
• 53:40
  or a hop and Company, or the devil knows. What is it not
• 53:45
  a beautiful spectacle, the spectacle of a century or two of inherited labor,
• 53:49
  patience, intellect, rectitude, character, perseverance, and calculation, with a
• 53:54
  stork sitting on the roof above it all. What is more, they think
• 53:59
  that can never be anything better than this. Wherefore, from their point of
• 54:02
  view they begin to judge the rest of the world and to censure all who
• 54:07
  are at fault, that is to say, who are not exactly like themselves.
• 54:13
  Yes, there you have it in a nutshell. For my own part,
• 54:17
  I would rather grow fat after the Russian manner, or squander my whole
• 54:22
  substance at roulette. I have no wish to be hop in company at the
• 54:25
  end of five generations. I want the money for myself, for in no
• 54:30
  way do I look upon my personality as necessary to or meet to be given
• 54:36
  over to capital. I may be wrong, but there you have it.
• 54:40
  Those are my views. How far you may be right in what you have
• 54:46
  said, I do not know, remarked the general moodily. But I do
• 54:51
  know that you are becoming an insufferable farcer whenever you are given the least chance.
• 54:58
  As usual, he he left his sentence unfinished. Indeed, whenever he
• 55:02
  embarked upon anything that in the least exceeded the limits of daily small talk,
• 55:07
  he left unfinished what he was saying. The Frenchman had listened to me contemptuously
• 55:13
  with the slight protruding of his eyes, but he could not have understood very
• 55:17
  much of my harangue. As for Polina, she had looked on with serene
• 55:22
  indifference. She seemed to have heard neither my voice nor any other during the
• 55:27
  progress of the meal end of chapter four, Chapter five. Yes, she
• 55:37
  had been extraordinarily meditative, yet on leaving the table, she immediately ordered me
• 55:43
  to accompany her for a walk we took the children with us and set out
• 55:46
  for the fountain in the park. I was in such an irritated frame of
• 55:51
  mind that, in rude and abrupt fashion, I blurted out a question as
• 55:54
  to why our Marquis de Grieree had ceased to accompany her for stroll or to
• 56:00
  speak to her for days together, because he is a brute. She replied
• 56:05
  in rather a curious way. It was the first time that I had heard
• 56:08
  her speak so of de Griere. Consequently, I was momentarily awed into silence
• 56:15
  by this expression of resentment. Have you noticed too that today he is,
• 56:20
  by no means on good terms with the General? I went on, yes,
• 56:25
  and I suppose you want to know why? She replied with dry captiousness.
• 56:30
  You are aware, are you not, that the General is mortgaged to
• 56:34
  the marquis with all his property. Consequently, if the General's mother does not
• 56:39
  die, the Frenchman will become the absolute possessor of everything which he now holds
• 56:44
  only in pledge. Then it is really the case that everything is mortgaged.
• 56:51
  I have heard rumors to that effect, but was unaware how far they might
• 56:53
  be true. Yes, they are true, What then, why it will
• 57:00
  be a case of farewell, Mademoiselle Blanche, I remarked, for in such
• 57:05
  an event she would never become Madame General. Do you know I believe the
• 57:08
  old man is so much in love with her that he will shoot himself if
• 57:13
  she should throw him over. At his age, it is a dangerous thing
• 57:16
  to fall in love. Yes, something I believe will happen to him,
• 57:22
  assented Polina thoughtfully. And what a fine thing it all is, I continued.
• 57:29
  Could anything be more abominable than the way in which she has agreed to
• 57:32
  marry for money alone? Not one of the decencies has been observed. The
• 57:37
  whole affair has taken place without the least ceremony. And as for the grandmother,
• 57:43
  what could be more comical, yet more dastardly than the sending of telegram
• 57:47
  after telegram to know if she is dead? What do you think of it,
• 57:51
  Polina Alexandrovna, Yes, it is very horrible, she interrupted with a
• 57:57
  shudder. Consequently, I am the more surprised that you should be so cheerful.
• 58:00
  What are you so pleased about about the fact that you have gone and
• 58:05
  lost my money? What the money that you gave me to lose? I
• 58:10
  told you I should never win for other people, least of all for you.
• 58:15
  I obeyed you simply because you ordered me to. But you must not
• 58:20
  blame me for the result. I warned you that no good would ever come
• 58:24
  of it. You seem much depressed at having lost your money. Why do
• 58:29
  you need it so greatly? Why do you ask me these questions because you
• 58:35
  promised to explain matters to me. Listen, I am certain that as soon
• 58:39
  as ever I begin to play for myself, and I still have one hundred
• 58:45
  twenty gulden left, I shall win. You can then take of me what
• 58:49
  you require. She made a contemptuous grimace. You must not be angry with
• 58:55
  me, I continued, for making such a proposal. I am so conscious
• 58:59
  of being only a non entity in your eyes that you need not mind accepting
• 59:04
  money from me. A gift from me could not possibly offend you. Moreover,
• 59:08
  it was I who lost your gulden. She glanced at me, but
• 59:14
  seeing that I was in an irritable, sarcastic mood, changed the subject.
• 59:20
  My affairs cannot possibly interest you, she said. Still, if you do
• 59:24
  wish to know, I am in debt. I borrowed some money and must
• 59:29
  pay it back. Again, I have a curious, senseless idea that I
• 59:32
  am bound to win at the gaming tables. Why I think so, I
• 59:37
  cannot tell. But I do think so, and with some assurance. Perhaps
• 59:43
  it is because of that assurance that I now find myself without any other resource.
• 59:47
  Or perhaps it is because it is so necessary for you to win.
• 59:52
  It is like a drowning man catching at a straw. You yourself will agree
• 59:57
  that unless he were drowning, he would not mistake a straw for the trunk
• 1:00:00
  of a tree. Paulina looked surprised what she said. Do not you also
• 1:00:08
  hope for something from it? Did you not tell me again and again two
• 1:00:13
  weeks ago that you were certain of winning at roulette if you played here?
• 1:00:16
  And did you not ask me not to consider you a fool for doing so?
• 1:00:21
  Were you joking? You cannot have been, for I remember that you
• 1:00:25
  spoke with a gravity which forbade the idea of your jesting. True, I
• 1:00:31
  replied gloomily. I always felt certain that I should win. Indeed, what
• 1:00:36
  you say makes me ask myself, why have my absurd senseless losses of today
• 1:00:42
  raised a doubt in my mind? Yet I am still positive that so soon
• 1:00:46
  as ever I begin to play for myself, I shall infallibly win. And
• 1:00:52
  why are you so certain to tell the truth? I do not know.
• 1:00:58
  I only know that I must win, that it is the one resource I
• 1:01:02
  have left. Yes, why do I feel so assured on the point?
• 1:01:07
  Perhaps because one cannot help winning if one is fanatically certain of doing so.
• 1:01:14
  Yet, I dare wager that you do not think me capable of serious feeling
• 1:01:17
  in the matter. I do not care whether you are so or not,
• 1:01:22
  answered Polina with calm indifference. Well, since you ask me, I do
• 1:01:27
  doubt your ability to take anything seriously. You are capable of worrying, but
• 1:01:31
  not deeply. You are too ill regulated and unsettled a person for that.
• 1:01:37
  But why do you want money? Not a single one of the reasons which
• 1:01:40
  you have given can be looked upon as serious. By the way I interrupted,
• 1:01:46
  You say you want to pay off a debt. It must be a
• 1:01:50
  large one, is it? To the Frenchman? What do you mean by
• 1:01:54
  asking all these questions? You are very clever today. Surely you are not
• 1:02:00
  drunk. You know that you and I stand on no ceremony, and that
• 1:02:06
  sometimes I put to you very plain questions. I repeat that I am your
• 1:02:09
  slave, and slaves cannot be shamed or offended. You talk like a child.
• 1:02:17
  It is always possible to comport one's self with dignity. If one has
• 1:02:22
  a quarrel, it ought to elevate rather than to degrade one a maxim straight
• 1:02:28
  from the copy book. Suppose I cannot comport myself with dignity. By that,
• 1:02:32
  I mean that, though I am a man of self respect, I
• 1:02:37
  am unable to carry off a situation properly. Do you know the reason?
• 1:02:43
  It is because we Russians are too richly and multifariously gifted to be able at
• 1:02:47
  once to find the proper mode of expression. It is all a question of
• 1:02:52
  mode. Most of us are so bounteously endowed with intellect as to require also
• 1:02:59
  a spice of genius to choose the right form of behavior. And genius is
• 1:03:02
  lacking in us for the reason that so little genius at all exists. It
• 1:03:07
  belongs only to the French, though a few other Europeans have elaborated their forms
• 1:03:13
  so well as to be able to figure with extreme dignity and yet be wholly
• 1:03:17
  undignified persons. That is why with us the mode is so all important.
• 1:03:23
  The Frenchman may receive an insult, a real, a venomous insult, Yet
• 1:03:30
  he will not so much as frown. But a tweaking of the nose he
• 1:03:32
  cannot bear, for the reason that such an act is an infringement of the
• 1:03:37
  accepted, of the time hallowed order of decorum. That is why our good
• 1:03:43
  ladies are so fond of Frenchmen. The Frenchman's manners, they say, are
• 1:03:47
  perfect. But in my opinion, there is no such thing as the Frenchman's
• 1:03:52
  manners. The Frenchman is only a bird. The coque galois. At the
• 1:03:58
  same time as I am not a one. I do not properly understand the
• 1:04:01
  question. Cox may be excellent birds. If I am wrong, you must
• 1:04:05
  stop me. You ought to stop and correct me more often when I am
• 1:04:10
  speaking to you, for I am too apt to say everything that is in
• 1:04:14
  my head. You see, I have lost my manners. I agree that
• 1:04:18
  I have none, nor yet any dignity. I will tell you why I
• 1:04:24
  set no store upon such things. Everything in me has undergone a cheek.
• 1:04:30
  You know the reason. I have not a single human thought in my head.
• 1:04:34
  For a long while I have been ignorant of what is going on in
• 1:04:38
  the world. Here or in Russia. I have been to Dresden, yet
• 1:04:42
  am completely in the dark as to what Dresden is like. You know the
• 1:04:45
  cause of my obsession. I have no hope now and am a mere cipher
• 1:04:49
  in your eyes. Wherefore I tell you outright that wherever I go I see
• 1:04:55
  only you. All the rest is a matter of indifference. Why or how
• 1:05:00
  I have come to love you, I do not know. It may be
• 1:05:03
  that you were not altogether fair to look upon. Do you know? I
• 1:05:08
  am ignorant even as to what your face is like? In all probability to
• 1:05:13
  your heart is not comely, and it is possible that your mind is wholly
• 1:05:16
  ignoble. And because you do not believe in my nobility of soul, you
• 1:05:23
  think to purchase me with money? She said, When have I thought to
• 1:05:27
  do so? Was my reply. You are losing the threat of the argument.
• 1:05:31
  If you do not wish to purchase me at all events, you wish
• 1:05:34
  to purchase my respect, not at all. I have told you that I
• 1:05:40
  find it difficult to explain myself. You are hard upon me. Do not
• 1:05:45
  be angry at my chattering. You know why you ought not to be angry
• 1:05:48
  with me. That I am simply an imbecile. However, I do not
• 1:05:54
  mind if you are angry. Sitting in my room. I need but to
• 1:05:58
  think of you, to imagine to my the rustle of your dress, and
• 1:06:00
  at once I fall almost to biting my hands. Why should you be angry
• 1:06:05
  with me? Because I call myself your slave? Revel I pray you in
• 1:06:12
  my slavery, revel in it. Do you know that sometimes I could kill
• 1:06:15
  you? Not because I do not love you or am jealous of you,
• 1:06:19
  but because I feel as though I could simply devour you. You are laughing.
• 1:06:26
  No I am not, she retorted, But I order you, nevertheless
• 1:06:29
  to be silent. She stopped, well nigh breathless with anger. God knows
• 1:06:35
  she may not have been a beautiful woman, yet I loved to see her
• 1:06:39
  come to a halt like this, and was therefore the more fond of arousing
• 1:06:43
  her temper. Perhaps she divined this, and for that very reason gave way
• 1:06:46
  to rage. I said as much to her. What rubbish, she cried,
• 1:06:53
  with a shudder. I do not care, I continued. Also,
• 1:06:58
  do you know that it is not safe for us to take walks together?
• 1:07:01
  Often? I have a feeling that I should like to strike you, to
• 1:07:03
  disfigure you, to strangle you. Are you certain that it will never come
• 1:07:09
  to that? You are driving me to frenzy? Am I afraid of a
• 1:07:14
  scandal or of your anger? Why should I fear your anger? I love
• 1:07:17
  without hope and know that hereafter I shall love you a thousand times more.
• 1:07:23
  If ever I should kill you, I should have to kill myself too,
• 1:07:27
  But I shall put off doing so as long as possible, for I wish
• 1:07:30
  to continue enjoying the unbearable pain which your coldness gives me. Do you know
• 1:07:36
  a very strange thing? It is that with every day my love for you
• 1:07:41
  increases, Though that would seem to be almost an impossibility. Why should I
• 1:07:46
  not become a fatalist? Remember how, on the third day that we ascended
• 1:07:50
  the Schlangenberg I was moved to whisper in your ear, Say but the word,
• 1:07:57
  and I will leap into the abyss. Had you said it, I
• 1:08:00
  should have leapt. Do you not believe me? What stupid rubbish? She
• 1:08:06
  cried? I care not whether it be wise or stupid, I cried in
• 1:08:12
  return, I only know that in your presence I must speak, speak,
• 1:08:15
  speak. Therefore I am speaking, I lose all conceit when I am with
• 1:08:20
  you and everything ceases to matter. Why should I have wanted you to leap
• 1:08:27
  from the Schlangenburg, she said dryly. And I think with wilful offensiveness that
• 1:08:33
  would have been of no use to me. Splendid, I shouted, I
• 1:08:39
  know well that you must have used the words of no use in order to
• 1:08:42
  crush me. I can see through you. Of no use, did you
• 1:08:45
  say? Why to give pleasure is always of use? And as for barbarous
• 1:08:50
  unlimited power, even if it be only over a fly, why it is
• 1:08:56
  a kind of luxury. Man is a despot by nat and loves to torture
• 1:09:01
  you, in particular, love to do so. I remember that at this
• 1:09:08
  moment she looked at me in a peculiar way. The fact is that my
• 1:09:11
  face must have been expressing all the maze of senseless, gross sensations which were
• 1:09:16
  seething within me. To this day, I can remember word for word the
• 1:09:20
  conversation as I have written it down. My eyes were suffused with blood,
• 1:09:26
  and the foam had caked itself on my lips, also on my honor.
• 1:09:30
  I swear that had she bidden me, cast myself from the summit of the
• 1:09:32
  Schlangenberg, I should have done it. Yes, had she bidden me in
• 1:09:38
  jest or only in contempt, and with a spit in my face, I
• 1:09:42
  should have cast myself down. Oh no, why so I believe you,
• 1:09:48
  she said, But in such a manner, in the manner of which at
• 1:09:51
  times she was a mistress, and with such a note of disdain and viperish
• 1:09:57
  arrogance in her tone, that God knows I could have killed her. Yes,
• 1:10:01
  at that moment she stood in peril. I had not lied to her
• 1:10:05
  about that. Surely you are not a coward. Suddenly, she asked me,
• 1:10:12
  I do not know. I replied, perhaps I am, But I
• 1:10:15
  do not know. I have long given up thinking about such things. If
• 1:10:20
  I said to you kill that man, would you kill him? Whom whomsoever?
• 1:10:26
  I wish the Frenchman do not ask me questions, return me answers,
• 1:10:32
  I repeat whomsoever I wish. I desire to see if you were speaking seriously
• 1:10:38
  just now she awaited my reply with such gravity and impatience that I found the
• 1:10:44
  situation unpleasant. Do you rather tell me? I said, what is going
• 1:10:50
  on here? Why do you seem half afraid of me? I can see
• 1:10:55
  for myself what is wrong? You are the stepdaughter of a ruined and INCENSEI
• 1:11:00
  satman who was smitten with love for this devil of a blanche. And there
• 1:11:04
  is this frenchman too, with his mysterious influence over you. Yet you actually
• 1:11:09
  ask me such a question. If you do not tell me how things stand,
• 1:11:14
  I shall have to put in my oar and do something. Are you
• 1:11:17
  ashamed to be frank with me? Are you shy of me? I am
• 1:11:23
  not going to talk to you on that subject. I have asked you a
• 1:11:26
  question and am waiting for an answer. Well, then I will kill whomsoever
• 1:11:31
  you wish, I said, But are you really going to bid me do
• 1:11:35
  such deeds? Why should you think that I am going to let you off?
• 1:11:41
  I shall bid you do it, or else renounce me. Could you
• 1:11:44
  ever do the latter? No, you know that you couldn't. You would
• 1:11:48
  first kill whom I had bidden you, and then kill me for having dared
• 1:11:51
  to send you away. Something seemed to strike upon my brain as I heard
• 1:11:58
  these words. Of course, at the time, I took them half in
• 1:12:01
  jest and half as a challenge. Yet she had spoken them with great seriousness.
• 1:12:06
  I felt thunderstruck that she should so express herself, that she should assert
• 1:12:11
  such a right over me, that she should assume such authority and say outright,
• 1:12:15
  either you kill whom I bid you, or I will have nothing more
• 1:12:18
  to do with you. Indeed, in what she had said, there was
• 1:12:21
  something so cynical and unveiled as to pass all bounds. For how could she
• 1:12:28
  ever regard me as the same after the killing was done. This was more
• 1:12:31
  than slavery and abasement. It was sufficient to bring a man back to his
• 1:12:35
  right senses. Yet, despite the outrageous improbability of our conversation, my heart
• 1:12:43
  shook within me. Suddenly she burst out laughing. We were seated on a
• 1:12:47
  bench near the spot where the children were playing, just opposite the point in
• 1:12:51
  the alleyway before the casino where the carriages drew up in order to set down
• 1:12:57
  their occupants. Do you see that fat baroness, she cried, It is
• 1:13:02
  the Baroness Burmergelm, she arrived three days ago. Just look at her husband,
• 1:13:09
  that tall, wizened Prussian there with the stick in his hand. Do
• 1:13:13
  you remember how he stared at us the other day? Well, go to
• 1:13:17
  the baroness, take off your hat to her and say something in French.
• 1:13:23
  Why because you have sworn that you would leap from the Schlangenberg for my sake,
• 1:13:29
  and that you would kill anyone whom I might bid you kill. Well,
• 1:13:32
  instead of such murders and tragedies, I wish only for a good laugh.
• 1:13:36
  Go without answering me, and let me see the baron give you a
• 1:13:40
  sound thrashing with his stick. Then you throw me out a challenge. You
• 1:13:45
  think that I will not do it. Yes, I do challenge you.
• 1:13:49
  Go for such is my will? Then I will go. However, mad
• 1:13:55
  be your fancy? Only look here? Shall you not be doing the General
• 1:14:00
  a great disservice as well as, through him a great disservice to yourself.
• 1:14:04
  It is not about myself I am worrying. It is about you and the
• 1:14:08
  General. Why for a mere fancy should I go and insult a woman?
• 1:14:14
  Ah, then I can see that you are only a trifler, she said
• 1:14:17
  contemptuously. Your eyes are swimming with blood, but only because you have drunk
• 1:14:21
  a little too much at luncheon? Do I not know that what I have
• 1:14:26
  asked you to do is foolish and wrong, and that the General will be
• 1:14:29
  angry about it? But I want to have a good laugh. All the
• 1:14:32
  same. I want that and nothing else. Why should you insult a woman?
• 1:14:38
  Indeed, well, you will be given a sound thrashing for so doing.
• 1:14:44
  I turned away and went silently to do her bidding. Of course,
• 1:14:48
  the thing was folly, but I could not get out of it. I
• 1:14:53
  remember that as I approached the Baroness, I felt as excited as a schoolboy.
• 1:14:58
  I was in a frenzy, as though I were drunk. End of
• 1:15:02
  Chapter five, Chapter six. Two days have passed since that day of lunacy.
• 1:15:10
  What a noise and a fuss, and a chattering and an uproar there
• 1:15:13
  was, and what a welter of unseemliness and disorder and stupidity and bad manners,
• 1:15:19
  and I the cause of it all. Yet part of the scene was
• 1:15:23
  also ridiculous at all events. To myself it was so I am not quite
• 1:15:29
  sure what was the matter with me, whether I was merely stupefied, or
• 1:15:32
  whether I purposely broke loose and ran amok. At times my mind seems all
• 1:15:38
  confused, while at other times I seem almost to be back in my childhood
• 1:15:43
  at the school desk, and to have done the deeds simply out of mischief.
• 1:15:49
  It all came of Polina, Yes, of Polina. But for her
• 1:15:54
  there might never have been a fracas. Or perhaps I did the deed in
• 1:15:58
  a fit of despair. Though it may be foolish of me to think so.
• 1:16:01
  What there is so attractive about her? I cannot think yet there is
• 1:16:05
  something attractive about her, something passing fair, It would seem others besides myself
• 1:16:11
  she has driven to distraction. She is tall and straight and very slim.
• 1:16:15
  Her body looks as though it could be tied into a knot or bent double
• 1:16:19
  like a cord. The imprint of her foot is long and narrow. It
• 1:16:25
  is a maddening imprint, yes, simply a maddening one. And her hair
• 1:16:29
  has a reddish tint about it, and her eyes are like cat's eyes,
• 1:16:32
  though able also to glance with proud, disdainful min On the evening of my
• 1:16:38
  first arrival four months ago, I remember that she was sitting and holding an
• 1:16:42
  animated conversation with Debrieree in the salon, and the way in which she looked
• 1:16:47
  at him was such that later, when I retired to my own room upstairs,
• 1:16:51
  I kept fancying that she had smitten him in the face, that she
• 1:16:56
  had smitten him right on the cheek. So peculiar had been her look as
• 1:16:59
  she stood confronting him. Ever since that evening I have loved her. But
• 1:17:04
  to my tail, I stepped from the path into the carriageway and took my
• 1:17:10
  stand in the middle of it. There I awaited the Baron and the Baroness.
• 1:17:13
  When they were but a few paces distant from me, I took off
• 1:17:16
  my hat and bowed. I remember that the Baroness was clad in a voluminous
• 1:17:21
  silk dress, pale gray in color, and adorned with flounces and a crinoline
• 1:17:27
  and train. Also, she was short and inordinately stout, while her gross
• 1:17:31
  flabby chin completely concealed her neck. Her face was purple, and the little
• 1:17:36
  eyes in it had an impudent, malicious expression. Yet she walked as though
• 1:17:42
  she were conferring a favor upon everybody by so doing. As for the Baron,
• 1:17:45
  he was tall, wizened, bony faced after the German fashion, spectacled,
• 1:17:50
  and apparently about forty five years of age. Also, he had legs
• 1:17:56
  which seemed to begin almost at his chest, or rather at his chin.
• 1:18:00
  Yet for all his air of peacock like conceit, his clothes sagged a little,
• 1:18:05
  and his face wore a sheepish air which might have passed for profundity.
• 1:18:12
  These details I noted within a space of a few seconds. At first,
• 1:18:15
  my bow and the fact that I had my hat in my hand barely caught
• 1:18:19
  their attention. The baron only scowled a little, and the baroness swept straight
• 1:18:24
  on. Madame le baron, I said loudly and distinctly, embroidering each word
• 1:18:30
  as it were, j leoneu dette votre eslav. Then I bowed again,
• 1:18:36
  put on my hat, and walked past the baron with a rude smile on
• 1:18:41
  my face. Poulina had ordered me merely to take off my hat. The
• 1:18:45
  bow and the general effrontery were of my own invention. God knows what instigated
• 1:18:50
  me to perpetrate the outrage. In my frenzy, I felt as though I
• 1:18:55
  were walking on air. Hein ejaculated, rather growled the baron as he turned
• 1:19:01
  towards me. In angry surprise, I too turned round and stood waiting in
• 1:19:08
  pseudo courteous expectation. Yet still I wore on my face an impudent smile.
• 1:19:13
  As I gazed at him, he seemed to hesitate, and his brows contracted
• 1:19:16
  to their utmost limits every moment his visage was growing darker. The Baroness also
• 1:19:23
  turned in my direction and gazed at me in wrathful perplexity, while some of
• 1:19:27
  the passers by also began to stare at us, and others of them halted
• 1:19:30
  outright. Hein. The Baron vociferated again, with a redoubled growl and a
• 1:19:36
  note of growing wrath in his voice. Yavol, I replied, still looking
• 1:19:42
  him in the eyes. Since si racinde, he exclaimed, brandishing his stick
• 1:19:48
  and apparently beginning to feel nervous. Perhaps it was my costume which intimidated him,
• 1:19:55
  for I was well and fashionably dressed, after the manner of a man
• 1:19:58
  who belongs to indisp beautibly good society. Yavol cried, I again, with
• 1:20:04
  all my might, with a long drawn rolling of the owl sound, after
• 1:20:09
  the fashion of the Berliners, who constantly used the phrase Yavol in conversation,
• 1:20:15
  and more or less prolonged the syllable owl according as they desire to express different
• 1:20:19
  shades of meaning or of mood. At this the Baron and Baroness faced sharply
• 1:20:25
  about and almost fled in their alarm. Some of the bystanders gave vent to
• 1:20:29
  excited exclamations, and others remained staring at me in astonishment. But I do
• 1:20:33
  not remember the details very well. Wheeling quietly about, I returned in the
• 1:20:40
  direction of Polina Alexandrovna. But when I had got within a hundred paces of
• 1:20:45
  her seat, I saw her rise and set out with the children towards the
• 1:20:48
  hotel. At the portico, I caught up to her. I have perpetrated
• 1:20:56
  the the piece of idiocy, I said, as I came level with her,
• 1:21:01
  have you then you can take the consequences. She replied, without so
• 1:21:06
  much as looking at me. Then she moved towards the staircase. I spent
• 1:21:12
  the rest of the evening walking in the park. Thence I passed into the
• 1:21:15
  forest and walked on until I found myself in a neighboring principality. At a
• 1:21:20
  wayside restaurant. I partook of an omelet and some wine, and was charged
• 1:21:25
  for the idyllic repast a tolerant a half. Not until eleven o'clock did I
• 1:21:30
  return home to find a summons awaiting me from the general. Our party occupied
• 1:21:36
  two suites in the hotel, each of which contained two rooms the first.
• 1:21:42
  The larger suite comprised a salon and a smoking room, with adjoining the latter
• 1:21:47
  the General's study. It was here that he was awaiting me, as he
• 1:21:51
  stood posed in a majestic attitude beside his writing table. Lolling on a divan.
• 1:21:57
  Close by was de Griere. My good sir, the General began,
• 1:22:01
  May I ask you what this is that you have gone and done. I
• 1:22:06
  should be glad, I replied, if we could come straight to the point.
• 1:22:11
  Probably you are referring to my encounter of to day with a German with
• 1:22:15
  a German. Why the German was the Baron Burmergelm, a most important personage.
• 1:22:21
  I hear that you have been rude both to him and to the Baroness.
• 1:22:27
  No I have not, but I understand that you simply terrified them,
• 1:22:30
  My good sir, shouted the General. Not in the least, I replied.
• 1:22:35
  You must know that when I was in Berlin, I frequently used to
• 1:22:39
  hear the Blenners repeat and repellently prolong a certain phrase, namely javot and happening
• 1:22:45
  to meet this couple in the carriage drive, I found, for some reason
• 1:22:49
  or another that this phrase suddenly recurred to my memory and exercised a rousing effect
• 1:22:55
  upon my spirits. Moreover, on the three previous occasions that I have met
• 1:23:00
  the Baroness, she has walked towards me as though I were a worm which
• 1:23:03
  could easily be crushed with the foot. Not unnaturally, I too possess a
• 1:23:08
  measure of self respect. Wherefore, on this occasion I took off my hat
• 1:23:13
  and said politely, Yes, I assure you, it was said politely,
• 1:23:16
  Madame je lenord det votre aslav. Then the baron turned around and said hein,
• 1:23:25
  whereupon I felt moved to ejaculate In answer javol. Twice I shouted it
• 1:23:30
  at him, the first time in an ordinary tone, and the second time
• 1:23:33
  with the greatest prolonging of the words of which I was capable. That is
• 1:23:39
  all, I must confess that this puerile explanation gave me great pleasure. I
• 1:23:46
  felt a strong desire to overlay the incident with an even added measure of grossness.
• 1:23:51
  So the further I proceeded, the more did the gusto of my proceeding
• 1:23:56
  increase. You are only making fun of me, vociferated the General. As
• 1:24:00
  turning to the Frenchman, he declared, that my bringing about of the incident
• 1:24:03
  had been gratuitous. De grierre smiled contemptuously and shrugged his shoulders. Do not
• 1:24:12
  think that I put in it was not so at all. I grant you
• 1:24:16
  that my behavior was bad. I fully confess that it was so, and
• 1:24:19
  make no secret of the fact. I would even go so far as to
• 1:24:24
  grant you that my behavior might well be called stupid and indecent tomfoolery, but
• 1:24:30
  more than that it was not. Also, let me tell you that I
• 1:24:33
  am very sorry for my conduct. Yet there is one circumstance which in my
• 1:24:39
  eyes almost absolves me from regret in the matter of late. That is to
• 1:24:44
  say, for the last two or three weeks, I have been feeling not
• 1:24:46
  at all well. That is to say, I've been in a sick,
• 1:24:48
  nervous, irritable, fanciful condition, so that I have periodically lost control over
• 1:24:55
  myself. For instance, on more than one occasion I have tried to pick
• 1:25:00
  a quarrel even with Monsieur le Marquise here, and under the circumstances he had
• 1:25:05
  no choice but to answer me. In short, I have recently been showing
• 1:25:10
  signs of ill health. Whether the Baroness BURMERGELM will take this circumstance into consideration
• 1:25:15
  when I come to beg her pardon, for I do intend to make her
• 1:25:18
  amends. I do not know, but I doubt if she will, and
• 1:25:23
  the less so since so far as I know the circumstances. One which of
• 1:25:27
  late has begun to be abused in the legal world in that advocates in criminal
• 1:25:31
  cases have taken to justifying their clients on the ground that at the moment of
• 1:25:36
  the crime they the clients were unconscious of what they were doing, that in
• 1:25:42
  short, they were out of health. My client committed the murder, that
• 1:25:45
  is true, but he has no recollection of having committed it. And doctors
• 1:25:50
  actually support these advocates by affirming that there really is such a malady, that
• 1:25:56
  there really can arise temporary delusions which make a man remember nothing of a given
• 1:26:00
  deed, or only a half or a quarter of it. But the baron
• 1:26:04
  and baroness are members of an older generation, as well as Prussian junkers and
• 1:26:09
  landowners. To them, such a process in the medico judicial world will be
• 1:26:15
  unknown, and therefore they are the more unlikely to accept any such explanation.
• 1:26:20
  What is your opinion about it? General, Enough, sir, he thundered,
• 1:26:27
  with barely restrained fury. Enough, I say, once and for all,
• 1:26:32
  I must endeavor to rid myself of you and your impertinence. To justify
• 1:26:36
  yourself in the eyes of the baron and baroness, will be impossible any intercourse
• 1:26:42
  with you, even though it be confined to a begging of their pardons,
• 1:26:45
  they would look upon as a degradation. I may tell you that, on
• 1:26:49
  learning that you formed part of my household, the baron approached me in the
• 1:26:54
  casino and demanded on me additional satisfaction. Do you understand then, what it
• 1:27:00
  is that you have entailed upon me? Upon me, my good sir,
• 1:27:03
  you have entailed upon me the fact of my being forced to sue humbly to
• 1:27:09
  the baron and to give him my word of honor that this very day you
• 1:27:12
  shall cease to belong to my establishment. Excuse me, General, I interrupted,
• 1:27:18
  But did he make an express point of it that I should cease to
• 1:27:20
  belong to your establishment as you call it? No, I, of my
• 1:27:27
  own initiative, thought that I ought to afford him that satisfaction, and with
• 1:27:32
  it he was satisfied. So we must part, good sir, it is
• 1:27:38
  my duty to hand over to you forty gulden three florins, as per the
• 1:27:43
  accompanying statement. Here is the money, and hear the account, which you
• 1:27:46
  are at liberty to verify. Farewell. From henceforth we are strangers from you.
• 1:27:53
  I have never had anything but trouble and unpleasantness. I am about to
• 1:27:58
  call the landlord and explain to him that from tomorrow onwards, I shall no
• 1:28:01
  longer be responsible for your hotel expenses. Also I have the honor to remain
• 1:28:08
  your obedient servant. I took the money and the account which was indicted in
• 1:28:14
  pencil, and bowing low to the general, said to him very gravely,
• 1:28:17
  the matter cannot end here. I regret very much that you should have been
• 1:28:23
  put to unpleasantness at the Baron's hands. But the fault, pardon me,
• 1:28:28
  is your own. How came you to answer for me to the Baron?
• 1:28:31
  And what did you mean by saying that I formed part of your household?
• 1:28:35
  I am merely your family tutor, not a son of yours, nor yet
• 1:28:39
  your ward, nor a person of any kind for whose acts you need be
• 1:28:43
  responsible. I am a judicially competent person, a man of twenty five years
• 1:28:47
  of age, a university graduate, a gentleman, and until I met yourself
• 1:28:51
  a complete stranger to you. Only my boundless respect for your merits restrains me
• 1:28:57
  from demanding satisfaction at your hands, as well as a further explanation as to
• 1:29:01
  the reasons which have led you to take it upon yourself to answer for my
• 1:29:05
  conduct. So struck was he with my words, that spreading out his hands,
• 1:29:11
  he turned to the Frenchman and interpreted to him that I had challenged himself
• 1:29:15
  the General, to a duel. The Frenchman laughed aloud. Nor do I
• 1:29:20
  intend to let the Baron off, I continued calmly, but with not a
• 1:29:24
  little discomfiture at Degriere's merriment. And since you General have today been so good
• 1:29:30
  as to listen to the Baron's complaints and to enter into his concerns, since
• 1:29:35
  you have made yourself a participator in the affair, I have the honor to
• 1:29:40
  inform you that tomorrow morning, at the latest, I shall, in my
• 1:29:44
  own name, demand of the said Baron a formal explanation as to the reasons
• 1:29:47
  which have led him to disregard the fact that the matter lies between him and
• 1:29:51
  myself alone, and to put a slight upon me by referring it to another
• 1:29:56
  person, as though I were unworthy to answer for my own condoct. Then
• 1:30:01
  there happened what I had foreseen. The General, on hearing of this further
• 1:30:05
  intended outrage, showed the white feather what he cried. Do you intend to
• 1:30:13
  go on with this damned nonsense? Do you not realize the harm that it
• 1:30:17
  is doing me? I beg of you not to laugh at me, sir,
• 1:30:20
  not to laugh at me, for we have police authorities here who,
• 1:30:25
  out of respect for my rank and for that of the Baron. In short,
• 1:30:28
  Sir, I swear to you that I will have you arrested and marched
• 1:30:31
  out of the place to prevent any further brawling on your part. Do you
• 1:30:35
  understand what I say? He was almost breathless with anger, as well as
• 1:30:40
  in a terrible fright. General, I replied with that calmness which he never
• 1:30:45
  could abide. One cannot arrest a man for brawling until he has brawled.
• 1:30:51
  I have not so much as begun my explanations to the Baron, and you
• 1:30:56
  are altogether ignorant as to the form and time which my intended procedure is like
• 1:31:00
  to assume. I wish but to disabuse the baron of what is to me
• 1:31:03
  a shameful supposition, namely that I am under the guardianship of a person who
• 1:31:09
  is qualified to exercise control over my free will. It is vain for you
• 1:31:14
  to disturb and alarm yourself. For God's sake, Alexis Ivanovitch, do put
• 1:31:20
  an end to this senseless scheme of yours, he muttered, but with a
• 1:31:25
  sudden change from a truculent tone to one of entreaty, as he caught me
• 1:31:29
  by the hand, do you know what is likely to come of it?
• 1:31:31
  Merely further unpleasantness? You will agree with me. I am sure that at
• 1:31:36
  present I ought to move with especial care. Yes, with very especial care.
• 1:31:42
  You cannot be fully aware of how I am situated. When we leave
• 1:31:45
  this place, I shall be ready to receive you back into my household.
• 1:31:48
  But for the time being, I well, I cannot tell you all my
• 1:31:53
  reasons. With that, he wound up in a despairing voice. Oh,
• 1:31:56
  Alexis Ivanovitch, Alexis Ivanovitch, I moved towards the door, begging him to
• 1:32:03
  be calm and promising that everything should be done decently and in order. Whereafter
• 1:32:09
  I departed. Russians, when abroad, are over apt to play the poltroon,
• 1:32:17
  to watch all their words, and to wonder what people are thinking of
• 1:32:20
  their conduct, or whether such and such a thing as comell fho. In
• 1:32:25
  short, they are over apt to cosset themselves and to lay claim to great
• 1:32:30
  importance. Always they prefer the form of behavior which has once and for all
• 1:32:34
  become accepted and established. This they will follow slavishly, whether in hotels,
• 1:32:41
  on promenades, at meetings, or when on a journey. But the General
• 1:32:45
  had avowed to me that over and above such considerations as these, there were
• 1:32:49
  circumstances which compelled him to move with a special care at present, and that
• 1:32:56
  the fact had actually made him poor, spirited and a coward. It had
• 1:33:00
  made him altogether change his tone towards me. This fact I took into my
• 1:33:05
  calculations and duly noted it, for of course he might apply to the authorities
• 1:33:10
  tomorrow, and it behooved me to go carefully. Yet it was not the
• 1:33:15
  General, but Polina that I wanted to anger. She had treated me with
• 1:33:19
  such cruelty, and it got me into such a hole that I felt a
• 1:33:23
  longing to force her to beseech me to stop. Of course, my tomfoolery
• 1:33:28
  might compromise her. Yet certain other feelings and desires had begun to form themselves
• 1:33:32
  in my brain. If I was never to rank in her eyes as anything
• 1:33:35
  but a nonentity, it would not greatly matter if I figured as a draggle
• 1:33:41
  tailed cockerel, and the baron were to give me a good thrashing. But
• 1:33:45
  the fact was that I desired to have the laugh of them all, and
• 1:33:48
  to come out myself unscathed. Let people see what they would see. Let
• 1:33:54
  Paulina for once have a good fright and be forced to whistle me to heal
• 1:33:58
  again. But however much she might whistle, she should see that I was
• 1:34:02
  at least no draggle tailed cockrel. I have just received a surprising piece of
• 1:34:10
  news. I have just met our chambermaid on the stairs and been informed by
• 1:34:14
  her that Maria Philipovna departed to day by the night train to stay with a
• 1:34:19
  cousin at Karlsbad. What can that mean? The maid declares that Madame packed
• 1:34:26
  her trunks early in the day. Yet how is it that no one else
• 1:34:30
  seems to have been aware of the circumstance, or is it that I have
• 1:34:33
  been the only person to be unaware of it? Also, the maid has
• 1:34:38
  just told me that three days ago Maria Philipovna had some high words with the
• 1:34:43
  General. I understand then probably the words were concerning Mademoiselle Blanche. Certainly something
• 1:34:49
  decisive is approaching. End of chapter six, Chapter seven. In the morning,
• 1:34:58
  I sent for the Maitre d'hotel and explained to him that in future my
• 1:35:01
  bill was to be rendered to me personally. As a matter of fact,
• 1:35:05
  my expenses had never been so large as to alarm me, nor to leave
• 1:35:10
  me to quit the hotel. While moreover, I still had one hundred sixty
• 1:35:14
  gouden left to me, and in them, yes, in them, perhaps
• 1:35:18
  riches awaited me. It was a curious fact that, though I had not
• 1:35:24
  yet won anything at play, I nevertheless acted, thought and felt as though
• 1:35:29
  I were sure before long to become wealthy, since I could not imagine myself
• 1:35:34
  otherwise. Next, I bethought me, despite the earliness of the hour,
• 1:35:41
  of going to see mister Astley, who was staying at the Hotel de l'anngeletaire,
• 1:35:46
  a hostelry at no great distance from our own, but suddenly de Griere
• 1:35:51
  entered my room. This had never before happened, for of late that gentleman
• 1:35:57
  and I had stood on the most strained and distant of terms, he attempting
• 1:36:01
  no concealment of his contempt for me, he even made an express point of
• 1:36:06
  showing it, And I, having no reason to desire his company, in
• 1:36:11
  short, I detested him. Consequently, his entry at the present moment the
• 1:36:15
  more astounded me. At once I divined that something out of the way was
• 1:36:19
  on the carpet. He entered with marked affability, and began by complimenting me
• 1:36:27
  on my room. Then, perceiving that I had my hat in my hands,
• 1:36:30
  he inquired whither I was going so early, And no sooner did he
• 1:36:34
  hear that I was bound for mister Astley's, than he stopped, looked grave,
• 1:36:40
  and seemed plunged in thought. He was a true Frenchman in so far
• 1:36:45
  as that, though he could be lively and engaging when it suited him,
• 1:36:49
  he became insufferably dull and wearisome as soon as ever the need for being lively
• 1:36:55
  and engaging had passed seldom. As a Frenchman naturally civil, he is civil
• 1:37:00
  only as though to order and of set purpose. Also, if he thinks
• 1:37:05
  it incumbent upon him to be fanciful, original, and out of the way,
• 1:37:10
  his fancy always assumes a foolish, unnatural vein, for the reason that
• 1:37:14
  it is compounded of trite, hackneyed forms. In short, the natural Frenchman
• 1:37:20
  is a conglomeration of commonplace, petty, every day positiveness, so that he
• 1:37:27
  is the most tedious person in the world. Indeed, I believe that none
• 1:37:31
  but greenhorns and excessively Russian people feel an attraction towards the French. For to
• 1:37:38
  any man of sensibility, such a compendium of outworn forms, a compendium which
• 1:37:44
  is built up of drawing room manners, expansiveness and gaiety, becomes at once
• 1:37:48
  over noticeable and unbearable. I have come to see you on business, Degriere
• 1:37:55
  began in a very off hand, yet polite tone. Nor will I seek
• 1:38:00
  to conceal from you the fact that I have come in the capacity of an
• 1:38:04
  emissary, of an intermediary from the General. Having small knowledge of the Russian
• 1:38:11
  tongue, I lost most of what was said last night, But the General
• 1:38:15
  has now explained matters, and I must confess that see here Monsieur de Gier,
• 1:38:20
  I interrupted, I understand that you have undertaken to act in this affair
• 1:38:25
  as an intermediary. Of course, I am only on a jutel a tutor,
• 1:38:30
  and have never claimed to be an intimate of this household, nor to
• 1:38:35
  stand on it all familiar terms with it. Consequently, I do not know
• 1:38:40
  the whole of its circumstances. Yet, pray explain to me this, have
• 1:38:45
  you yourself become one of its members? Seeing that you are beginning to take
• 1:38:48
  such a part in everything, and are now present as an intermediary. The
• 1:38:55
  Frenchman seemed not overpleased at my question. It was one which was too outspoken
• 1:38:59
  for his taste, and he had no mind to be frank with me.
• 1:39:04
  I am connected with the General, he said dryly, partly through business affairs,
• 1:39:09
  and partly through special circumstances. My principle has sent me merely to ask
• 1:39:15
  you to forego your intentions of last evening. What you contemplate is, I
• 1:39:18
  have no doubt, very clever. Yet he has charged me to represent to
• 1:39:23
  you that you have not the slightest chance of succeeding in your end, since
• 1:39:28
  not only will the Baron refuse to receive you. But also he the Baron,
• 1:39:32
  has at his disposal every possible means for obviating further unpleasantness from you.
• 1:39:39
  Surely you can see that yourself. What then would be the good of going
• 1:39:43
  on with it all? On the other hand, the General promises that at
• 1:39:47
  the first favorable opportunity he will receive you back into his household, and in
• 1:39:53
  the meantime will credit you with your salary with vose of pointement. Surely that
• 1:40:00
  will suit you, will it? Not? Very Quietly? I replied that
• 1:40:04
  he, the Frenchman, was laboring under a delusion that perhaps, after all,
• 1:40:09
  I should not be expelled from the Baron's presence, but on the contrary
• 1:40:13
  be listened to finally, that I should be glad of Monsieur de Griere would
• 1:40:17
  confess that he was now visiting me merely in order to see how far I
• 1:40:21
  intended to go in the affair. Good heavens, cried de Griere. Seeing
• 1:40:29
  that the General takes such an interest in the matter, is there anything very
• 1:40:32
  unnatural in his desiring also to know your plans? Again? I began my
• 1:40:39
  explanations, but the Frenchman only fidgeted and rolled his head about as he listened
• 1:40:44
  with an expression of manifest and unconcealed irony on his face. In short,
• 1:40:48
  he adopted a supercilious attitude. For my own part, I endeavored to pretend
• 1:40:55
  that I took the affair very seriously. I declared that since the Baron had
• 1:41:00
  gone and complained of me to the general as though I were a mere servant
• 1:41:03
  of the generals, he had in the first place lost me my post,
• 1:41:09
  and in the second place treated me like a person to whom, as to
• 1:41:13
  one not qualified to answer for himself, it was not even worthwhile to speak
• 1:41:17
  naturally, I said. I felt insulted at this, yet comprehending as I
• 1:41:24
  did, differences of years of social status, and so forth. Here I
• 1:41:28
  could scarcely help smiling. I was not anxious to bring about further scenes by
• 1:41:32
  going personally to demand or to request satisfaction of the baron. All that I
• 1:41:39
  felt was that I had a right to go in person and beg the barons
• 1:41:42
  and the Baroness's pardon, the more so since of late I had been feeling
• 1:41:46
  unwell and unstrung, and had been in a fanciful condition, and so forth
• 1:41:51
  and so forth. Yet I continued the Baron's offensive behavior to me of yesterday,
• 1:41:58
  that is to say, the fact of his referring the matter to the
• 1:42:00
  General, as well as his insistence that the General should deprive me of my
• 1:42:04
  post, had placed me in such a position that I could not well express
• 1:42:09
  my regret to him, the Baron, and to his good lady, for
• 1:42:14
  the reason that, in all probability, both he and the Baroness with the
• 1:42:17
  world at large, would imagine that I was doing so merely because I hoped,
• 1:42:21
  by my action to recover my post. Hence, I found myself forced
• 1:42:27
  to request the Baron to express to me his own regrets, as well as
• 1:42:30
  to express them in the most unqualified manner, to say, in fact that
• 1:42:35
  he had never had any wish to insult me. After the Baron had done
• 1:42:40
  that, I should, for my part, at once feel free to express
• 1:42:43
  to him wholeheartedly and without reserve my own regrets. In short, I declared,
• 1:42:48
  in conclusion, my one desire is that the Baron may make it possible
• 1:42:54
  for me to adopt the latter course. Oh five, what refinements and subtleties,
• 1:43:01
  exclaimed de grierree, Besides, what have you to express regret for?
• 1:43:06
  Confess Monsieur monsieur, pardon me, but I have forgotten your name. Confess
• 1:43:12
  I say that all this is merely a plan to annoy the General, or
• 1:43:15
  perhaps you have some other and special end in view. Eh. In return,
• 1:43:20
  you must pardon me, Moncher marquis, and tell me what you have
• 1:43:25
  to do with it the General. But what of the General? Last night?
• 1:43:30
  He said that for some reason or another it behooved him to move with
• 1:43:32
  a special care at present, wherefore he was feeling nervous. But I did
• 1:43:39
  not understand the reference. Yes, there do exist special reasons for his doing
• 1:43:45
  so, assented de Griere in a conciliatory tone. Yet with rising anger.
• 1:43:50
  You are acquainted with Mademoiselle de Commiller, are you not, Mademoiselle Blanche.
• 1:43:56
  You mean, yes, Mademoiselle Blan de Comiger. Doubtless you know also that
• 1:44:03
  the General is in love with this young lady, and may even be about
• 1:44:06
  to marry her before he leaves here. Imagine therefore, what any scene or
• 1:44:12
  scandal would entail upon him. I cannot see that the marriage scheme need be
• 1:44:17
  affected by scenes or scandals. Mael Baron at c Ira sible on careacter pussien
• 1:44:28
  ou sabe anfan il fera un querrel Dalamande. I do not care, I
• 1:44:36
  replied, seeing that I no longer belong to his household of set purpose.
• 1:44:41
  I was trying to talk as senselessly as possible. But is it quite settled
• 1:44:45
  that mademoiselle is to marry the General? What are they waiting for? Why
• 1:44:49
  should they conceal such a matter at all? Events from ourselves, the General's
• 1:44:54
  own party, I cannot tell you the marriage is not yet a settled affair,
• 1:45:00
  for they are awaiting news from Russia. The General has business transactions to
• 1:45:05
  arrange, ah connected doubtless with Madame his mother. De Grier shot at me
• 1:45:12
  a glance of hatred. To cut things short, he interrupted, I have
• 1:45:16
  complete confidence in your native politeness, as well as in your tact and good
• 1:45:20
  sense. I feel sure that you will do what I suggest, even if
• 1:45:26
  it is only for the sake of this family, which has received you as
• 1:45:29
  a kinsman into its bosom and has always loved and respected you, be so
• 1:45:34
  good as to observe, I remarked, that the same family has just expelled
• 1:45:39
  me from its bosom. All that you are saying, you are saying but
• 1:45:43
  for show. But when people have just said to you, of course we
• 1:45:46
  do not wish to turn you out, yet for the sake of appearances,
• 1:45:50
  you must permit yourself to be turned out. Nothing can matter very much,
• 1:45:57
  very well, then, he said, in a sterner and more errorargant tone,
• 1:46:00
  Seeing that my solicitations have had no effect upon you, it is my
• 1:46:04
  duty to mention that other measures will be taken. There exist here police,
• 1:46:10
  you must remember, and this very day they shall send you packing k diabl
• 1:46:15
  to think of a beck like yourself challenging a person like the baron to a
• 1:46:19
  duel. Do you suppose that you will be allowed to do such things?
• 1:46:24
  Just try doing them and see if any one will be afraid of you.
• 1:46:28
  The reason why I have asked you to desist is that I can see that
• 1:46:31
  your conduct is causing the general annoyance. Do you believe that the baron could
• 1:46:36
  not tell his lackey simply to put you out of doors? Nevertheless, I
• 1:46:42
  should not go out of doors, I retorted, with absolute calm. You
• 1:46:45
  are laboring under a delusion, monsieur degriere. The thing will be done in
• 1:46:50
  far better trim than you imagine. I was just about to start for mister
• 1:46:54
  Astley's to ask him to be my intermediary, in other words, my second.
• 1:47:00
  He has a strong liking for me, and I do not think that
• 1:47:02
  he will refuse. He will go and see the Baron on my behalf,
• 1:47:08
  and the Baron will certainly not decline to receive him. Although I am only
• 1:47:12
  a tutor, a kind of subaltern, mister Astley is known to all men
• 1:47:15
  as the nephew of a real English lord, the Lord Pyebruk, as well
• 1:47:19
  as a lord in his own right. Yes, you may be pretty sure
• 1:47:24
  that the Baron will be civil to mister Astley and listen to him, or
• 1:47:29
  should he decline to do so, mister Astley will take the refusal as a
• 1:47:32
  personal affront to himself, for you know how persistent the English are, and
• 1:47:39
  thereupon introduce to the Baron a friend of his own, and he has many
• 1:47:43
  friends in a good position. That being so, picture to yourself the issue
• 1:47:47
  of the affair, an affair which will not quite end as you think it
• 1:47:51
  will. This caused the Frenchman to bethink him of playing the coward. Really
• 1:47:59
  things may be, as this fellow says, He evidently thought, really he
• 1:48:02
  might be able to engineer another scene. Once more, I beg of you
• 1:48:08
  to let the matter drop, he continued, in a tone that was now
• 1:48:11
  entirely conciliatory. One would think that it actually pleased you to have scenes.
• 1:48:16
  Indeed, it is a brawl rather than genuine satisfaction that you are seeking.
• 1:48:23
  I have said that the affair may prove to be diverting and even clever,
• 1:48:27
  and that possibly you may attain something by it. Yet none the less,
• 1:48:30
  I tell you he said this only because he saw me rise and reach for
• 1:48:34
  my hat, that I have come hither also to hand you these few words
• 1:48:39
  from a certain person. Read them please, for I must take her back.
• 1:48:43
  In answer so saying, he took from his pocket a small compact wafer
• 1:48:48
  sealed note and handed it to me in Polina's handwriting, I read, I
• 1:48:55
  hear that you are thinking of going on with this affair. You have lost
• 1:48:59
  your temper now and are beginning to play the fool. Certain circumstances, however,
• 1:49:03
  I may explain to you later, pray cease from your folly and put
• 1:49:08
  a check upon yourself. For folly it all is. I have need of
• 1:49:13
  you, and moreover, you have promised to obey me. Remember the Schlangenberg.
• 1:49:17
  I ask you to be obedient if necessary, I shall even bid you
• 1:49:23
  be obedient your own Poulina p s. If so be that you still bear
• 1:49:30
  a grudge against me for what happened last night, pray forgive me everything.
• 1:49:34
  To my eyes seemed to change as I read these words. My lips grew
• 1:49:40
  pale, and I began to tremble. Meanwhile, the cursed Frenchman was eyeing
• 1:49:45
  me discreetly and askance as though he wished to avoid witnessing my confusion. It
• 1:49:50
  would have been better if he had laughed outright, very well, I said,
• 1:49:57
  you can tell Mademoiselle not to disturb herself. But I added sharply,
• 1:50:01
  I would also ask you why you have been so long in handing me this
• 1:50:04
  note. Instead of chattering about trifles, you ought to have delivered me the
• 1:50:10
  missive at once. If you have really come commissioned, as you say,
• 1:50:15
  well, pardon some natural haste on my part, for the situation is so
• 1:50:18
  strange. I wished first to gain some personal knowledge of your intentions. And
• 1:50:25
  moreover, I did not know the contents of the note, and thought that
• 1:50:28
  it could be given you at any time. I understand, I replied,
• 1:50:32
  So you were ordered to hand me the note only in the last resort,
• 1:50:36
  And if you could not otherwise appease me, is it not so? Speak
• 1:50:41
  out, Monsieur de grieree, perhaps, said he, assuming a look of
• 1:50:45
  great forbearance, but gazing at me in a meaning way. I reached for
• 1:50:49
  my hat, whereupon he nodded and went out. Yet on his lips I
• 1:50:55
  fancied that I could see a mocking smile. How could it have been otherwise?
• 1:51:00
  You and I are to have a reckoning later, Master Frenchman, I
• 1:51:03
  muttered, as I descended the stairs. Yes, we will measure our strength
• 1:51:09
  together. Yet my thoughts were all in confusion, for again something seemed to
• 1:51:13
  have struck me dizzy. Presently, the air revived me a little, and
• 1:51:17
  a couple of minutes later my brain had sufficiently cleared to enable two ideas,
• 1:51:23
  in particular to stand out in it. Firstly, I asked myself which of
• 1:51:27
  the absurd, boyish and extravagant threats which I had uttered at random last night
• 1:51:31
  had made everybody so alarmed. Secondly, what was the influence which this Frenchman
• 1:51:38
  appeared to exercise over Poulina? He had but to give the word, and
• 1:51:43
  at once she did as he desired. At once she wrote me a note
• 1:51:45
  to beg of me to forbear. Of course, the relations between the pair
• 1:51:51
  had from the first been a riddle to me. They had been so ever
• 1:51:55
  since I had first made their acquaintance. But of late I had remarked in
• 1:51:59
  her strong aversion for even a contempt for him, while for his part,
• 1:52:03
  he had scarcely even looked at her, but had behaved towards her, always
• 1:52:09
  in the most cheerlish fashion. Yes, I had noted that also Polina herself
• 1:52:15
  had mentioned to me her dislike for him, and delivered herself of some remarkable
• 1:52:18
  confessions on the subject. Hence, he must have got her into his power
• 1:52:25
  somehow, somehow he must be holding her, as in a vice end of
• 1:52:31
  chapter seven, Chapter eight, all at once, on the promenade as it
• 1:52:39
  was called, that is to say, in the Chestnut avenue, I came
• 1:52:42
  face to face with my englishman. I was just coming to see you,
• 1:52:45
  he said, And you appear to be out on a similar Errand so you
• 1:52:49
  have parted with your employers. How do you know that, I asked,
• 1:52:54
  in astonishment. Is everyone aware of the fact? By no means not everyone
• 1:53:00
  One would consider such a fact to be a moment. Indeed, I have
• 1:53:02
  never heard anyone speak of it. Then how come you to know it?
• 1:53:08
  Because I have had occasion to do so? Whither are you bound? I
• 1:53:13
  like you, and was therefore coming to pay you a visit. What a
• 1:53:16
  splendid fellow you are, mister Astley, I cried, though still wondering how
• 1:53:20
  he had come by his knowledge. And since I have not yet had my
• 1:53:25
  coffee, and you have, in all probabilities scarcely tasted yours, let us
• 1:53:30
  adjourn to the casino cafe where we can sit and smoke and have a talk.
• 1:53:34
  The cafe in question was only a hundred paces away, so when coffee
• 1:53:39
  had been brought, we seated ourselves and I lit a cigarette. Astley was
• 1:53:43
  no smoker, but taking a seat by my side, he prepared himself to
• 1:53:46
  listen. I do not intend to go away, was my first remark.
• 1:53:50
  I intend, on the contrary, to remain here. That I never doubted,
• 1:53:56
  he answered, good humoredly. It was a curious fact that on my
• 1:54:00
  way to see him, I had never even thought of telling him of my
• 1:54:03
  love for Paulina. In fact, I had purposely meant to avoid any mention
• 1:54:08
  of the subject, nor during our stay in the place, had I ever
• 1:54:12
  made aught but the scantiest reference to it. You see, not only was
• 1:54:16
  Astley a man of great reserve, but also from the first I had perceived
• 1:54:20
  that Paulina had made a great impression upon him, although he never spoke of
• 1:54:25
  her. But now, strangely enough, he had no sooner seated himself and
• 1:54:30
  bent his steely gaze upon me, than for some reason or another, I
• 1:54:32
  felt moved to tell him everything, to speak to him of my love in
• 1:54:38
  all its phases. For an hour and a half did I discourse on the
• 1:54:42
  subject, and found it a pleasure to do so, even though this was
• 1:54:45
  the first occasion on which I had referred to the matter. Indeed, when
• 1:54:50
  at certain moments I perceived that my more ardent passages confused him, I purposely
• 1:54:56
  increased my ardor of narration. Yet one thing I regret, and that is
• 1:55:00
  that I made references to the Frenchmen which were a little over personal. Mister
• 1:55:08
  Astley sat without moving as he listened to me. Not a word nor a
• 1:55:13
  sound of any kind did he utter as he stared into my eyes. Suddenly,
• 1:55:16
  however, on my mentioning the Frenchman, he interrupted me and inquired sternly
• 1:55:21
  whether I did right to speak of an extraneous matter. He had always been
• 1:55:26
  a strange man in his mode of propounding questions. No, I fear not,
• 1:55:30
  I replied, And concerning this Marquis and Mademoiselle Paulina, you know nothing
• 1:55:36
  beyond surmise. Again, I was surprised that such a categorical question should come
• 1:55:42
  from such a reserved individual. No I know nothing for certain about them,
• 1:55:46
  was my reply. No nothing. Then you have done very wrong to speak
• 1:55:51
  of them to me, or even to imagine things about them. Quite so,
• 1:55:57
  Quite so, I interrupted, in some astonishment. I admit that yet
• 1:56:00
  that is not the question. Whereupon I related to him in detail the incident
• 1:56:05
  of two days ago. I spoke of Paulina's outburst, of my encounter with
• 1:56:11
  the Baron, of my dismissal, of the general's extraordinary pusillanimity, and of
• 1:56:15
  the call which de Grie had that morning paid me. In conclusion, I
• 1:56:20
  showed Astley the note which I had lately received. What do you make of
• 1:56:26
  it? I asked? When I met you, I was just coming to
• 1:56:29
  ask you your opinion. For myself. I could have killed this Frenchman,
• 1:56:33
  and am not sure that I shall not do so. Even yet I feel
• 1:56:38
  the same about it, said mister Astley. As for Mademoiselle Paulina, well,
• 1:56:42
  you yourself know that if necessity drives one enters into relation with people whom
• 1:56:46
  one simply detests, even between this couple, there may be something which,
• 1:56:51
  though unknown to you, depends upon extraneous circumstances. For my own part,
• 1:56:57
  I think that you may reassure yourself, or at all events partially. And
• 1:57:01
  as for Mademoiselle Paulina's proceedings of two days ago, they were of course strange.
• 1:57:08
  Not because she can have meant to get rid of you, or to
• 1:57:11
  earn for you a thrashing from the baron's cudgel, which for some curious reason
• 1:57:15
  he did not use, although he had it ready in his hands, but
• 1:57:18
  because such proceedings on the part of such well of such a refined lady as
• 1:57:24
  Mademoiselle Paulina, are, to say the least of it unbecoming. But she
• 1:57:30
  cannot have guessed that you would carry out her absurd wish to the letter.
• 1:57:34
  Do you know what? Suddenly, I cried, as I fixed mister Astley
• 1:57:39
  with my gaze, I believe that you have already heard the story from someone
• 1:57:43
  very possibly from Mademoiselle Paoulina herself. In return, he gave me an astonished
• 1:57:49
  stare. Your eyes look very fiery, he said, with a return of
• 1:57:54
  his former calm, and in them I can read suspicion. Now you have
• 1:57:59
  no right whatever to be suspicious. It is not a right which I can,
• 1:58:01
  for a moment recognize, And I absolutely refused to answer your questions enough
• 1:58:09
  you need say no more. I cried, with a strange emotion at my
• 1:58:11
  heart, yet not altogether understanding what had aroused that emotion in my breast.
• 1:58:16
  Indeed, when, where and how could Polina have chosen Astley to be one
• 1:58:21
  of her confidants of late? I had come rather to overlook him in this
• 1:58:27
  connection, even though Poulina had always been a riddle to me, so much
• 1:58:31
  so that now when I had just permitted myself to tell my friend of my
• 1:58:34
  infatuation in all its aspects, I had found myself struck during the very telling
• 1:58:41
  with the fact that in my relations with her I could specify nothing that was
• 1:58:44
  explicit, nothing that was positive. On the contrary, my relations had been
• 1:58:49
  purely fantastic, strange and unreal. They had been unlike anything else that I
• 1:58:55
  could think of very well, very well, I replied, with a warmth
• 1:59:00
  equal to Astley's own. Then I stand confounded and have no further opinions to
• 1:59:04
  offer. But you are a good fellow, and I am glad to know
• 1:59:08
  what you think about it all, even though I do not need your advice.
• 1:59:13
  Then, after a pause, I resumed, for instance, what reason
• 1:59:18
  should you assign for the general taking fright in this way? Why should my
• 1:59:23
  stupid clowning have led the world to elevate it into a serious incident? Even
• 1:59:29
  de Grierre has found it necessary to put in his oar, and he only
• 1:59:32
  interferes on the most important occasions, and to visit me and to address to
• 1:59:38
  me the most earnest supplications. Yes, he de Grieree has actually been playing
• 1:59:44
  the suppliant to me and mark you. Although he came to me as early
• 1:59:47
  as nine o'clock, he had ready prepared in his hand Mademoiselle Paulina's note.
• 1:59:54
  When I would ask was that note written? Mademoiselle Paulina must have been aroused
• 1:59:59
  from sleep for the express purpose of writing it. At all events. The
• 2:00:02
  circumstance shows that she is an absolute slave to the Frenchman, since she actually
• 2:00:08
  begs my pardon in the note, actually begs my pardon. Yet, what
• 2:00:14
  is their personal concern in the matter? Why is she interested in it at
• 2:00:17
  all? Why, too, is the whole party so afraid of this precious
• 2:00:21
  baron? And what sort of a business do you call it for the General
• 2:00:26
  to be going to marry Mademoiselle Blanche de Comuget. He told me last night
• 2:00:31
  that because of the circumstance, he must move with a special care at present.
• 2:00:36
  What is your opinion of it? All? Your look convinces me that
• 2:00:40
  you know more about it than I do. Mister Astley smiled and nodded,
• 2:00:45
  Yes, I think I do know more about it than you do. He
• 2:00:48
  assented. The affair centers around this Mademoiselle Blanche. Of that I feel certain.
• 2:00:55
  And what of Mademoiselle Blanche, I cried impatiently, for in me there
• 2:00:59
  had gone on to sudden hope that this would enable me to discover something about
• 2:01:02
  Paulina. Well, my belief is that at the present moment, Mademoiselle Blanche
• 2:01:09
  has, in very truth a special reason for wishing to avoid any trouble with
• 2:01:14
  the Baron and the Baroness. It might lead not only to some unpleasantness,
• 2:01:18
  but even to a scandal. Oh oh, Also, I may tell you
• 2:01:26
  that Mademoiselle Blanche has been in Rouletteenburg before, for she was staying here three
• 2:01:30
  seasons ago. I myself was in the place at the time, and in
• 2:01:34
  those days Mademoiselle Blanche was not known as Mademoiselle de Commiger, nor was her
• 2:01:41
  mother, the widow de Commier, even in existence. In any case,
• 2:01:46
  no one ever mentioned the latter de Griers, too had not materialized, and
• 2:01:51
  I am convinced that not only do the parties stand in no relation to one
• 2:01:56
  another, but also they have not long enjoyed one another acquaintance. Likewise,
• 2:02:01
  the marquisate de Grie is of recent creation. Of that I have reason to
• 2:02:08
  be sure. Owing to a certain circumstance, Even the name de Grie itself
• 2:02:14
  may be taken to be a new invention, seeing that I have a friend
• 2:02:17
  who once met the said marquis under a different name. Altogether, yet he
• 2:02:24
  possesses a good circle of friends. Possibly Mademoiselle Blanche also may possess that.
• 2:02:30
  Yet it is not three years since she received from the local police, at
• 2:02:34
  the instance of the Baroness, an invitation to leave the town, and she
• 2:02:40
  left it. But why well, I must tell you that she first appeared
• 2:02:47
  here in company with an Italian, a prince of some sort, a man
• 2:02:51
  who bore an historic name, Barberini or something of the kind. The fellow
• 2:02:57
  was simply a mass of rings and diamonds real diyeomans too, and the couple
• 2:03:00
  used to drive out in a marvelous carriage. At first Mademoiselle Blanche played Conte
• 2:03:08
  de Carante with fair success, but later her luck took a marked change for
• 2:03:13
  the worse. I distinctly remember that in a single evening she lost an enormous
• 2:03:17
  sum. But worse was to ensue. For one fine morning, her prince
• 2:03:23
  disappeared, horses, carriage and all. Also, the hotel bill, which
• 2:03:29
  he left unpaid, was enormous. Upon this, Mademoiselle Zelma, the name
• 2:03:33
  which she assumed after figuring as Madame Barberini, was in despair. She shrieked
• 2:03:40
  and howled all over the hotel, and even tore her clothes in her frenzy.
• 2:03:45
  In the hotel there was staying also a Polish count. You must know
• 2:03:48
  that all traveling poles are counts, and the spectacle of Mademoiselle Zelma, tearing
• 2:03:55
  her clothes and catlike scratching her face with her beautiful scented nails produced upon him
• 2:04:00
  a strong impression. So the pair had a talk together, and by luncheon
• 2:04:05
  time she was consoled. Indeed, that evening the couple entered the casino arm
• 2:04:11
  in arm, Mademoiselle Zelma, laughing loudly according to her custom, and showing
• 2:04:15
  even more expansiveness in her manners than she had before shown. For instance,
• 2:04:21
  she thrust her way into the file of women roulette players in the exact fashion
• 2:04:27
  of those ladies who took clear a space for themselves at the tables, pushed
• 2:04:30
  their fellow players roughly aside. Doubtless you have noticed them, yes, certainly,
• 2:04:38
  well, they are not worth noticing to the annoyance of the decent public.
• 2:04:42
  They are allowed to remain here at all events, such of them as
• 2:04:45
  daily changed four thousand franc notes at the tables, though as soon as ever
• 2:04:50
  these women cease to do so, they receive an invitation to depart. However,
• 2:04:56
  Mademoiselle Zelma continued to change notes of this kind, but her play grew
• 2:05:00
  more and more unsuccessful. Despite the fact that such lady's luck is frequently good,
• 2:05:05
  for they have a surprising amount of cash at their disposal. Suddenly,
• 2:05:11
  the count too disappeared, even as the prince had done, and that same
• 2:05:15
  evening Mademoiselle Zelma was forced to appear in the casino alone. On this occasion,
• 2:05:21
  no one offered her a greeting. Two days later, she had come
• 2:05:27
  to the end of her resources, whereupon, after staking and losing her last
• 2:05:30
  louis d'Or, she chanced to look around her and saw standing by her side
• 2:05:35
  the Baron Burmergelm, who had been eyeing her with fixed disapproval. To his
• 2:05:42
  distaste, however, Mademoiselle paid no attention, but, turning to him with
• 2:05:45
  her well known smile, requested him to stake on her behalf ten louis on
• 2:05:50
  the red. Later that evening, a complaint from the baroness led the authorities
• 2:05:56
  to request Mademoiselle not to re enter the casino. If you feel in any
• 2:06:00
  way surprised that I should know these petty and unedifying details, the reason is
• 2:06:06
  that I had them from a relative of mine, who later that evening drove
• 2:06:11
  Mademoiselle Zemma in his carriage from Mulettenberg to spa. Now, mark you.
• 2:06:15
  Mademoiselle wants to become Madame General in order that in future she may be spared
• 2:06:20
  the receipt of such invitations from Cassino authorities as she received three years ago.
• 2:06:27
  At present she is not playing, but that is only because, according to
• 2:06:30
  the signs, she is lending money to other players. Yes, that is
• 2:06:35
  a much more paying game. I even suspect that the unfortunate General is himself
• 2:06:42
  in her debt, as well as perhaps also de Griers. Or it may
• 2:06:46
  be that the latter as entered into partnership with her. Consequently, you yourself
• 2:06:51
  will see that until the marriage shall have been consummated, Mademoiselle would scarcely like
• 2:06:58
  to have the attention of the Baron and the baron as drawn to herself.
• 2:07:01
  In short, to anyone in her position, a scandal would be most detrimental.
• 2:07:08
  You form a member of the minage of these people, wherefore any act
• 2:07:12
  of yours might cause such a scandal, And the more so since daily she
• 2:07:15
  appears in public arm in arm with the General or with Mademoiselle Poulina. Now
• 2:07:21
  do you understand? No, I do not, I shouted, as I
• 2:07:27
  banged my fists down upon the table, banged it with such violence that a
• 2:07:30
  frightened waiter came running towards us. Tell me, mister Astley, why if
• 2:07:36
  you knew this history all along, and consequently always knew who this Mademoiselle Blanche
• 2:07:42
  is, you never warned either myself or the General, nor most of all,
• 2:07:45
  Mademoiselle Paulina, who was accustomed to appear in the casino, in public
• 2:07:50
  everywhere with Mademoiselle Blanche. How could you do it? It would have done
• 2:07:57
  no good to warn you, he replied quietly, for the reason that you
• 2:08:00
  could have affected nothing against what was I to warn you. As likely as
• 2:08:05
  not, the General knows more about Mademoiselle Blanche even than I do. Yet
• 2:08:09
  the unhappy man still walks about with her and Mademoiselle Paulina. Only yesterday I
• 2:08:16
  saw this frenchwoman riding splendidly mounted with de Grieree, while the General was careering
• 2:08:20
  in their wake on a rowan horse. He had said that morning that his
• 2:08:24
  legs were hurting him, yet his riding seat was easy enough. As he
• 2:08:28
  passed, I looked at him, and the thought occurred to me that he
• 2:08:33
  was a man lost forever. However, it is no affair of mine,
• 2:08:37
  for I have only recently had the happiness to make Mademoiselle Paulina's acquaintance. Also,
• 2:08:43
  he added this as an afterthought. I have already told you that I
• 2:08:48
  do not recognize your right to ask me certain questions. However, sincere be
• 2:08:52
  my liking for you, enough, I said, rising to me. It
• 2:08:58
  is as clear as day that Mademoiselle Paulina knows all about this Mademoiselle Blanche,
• 2:09:03
  but cannot bring herself to part with her frenchmen. Wherefore she consents also to
• 2:09:07
  be seen in public with Mademoiselle Blanche. You may be sure that nothing else
• 2:09:11
  would ever have induced her, either to walk about with this French woman or
• 2:09:16
  to send me a note not to touch the Baron. Yes, it is
• 2:09:20
  there that the influence lies, before which everything in the world must bow.
• 2:09:26
  Yet she herself it was who launched me at the baron. The devil take
• 2:09:30
  it, but I was left no choice in the matter. You forget in
• 2:09:35
  the first place that this Mademoiselle de Comige is the General's namerata, and in
• 2:09:39
  the second place, that Mademoiselle Paulina, the General's stepdaughter, has a younger
• 2:09:43
  brother and sister, who, though they are the General's own children, are
• 2:09:48
  completely neglected by this madman and robbed as well. Yes, yes, that
• 2:09:56
  is so. For me to go and desert the children now would mean their
• 2:10:00
  total abandonment, whereas if I remain, I should be able to defend their
• 2:10:03
  interests, and perhaps to save a moiety of their property. Yes, yes,
• 2:10:09
  that is quite true. And yet, and yet, oh, I
• 2:10:15
  can well understand why they are also interested in the General's mother, in whom,
• 2:10:20
  asked mister Estley, in the old woman of Moscow, who declines to
• 2:10:26
  die, yet concerning whom they are forever expecting telegrams to notify the fact of
• 2:10:31
  her death. Ah, then of course their interests center around her. It
• 2:10:37
  is a question of succession. Let that but be settled, and the General
• 2:10:41
  will marry Mademoiselle Paulina will be set free, and de Grie, Yes,
• 2:10:48
  and de Grier will be repaid his money, which is what he is now
• 2:10:52
  waiting for. What you think that he is waiting for? That? I
• 2:10:58
  know of nothing else, asserted mister Astley doggedly. But I do, I
• 2:11:05
  do, I shouted in my fury. He is waiting also for the old
• 2:11:11
  woman's will, for the reason that it awards Mademoiselle Paulina a dowry. As
• 2:11:16
  soon as ever the money is received, she will throw herself upon the frenchman's
• 2:11:20
  neck. All women are like that, Even the proudest of them become abject
• 2:11:24
  slaves where marriage is concerned. What Poulina is good for is to fall head
• 2:11:31
  over ears in love. That is my opinion. Look at her, especially
• 2:11:37
  when she is sitting alone and plunged in thought. All this was preordained and
• 2:11:41
  foretold, and is a cursed Paulina could perpetrate any mad act she she But
• 2:11:50
  who called me by name? I broke off? Who is shouting for me?
• 2:11:54
  I heard someone calling in Russian? Alexis Ivanovitch. It was a woman's
• 2:12:00
  voice. Listen at the moment we were approaching my hotel. We had left
• 2:12:07
  the cafe long ago, without even noticing that we had done so. Yes,
• 2:12:13
  I did hear a woman's voice calling. But whose I do not know.
• 2:12:16
  The someone was calling you in Russian. Ah, Now I can see
• 2:12:20
  whence the cries come. They come from that lady there, the one who
• 2:12:24
  was sitting on the settee, the one who has just been escorted to the
• 2:12:28
  veranda by a crowd of lackeys behind her. See that pile of luggage.
• 2:12:33
  She must have arrived by train. But why should she be calling me?
• 2:12:39
  Hear her calling again? See she is beckoning to us. Yes, so
• 2:12:43
  she is assented, mister Astley. Alexis Ivanovitch, Alexis Ivanovitch. Good heavens,
• 2:12:50
  what a stupid fellow came in a despairing wail from the veranda. We
• 2:12:56
  had almost reached the portico, and I was just setting foot upon the space
• 2:13:00
  before it, when my hands fell to my sides in limp astonishment, and
• 2:13:03
  my feet glued themselves to the pavement. End of chapter eight. Chapter nine
• 2:13:13
  for on the topmost tier of the hotel veranda, after being carried up the
• 2:13:18
  steps in an armchair amid a bevy of footmen, maid servants, and other
• 2:13:22
  menials of the hotel, headed by the landlord. That functionary had actually run
• 2:13:28
  out to meet a visitor who arrived with so much stir and din, attended
• 2:13:31
  by her own retinue, and accompanied by so great a pile of trunks and
• 2:13:35
  portmanteau. On the topmost tier of the veranda, I say there was sitting
• 2:13:43
  the grandmother. Yes it was she rich and imposing and seventy five years of
• 2:13:50
  age. Antonita Vasilyevna Tarasovica, landowner and Grand Dame of Moscow, the whih
• 2:14:00
  Babulenka, who had caused so many telegrams to be sent off and received,
• 2:14:05
  who had been dying yet not dying, who had in her own person descended
• 2:14:09
  upon us even as snow might fall from the clouds. Though unable to walk,
• 2:14:15
  she had arrived born aloft in an arm chair, her mode of conveyance
• 2:14:18
  for the last five years as brisk, aggressive, self satisfied, bolt upright,
• 2:14:24
  loudly, imperious, and generally abusive as ever. In fact, she
• 2:14:30
  looked exactly as she had on the only two occasions when I had seen her
• 2:14:33
  since my appointment to the General's household. Naturally enough, I stood petrified with
• 2:14:39
  astonishment. She had sighted me a hundred paces off, even while she was
• 2:14:43
  being carried along in her chair. She had recognized me and called me by
• 2:14:48
  name and surname, which, as usual, after hearing once, she had
• 2:14:52
  remembered ever afterwards. And this is the woman whom they had thought to see
• 2:14:58
  in her grave after making her will, I thought to myself, Yet she
• 2:15:03
  will outlive us and everyone else in the hotel. Good lord, what is
• 2:15:09
  going to become of us? Now? What on earth is to happen to
• 2:15:13
  the general? She will turn the place upside down? My good sir,
• 2:15:18
  the old woman continued in a stentorian voice. What are you standing there for?
• 2:15:22
  With your eyes almost falling out of your head? Cannot you come and
• 2:15:26
  say? How do you do? Are you too proud to shake hands?
• 2:15:30
  Or do you not recognize me? Here? Potapitch, she cried to an
• 2:15:35
  old servant who dressed in a frock coat and white waistcoat, had a bald
• 2:15:39
  red head. He was the chamberlain who always accompanied her on her journeys.
• 2:15:45
  Just think, Alexis Ivanovitch does not recognize me. They have buried me for
• 2:15:50
  good and all. Yes, and after sending hosts of telegrams to know if
• 2:15:54
  I were dead or not. Yes, yes, I have heard the whole
• 2:15:58
  story. I am very much alive, though, as you may see.
• 2:16:01
  Pardon me, Antonita Vassilyevna, I replied, good humoredly, as I recovered
• 2:16:07
  my presence of mind. I have no reason to wish you ill. I
• 2:16:09
  am merely rather astonished to see you. Why should I not be so?
• 2:16:13
  Seeing how unexpected? Why should you be astonished. I just got into my
• 2:16:18
  chair and came. Things are quiet enough in the train, for there is
• 2:16:22
  no one there to chat her. Have you been out for a walk.
• 2:16:26
  Yes, I have just been to the casino. Oh well, it is
• 2:16:31
  quite nice here, she went on as she looked about her. The place
• 2:16:33
  seems comfortable and all the trees are out. I like it very well.
• 2:16:37
  Are your people at home? Is the general? For instance? Indoors?
• 2:16:43
  Do they observe the confidences and keep up appearances? Yes, and probably all
• 2:16:48
  of them. Such things always give one tone. I have heard that they
• 2:16:52
  are keeping a carriage, even as Russian gentlefolks ought to do when abroad.
• 2:16:56
  Our Russian people always cut a dash. Is Rascovia here too, Yes,
• 2:17:01
  Polina Alexandrovna is here, and the frenchwoman. However, I will go and
• 2:17:07
  look for them myself. Tell me the nearest way to their rooms. Do
• 2:17:11
  you like being here? Yes? I thank you, Antonita Vassilyevna, and
• 2:17:16
  you Potapitch. You go and tell that fool of a landlord to reserve me
• 2:17:22
  a suitable suite of rooms. They must be handsomely decorated and not too high
• 2:17:26
  up. Have my luggage taken up to them. But what are you tumbling
• 2:17:30
  over yourselves? For? Why are you all tearing about? What scullions these
• 2:17:33
  fellows are? Who is that with you, she added to myself, A
• 2:17:37
  mister Astley, I replied, And who is mister Astley? A fellow traveler
• 2:17:43
  and my very good friend, as well as an acquaintance of the generals?
• 2:17:48
  Oh, an englishman? Then that is why he stared at me without even
• 2:17:50
  opening his lips. However, I like englishmen. Now take me upstairs,
• 2:17:56
  direct to their rooms. Where are they lodging? Madame was lifted up in
• 2:18:01
  her chair by the lackeys, and I preceded her up the grand staircase.
• 2:18:05
  Our progress was exceedingly effective, for everyone whom we met stopped to stare at
• 2:18:11
  the cortege. It happened that the hotel had the reputation of being the best,
• 2:18:15
  the most expensive, and the most aristocratic in all the spa. And
• 2:18:20
  at every turn on the staircase or in the corridors, we encountered fine ladies
• 2:18:24
  and important looking englishmen, more than one of whom hastened downstairs to inquire of
• 2:18:28
  the awestruck landlord who the newcomer was. To all such questions, he returned
• 2:18:33
  the same answer, namely that the old lady was an influential foreigner, a
• 2:18:39
  Russian, a countess and a grand dame, and that she had taken the
• 2:18:43
  suite which during the previous week had been tenanted by the Grand Duchess de n
• 2:18:52
  Meanwhile, the cause of the sensation, the grandmother was being borne aloft in
• 2:18:56
  her arm chair. Every person whom she met she scared and with an inquisitive
• 2:19:01
  eye, after first of all interrogating me about him or her at the top
• 2:19:05
  of her voice. She was stout of figure, and though she could not
• 2:19:09
  leave her chair, one felt the moment that one first looked at her that
• 2:19:11
  she was also tall of stature. Her back was as straight as a board,
• 2:19:16
  and never did she lean back in her seat. Also, her large
• 2:19:20
  gray head, with its keen rugged features, remained always erect as she glanced
• 2:19:24
  about her in an imperious, challenging sort of way, with looks and gestures
• 2:19:28
  that clearly were unstudied. Though she had reached her seventy sixth year, her
• 2:19:33
  face was still fresh and her teeth had not decayed. Lastly, she was
• 2:19:39
  dressed in a black silk gown and white mob cap. She interests me tremendously,
• 2:19:45
  whispered mister Astley, as still smoking, he walked by my side.
• 2:19:50
  Meanwhile, I was reflecting that probably the old lady knew all about the telegrams,
• 2:19:54
  and even about Debrieree, though little or nothing about Mademoiselle Blanche. I
• 2:20:00
  said as much to mister Astley. But what a frail creature is man.
• 2:20:05
  No sooner was my first surprise abated than I found myself rejoicing in the shock
• 2:20:09
  which we were about to administer to the General. So much did the thought
• 2:20:15
  inspire me that I marched ahead in the gayest of fashions. Our party was
• 2:20:20
  lodging on the third floor, without knocking at the door or in any way
• 2:20:24
  announcing our presence, I threw open the portals, and the grandmother was borne
• 2:20:28
  through them in triumph. As though of set purpose. The whole party chanced
• 2:20:33
  at that moment to be assembled in the General's study. The time was eleven
• 2:20:39
  o'clock, and it seemed that an outing of some sort, at which a
• 2:20:41
  portion of the party were to drive in carriages and others to ride on horseback,
• 2:20:46
  accompanied by one or two extraneous acquaintances, was being planned. The General
• 2:20:52
  was present, and also Paulina, the children, the latter's nurses, de
• 2:20:56
  Grier, Mademoiselle Blanche, attired in a writing habit, her mother, the
• 2:21:01
  young Prince, and a learned German, whom I beheld for the first time
• 2:21:05
  into the midst of this assembly. The lackeys conveyed Madame in her chair and
• 2:21:09
  set her down within three paces of the General. Good Heavens, never shall
• 2:21:16
  I forget the spectacle which ensued just before our entry. The General had been
• 2:21:20
  holding forth to the company, with de Griere in support of him. I
• 2:21:24
  may also mention that for the last two or three days, Mademoiselle Blanche and
• 2:21:28
  de Griere had been making a great deal of the young Prince under the very
• 2:21:33
  nose of the poor General. In short, the company, though decorous and
• 2:21:37
  conventional, was in a gay, familiar mood. But no sooner did the
• 2:21:41
  grandmother appear than the General stopped dead in the middle of a word, and
• 2:21:46
  with jaw dropping, stared hard at the old lady, his eyes almost starting
• 2:21:50
  out of his head, and his expression as spellbound as though he had just
• 2:21:54
  seen a basilisk. In return, the grandmother stared at him silently, without
• 2:22:00
  moving, though with a look of mingled challenge, triumph and ridicule in her
• 2:22:05
  eyes. For ten seconds did the pair remain thus eyeing one another amid the
• 2:22:09
  profound silence of the company, And even de Griere sat petrified, an extraordinary
• 2:22:15
  look of uneasiness dawning on his face. As for Mademoiselle Blanche, she too
• 2:22:20
  stared wildly at the grandmother, with eyebrows raised and her lips parted. While
• 2:22:24
  the Prince and the German savant contemplated the tableau in profound amazement. Only Paulina
• 2:22:31
  looked anything but perplexed or surprised. Presently, however, she too turned as
• 2:22:35
  white as a sheet and then reddened to her temples. Truly, the grandmother's
• 2:22:41
  arrival seemed to be a catastrophe for everybody. For my own part, I
• 2:22:46
  stood looking from the Grandmother to the company and back again, while mister Astley,
• 2:22:50
  as usual, remained in the background and gazed calmly and decorously at the
• 2:22:56
  scene. Well, here I am, and instead of a telegram too,
• 2:23:00
  the grandmother at last ejaculated to dissipate the silence. What you were not expecting
• 2:23:05
  me? And Tounita Vassilyevna, Oh, my dearest mother, But how on
• 2:23:11
  earth did you? Did you? The mutterings of the unhappy general died away.
• 2:23:18
  I verily believe that if the grandmother had held her tongue a few seconds
• 2:23:22
  longer, she would have had a stroke. How on earth did I what?
• 2:23:26
  She exclaimed? Why? I just got into the train and came here.
• 2:23:31
  What else is the railway meant for? But you thought that I had
• 2:23:33
  turned up my toes and left my property to the lot of you. Oh,
• 2:23:37
  I know all about the telegrams which you have been dispatching. They must
• 2:23:41
  have cost you a pretty sum, I should think, for telegrams are not
• 2:23:43
  sent from abroad for nothing. Well, I picked up my heels and came
• 2:23:48
  here. Who is this frenchman, Monsieur de grie I suppose oui, madame
• 2:23:54
  assented de griere, Eh croie jesuis si enchant votre saint set a miracle?
• 2:24:03
  Vouvoisi une surprise, Charmant. Just so, Charmont, I happen to know
• 2:24:09
  you as a mountebank, and therefore trust you no more than this. She
• 2:24:13
  indicated her little finger, And who is that? She went on turning towards
• 2:24:18
  Mademoiselle Blanche. Evidently the frenchwoman looked so becoming in her riding habit with her
• 2:24:22
  whip in her hand, that she had made an impression upon the old lady.
• 2:24:26
  Who is that woman there, Mademoiselle de Commigie, I said, and
• 2:24:33
  this is her mother, Madame de Commigier. They are also staying in the
• 2:24:37
  hotel. Is the daughter married, asked the old lady, without the least
• 2:24:41
  semblance of ceremony. No, I replied, as respectfully as possible. But
• 2:24:46
  under my breath, is she good company? I failed to understand the question.
• 2:24:50
  I mean, is she or is she not a boer? Can she
• 2:24:54
  speak Russian? When this de griere was in Moscow, he soon learnt to
• 2:24:58
  make himself understood. I explained to the old lady that Mademoiselle Blanche had never
• 2:25:03
  visited Russia. Bonjeur, then said Madame, with sudden breuscertie. Bonsieur.
• 2:25:09
  Madame replied Mademoiselle Blanche with an elegant, ceremonious bow. As under cover of
• 2:25:16
  an unwonted modesty, she endeavored to express both in face and figure, her
• 2:25:20
  extreme surprise at such strange behavior on the part of the grandmother. How the
• 2:25:26
  woman sticks out her eyes at me how she mows and minces, was the
• 2:25:31
  grandmother's comment. Then she turned suddenly to the General and continued, I have
• 2:25:37
  taken up my abode here, so am going to be your next door neighbor.
• 2:25:41
  Are you glad to hear that? Or are you not? My dear
• 2:25:45
  mother? Believe me when I say that, I am sincerely delighted, returned
• 2:25:48
  the General, who had now to a certain extent recovered his senses, and
• 2:25:52
  inasmuch as when occasion arose he could speak with fluency, gravity, and a
• 2:25:56
  certain effect, he set himself to be expansive in his remarks and went on,
• 2:26:01
  we have been so dismayed and upset by the news of your indisposition.
• 2:26:05
  We had received such hopeless telegrams about you. Then suddenly, fibbs Fibbs interrupted
• 2:26:11
  the grandmother. How on earth, too, did you come to decide upon
• 2:26:16
  the journey, continued the General with raised voice as he hurried to overlook the
• 2:26:20
  old lady's last remark. Surely, at your age and in your present state
• 2:26:24
  of health, the thing is so unexpected that our surprise is at least intelligible.
• 2:26:30
  However, I am glad to see you, as indeed are we all.
• 2:26:33
  He said this with a dignified yet conciliatory smile, and will use my
• 2:26:37
  best endeavors to render your stay here as pleasant as possible. Enough, all
• 2:26:43
  this is empty chatter. You are talking the usual nonsense. I shall know
• 2:26:46
  quite well how to spend my time. How did I come to undertake the
• 2:26:50
  journey? You ask, well, is there anything so very surprising about it?
• 2:26:54
  It was done quite simply. What is everyone going into ecstasies about?
• 2:27:00
  How do you do? Prascovie? What are you doing here? And how
• 2:27:05
  are you grandmother? Replied Paulina as she approached the old lady. Were you
• 2:27:11
  long on the journey? The most sensible question that I have yet been asked?
• 2:27:16
  Well, you shall hear for yourself how it all happened. I lay
• 2:27:18
  and lay, and was doctored and doctored, until at last I drove the
• 2:27:22
  physicians from me and called in an apothecary from Nikolai, who had cured an
• 2:27:28
  old woman of a malady similar to my own, cured her merely with a
• 2:27:31
  little haycied, well, he did me a great deal of good, for
• 2:27:35
  on the third day I broke into a sweat and was able to leave my
• 2:27:39
  bed. Then my German doctors held another consultation put on their spectacles and told
• 2:27:45
  me that if I would go abroad and take a course of the waters,
• 2:27:48
  the indisposition would finally pass away. Why should it not, I thought to
• 2:27:52
  myself. So I had got things ready, and on the following day,
• 2:27:56
  a Friday, set out for here. I occupied a span victual compartment in
• 2:28:00
  the train, and wherever I had to change I found at the station bearers
• 2:28:05
  who were ready to carry me for a few coppers. You have nice quarters
• 2:28:07
  here, she went on as she glanced around the room. But where on
• 2:28:11
  earth did you get the money for them? My good sir, I thought
• 2:28:15
  that everything of yours had been mortgaged. This frenchman alone must be your creditor
• 2:28:18
  for a good deal. Oh, I know all about it, all about
• 2:28:22
  it. I I am surprised at you, my dearest mother, said the
• 2:28:26
  General, in some confusion. I am greatly surprised. But I do not
• 2:28:31
  need any extraneous control of my finances. Moreover, my expenses do not exceed
• 2:28:35
  my income, and we they do not exceed it. Fie, why you
• 2:28:41
  are robbing your children of their last kopeck? You their guardian? After this
• 2:28:48
  said the General completely taken aback. After what you have just said. I
• 2:28:52
  do not know whether you do not know what? By heavens are you never
• 2:28:56
  going to drop that roulette of yours? Are you going to whistle all your
• 2:29:00
  property away? This made such an impression upon the General that he almost choked
• 2:29:05
  with fury. Roulette, indeed, I play roulette really in view of my
• 2:29:11
  position. Recollect what you are saying, my dearest mother, you must still
• 2:29:15
  be unwell. Rubbish, rubbish, she retorted. The truth is that you
• 2:29:20
  cannot be got away from that roulette. You are simply telling lies. This
• 2:29:24
  very day. I mean to go and see for myself what Roulette is like.
• 2:29:28
  Rascovia. Tell me what there is to be seen here? And do
• 2:29:33
  you Alexis Savanovitch show me everything? And do you Potapitch make me a list
• 2:29:39
  of excursions? What is there to be seen? Again? She inquired of
• 2:29:43
  Polina, there is a ruined castle and the Schlangenberg. The Schlangenberg, what
• 2:29:48
  is it? A forest? No? A mountain on the summit of which
• 2:29:52
  there is a place fenced off from it? You can get a most beautiful
• 2:29:54
  view. Could a chair be carried up that mountain of yours? Doubtless?
• 2:29:58
  We could fine bearers for the purpose, I interposed. At this moment Theodosia,
• 2:30:03
  the nursemaid approached the old lady with the general's children. No, I
• 2:30:09
  don't want to see them, said the grandmother. I hate kissing children,
• 2:30:11
  for their noses are always wet. How are you getting on Theodosia. I
• 2:30:16
  am very well, Thank you, madame, replied the nursemaid. And how
• 2:30:20
  is your ladyship? We have been feeling so anxious about you. Yes,
• 2:30:24
  I know you, simple soul. But who are those other guests? The
• 2:30:28
  old lady continued, turning again to Poulina. For instance, who is that
• 2:30:31
  old rascal in the spectacles? Prince Nilsky? Grandmamma, whispered Poulina, Oh,
• 2:30:39
  a Russian? Why I had no idea that he could understand me.
• 2:30:43
  Surely he did not hear what I said. As for mister Astley, I
• 2:30:46
  have seen him already and I see that he is here again. How do
• 2:30:48
  you do she added to the gentleman in question. Mister Astley bowed in silence.
• 2:30:54
  Have you nothing to say to me? The old lady went on,
• 2:30:56
  say something, for goodness sake, translate to a Poulina. Polina did so,
• 2:31:03
  I have only to say, replied mister Astley gravely, but also with
• 2:31:05
  alacrity, that I am indeed glad to see you in such good health.
• 2:31:11
  This was interpreted to the grandmother, and she seemed much gratified. How well
• 2:31:16
  English people know how to answer one. She remarked, That is why I
• 2:31:20
  like them so much better than French. Come here, she added to mister
• 2:31:22
  Astley. I will try not to bore you too much. Polina translate to
• 2:31:28
  him that I am staying in rooms on a lower floor. Yes, on
• 2:31:31
  a lower floor, she repeated to Astley, pointing downwards with her finger.
• 2:31:37
  Astley looked pleased at receiving the invitation. Next, the old lady scanned Paulina
• 2:31:41
  from head to foot with minute attention. I could almost have liked you,
• 2:31:46
  Prascovia. Suddenly, she remarked, for you are a nice girl, the
• 2:31:50
  best of the lot. You have some character about you. I too have
• 2:31:54
  character. Turn round, surely that is not false hair that you are wearing,
• 2:31:58
  No, grandmamma, it is my own. Well, well, I
• 2:32:03
  do not like the stupid fashions of today. You are very good looking.
• 2:32:07
  I should have fallen in love with you if I had been a man.
• 2:32:09
  Why do you not get married? It is time now that I was going.
• 2:32:13
  I want to walk, yet I always have to ride. Are you
• 2:32:16
  still in a bad temper? She added to the General. No, indeed,
• 2:32:20
  rejoined the now mollified General, I quite understand that at your time of
• 2:32:24
  life, Cittier et tomby n Entfranse de grie whispered to me. But I
• 2:32:31
  want to look around a little, the old lady added to the General.
• 2:32:35
  Will you lend me Alexis Ivanovitch for the purpose as much as you like?
• 2:32:39
  But I myself yes, and poulina a Monsieur de Griere too. We all
• 2:32:43
  of us hope to have the pleasure of escorting you. Mad Madame Sela sera
• 2:32:48
  unt pleagier. De Grier commented with a bewitching smile. Pleagier, indeed,
• 2:32:56
  why I look upon you as a perfect fool, monsieur. Then she remarked
• 2:33:00
  to the General, I am not going to let you have any of my
• 2:33:03
  money. I must be off to my rooms now to see what they are
• 2:33:05
  like. Afterwards we will look round a little. Lift me up again.
• 2:33:11
  The grandmother was born aloft and carried down the staircase amid a perfect bevy of
• 2:33:16
  followers, the General walking as though he had been hit over the head with
• 2:33:18
  a cudgel, and de Griere, seeming to be plunged in thought, endeavoring
• 2:33:22
  to be left behind. Mademoiselle Blanche next thought better of it and followed the
• 2:33:28
  rest, with the Prince in her wake. Only the German Savant and Madame
• 2:33:31
  de Commiger did not leave the general's apartments. End of Chapter nine, Chapter
• 2:33:37
  ten. At Spas and probably all over Europe, hotel landlords and managers are
• 2:33:46
  guided in their allotment of rooms to visitors not so much by the wishes and
• 2:33:48
  requirements of those visitors as by their personal estimate of the same. It may
• 2:33:54
  also be said that these landlords and managers seldom make a mistake to the grandmother.
• 2:34:01
  However, our landlord, for some reason or another, allotted such a
• 2:34:03
  sumptuous suite that he fairly overreached himself, For he assigned her a suite consisting
• 2:34:09
  of four magnificently appointed rooms, with bathroom, servants quarters, a separate room
• 2:34:16
  for her maid, and so on. In fact, during the previous week
• 2:34:20
  the suite had been occupied by no less a personage than a grand Duchess,
• 2:34:26
  which circumstance was duly explained to the new occupant as an excuse for raising the
• 2:34:31
  price of these apartments. The grandmother had herself carried, or rather wheeled,
• 2:34:37
  through each room in turn, in order that she might subject the whole to
• 2:34:41
  a close and attentive scrutiny, while the landlord, an elderly bald headed man,
• 2:34:46
  walked respectfully by her side. What every one took the grandmother to be
• 2:34:52
  I do not know, but it appeared at least that she was accounted a
• 2:34:56
  person not only of great importance, but all also, and still more of
• 2:35:01
  great wealth. And without delay they entered her in the hotel register as Madame
• 2:35:05
  le General Princess de Tara sa Vicheva. Although she had never been a princess
• 2:35:11
  in her life, her retinue, her reserved compartment in the train, her
• 2:35:18
  pile of unnecessary trunks, portmanteau, and strong boxes all helped to increase her
• 2:35:22
  prestige, while her wheeled chair, her sharp tone and voice, her eccentric
• 2:35:28
  questions put with an air of the most overbearing and unbridled imperiousness, her whole
• 2:35:33
  figure upright, rugged and commanding. As it was completed. The general awe
• 2:35:39
  in which she was held as she inspected her new abode. She ordered her
• 2:35:43
  chair to be stopped at intervals in order that, with finger extended towards some
• 2:35:48
  article of furniture, she might ply the respectfully smiling, yet secretly apprehensive landlord
• 2:35:54
  with unexpected questions. She addressed them to him in French, although pronunciation of
• 2:36:00
  the language was so bad that sometimes I had to translate them. For the
• 2:36:05
  most part, the landlord's answers were unsatisfactory and failed to please her. Nor
• 2:36:09
  were the questions themselves of a practical nature, but related generally to God knows
• 2:36:15
  what. For instance, on one occasion she halted before a picture, which,
• 2:36:20
  a poor copy of a well known original, had a mythological subject.
• 2:36:26
  Of whom is this a portrait? She inquired? The landlord explained that it
• 2:36:30
  was probably that of a countess? But how do you know that, the
• 2:36:33
  old lady retorted, you live here, yet you cannot say for certain?
• 2:36:39
  And why is the picture there at all? And why do its eyes look
• 2:36:41
  so crooked? To all these questions, the landlord could return no satisfactory reply.
• 2:36:48
  Despite his floundering endeavors, The blockhead exclaimed the grandmother in Russian. Then
• 2:36:56
  she proceeded on her way, only to repeat the same story in front of
• 2:36:58
  a Saxon statuette, which she had sighted from Afar and had commanded, for
• 2:37:03
  some reason or another, to be brought to her. Finally, she inquired
• 2:37:07
  of the landlord what was the value of the carpet in her bedroom, as
• 2:37:11
  well as where the said carpet had been manufactured. But the landlord could do
• 2:37:16
  no more than promise to make inquiries. What donkeys these people are, she
• 2:37:20
  commented. Next, she turned her attention to the bed. What a huge
• 2:37:26
  counterpane, she exclaimed, Turn it back please. The lackeys did so.
• 2:37:31
  Further, yet further yet, the old lady cried, turn it right back.
• 2:37:35
  Also, take off those pillows and boasters and lift up the feather bed.
• 2:37:41
  The bed was opened for her inspection. Mercifully, it contains no bugs,
• 2:37:46
  she remarked. Pull off the whole thing, and then put on my
• 2:37:50
  own pillows and sheets. The place is too luxurious for an old woman like
• 2:37:54
  myself. It is too large for any one person. Alexis Ivanovitch, come
• 2:37:58
  and see me whenever you are not teaching your pupils. After tomorrow, I
• 2:38:03
  shall no longer be in the General's service, I replied, but merely living
• 2:38:07
  in the hotel on my own account. Why so, because the other day
• 2:38:11
  there arrived from Berlin a German and his wife, persons of some importance,
• 2:38:16
  And it chanced that, when taking a walk, I spoke to them in
• 2:38:20
  German, without having properly compassed the Berlin accent. Indeed, yes, and
• 2:38:26
  this action on my part the baron held to be an insult and complained about
• 2:38:30
  it to the General, who yesterday dismissed me from his employ But I suppose
• 2:38:35
  you must have threatened that precious baron or something of the kind. However,
• 2:38:39
  even if you did so, it was a matter of no moment. No
• 2:38:43
  I did not. The baron was the aggressor, by raising his stick at
• 2:38:46
  me. Upon that, the grandmother turned sharply to the General, what you
• 2:38:52
  permitted yourself to treat your tutor? Thus you nincom poop and to dismiss him
• 2:38:56
  from his post. You are a blockhead, an utter blockhead. I can
• 2:39:01
  see that clearly. Do not alarm yourself, my dear mother. The General
• 2:39:05
  replied with a lofty air, an air in which there was also a tinge
• 2:39:09
  of familiarity. I am quite capable of managing my own affairs. Moreover,
• 2:39:13
  Alexis Ivanovitch has not given you a true account of the matter. What did
• 2:39:18
  you do next? The old lady inquired of me. I wanted to challenge
• 2:39:22
  the baron to a duel, I replied, as modestly as possible. But
• 2:39:26
  the General protested against my doing so. And why did you so protest?
• 2:39:31
  She inquired of the general. Then she turned to the landlord and questioned him
• 2:39:35
  as to whether he would not have fought a duel if challenged, For she
• 2:39:41
  added, I can see no difference between you and the baron, nor can
• 2:39:43
  I bear that German visage of yours. Upon this, the landlord bowed and
• 2:39:48
  departed, though he could not have understood the grandmother's compliment. Pardon me,
• 2:39:54
  madame, the general continued with a sneer, But are duels really feasible?
• 2:40:01
  Why not? All men are crowing cocks, and that is why they quarrel
• 2:40:05
  you, though, I perceive, are a blockhead, a man who does
• 2:40:07
  not even know how to carry his breeding. Lift me up, potapitch.
• 2:40:15
  See to it that you always have two bearers ready, go and arrange for
• 2:40:18
  their hire. But we shall not require more than two, for I shall
• 2:40:22
  need only to be carried upstairs, on the level or in the street.
• 2:40:26
  I can be wheeled along. Go and tell them that, and pay them
• 2:40:30
  in advance, so that they may show me some respect. You, too,
• 2:40:33
  Potapitch, are always to come with me, and you, Alexis Savanovitch,
• 2:40:37
  are to point out to me this baron as we go along, in
• 2:40:41
  order that I may get a squint at the precious van. And where is
• 2:40:45
  that roulette played? I explained to her that the game was carried on in
• 2:40:50
  the salons of the casino. Whereupon there ensued a string of questions as to
• 2:40:54
  whether there were many such salons, whether many people played in them, whether
• 2:40:58
  those people played a whole day at a time, and whether the game was
• 2:41:01
  managed according to fixed rules. At length, I thought it best to say
• 2:41:07
  that the most advisable course would be for her to go and see it for
• 2:41:09
  herself, since a mere description of it would be a difficult matter. Then
• 2:41:15
  take me straight there, she said, And do you walk on in front
• 2:41:18
  of me, Alexis Ivanovitch, what mother, before you have so much as
• 2:41:24
  rested from your journey? The general inquired with some solicitude. Also, for
• 2:41:30
  some reason which I could not divine, he seemed to be growing nervous,
• 2:41:33
  And indeed the whole party was evincing signs of confusion and exchanging glances with one
• 2:41:39
  another. Probably they were thinking that it would be a ticklish, even an
• 2:41:43
  embarrassing business to accompany the grandmother to the casino, where very likely she would
• 2:41:48
  perpetrate further eccentricities, and in public too. Yet on their own initiative,
• 2:41:54
  they had offered to escort her. Why should I rest, she retorted,
• 2:41:58
  I am not tired, for I have been sitting still these past five days.
• 2:42:03
  Let us see what your medicinal springs and waters are like and where they
• 2:42:07
  are situated. What to about that that what did you call it? Prascovie?
• 2:42:11
  Or about that mountain top? Yes, we are going to see it,
• 2:42:16
  grandmamma very well? Is there anything else for me to see here?
• 2:42:20
  Yes, quite a number of things. Polina forced herself to say, Martha,
• 2:42:24
  you must come with me as well, went on the old lady to
• 2:42:28
  her maid. No, no, mother ejaculated the general. Really, she
• 2:42:33
  cannot come. They would not admit even Potapitch to the casino. Rubbish because
• 2:42:39
  she is my servant. Is that a reason for turning her out? Why
• 2:42:43
  she is only a human being like the rest of us, And as she
• 2:42:46
  has been traveling for a week she might like to look about her with whom
• 2:42:50
  else could she go out but myself? She would never dare to show her
• 2:42:54
  nose in the street alone. But mother, are you ashamed to be seen
• 2:42:58
  with me? Stop at home then, and you will be asked no questions.
• 2:43:01
  A pretty general, you are to be sure, I am a general's
• 2:43:05
  widow myself. But after all, why should I drag the whole party with
• 2:43:09
  me? I will go and see the sights with only Alexis Ivanovitch as my
• 2:43:13
  escort. De Grier strongly insisted that every one ought to accompany her. Indeed,
• 2:43:18
  he launched out into a perfect shower of charming phrases concerning the pleasure of
• 2:43:24
  acting as her cicerone, and so forth every one was touched with his words.
• 2:43:31
  Mesel et tombille and enfanse, he added, aside to the general sule
• 2:43:37
  al Fera de Betisey. More than this I could not overhear. But he
• 2:43:41
  seemed to have got some plan in his mind, or even to be feeling
• 2:43:45
  a slight return of his hopes. The distance to the casino was about half
• 2:43:50
  averst and our route led us through the Chestnut Avenue until we reached the square
• 2:43:54
  directly fronting the building. The General, I could see, was a trifle
• 2:43:58
  rearsured by the fact that though our progress was distinctly eccentric in its nature,
• 2:44:03
  it was at least correct and orderly. As a matter of fact, the
• 2:44:07
  spectacle of a person who was unable to walk is not anything to excite surprise
• 2:44:11
  at a spa. Yet it was clear that the General had a great fear
• 2:44:16
  of the casino itself, for why should a person who had lost the use
• 2:44:20
  of her limbs, more especially an old woman, be going to rooms which
• 2:44:24
  were set apart only for roulette. On either side of the wheeled chair walked
• 2:44:28
  Polina and Mademoiselle Blanche, the latter smiling, modestly, jesting, and in
• 2:44:33
  short making herself so agreeable to the grandmother that in the end the old lady
• 2:44:37
  relented towards her. On the other side of the chair, Polina had to
• 2:44:41
  answer an endless flow of petty questions, such as, who was it past?
• 2:44:46
  Just now? Who is that coming along? Is the town a large
• 2:44:52
  one? Are the public gardens extensive? What sort of trees are those?
• 2:44:56
  What is the name of those hills? Do I see eagles flying yonder?
• 2:45:01
  What is that absurd? Looking building and so forth. Meanwhile, Astley whispered
• 2:45:07
  to me as he walked by my side that he looked for much to happen
• 2:45:11
  that morning. Behind the old lady's chair marched Potapitch and Martha Potapitch in his
• 2:45:16
  frock coat and white waistcoat with a cloak over all, and the forty year
• 2:45:20
  old and rosy but slightly gray headed Martha in a mob cap, cotton dress
• 2:45:26
  and squeaking shoes. Frequently the old lady would twist herself round to converse with
• 2:45:31
  these servants. As for de Griel, he spoke as though he had made
• 2:45:35
  up his mind to do something, though it is also possible that he spoke
• 2:45:39
  in this manner merely in order to hearten the general with whom he appeared to
• 2:45:43
  have held a conference. But alas the grandmother had uttered the fatal words,
• 2:45:48
  I am not going to give you any of my money. And though de
• 2:45:52
  Griere might regard these words lightly, the general knew his mother better. Also,
• 2:45:58
  I noticed that to Griere and Mademoiselle Blanche were still exchanging looks, while
• 2:46:03
  of the Prince in the German savant, I lost sight at the end of
• 2:46:07
  the avenue where they had turned back and left us. Into the casino.
• 2:46:11
  We marched in triumph at once, both in the person of the comichionnaire and
• 2:46:16
  in the persons of the footmen. There sprang to life the same reverence as
• 2:46:20
  had arisen in the lackeys of the hotel. Yet it was not without some
• 2:46:24
  curiosity that they eyed us without loss of time. The grandmother gave orders that
• 2:46:28
  she should be wheeled through every room in the establishment, of which apartments she
• 2:46:33
  praised a few, while to others she remained indifferent. Concerning everything, However,
• 2:46:37
  she asked questions. Finally we reached the gaming salons, where a lackey,
• 2:46:43
  who was acting as guard over the doors, flung them open as though
• 2:46:46
  he were a man possessed. The grandmother's entry into the roulette salon produced a
• 2:46:52
  profound impression upon the public. Around the tables and at the further end of
• 2:46:56
  the room, where the tronte de carante table was set out, there may
• 2:47:01
  have been gathered from one hundred fifty to two hundred gamblers ranged in several rows.
• 2:47:05
  Those who had succeeded in pushing their way to the tables were standing with
• 2:47:09
  their feet firmly planted in order to avoid having to give up their places until
• 2:47:13
  they should have finished their game, since merely to stand looking on, thus
• 2:47:18
  occupying a gambler's place for nothing, was not permitted. True chairs were provided
• 2:47:24
  around the tables, but few players made use of them, more especially if
• 2:47:28
  there was a large attendance of the general public, since to stand allowed of
• 2:47:33
  a closer approach and therefore of greater facilities for calculation and staking. Behind the
• 2:47:39
  foremost row were herded a second and a third row of people awaiting their turn.
• 2:47:43
  But sometimes their impatience led these people to stretch a hand through the first
• 2:47:48
  row in order to deposit their stakes. Even third row individuals would dart forward
• 2:47:54
  to stake, whence seldom did more than five or ten minutes pass without a
• 2:47:58
  scene over dis muted money arising at one or another end of the table.
• 2:48:03
  On the other hand, the police of the casino were an able body of
• 2:48:05
  men, and though to escape the crush was an impossibility, however much one
• 2:48:11
  might wish it, the eight croupiers apportioned to each table kept an eye upon
• 2:48:16
  the stakes, performed the necessary reckoning, and decided disputes as they arose.
• 2:48:22
  In the last resort, they always called in the casino police, and the
• 2:48:24
  disputes would immediately come to an end. Policemen were stationed about the casino in
• 2:48:30
  ordinary costume and mingled with the spectators so as to make it impossible to recognize
• 2:48:35
  them. In particular, they kept a lookout for pickpockets and swindlers who simply
• 2:48:41
  swanned in the roulette salons and reaped a rich harvest. Indeed, in every
• 2:48:45
  direction money was being filched from pockets or purses, though, of course if
• 2:48:50
  the attempt miscarried, a great uproar ensued. One had only to approach a
• 2:48:54
  roulette table, begin to play, and then openly grab someone else's winnings for
• 2:48:58
  a din to be raised and the thief to start vociferating that the stake was
• 2:49:03
  his. And if the coup had been carried out with sufficient skill, and
• 2:49:07
  the witnesses wavered at all in their testimony, the thief would as likely as
• 2:49:11
  not succeed in getting away with the money, provided that the sum was not
• 2:49:16
  a large one, not large enough to have attracted the attention of the croupiers
• 2:49:20
  or some fellow player. Moreover, if it were a stake of insignificant size,
• 2:49:26
  its true owner would sometimes decline to continue the dispute rather than become involved
• 2:49:30
  in a scandal. Conversely, if the thief was detected, he was ignominiously
• 2:49:35
  expelled the building. Upon all this, the grandmother gazed with open eyed curiosity,
• 2:49:41
  and on some thieves happening to be turned out of the place, she
• 2:49:45
  was delighted. Trante decarant interested her, but little she preferred roulette with its
• 2:49:50
  ever revolving wheel. At length, she expressed a wish to view the game
• 2:49:54
  closer. Whereupon, in some mysterious manner, the lackeys and other officious agents,
• 2:50:00
  especially one or two ruined poles of the kind to keep offering their services
• 2:50:03
  to successful gamblers and foreigners in general, at once found and cleared a space
• 2:50:09
  for the old lady among the crush, at the very center of one of
• 2:50:13
  the tables, and next to the chief croupier, after which they wheeled her
• 2:50:16
  chair thither. Upon this a number of visitors, who were not playing but
• 2:50:22
  only looking on, particularly some Englishmen with their families, pressed closer forward towards
• 2:50:26
  the table in order to watch the old lady. From among the ranks of
• 2:50:31
  the gamblers, many Alrgnette I saw turned in her direction, and the croupier's
• 2:50:37
  hopes rose high that such an eccentric player was about to provide them with something
• 2:50:41
  out of the common. An old lady of seventy five years, who,
• 2:50:45
  though unable to walk, desired to play was not an every day phenomenon.
• 2:50:48
  I too, pressed forward towards the table and arranged myself by the grandmother's side,
• 2:50:54
  while Martha and Potapitch remained somewhere in the background among the crowd, and
• 2:50:58
  the General Polina and de Grieree with Mademoiselle Blanche, also remained hidden among the
• 2:51:03
  spectators. At first, the old lady did no more than watch the gamblers
• 2:51:07
  and ply me in a half whisper with sharp broken questions as to who was
• 2:51:11
  so and so. Especially did her favor light upon a very young man who
• 2:51:16
  was plunging heavily and had won, so it was whispered as much as forty
• 2:51:20
  thousand francs, which were lying before him on the table in a heap of
• 2:51:24
  gold and bank notes. His eyes kept flashing and his hands shaking, Yet
• 2:51:28
  all the while he staked, without any sort of calculation, just what came
• 2:51:31
  to his hand. As he kept winning and winning, and raking and raking
• 2:51:35
  in his gains. Around him, Lackey's fust placing chairs just behind where he
• 2:51:41
  was standing, and clearing the spectators from his vicinity so that he should have
• 2:51:45
  more room and not be crowded the hole done, of course, in expectation
• 2:51:48
  of a generous largesse. From time to time other gamblers would hand him part
• 2:51:56
  of their winnings, being glad to let him stake for them as much as
• 2:51:58
  his hand could grasp. While beside him stood a poll in a state of
• 2:52:03
  violent but respectful agitation, who, also in expectation of a generous lodgess,
• 2:52:07
  kept whispering to him at intervals, probably telling him what to stake, and
• 2:52:11
  advising and directing his play. Yet never once did the player throw him a
• 2:52:16
  glance as he staked and staked and raked in his winnings. Evidently the player
• 2:52:20
  in question was dead to all besides. For a few minutes, the grandmother
• 2:52:26
  watched him. Go and tell him, suddenly, she exclaimed, with a
• 2:52:31
  nudge at my elbow, go and tell him to stop, and to take
• 2:52:33
  his money with him and go home. Presently he will be losing, yes,
• 2:52:37
  losing everything that he is now won. She seemed, almost breathless with
• 2:52:43
  excitement. Where is potapitch, she continued, send Potapitch to speak to him.
• 2:52:48
  No, you must tell him. You must tell him here, she
• 2:52:52
  nudged me again, for I have not the least notion where Potapitch is.
• 2:52:56
  Soorte sorte she shouted to the young man until I lent her in her direction,
• 2:53:00
  and whispered in her ear that no shouting was allowed, nor even loud
• 2:53:03
  speaking, since to do so disturbed the calculations of the players and might lead
• 2:53:09
  to our being ejected. How provoking, she retorted, Then the young man
• 2:53:15
  is done, for I suppose he wishes to be ruined, yet I could
• 2:53:18
  not bear to see him have to return at all. What a fool the
• 2:53:22
  fellow is. And the old lady turned sharply away. On the left among
• 2:53:28
  the players, at the other half of the table, a young lady was
• 2:53:31
  playing with beside her a dwarf. Who the dwarf may have been, whether
• 2:53:35
  a relative or a person whom she took whither to act as a foil,
• 2:53:39
  I do not know, but I had noticed her there on previous occasions,
• 2:53:43
  since every day she entered the casino at one o'clock precisely and departed at two,
• 2:53:50
  thus playing for exactly one hour. Being well known to the attendants.
• 2:53:54
  She always had a seat provided for her, and, taking some gold and
• 2:53:58
  a few thousand francs notes out of her pocket, would begin quietly, coldly,
• 2:54:03
  and after much calculation, to stake and mark down the figures in pencil
• 2:54:07
  on a paper, as though striving to work out a system according to which,
• 2:54:11
  at given moments the odds might group themselves. Always she staked large coins
• 2:54:16
  and either lost or one, one, two, or three thousand francs a
• 2:54:22
  day, but not more, after which she would depart. The grandmother took
• 2:54:26
  a long look at her. That woman is not losing, she said,
• 2:54:31
  to whom does she belong? Do you know her? Who is she?
• 2:54:35
  She is? I believe a French woman, I replied, Ah, a
• 2:54:39
  bird of passage. Evidently. Besides, I can see that she has her
• 2:54:43
  shoes polished. Now explain to me the meaning of each round in the game,
• 2:54:48
  and the way in which one ought to stake. Upon this, I
• 2:54:52
  set myself to explain the meaning of all the combinations a ruegen noire of peire
• 2:54:58
  et timpire of monkey e passe, with lastly the different values in the system
• 2:55:03
  of numbers. The grandmother listened attentively, took notes, put questions in various
• 2:55:09
  forms, and laid the whole thing to heart. Indeed, since an example
• 2:55:13
  of each system of stakes kept constantly occurring, a great deal of information could
• 2:55:18
  be assimilated with ease and celerity. The grandmother was vastly pleased. But what
• 2:55:24
  is zero? She inquired, Just now I heard the flaxenhaired croupier call out
• 2:55:30
  zero? And why does he keep breaking in all the money that is on
• 2:55:33
  the table to think that he should grab the whole pile for himself? What
• 2:55:37
  does zero mean? Zero is what the bank takes for itself. If the
• 2:55:41
  wheel stops at that figure, everything lying on the table becomes the absolute property
• 2:55:46
  of the bank. Also, whenever the wheel has begun to turn, the
• 2:55:50
  bank ceases to pay out anything, then I should receive nothing if I were
• 2:55:54
  staking. No, unless by any chance, you had purposely staked on zero,
• 2:56:01
  in which case you would receive thirty five times the value of your stake.
• 2:56:05
  Why thirty five times when zero so often turns up? And if so,
• 2:56:09
  why do not more of these fools stake upon it? Because the number
• 2:56:13
  of chances against its occurrence is thirty six rubbish, potapitch, potapitch, Come
• 2:56:20
  here and I will give you some money. The old lady took out of
• 2:56:22
  her pocket a tightly clasped purse and extracted from its depths a ten goulden piece.
• 2:56:28
  Go at once and stake that upon zero. But madame Zero has only
• 2:56:35
  this moment turned up, I remonstrated, wherefore it may not do so again
• 2:56:39
  for ever so long, wait a little and you may then have a better
• 2:56:43
  chance. Rubbish steak, Please pardon me, but Zero might not turn up
• 2:56:48
  again until, say, tonight, even though you had staked thousands upon it.
• 2:56:52
  It often happens, so rubbish, rubbish who fears the wolf should never
• 2:56:58
  enter the forest? What have we lost? Then stake again a second ten
• 2:57:05
  goulden piece? Did we lose? And then I put down a third?
• 2:57:09
  The grandmother could scarcely remain seated in her chair, so intent was she upon
• 2:57:13
  the little ball as it leaped through the notches of the ever revolving wheel.
• 2:57:18
  However, the third ten goulden piece followed the first two. Upon this the
• 2:57:22
  grandmother went perfectly crazy. She could no longer sit still and actually struck the
• 2:57:28
  table with her fist. When the croupier cried out, plunt cease instead of
• 2:57:33
  the desiderated zero, listen to him fumed the old lady. When will that
• 2:57:39
  a cursed zero ever turn up? I cannot breathe until I see it.
• 2:57:43
  I believe that that infernal croupier is purposely keeping it from turning up. Alexis
• 2:57:48
  Ivanovitch staked two golden pieces this time. The moment we cease to stake,
• 2:57:52
  that cursed zero will come turning up, and we shall get nothing. My
• 2:57:56
  good madame, Steak, steak, it is not your money. Accordingly,
• 2:58:03
  I staked two ten golden pieces. The ball went hopping round the wheel until
• 2:58:09
  it began to settle through the notches. Meanwhile, the grandmother sat, as
• 2:58:11
  though petrified, with my hand convulsively clutched in hers zero. Called the croupier
• 2:58:20
  there you see, you see, cried the old lady, as she turned
• 2:58:22
  and faced me, wreathed in smiles. I told you so. It was
• 2:58:28
  the Lord God himself who suggested to me to stake those two coins. Now,
• 2:58:33
  how much ought I to receive? Why do they not pay it out
• 2:58:37
  to me? Potapitch, Martha? Where are they? What has become of
• 2:58:39
  our party? Potapitch, potapitch? Presently, madame, I whispered, potapitch
• 2:58:48
  is outside, And they would decline to admit him to these rooms. See
• 2:58:52
  you are being paid out your money, pray take it. The croupiers were
• 2:58:56
  making up a heavy packet of coins, sealed in blue paper and containing fifty
• 2:59:01
  ten goulden pieces, together with an unsealed packet containing another twenty. I handed
• 2:59:07
  the hole to the old lady in a money shovel. Fete l diieux,
• 2:59:13
  monsieur fete l diieu monsieur rienne Nevaupliu proclaimed the croupier as once more he invited
• 2:59:22
  the company to steak, and prepared to turn the wheel. We shall be
• 2:59:26
  too late. He is going to spin again. Steak, steak. The
• 2:59:28
  grandmother was in a perfect fever. Do not hang back, be quick.
• 2:59:33
  She seemed almost beside herself, and nudged me as hard as she could.
• 2:59:37
  Upon what shall I stake, Madame? Upon zero? Upon zero, again
• 2:59:41
  upon zero, Steak as much as ever you can. How much have we
• 2:59:45
  got seventy ten goulden pieces? We shall not miss them, So stake twenty
• 2:59:48
  pieces at a time. Think a moment, Madame. Sometimes zero does not
• 2:59:54
  turn up for two hundred rounds in succession. I assure you that you may
• 2:59:58
  lose all your capital. You are wrong utterly wrong, Steak. I tell
• 3:00:03
  you what a chattering tongue you have. I know perfectly well what I am
• 3:00:07
  doing. The old lady was shaking with excitement. But the rules do not
• 3:00:11
  allow of more than one hundred twenty gulden being staked upon zero at a time.
• 3:00:18
  How do not allow? Surely you are wrong, monsieur, monsieur.
• 3:00:22
  Here she nudged the croupier, who was sitting on her left and preparing to
• 3:00:26
  spin. Come yen zero duzdus, I hastened to translate. Oui, madame,
• 3:00:33
  was the croupier's polite reply. No, single steak must exceed four thousand
• 3:00:39
  florins. That is the regulation. Then there is nothing else for it.
• 3:00:43
  We must risk in gulden lejeu a fete. The croupier called. The wheel
• 3:00:50
  revolved and stopped at thirty. We had lost again again again, Steak again
• 3:00:56
  shouted the old lady, without attempting to pose her further, but merely shrugging
• 3:01:01
  my shoulders. I placed twelve more ten golden pieces upon the table. The
• 3:01:05
  wheel whirled around and around, with the grandmother simply quaking as she watched its
• 3:01:09
  revolutions. Does she again think that zero is going to be the winning coup,
• 3:01:15
  thought I as I stared at her in astonishment, Yet an absolute assurance
• 3:01:20
  of winning was shining on her face. She looked perfectly convinced that Zero was
• 3:01:24
  about to be called again. At length, the ball dropped off into one
• 3:01:28
  of the notches. Zero, cried the croupier. Ah, screamed the old
• 3:01:35
  lady as she turned to me in a whirl of triumph. I myself was
• 3:01:39
  at heart a gambler. At that moment, I became acutely conscious both of
• 3:01:43
  that fact and of the fact that my hands and knees were shaking, and
• 3:01:48
  that the blood was beating in my brain. Of course, this was a
• 3:01:52
  rare occasion, an occasion on which Zero had turned up no less than three
• 3:01:56
  times within a dozen rounds. Yet in such an event there was nothing so
• 3:02:01
  very surprising, seeing that only three days ago, I myself had been a
• 3:02:03
  witness to Zero turning up three times in succession, so that one of the
• 3:02:09
  players, who was recording the coups on paper, was moved to remark that
• 3:02:11
  for several days past, Zero had never turned up at all. With the
• 3:02:18
  grandmother, as with any one who has won a very large sum, the
• 3:02:22
  management settled up with great attention and respect, since she was fortunate to have
• 3:02:26
  to receive no less than four thousand, two hundred gulden. Of these goulden,
• 3:02:31
  the odd two hundred were paid to her in gold, and the remainder
• 3:02:33
  in bank notes. This time the old lady did not call for potapitch,
• 3:02:41
  for that she was too preoccupied. Though not outwardly shaken by the event.
• 3:02:45
  Indeed, she seemed perfectly calm. She was trembling inwardly from head to foot
• 3:02:50
  at length, completely absorbed in the game. She burst out, Alexis Ivanovitch.
• 3:02:56
  Did not the croupier just say that four thousand florins were the most that
• 3:02:58
  could be staked at any one time. We'll take these four thousand and stake
• 3:03:03
  them upon the red. To oppose her was useless. Once more, the
• 3:03:07
  wheel revolved, Rouge, proclaimed the croupier again. Four thousand florins in all,
• 3:03:15
  eight thousand, Give me them, commanded the grandmother, and stake the
• 3:03:20
  other four thousand upon the red. Again. I did so, Rouge,
• 3:03:26
  proclaimed the croupier. Twelve thousand, cried the old lady. Hand me the
• 3:03:33
  whole lot. Put the gold into this purse here and count the bank notes.
• 3:03:37
  Enough, let us go home, wheel my chair away. End of
• 3:03:43
  chapter ten, Chapter eleven, The chair, with the old lady beaming in
• 3:03:52
  it, was wheeled away towards the doors at the further end of the salon,
• 3:03:56
  while our party hastened to crowd around her and to her their congratulations.
• 3:04:01
  In fact eccentric, as was her conduct, it was also overshadowed by her
• 3:04:05
  triumph, with the result that the General no longer feared to be publicly compromised
• 3:04:11
  by being seen with such a strange woman, but smiling and a condescending,
• 3:04:16
  cheerfully familiar way, as though he were soothing a child, he offered his
• 3:04:20
  greetings to the old lady. At the same time, both he and the
• 3:04:24
  rest of the spectators were visibly impressed. Everywhere people kept pointing to the grandmother
• 3:04:31
  and talking about her. Many people even walked beside her chair in order to
• 3:04:35
  view her the better, while at a little distance Astley was carrying on a
• 3:04:39
  conversation on the subject with two English acquaintances of his. De Griers was simply
• 3:04:46
  overflowing with smiles and compliments, and a number of fine ladies were staring at
• 3:04:50
  the grandmother as though she had been something curious. Celvictoire exclaimed de griers me,
• 3:04:58
  Madame Sete de added Mademoiselle Blanche, with an elusive smile. Yes,
• 3:05:03
  I have won twelve thousand florins, replied the old lady. And then there
• 3:05:09
  is all this gold with it. The total ought to come to nearly thirteen
• 3:05:11
  thousand. How much is that in Russian money? Six thousand rubles? I
• 3:05:16
  think, However, I calculated that the sum would exceed seven thousand rubles,
• 3:05:22
  or at the present rate of exchange, even eight thousand, eight thousand rubles.
• 3:05:26
  What a splendid thing. And to think of you simpletons sitting there and
• 3:05:30
  doing nothing. Potapitch, Martha, see what I have won? How did
• 3:05:35
  you do it? Madame Martha exclaimed ecstatically, eight thousand rubles. And I
• 3:05:41
  am going to give you fifty goulden apiece. There they are, Potapitch,
• 3:05:45
  and Martha rushed towards her to kiss her hand and to each bearer. Also,
• 3:05:50
  I will give a ten goulden piece. Let them have it out of
• 3:05:52
  the gold, alexis Ivanovitch. But why is this footman bowing to me and
• 3:05:56
  that other man as well? Are they congratulating me? Well, let them
• 3:06:01
  have ten gouldon apiece, Madame la princess an pobre espatri my Lord continuelle les
• 3:06:11
  princeis rouseille sonci genre, said a man who for some time past had been
• 3:06:18
  hanging around the old lady's chair. A personage who dressed in a shabby frackcoat
• 3:06:24
  and colored waistcoat, kept taking off his cap and smiling pathetically. Give him
• 3:06:31
  ten, Gouldens, said the grandmother. No, give him twenty. Now,
• 3:06:33
  enough of that, or I shall never get done with you. All.
• 3:06:37
  Take a moment's rest and then carry me away. Prascovie. I mean
• 3:06:41
  to buy a new dress for you tomorrow. Yes, and for you too,
• 3:06:45
  Mademoiselle Blanche, Please translate prascovie mercy, Madame, replied Mademoiselle Blanche gratefully,
• 3:06:54
  as she twisted her face into the mocking smile which usually she kept only
• 3:06:58
  for the benefit of de Griere and the General. The latter looked confused and
• 3:07:03
  seemed greatly relieved when we reached the avenue. How surprised Theodosia will be,
• 3:07:09
  went on grandmother, thinking of the General's nurse maid. She, like yourselves,
• 3:07:15
  shall have the price of a new gown here. Alexis Ivanovitch, give
• 3:07:18
  that beggar something a crooked backed ragamuffin had approached to stare at us. But
• 3:07:26
  perhaps he is not a beggar, only a rascal, I replied, never
• 3:07:28
  mind, never mind, give him a gulden. I approached the beggar in
• 3:07:33
  question and handed him the coin. Looking at me in great astonishment, he
• 3:07:37
  silently accepted the goulden, while from his person that preceded a strong smell of
• 3:07:41
  liquor. Have you never tried your luck, Alexis Ivanovitch, No, madame,
• 3:07:48
  yet, Just now I could see that you were burning to do so.
• 3:07:52
  I do mean to try my luck presently, then stake everything upon zero.
• 3:07:56
  You have seen how it ought to be done. How much capital do
• 3:08:00
  you possess? Two hundred gulden, madam? Not very much. See here,
• 3:08:05
  I will lend you five hundred if you wish, take this purse of
• 3:08:09
  mine. With that, she added sharply to the General, but you need
• 3:08:13
  not expect to receive any This seemed to upset him, but he said nothing,
• 3:08:18
  and de Grier contented himself by scowling. Ky diabla. He whispered to
• 3:08:24
  the General setoun terible, vieya look another beggar. Another beggar, exclaimed the
• 3:08:31
  grandmother Alexis Ivanovitch, go and give him a gulden. As she spoke,
• 3:08:35
  I saw approaching as a gray headed old man with a wooden leg, A
• 3:08:39
  man who was dressed in a blue frock coat and carrying a staff. He
• 3:08:41
  looked like an old soldier. As soon as I tendered him the coin,
• 3:08:46
  he fell back a step or two and eyed me threateningly. Vas is der
• 3:08:50
  teufel, he cried, and depended thereto a round dozen of oaths. The
• 3:08:56
  man is a perfect fool, exclaimed the grandmother, waving her hand. Move
• 3:09:00
  on now, for I am simply famished. When we have lunched, we
• 3:09:03
  will return to that place. What cried I you are going to play again?
• 3:09:09
  What else do you suppose? She retorted? Are you going only to
• 3:09:13
  sit here and grow sour and let me look at you? Madame? Said
• 3:09:18
  de grieree confidentially. Les chanseil pouven tournay in sioules mauvaise chance a vous perdrey
• 3:09:28
  tous surtout avec voutrejeu se TETTERI ble ui vous perdrey absolu mont put in.
• 3:09:39
  Mademoiselle blanche, what has that got to do with you? Retorted the old
• 3:09:45
  lady. It is not your money that I am going to lose, It
• 3:09:46
  is my own. And where is that mister Astley of yours? She added
• 3:09:50
  to myself. He stayed behind in the casino. What a pity he is,
• 3:09:54
  such a nice sort of man. Arriving home and meeting the landlord on
• 3:10:00
  the staircase, the grandmother called him to her side and boasted to him of
• 3:10:03
  her winnings, thereafter doing the same to Theodosia and conferring upon her thirty gulden,
• 3:10:09
  after which she bid her serve luncheon the meal over Theodosia and Martha broke
• 3:10:16
  into a joint flood of ecstasy. I was watching you all the time,
• 3:10:20
  Madame quavered Martha, and I asked Potapitch what mistress was trying to do.
• 3:10:24
  In my word, the heaps and heaps of money that were lying upon the
• 3:10:28
  table. Never in my life have I seen so much money, And there
• 3:10:31
  were gentlefolk around it, and other gentlefolks sitting down. So I asked Potapitch
• 3:10:37
  where all these gentry had come from? For thought I maybe the Holy Mother
• 3:10:41
  of God will help our mistress among them. Yes, I prayed for you,
• 3:10:46
  madam, and my heart died within me, so that I kept trembling
• 3:10:50
  and trembling. The Lord be with her, I thought to myself, and
• 3:10:52
  in answer to my prayer, he has now sent you what he has done.
• 3:10:56
  Even yet I tremble. I trembled to think of it all. Alexis
• 3:11:01
  Ivanovitch, said the old lady. After luncheon, that is to say,
• 3:11:05
  about four o'clock, get ready to go out with me again. But in
• 3:11:07
  the meanwhile, good bye. Do not forget to call a doctor, for
• 3:11:11
  I must take the waters. Now, go and get rested a little.
• 3:11:16
  I left the grandmother's presence in a state of bewilderment. Vainly I endeavored to
• 3:11:22
  imagine what would become of our party, or what turn the affair would next
• 3:11:26
  take. I could perceive that none of the part he had yet recovered their
• 3:11:28
  presence of mind, least of all the general. The factor of the grandmother's
• 3:11:33
  appearance in place of the hourly expected telegram to announce her death, with of
• 3:11:37
  course resultant legacies, had so upset the whole scheme of intentions and projects that
• 3:11:43
  it was with a decided feeling of apprehension and growing paralysis that the conspirators viewed
• 3:11:48
  any future performances of the Old Lady at Roulette. Yet this second factor was
• 3:11:54
  not quite so important as the first, since though the grandmother had twice declared
• 3:11:58
  that she did not intend to give the General any money, that declaration was
• 3:12:03
  not a complete ground for the abandonment of hope. Certainly, de Grier,
• 3:12:07
  who with the General was up to the neck in the affair, had not
• 3:12:09
  wholly lost courage, And I felt sure that Mademoiselle Blanche, also Mademoiselle Blanche,
• 3:12:16
  who was not only as deeply involved as the other two but also expectant
• 3:12:20
  of becoming Madame General and an important legatee, would not lightly surrender the position,
• 3:12:26
  but would use her every resource of coquetry upon the old Lady in order
• 3:12:31
  to afford a contrast to the impetuous Polina, who was difficult to understand and
• 3:12:35
  lacked the art of pleasing. Yet now when the grandmother had just performed an
• 3:12:41
  astonishing feat at Roulette, Now when the Old Lady's personality had been so clearly
• 3:12:46
  and typically revealed as that of a rugged, arrogant woman who was tombi en
• 3:12:52
  enphanse, Now when everything appeared to be lost, Why now the grandmother was
• 3:12:58
  as merry as a child which plays with thistledown. Good Lord, I thought,
• 3:13:03
  with may God forgive me a most malicious smile. Every ten goulden piece
• 3:13:09
  which the grandmother's stake must have raised a blister on the General's heart, and
• 3:13:13
  maddened de Grie and driven Mademoiselle de Commger almost to frenzy with the sight of
• 3:13:18
  this spoon dangling before her lips. Another factor is the circumstance that, even
• 3:13:24
  when overjoyed at winning, the grandmother was distributing alms right and left, and
• 3:13:28
  taking every one to be a beggar. She again snapped out to the General
• 3:13:33
  that he was not going to be allowed any of her money, which meant
• 3:13:35
  that the old lady had quite made up her mind on the point, and
• 3:13:39
  was sure of it. Yes, danger loomed ahead. All these thoughts passed
• 3:13:46
  through my mind during the few moments that, having left the old Lady's rooms,
• 3:13:50
  I was ascending to my own room on the top story. What most
• 3:13:54
  struck me was the fact that though had divined the chief the stoutest threads which
• 3:13:58
  united the various actors in the drama, I had until now been ignorant of
• 3:14:03
  the methods and secrets of the game. For Paulina had never been completely open
• 3:14:09
  with me, although on occasions it had happened that, involuntarily, as it
• 3:14:13
  were, she had revealed to me something of her heart. I had noticed
• 3:14:16
  that in most cases, in fact, nearly always, she had either laughed
• 3:14:22
  away these revelations, or grown confused, or purposely imparted to them of false
• 3:14:26
  gies. Yes, she must have concealed a great deal from me. But
• 3:14:31
  I had a presentiment that now the end of this strained and mysterious situation was
• 3:14:37
  approaching another stroke, and all would be finished and exposed of my own fortunes.
• 3:14:43
  Interested though I was in the affair, I took no account. I
• 3:14:48
  was in the strange position of possessing but two hundred gulden, of being at
• 3:14:52
  a loose end, of lacking both a post, the means of subsistence,
• 3:14:56
  a shred of hope, and any plans for the fu future, yet of
• 3:15:01
  caring nothing for these things. Had not my mind been so full of Poulina,
• 3:15:05
  I should have given myself up to the comical piquancy of the impending denouement
• 3:15:11
  and laughed my fill at it. But the thought of Paulina was torture to
• 3:15:15
  me. That her fate was settled. I already had an inkling. Yet
• 3:15:18
  that was not the thought which was giving me so much uneasiness. What I
• 3:15:22
  really wished for was to penetrate her secrets. I wanted her to come to
• 3:15:26
  me and say I love you. And if she would not so come,
• 3:15:31
  or if to hope that she would ever do so, was an unthinkable absurdity.
• 3:15:35
  Why then there was nothing else for me to want. Even now I
• 3:15:39
  do not know what I am wanting. I feel like a man who has
• 3:15:41
  lost his way. I yearned but to be in her presence and within the
• 3:15:46
  circle of her light and splendor, to be there now and forever and for
• 3:15:52
  the whole of my life. More, I do not know how can I
• 3:15:56
  ever bring myself to leave her. On reaching the third story of the hotel,
• 3:16:01
  I experienced a shock. I was just passing the General's suite when something
• 3:16:07
  caused me to look round out of a door about twenty paces away. There
• 3:16:11
  was coming Paulina. She hesitated for a moment on seeing me, and then
• 3:16:15
  beckoned me to her Polina Alexandrovna, hush, not so loud. Something startled
• 3:16:22
  me just now, I whispered, and I looked round and saw you.
• 3:16:26
  Some electrical influence seems to emanate from your form. Take this letter, She
• 3:16:31
  went on with a frown. Probably she had not even heard my words.
• 3:16:35
  She was so preoccupied, and handed personally to mister Astley. Go as quickly
• 3:16:39
  as ever you can, please. No answer will be required, he himself.
• 3:16:45
  She did not finish her sentence to mister Astley. I asked, in
• 3:16:48
  some astonishment, but she had vanished again. Aha, So the two were
• 3:16:54
  carrying on a correspondence. However, I set off to search for Astley,
• 3:16:58
  for first at his hotel and then at the casino, where I went the
• 3:17:03
  round of the salons in vain at length, vexed and almost in despair.
• 3:17:07
  I was on my way home when I ran across him among a troop of
• 3:17:11
  English ladies and gentlemen who had been out for a ride. Beckoning to him
• 3:17:15
  to stop, I handed him the letter. We had barely time even to
• 3:17:18
  look at one another, but I suspected that it was upset purpose that he
• 3:17:22
  restarted his horse so quickly. Was jealousy then gnawing at me. At all
• 3:17:28
  events, I felt exceedingly depressed, despite the fact that I had no desire
• 3:17:33
  to ascertain what the correspondence was about to think that he should be her confidant.
• 3:17:39
  My friend, mine, own familiar friend, passed through my mind.
• 3:17:41
  Yet was there any love in the matter? Of course, not reason whispered
• 3:17:46
  to me, But reason goes for little on such occasions. I felt that
• 3:17:52
  the matter must be cleared up, for it was becoming unpleasantly complex. I
• 3:17:56
  had scarcely set foot in the hotel when the Commode chionnaire and the landlord,
• 3:18:01
  the latter issuing from his room for the purpose alike, informed me that I
• 3:18:05
  was being searched for high and low, that three separate messages to ascertain my
• 3:18:09
  whereabouts had come down from the General. When I entered his study, I
• 3:18:15
  was feeling anything but kindly disposed. I found there the General himself, Degrie
• 3:18:20
  and Mademoiselle Blanche, but not Mademoiselle's mother, who was a person whom her
• 3:18:24
  reputed daughter used only for show purposes. Since in all matters of business the
• 3:18:30
  daughter of fended for herself, and it is unlikely that the mother knew anything
• 3:18:33
  about them. Some very heated discussion was in progress, and meanwhile the door
• 3:18:39
  of the study was open, an unprecedented circumstance. As I approached the portals,
• 3:18:43
  I could hear loud voices raised for mingled with the pert venomous accents of
• 3:18:48
  Degriere, were Mademoiselle Blanches excited impudently abusive tongue, and the General's plaintive wail
• 3:18:56
  as apparently he sought to justify himself in something. But on my appearance,
• 3:19:01
  every one stopped speaking and tried to put a better face upon matters. Debriere
• 3:19:05
  smoothed his hair and twisted his angry face into a smile, into the mean,
• 3:19:09
  studiedly polite French smile which I so detested, while the downcast, perplexed
• 3:19:16
  General assumed an air of dignity, though only in a mechanical way. On
• 3:19:20
  the other hand, Mademoiselle Blanche did not trouble to conceal the wrath that was
• 3:19:24
  sparkling in her countenance, but bent her gaze upon me with an air of
• 3:19:28
  impatient expectancy. I may remark that hitherto she had treated me with absolute superciliousness,
• 3:19:35
  and so far from answering my salutations, had always ignored them. Alexis
• 3:19:41
  Ivanovitch began the General in a tone of affectionate upbraiding. May I say to
• 3:19:46
  you that I find it strange, exceedingly strange, that, in short,
• 3:19:50
  your conduct towards myself and my family in a word, your er extremely eh
• 3:19:58
  sin nespassa interrupted de grierree in a tone of impatience and contempt. Evidently he
• 3:20:03
  was the ruling spirit of the conclave. Monchier, monsieur notre general se trompe.
• 3:20:11
  What he means to say is that he warns you, he begs of
• 3:20:15
  you most earnestly not to ruin him. I use the expression because why why,
• 3:20:20
  I interjected, because you have taken upon yourself to act as guide to
• 3:20:24
  this, to this, how shall I express it? To this old lady
• 3:20:30
  assete povre terible vieya. But she will only gamble away all that she has,
• 3:20:35
  gamble it away like thistle down. You yourself have seen her play.
• 3:20:41
  Once she has acquired the taste for gambling, she will never leave the roulette
• 3:20:45
  table. But of sheer perversity and temper will stake her all and lose it.
• 3:20:50
  In cases such as hers, a gambler can never be torn away from
• 3:20:52
  the game. And then, and then and then, asseverated the general,
• 3:20:58
  you will have ruined my whole family. I and my family are her heirs,
• 3:21:03
  for she has no nearer relatives than ourselves. I tell you, frankly,
• 3:21:07
  that my affairs are in great, very great disorder. How much they
• 3:21:11
  are so you yourself are partially aware. If she should lose a large sum,
• 3:21:16
  or maybe her whole fortune, what will become of us of my children?
• 3:21:22
  Here the General exchanged a glance with de grie or of me. Here
• 3:21:26
  he looked at Mademoiselle Blanche, who turned her head contemptuously away. Alexis Ivanovitch,
• 3:21:33
  I beg of you to save us. Tell me, General, how
• 3:21:37
  am I to do so? On what footing do I stand here? Refuse
• 3:21:41
  to take her about? Simply leave her alone, but she would soon find
• 3:21:48
  some one else to take my place. Sina passa, sine passa, again
• 3:21:54
  interrupted de grieye k diabl Do not leave her alone, so much as advise
• 3:21:58
  her, swayed her, draw her away. In any case, do not
• 3:22:03
  let her gamble. Find her some counter attraction. And how am I to
• 3:22:07
  do that? If only you would undertake the task, Monsieur de griee.
• 3:22:11
  I said this last as innocently as possible, but at once saw a rapid
• 3:22:16
  glance of excited interrogation pass from Mademoiselle Blanche to de Grielle, while in the
• 3:22:22
  face of the latter, also there gleamed something which he could not repress.
• 3:22:28
  Well. At the present moment she would refuse to accept my services, said
• 3:22:33
  he, with a gesture. But if later here he gave Mademoiselle Blanche another
• 3:22:39
  glance which was full of meaning. Whereupon she advanced towards me with a bewitching
• 3:22:43
  smile, and seized and pressed my hands. Devil take it, But how
• 3:22:48
  that devilish visage of hers could change? At the present moment. It was
• 3:22:52
  a visage full of supplication, and as gentle in its expression as that of
• 3:22:58
  a smiling, roguish infant. Stealthily she drew me apart from the rest,
• 3:23:01
  as though the more completely to separate me from them. And though no harm
• 3:23:07
  came of her doing so, for it was merely a stupid maneuver, and
• 3:23:09
  no more, I found the situation very unpleasant. The General hastened to lend
• 3:23:16
  her his support. Alexeis Ivanovitch, he began, pray, pardon me for
• 3:23:20
  having said what I did just now, for having said more than I meant
• 3:23:24
  to do. I beg and beseech you. I kiss the hem of your
• 3:23:28
  garment, as our Russian saying, has it for you, and only you
• 3:23:31
  can save us. I and Mademoiselle de Commiger, we all of us beg
• 3:23:37
  of you. But you understand, do you not? Surely you understand?
• 3:23:41
  And with his eyes he indicated Mademoiselle Blanche, truly he was cutting a pitiful
• 3:23:46
  figure at this moment. Three low, respectful knocks sounded at the door,
• 3:23:52
  which, on being opened, revealed a chambermaid with Potapitch behind her. Come
• 3:23:56
  from the grandmother to request that I should attend her in her rooms. She
• 3:24:01
  is in a bad humor, added Potapitch. The time was half past three.
• 3:24:07
  My mistress was unable to sleep, explained Potapitch, so after tossing about
• 3:24:11
  for a while, she suddenly rose, called for her chair and sent me
• 3:24:16
  to look for you. She is now in the veranda. Quel Megier,
• 3:24:22
  exclaimed de griere. True enough, I found Madame in the hotel Veranda,
• 3:24:26
  much put about at my delay, for she had been unable to contain herself
• 3:24:31
  until four o'clock. Lift me up, she cried to the bearers, and
• 3:24:35
  once more we set out for the Roulette salons. End of chapter eleven.
• 3:24:43
  Chapter twelve, the grandmother was in an impatient, irritable frame of mind.
• 3:24:50
  Without doubt, the Roulette had turned her head, for she appeared to be
• 3:24:54
  indifferent to everything else, and in general seemed much distraught. For instance,
• 3:25:01
  she asked me no questions about objects and root, except that when a sumptuous
• 3:25:05
  barouche passed us and raised a cloud of dust, she lifted her hand for
• 3:25:09
  a moment and inquired what was that? Yet even then she did not appear
• 3:25:15
  to hear my reply, although at times her abstraction was interrupted by sallies and
• 3:25:20
  fits of sharp, impatient fidgetting. Again, when I pointed out to her
• 3:25:24
  the Baron and Baroness Burmergelm walking to the casino, she merely looked at them
• 3:25:30
  in an absent minded sort of way and said, with complete indifference, ah.
• 3:25:35
  Then, turning sharply to Potapitch and Martha, who were walking behind us,
• 3:25:39
  she rapped out, why have you attached yourselves to the party. We
• 3:25:43
  are not going to take you with us every time. Go home at once.
• 3:25:48
  Then, when the servants had pulled hasty bows and departed, she added
• 3:25:52
  to me, you are all the escort I need at the casino. The
• 3:25:56
  grandmother seemed to be expected for no time was lost in procuring her former place
• 3:26:01
  beside the croupier. It is my opinion that though croupiers seem such ordinary humdrum
• 3:26:05
  officials, men who care nothing whether the bank wins or loses, they are
• 3:26:11
  in reality anything but indifferent to the bank's losing, and are given instructions to
• 3:26:16
  attract players and to keep a watch over the bank's interests. As also that
• 3:26:22
  for such services these officials are awarded prizes and premiums. At all events.
• 3:26:26
  The croupiers of Roulettenburg seemed to look upon the grandmother as their lawful prey.
• 3:26:33
  Whereafter there befell what our party had foretold. It happened thus, as soon
• 3:26:39
  as ever we arrived, the grandmother ordered me to stake twelve ten goulden pieces
• 3:26:45
  in succession upon zero, once, twice and thrice. I did so,
• 3:26:50
  Yet zero never turned up. Stake again, said the old lady, with
• 3:26:54
  an impatient nudge of my elbow, and I obeyed. How many times have
• 3:27:00
  we lost, she inquired, actually grinding her teeth in her excitement. We
• 3:27:05
  have lost one hundred forty four ten golden pieces, I replied, I tell
• 3:27:09
  you, madame, that zero may not turn up until nightfall. Never mind,
• 3:27:15
  she interrupted, keep on staking upon zero, and also stake a thousand
• 3:27:20
  goulden upon rouge. Here is a bank note with which to do so.
• 3:27:24
  The red turned up, but Zero missed again, and we only got our
• 3:27:28
  thousand goulden back. But you see, you see, whispered the old lady.
• 3:27:35
  We have now recovered almost all that we staked. Try zero again.
• 3:27:39
  Let us do so another ten times, and then leave off by the fifth
• 3:27:43
  round. However, the grandmother was weary of the scheme. To the devil
• 3:27:48
  with that zero, she exclaimed, stake four thousand goulden upon the red.
• 3:27:54
  But madame, that will be so much to venture, I remonstrated, suppose
• 3:27:58
  the red should not turn up. The grandmother almost struck me in her excitement.
• 3:28:03
  Her agitation was rapidly making her quarrelsome. Consequently, there was nothing for
• 3:28:07
  it but to stake the whole four thousand goulden as she had directed. The
• 3:28:11
  wheel revolved, while the grandmother sat as bolt upright, and with as proud
• 3:28:16
  and quiet a mien, as though she had not the least doubt of winning.
• 3:28:22
  Zero, cried the croupier. At first, the old lady failed to
• 3:28:26
  understand the situation, but as soon as she saw the croupier raking in her
• 3:28:31
  four thousand goulden together with everything else that happened to be lying on the table,
• 3:28:35
  and recognized that the zero, which had been so long turning up,
• 3:28:39
  and on which we had lost nearly two hundred ten goulden pieces, had,
• 3:28:43
  at length, as though of set purpose, made a sudden reappearance. Why
• 3:28:48
  the poor old lady fell to cursing it, and to throwing herself about and
• 3:28:52
  wailing and gesticulating at the company at large. Indeed, some people in our
• 3:28:56
  vicinity actually burst out laughing to think that that accursed zero should have turned up
• 3:29:01
  now, She sobbed, the accursed, accursed thing. And it is all
• 3:29:05
  your fault, she added, rounding upon me in a frenzy. It was
• 3:29:09
  you who persuaded me to cease staking upon it. But Madame, I only
• 3:29:13
  explained the game to you. How am I to answer for every mischance which
• 3:29:18
  may occur in it? You and your mischances, she whispered, threateningly,
• 3:29:24
  go away at once farewell, Then Madame and I turned to depart. No
• 3:29:31
  stay, she put in hastily, Where are you going to? Why should
• 3:29:35
  you leave me, you fool? No? No stay here? It is
• 3:29:39
  I who was the fool? Tell me what I ought to do. I
• 3:29:43
  cannot take it upon myself to advise you, for you will only blame me
• 3:29:48
  if I do so. Play at your own discretion. Say exactly what you
• 3:29:52
  wish staked, and I will stake it very well. Stake another four thousand
• 3:29:58
  gulden upon the red take this bank note to do it with. I have
• 3:30:01
  still got twenty thousand roubles in actual cash, but I whispered such a quantity
• 3:30:09
  of money. Never mind, I cannot rest until I have won back my
• 3:30:15
  losses. Steak I staked and we lost. Stake again. Stake again eight
• 3:30:22
  thousand at a stroke. I cannot, Madame. The largest steak allowed is
• 3:30:26
  four thousand goulden. Well, then stake four thousand. This time we won,
• 3:30:31
  and the grandmother recovered herself a little. You see, you see,
• 3:30:35
  she exclaimed, as she nudged me. Stake another four thousand. I did
• 3:30:39
  so, and lost again, And yet again we lost, Madame, your
• 3:30:46
  twelve thousand goulden are now gone at length, I reported, I see they
• 3:30:50
  are, she replied with as it were the calmness of despair. I see
• 3:30:54
  they are, she muttered again, as she gazed straight in front of her
• 3:30:58
  like a person lost, and thought, ah, well, I do not
• 3:31:01
  mean to rest until I have staked another four thousand. But you have no
• 3:31:07
  money with which to do it, Madame. In this satchel, I can
• 3:31:11
  see only a few five percent bonds and some transfers, no actual cash,
• 3:31:18
  and in the purse a mere trifle. But there is a money changer's office
• 3:31:24
  here, is there not? They told me I should be able to get
• 3:31:26
  any sort of paper security changed, quite so, to any amount you please.
• 3:31:33
  But you will lose on the transaction. What would frighten even a jew?
• 3:31:37
  Rubbish? I am determined to retrieve my losses. Take me away and
• 3:31:43
  call those fools of bearers. I wheeled the chair out of the throng,
• 3:31:46
  and the bearers making their appearance, we left the casino. Hurry, hurry,
• 3:31:52
  commanded the grandmother. Show me the nearest way to the money changers.
• 3:31:56
  Is it far a couple of steps, Madame. At the turning from the
• 3:32:01
  square into the avenue, we came face to face with the whole of our
• 3:32:05
  party, the General de griee, Mademoiselle Blanche and her mother. Only Polina
• 3:32:11
  and mister Astley were absent. Well well, well, exclaimed the grandmother.
• 3:32:16
  But we have no time to stop. What do you want? I can't
• 3:32:18
  talk to you here. I dropped behind a little and immediately was pounced upon
• 3:32:24
  by de Griee. She has lost this morning's winnings, I whispered, and
• 3:32:30
  also twelve thousand goulden of her original money. At the present moment, we
• 3:32:35
  are going to get some bonds changed. De Grie stamped his foot with vexation
• 3:32:41
  and hastened to communicate the tidings to the General. Meanwhile, we continued to
• 3:32:45
  wheel the old lady along. Stop her, stop her, whispered the General,
• 3:32:50
  in consternation. You had better try and stop her yourself. I returned,
• 3:32:56
  also in a whisper. My good mother, he said, as he
• 3:33:01
  approached her, My good mother, pray let let His voice was beginning to
• 3:33:07
  tremble and sink. Let us hire a carriage and go for a drive.
• 3:33:11
  Near here. There is an enchanting view to be obtained. We we,
• 3:33:15
  we were just coming to invite you to go and see it begone with you
• 3:33:20
  in your views, said the grandmother angrily, as she waved him away.
• 3:33:24
  And there are trees there, and we could have tea under them, continued
• 3:33:28
  the General. Now in utter despair. Neu boiron, du la seur lebre
• 3:33:33
  fresh, added de grierree, with the snarl almost of a wild beast,
• 3:33:39
  du la de lerbes fresh, the idol, the ideal of the Parisian bourgeois,
• 3:33:46
  his whole outlook upon l'a neture. I la veretai have done with you
• 3:33:52
  in your milk, cried the old lady. Go and stuff yourself as much
• 3:33:56
  as you like. But my stomach simply recoils from the idea. What are
• 3:34:01
  you stopping for? I have nothing to say to you. Here we are,
• 3:34:05
  madame, I announced, Here is the money changer's office. I entered
• 3:34:11
  to get the securities changed, while the grandmother remained outside in the porch,
• 3:34:16
  and the rest waited at a little distance in doubt as to their best course
• 3:34:18
  of action. At length, the old lady turned such an angry stare upon
• 3:34:24
  them that they departed along the road towards the casino. The process of changing
• 3:34:28
  involved complicated calculations, which soon necessitated my return to the grandmother for instructions.
• 3:34:35
  The thieves, she exclaimed, as she clapped her hands together. Never mind,
• 3:34:39
  though, get the documents cashed. No, send the banker out to
• 3:34:43
  me, she added, as an afterthought, would one of the clerks do,
• 3:34:46
  madame? Yes, one of the clerks the thieves. The clerk consented
• 3:34:52
  to come out when he perceived that he was being asked for by an old
• 3:34:54
  lady who was too infirmed to walk, after which the grandmother began to upbraid
• 3:34:58
  him at lae and with great vehemence for his alleged you seriousness, and to
• 3:35:03
  bargain with him in a mixture of Russian, French and German. I acting
• 3:35:07
  as interpreter. Meanwhile, the grave faced official eyed us both and silently nodded
• 3:35:13
  his head at the grandmother. In particular, he gazed with a curiosity which
• 3:35:16
  almost bordered upon rudeness. At length, too, he smiled, pray,
• 3:35:22
  recollect yourself, cried the old lady, and may my money choke you?
• 3:35:28
  Alexis Ivanovitch tell him that we can easily repair to someone else. The clerk
• 3:35:31
  says that others will give you even less than he. Of what the ultimate
• 3:35:37
  calculations consisted, I do not exactly remember, but at all events they were
• 3:35:41
  alarming. Receiving twelve thousand florins in gold, I took also the statement of
• 3:35:46
  accounts and carried it out to the grandmother. Well, well, she said,
• 3:35:52
  I am no accountant. Let us hurry away, hurry away, and
• 3:35:56
  she waved the paper aside. Neither upon that accursed zero, however, nor
• 3:36:03
  upon that equally a cursed red, do I mean to stake a cent?
• 3:36:05
  I muttered to myself as I entered the casino. This time I did all
• 3:36:11
  I could to persuade the old lady to stake as little as possible, saying
• 3:36:15
  that a turn would come in the chances when she would be at liberty to
• 3:36:18
  stake more. But she was so impatient that, though at first she agreed
• 3:36:22
  to do as I suggested, nothing could stop her when once she had begun
• 3:36:28
  by way of prelude, she won stakes of a hundred and two hundred gulden.
• 3:36:33
  There you are, she said, as she nudged me, see what
• 3:36:35
  we have won. Surely it would be worth our while to stake four thousand
• 3:36:39
  instead of a hundred, for we might win another four thousand and then,
• 3:36:45
  Oh, it was your fault, before all your fault. I felt greatly
• 3:36:48
  put out as I watched her play, but I decided to hold my tongue
• 3:36:52
  and to give her no more advice. Suddenly de griere appeared on the scene.
• 3:36:58
  It seemed that all this while he and his companions had been standing beside
• 3:37:03
  us, though I noticed that Mademoiselle Blanche had withdrawn a little from the rest
• 3:37:07
  and was engaged in flirting with the Prince. Clearly, the General was greatly
• 3:37:11
  put out at this. Indeed, he was in a perfect agony of vexation.
• 3:37:16
  But Mademoiselle was careful never to look his way, though he did his
• 3:37:20
  best to attract her notice. Poor General, by turns, his face blanched
• 3:37:24
  and reddened, and he was trembling to such an extent that he could scarcely
• 3:37:30
  follow the old lady's play. At length, Mademoiselle and the Prince took their
• 3:37:33
  departure, and the General followed them. Madame Madame sounded the honeyed accents of
• 3:37:41
  de Griere as he leant over to whisper in the grandmother's ear that stake will
• 3:37:46
  never win. No, no, it is impossible, he added in Russian,
• 3:37:50
  with a Writhe no, no, but why not, asked the grandmother,
• 3:37:56
  turning round, show me what I ought to do. Instantly, de
• 3:38:00
  Grier burst into a babble of French as he advised, jumped about, declared
• 3:38:03
  that such and such chances ought to be waited for, and started to make
• 3:38:07
  calculations of figures. All this he addressed to me in my capacity as translator,
• 3:38:13
  tapping the table the while with his finger and pointing hither and thither.
• 3:38:18
  At length, he seized a pencil and began to reckon sums on paper until
• 3:38:22
  he had exhausted the grandmother's patience. Away with you, she interrupted, You
• 3:38:28
  talk sheer nonsense. For though you keep on saying, Madame madame, you
• 3:38:31
  haven't the least notion what ought to be done? Away with you? I
• 3:38:35
  say, Ma'm madame coupd de Griere, and straightways started afresh with his fussy
• 3:38:43
  instructions. Stake just once, as he advises, the grandmother, said to
• 3:38:48
  me, and then we shall see what we shall see. Of course,
• 3:38:50
  his stake might win. As a matter of fact, de Grier's one object
• 3:38:54
  was to distract the old lady from staking large sums. Wherefore he now suggested
• 3:39:01
  to her that she should stake upon certain numbers singly and in groups. Consequently,
• 3:39:07
  in accordance with his instructions, I staked a ten goulden piece upon several
• 3:39:11
  odd numbers in the first twenty and five ten goulden pieces. Upon certain groups
• 3:39:16
  of numbers groups of from twelve to eighteen and from eighteen to twenty four,
• 3:39:22
  the total stake demounted to one hundred sixty gulden. The wheel revolved zero,
• 3:39:30
  cried the croupier. We had lost it all the fool, cried the old
• 3:39:35
  lady, as she turned upon de Griere, You infernal frenchmen to think that
• 3:39:39
  you should advise away with you, though you fuss and fuss, you don't
• 3:39:43
  even know what you are talking about. Deeply offended, de Griere shrugged his
• 3:39:48
  shoulders, favored the grandmother with a look of contempt, and departed. For
• 3:39:52
  some time past he had been feeling ashamed of being seen in such company,
• 3:39:58
  and this had proved the last st An hour later, we had lost everything
• 3:40:03
  in hand home, cried the grandmother. Not until we had turned into the
• 3:40:09
  avenue did she utter a word. But from that point onwards until we arrived
• 3:40:13
  at the hotel, she kept venting exclamations of what a fool I am,
• 3:40:18
  what a silly old fool I am. To be sure arrived at the hotel,
• 3:40:22
  she called for tea and then gave orders for her luggage to be packed.
• 3:40:26
  We are off again, she announced. But whither Madame inquired, Martha,
• 3:40:33
  what business is that of yours? Let the cricket stick to its hearth,
• 3:40:37
  the Russian form of mind your own business, Potapitch, have everything packed
• 3:40:41
  for we are returning to Moscow. At once. I have fooled away fifteen
• 3:40:46
  thousand rubles, fifteen thousand rubles, good mistress, my god, and Potapitch
• 3:40:52
  spat upon his hands, probably to show that he was ready to serve her
• 3:40:56
  in any way he could. Now, then you fool at once, you
• 3:41:01
  begin with your weeping and wailing. Be quiet and pack. Also, run
• 3:41:03
  downstairs and get my hotel bill. The next train leaves at nine thirty,
• 3:41:09
  Madame, I interposed, with a view to checking her agitation, And what
• 3:41:13
  is the time now? Half past eight? How vexing? But never mind,
• 3:41:20
  Alexis Ivanovitch, I have not a kopek left. I have but these
• 3:41:24
  two bank notes. Please run to the office and get them changed, otherwise
• 3:41:28
  I shall have nothing to travel with. Departing on her errand I returned half
• 3:41:35
  an hour later to find the whole party gathered in her rooms. It appeared
• 3:41:39
  that the news of her impending departure from Moscow had thrown the conspirators into consternation
• 3:41:45
  even greater than her losses had done. For said they, even if her
• 3:41:48
  departure should save her fortune, what will become of the general later? And
• 3:41:52
  who is to repay de Griee? Clearly, Mademoiselle Blanche would never consent to
• 3:41:58
  wait until the grandmother was dead, but would at once elope with the Prince
• 3:42:01
  or someone else. So they had all gathered together, endeavoring to calm and
• 3:42:07
  dissuade the grandmother. Only Poulina was absent. For her part, the grandmother
• 3:42:11
  had nothing for the party but abuse. Away with you, you rascals,
• 3:42:16
  She was shouting, What have my affairs to do with you? Why in
• 3:42:20
  particular do you here? She indicated, de Grieree, come sneaking here with
• 3:42:24
  your goat's beard, and what do you here? She turned to Mademoiselle Blanche,
• 3:42:28
  want of me? What are you finicking for? DeAndre, muttered Mademoiselle
• 3:42:33
  under her breath, but her eyes were flashing. Then all at once she
• 3:42:37
  burst into a laugh and left the room, crying to the General as she
• 3:42:41
  did so, al vivras san an, So you have been counting upon my
• 3:42:46
  death, have you? Fumed? The old lady away with you. Clear
• 3:42:50
  them out of the room, Alexis Savanovitch, What business is it of theirs?
• 3:42:54
  It is not their money that I have been squandering, but my own.
• 3:42:58
  The General shrugged his show, bowed, and withdrew, with Degriere behind
• 3:43:01
  him. Call. Prascovia commanded the grandmother, and in five minutes Martha reappeared
• 3:43:09
  with Paulina, who had been sitting with the children in her own room,
• 3:43:11
  having purposely determined not to leave it that day. Her face looked grave and
• 3:43:16
  careworn. Prascovia began, the grandmother, is what I have just heard through
• 3:43:22
  a side wind true? Namely that this fool of a stepfather of yours is
• 3:43:26
  going to marry that silly whirligig of a frenchwoman, that actress, or something
• 3:43:31
  worse. Tell me is it true? I do not know for certain,
• 3:43:37
  Grandmamma, replied Polina, but from Mademoiselle Blanche's account, for she does not
• 3:43:41
  appear to think it necessary to conceal anything, I conclude that you need not
• 3:43:46
  say any more, interrupted the grandmother. Energetically, I understand the situation.
• 3:43:52
  I always thought we should get something like this from him, for I always
• 3:43:56
  looked upon him as a futile, frivolous fellow who gave himself on unconscionable airs
• 3:44:01
  on the fact of his being a general, though he only became one because
• 3:44:05
  he retired as a colonel. Yes, I know all about the sending of
• 3:44:09
  the telegrams to inquire whether the old woman is likely to turn up her toes
• 3:44:13
  soon. Ah, they were looking for the legacies without money. That wretched
• 3:44:18
  woman what is her name? O de comige would never dream of accepting the
• 3:44:22
  general in his false teeth. No, not even for him to be here
• 3:44:26
  Lackey, since she herself, they say, possesses a pile of money and
• 3:44:31
  lends it on interest and makes a good thing out of it. However,
• 3:44:35
  it is not you, Prascovia, that I am blaming. It was not
• 3:44:39
  you who sent those telegrams, nor for that matter, do I wish to
• 3:44:41
  recall old scores. True, I know that you are vixen by nature,
• 3:44:46
  that you are a wasp which will sting one if one touches it. Yet
• 3:44:50
  my heart is sore for you, for I loved your mother, Katerina.
• 3:44:56
  Now will you leave everything here and come away with me? Otherwise I do
• 3:45:00
  not know what is to become of you, and it is not right that
• 3:45:03
  you should continue living with these people. Nay, she interposed, the moment
• 3:45:07
  that Polina attempted to speak, I have not yet finished. I ask of
• 3:45:11
  you nothing in return. My house in Moscow is, as you know,
• 3:45:16
  large enough for a palace, and you could occupy a whole floor of it
• 3:45:18
  if you liked, and keep away from me for weeks together. Will you
• 3:45:24
  come with me? Or will you not? First of all, let me
• 3:45:26
  ask of you, replied Polina, whether you are intending to depart at once?
• 3:45:31
  What you suppose me to be jesting? I have said that I am
• 3:45:35
  going, and I am going today. I have squandered fifteen thousand roubles at
• 3:45:39
  that accursed roulette of yours. And though five years ago I promised the people
• 3:45:45
  of a certain suburb of Moscow to build them a stone church in place of
• 3:45:48
  a wooden one, I have been fooling away my money here. However,
• 3:45:54
  I am going back now to build my church. But what about the waters,
• 3:45:58
  Grandmamma, surely you came here to take the waters. You and your
• 3:46:03
  waters do not anger me. Prascovia. Surely you are trying to say,
• 3:46:07
  then, will you or will you not? Come with me, Grandmamma,
• 3:46:13
  Polina replied, with deep feeling, I am very very grateful to you for
• 3:46:16
  the shelter which you have so kindly offered me. Also, to a certain
• 3:46:20
  extent, you have guessed my position aright, and I am beholden to you
• 3:46:24
  to such an extent that it may be that I will come and live with
• 3:46:28
  you, and that very soon. Yet there are important reasons why why I
• 3:46:35
  cannot make up my mind just yet, if you would let me have,
• 3:46:37
  say, a couple of weeks to decide. In you mean that you are
• 3:46:41
  not coming, I mean only that I cannot come just yet. At all
• 3:46:46
  events, I could not well leave my little brother and sister here, since
• 3:46:50
  since if I were to leave them, they would be abandoned altogether. But
• 3:46:56
  if Grandmamma, you would take the little ones and myself, then of course
• 3:47:01
  I could come with you and would do all I could to serve you.
• 3:47:05
  This, she said with great earnestness. Only without the little ones I cannot
• 3:47:09
  come. Do not make a fuss. As a matter of fact, Polina
• 3:47:15
  never at any time either fussed or wept. The Great foster Father translated literally,
• 3:47:22
  the great Poulterer can find for all his chicks a place. You are
• 3:47:26
  not coming without the children. But see here, Prascovia. I wish you
• 3:47:31
  well and nothing but well. Yet I have divined the reason why you will
• 3:47:35
  not come. Yes, I know, all Prascovia, that Frenchman will never
• 3:47:39
  bring you good of any sort. Polina colored hotly, and even I started
• 3:47:43
  for thought, I to myself. Every one seems to know about that affair,
• 3:47:48
  or perhaps I am the only one who does not know about it.
• 3:47:54
  Now, now, do not frown, continued the grandmother. But I do
• 3:47:58
  not intend to slur things over. You. Will take care that no harm
• 3:48:01
  befalls you, will you not, for you are a girl of sense,
• 3:48:05
  and I am sorry for you. I regard you in a different light to
• 3:48:07
  the rest of them. And now please leave me good bye. But let
• 3:48:13
  me stay with you a little longer, said Polina. No, replied the
• 3:48:16
  other You need not do not bother me, for you and all of them
• 3:48:20
  have tired me out. Yet. When Polina tried to kiss the grandmother's hand,
• 3:48:24
  the old lady withdrew it and herself kissed the girl on the cheek as
• 3:48:30
  she passed me. Polina gave me a momentary glance, and then as swiftly
• 3:48:33
  averted her eyes, and good bye to you also, Alexe z Ivanovitch.
• 3:48:39
  The train starts in an hour's time, and I think that you must be
• 3:48:41
  weary of me. Take these five hundred gulden for yourself. I thank you
• 3:48:46
  humbly, madam, But I am ashamed to come. Come, cried the
• 3:48:50
  grandmother, so energetically and with such an air of menace, that I did
• 3:48:54
  not dare refuse the money. Further, if when in Moscow you have no
• 3:48:58
  place where you can lay, had she added, come and see me,
• 3:49:01
  and I will give you a recommendation. Now, Potapitch, get things ready.
• 3:49:07
  I ascended to my room and lay down upon the bed. A whole
• 3:49:11
  hour I must have lain thus with my head resting upon my hand. So
• 3:49:15
  the crisis had come. I needed time for its consideration. Tomorrow I would
• 3:49:20
  have a talk with Paulina Ah the Frenchman. So it was true. But
• 3:49:26
  how could it be so Polina and Degliere, what a combination? No,
• 3:49:31
  it was too improbable. Suddenly I leapt up with the idea of seeking Astley
• 3:49:37
  and forcing him to speak. There could be no doubt that he knew more
• 3:49:41
  than I did. Astly well, he was another problem for me. To
• 3:49:45
  solve. Suddenly there came a knock at the door, and I opened it
• 3:49:48
  to find Potapitch awaiting me. Sir, he said, my mistress is asking
• 3:49:54
  for you, indeed, but she is just departing, is she not?
• 3:50:00
  The train leaves in ten minutes time. She is uneasy, sir, she
• 3:50:03
  cannot rest. Come quickly, sir, do not delay. I ran down
• 3:50:07
  stairs at once. The grandmother was just being carried out of her rooms into
• 3:50:13
  the corridor. In her hands she held a roll of bank notes Alexis Ivanovitch.
• 3:50:18
  She cried, walk on ahead, and we will set out again.
• 3:50:20
  But whither, Madame, I cannot rest until I have retrieved my losses.
• 3:50:26
  March on ahead and ask me no questions. Play continues until midnight, does
• 3:50:30
  it not. For a moment I stood stupefied, stood deep in thought.
• 3:50:35
  But it was not long before I had made up my mind. With your
• 3:50:39
  leave, Madame, I said, I will not go with you. And
• 3:50:43
  why not? What do you mean? Is every one here a stupid good
• 3:50:46
  for nothing? Pardon me, but I have nothing to reproach myself with.
• 3:50:50
  I merely will not go. I merely intend neither to witness nor to join
• 3:50:56
  in your play. I also beg to return you your five hundred gulden farewell,
• 3:51:01
  laying the money upon a little table which the grandmother's chair happened to be
• 3:51:05
  passing. I bowed and withdrew. What folly, the grandmother shouted after me,
• 3:51:11
  very well, then do not come, and I will find my way
• 3:51:15
  alone. Potapitch, you must come with me, lift up the chair and
• 3:51:18
  carry me along. I failed to find mister Astley and returned home. It
• 3:51:24
  was now growing late. It was past midnight. But I subsequently learnt from
• 3:51:28
  Potapitch how the grandmother's day had ended. She had lost all the money which
• 3:51:33
  earlier in the day I had got for her paper securities, a sum amounting
• 3:51:37
  to about ten thousand roubles. This she did under the direction of the Pole,
• 3:51:43
  whom that afternoon she had dowered with two ten goulden pieces. But before
• 3:51:48
  his arrival on the scene, she had commanded Potapitch to stake for her until
• 3:51:52
  at length she had told him also to go about his business. Upon that
• 3:51:56
  the pole had leapt into the breach. Not only did it happen that he
• 3:52:00
  knew the Russian language, but also he could speak a mixture of three different
• 3:52:03
  dialects, so that the pair were able to understand one another. Yet the
• 3:52:09
  old lady never ceased to abuse him, despite his deferential manner, and to
• 3:52:13
  compare him unfavorably with myself. So at all events, Potovitch declared you,
• 3:52:20
  the old chamberlain said to me, treated her as a gentleman should. But
• 3:52:24
  he he robbed her right and left. As I could see with my own
• 3:52:26
  eyes, twice she caught him at it and rated him soundly. On one
• 3:52:31
  occasion she even pulled his hair, so that the bystanders burst out laughing.
• 3:52:35
  Yet she lost everything, sir, that is to say, she lost all
• 3:52:39
  that you had changed for her. Then we brought her home, and after
• 3:52:43
  asking for some water and saying her prayers, she went to bed. So
• 3:52:46
  worn out was she that she fell asleep at once. May God send her
• 3:52:52
  dreams of angels. And this is all that foreign travel has done for us,
• 3:52:56
  oh, my own Moscow. For what have we not at home there
• 3:53:01
  in Moscow? Such a garden and flowers as you could never see here,
• 3:53:05
  and fresh air, and apple trees coming into blossom, and a beautiful view
• 3:53:09
  to look upon. Ah. But what must she do but go traveling abroad?
• 3:53:16
  A lac a lack end of Chapter twelve, Chapter thirteen. Almost a
• 3:53:24
  month has passed since I last touched these notes, notes which I began under
• 3:53:28
  the influence of impressions at once poignant and disordered. The crisis which I then
• 3:53:35
  felt to be approaching, has now arrived, but in a form a hundred
• 3:53:39
  times more extensive and unexpected than I had looked for. To me, it
• 3:53:43
  all seems strange, uncouth, and tragic. Certain occurrences have befallen me,
• 3:53:50
  which border upon the marvelous at all events that is how I view them.
• 3:53:56
  I view them so in one regard, at least, I refer to the
• 3:53:58
  whirlpool of events in which at the time I was revolving. But the most
• 3:54:05
  curious feature of all is my relation to those events. For hitherto I had
• 3:54:09
  never clearly understood myself. Yet now the actual crisis has passed away like a
• 3:54:15
  dream. Even my passion for Poulina is dead. Was it ever so strong
• 3:54:20
  and genuine as I thought? If so, what has become of it now?
• 3:54:26
  At times I fancy that I must be mad, that somewhere I am
• 3:54:31
  sitting in a mad house, that these events have merely seemed to happen,
• 3:54:35
  that still they merely seem to be happening. I have been arranging and re
• 3:54:41
  perusing my notes, perhaps for the purpose of convincing myself that I am not
• 3:54:46
  in a mad house. At present, I am lonely and alone. Autumn
• 3:54:50
  is coming already, it is mellowing the leaves. And as I sit brooding
• 3:54:56
  in this melancholy little town, and how melancholy the little hounds of Germany can
• 3:55:01
  be, I find myself taking no thought for the future, but living under
• 3:55:07
  the influence of passing moods and of my recollections of the tempest which recently drew
• 3:55:11
  me into its vortex and then cast me out again. At times I seem
• 3:55:16
  still to be caught within that vortex. At times the tempest seems once more
• 3:55:22
  to be gathering, and as it passes overhead, to be wrapping me in
• 3:55:26
  its folds, until I have lost my sense of order and reality, and
• 3:55:31
  continue whirling and whirling and whirling around. Yet it may be that I shall
• 3:55:37
  be able to stop myself from revolving, if once I can succeed in rendering
• 3:55:41
  myself an exact account of what has happened within the month just past. Somehow
• 3:55:48
  I feel drawn towards the pen on many and many an evening I have had
• 3:55:52
  nothing else in the world to do. But curiously enough of late I have
• 3:55:56
  taken to amusing myself with the works of Monsieur Paul Decoq, which I read
• 3:56:01
  in German translations obtained from a wretched local library. These works I cannot abide.
• 3:56:09
  Yet I read them and find myself marveling that I should be doing so.
• 3:56:13
  Somehow I seem to be afraid of any serious book, afraid of permitting
• 3:56:18
  any serious preoccupation to break the spell of the passing moment. So dear to
• 3:56:24
  me is the formless dream of which I have spoken. So dear to me
• 3:56:28
  are the impressions which it is left behind it that I fear to touch the
• 3:56:33
  vision with anything new, lest it should dissolve in smoke. But is it
• 3:56:37
  so dear to me? Yes, it is dear to me, and will
• 3:56:43
  ever be fresh in my recollections, even forty years. Hence, so let
• 3:56:48
  me write of it, but only partially, and in a more abridged form
• 3:56:52
  than my full impressions might warrant. First of all, let me conclude the
• 3:56:58
  history of the grandmother. Next day she lost every gulden that she possessed.
• 3:57:03
  Things were bound to happen, so for persons of her type who have once
• 3:57:07
  entered upon that road, descend it with ever increasing rapidity, even as a
• 3:57:13
  sledge descends a toboggan slide. All day until eight o'clock that evening did she
• 3:57:18
  play, And though I personally did not witness her exploits, I learnt of
• 3:57:22
  them later through report. All that day Potapitch remained in attendance upon her,
• 3:57:28
  but the poles who directed her play she changed more than once. As the
• 3:57:33
  beginning she dismissed her pole of the previous day, the pole whose hair she
• 3:57:37
  had pulled, and took to herself another one. But the latter proved worse
• 3:57:43
  even than the former, and incurred dismissal in favor of the first pole,
• 3:57:48
  who, during the time of his unemployment, had nevertheless hovered around the grandmother's
• 3:57:52
  chair and from time to time obtruded his head over her shoulder. At length,
• 3:57:58
  the old lady became desperate for the second pole, when dismissed, imitated
• 3:58:03
  his predecessor by declining to go away, with the result that one pole remained
• 3:58:07
  standing on the right of the victim and the other on her left, from
• 3:58:11
  which vantage points the pair quarreled, abused each other concerning the stakes and rounds,
• 3:58:16
  and exchanged the epithet laydek rascal, and other Polish terms of endearment.
• 3:58:24
  Finally, they effected a mutual reconciliation, and tossing the money about. Anyhow,
• 3:58:30
  played simply at random, once more quarreling, each of them staked money
• 3:58:33
  on his own side of the grandmother's chair. For instance, the one pole
• 3:58:37
  staked upon the red and the other one upon the black, until they had
• 3:58:43
  so confused and browbeaten the old lady that, nearly weeping, she was forced
• 3:58:48
  to appeal to the head croupier for protection and to have the two poles expelled.
• 3:58:54
  No time was lost in this being done, despite the rascals cries and
• 3:58:58
  protestations that the old lady was in their debt, that she had cheated them,
• 3:59:03
  and that her general behavior had been mean and dishonorable. The same evening,
• 3:59:09
  the unfortunate Potapitch related the story to me with tears, complaining that the
• 3:59:13
  two men had filled their pockets with money he himself had seen them do it,
• 3:59:18
  which had been shamelessly pilfered from his mistress. For instance, one pole
• 3:59:22
  demanded of the grandmother fifty gulden for his trouble, and then staked the money
• 3:59:26
  by the side of her stake. She happened to win, whereupon he cried
• 3:59:31
  out that the winning stake was his and hers the loser. As soon as
• 3:59:37
  the two poles had been expelled, Potapitch left the room and reported to the
• 3:59:41
  authorities that the men's pockets were full of gold and on the grandmother, also
• 3:59:46
  requesting the head croupier to look into the affair. The police made their appearance,
• 3:59:50
  and despite the protests of the poles, who indeed had been caught red
• 3:59:54
  handed, their pockets were turned inside out and the contents handed over to the
• 3:59:58
  grin. In fact, in view of the circumstance that she lost, all
• 4:00:03
  day, the croupiers and other authorities of the casino showed her every attention and
• 4:00:09
  on her fame, spreading through the town. Visitors of every nationality, even
• 4:00:13
  the most knowing of them, the most distinguished, crowded to get a glimpse
• 4:00:18
  of Laville Comtesse Rousse Tombi, an enphanse who had lost so many millions.
• 4:00:26
  Yet with the money which the authorities restored to her from the pockets of the
• 4:00:30
  poles, the grandmother effected very very little, for there soon arrived to take
• 4:00:35
  his countryman's place. A third pole, a man who could speak Russian fluently,
• 4:00:39
  was dressed like a gentleman, albeit in Lackeyish fashion, and sported a
• 4:00:43
  huge mustache. Though polite enough to the old lady, he took a high
• 4:00:48
  hand with the bystanders. In short, he offered himself less as a servant
• 4:00:54
  than as an entertainer. After each round he would turn to the old lady
• 4:00:58
  and swear to aarrable oaths to the effect that he was a Polish gentleman of
• 4:01:03
  honor who would scorn to take a kopic of her money. And though he
• 4:01:07
  repeated these oaths so often that at length she grew alarmed, he had her
• 4:01:11
  play in hand and began to win on her behalf. Wherefore she felt that
• 4:01:16
  she could not well get rid of him. An hour later, the two
• 4:01:20
  Poles, who earlier in the day had been expelled from the casino, made
• 4:01:24
  a reappearance behind the old lady's chair and renewed their offers of service, even
• 4:01:28
  if it were only to be sent on messages. But from potapitch I subsequently
• 4:01:33
  had it that between these rascals and the sad gentleman of honor, there passed
• 4:01:37
  a wink as well as that the latter put something into their hands. Next,
• 4:01:43
  since the grandmother had not yet lunched, she had scarcely for a moment
• 4:01:48
  left her chair. One of the two poles ran to the restaurant of the
• 4:01:52
  casino and brought her thence a cup of soup and afterwards some tea. In
• 4:01:58
  fact, both the poles hastened to perform this office. Finally, towards the
• 4:02:03
  close of the day, when it was clear that the grandmother was about to
• 4:02:05
  play her last bank note, there could be seen standing behind her chair no
• 4:02:11
  fewer than six natives of Poland, persons who as yet had been neither audible
• 4:02:16
  nor visible. And as soon as ever the old lady played the note in
• 4:02:20
  question, they took no further notice of her, but pushed their way past
• 4:02:24
  her chair to the table, seized the money, and staked it, shouting
• 4:02:28
  and disputing the while and arguing with the gentleman of honor, who also had
• 4:02:33
  forgotten the grandmother's existence, as though he were there equal. Even when the
• 4:02:37
  grandmother had lost her all and was returning about eight o'clock to the hotel,
• 4:02:43
  some three or four poles could not bring themselves to leave her, but went
• 4:02:46
  on running beside her chair and valuably protesting that the grandmother had cheated them,
• 4:02:52
  and that she ought to be made to surrender what was not her own.
• 4:02:56
  Thus the party arrived at the hotel, whence the gang of rascals was ejected
• 4:03:01
  neck and crop. According to Potapitch's calculations, the grandmother lost that day a
• 4:03:07
  total of ninety thousand roubles, in addition to the money which she had lost
• 4:03:11
  the day before. Every paper security which she had brought with her, five
• 4:03:16
  percent bonds, internal loan script, and what not she had changed into cash.
• 4:03:22
  Also, I could not but marvel at the way in which, for
• 4:03:26
  seven or eight hours at a stretch, she sat in that chair of hers,
• 4:03:28
  almost never leaving the table. Again, Potopitch told me that there were
• 4:03:33
  three occasions on which she really began to win, but that led on by
• 4:03:39
  false hopes, she was unable to tear herself away at the right moment.
• 4:03:43
  Every gambler knows how a person may sit a day and a night at cards
• 4:03:48
  without ever casting a glance to right or to left. Meanwhile, that day,
• 4:03:52
  some other very important events were passing in our hotel as early as eleven
• 4:03:58
  o'clock, that is to say, before the grandmother had quitted her rooms.
• 4:04:01
  The General and debrieer decided upon their last stroke. In other words, on
• 4:04:07
  learning that the old lady had changed her mind about departing and was bent on
• 4:04:11
  setting out for the casino again, the whole of our gang Polina only accepted
• 4:04:16
  proceeded anmas to her rooms for the purpose of finally and frankly treating with her.
• 4:04:22
  But the General, quaking and greatly apprehensive as to his possible future,
• 4:04:26
  overdid things. After half an hour's prayers and entreaties, coupled with the full
• 4:04:33
  confession of his debts and even of his passion for Mademoiselle Blanche, Yes,
• 4:04:37
  he had quite lost his head. He suddenly adopted a tone of menace and
• 4:04:41
  started to rage at the old lady, exclaiming that she was sullying the family
• 4:04:46
  honor, that she was making a public scandal of herself, and that she
• 4:04:50
  was smirching the fair name of Russia. The upshot was that the grandmother turned
• 4:04:54
  him out of the room with her stick. It was a real stick too.
• 4:04:58
  Later in the morning he held so several consultations with de griere, The
• 4:05:01
  question which occupied him being is it any way possible to make use of the
• 4:05:05
  police to tell them that this respected but unfortunate old lady has gone out of
• 4:05:11
  her mind and is squandering her last copeck or something of the kind? In
• 4:05:16
  short, is it in any way possible to engineer a species of supervision over
• 4:05:22
  or of restraint upon the old lady. De Grier, however, shrugged his
• 4:05:26
  shoulders at this and laughed in the General's face, while the old warrior went
• 4:05:31
  on chattering valuably and running up and down his study. Finally, de Grier
• 4:05:37
  waved his hand and disappeared from view, and by evening it became known that
• 4:05:41
  he had left the hotel after holding a very secret and important conference with Mademoiselle
• 4:05:46
  Blanche. As for the latter, from early morning, she had taken decisive
• 4:05:52
  measures by completely excluding the General from her presence and bestowing upon him not a
• 4:05:56
  glance. Indeed, even when the General pursued her to the casino and met
• 4:06:03
  her walking arm in arm with the Prince, he the General received from her
• 4:06:07
  and her mother not the slightest recognition, nor did the Prince himself bow.
• 4:06:13
  The rest of the day Mademoiselle spent in probing the prince and trying to make
• 4:06:18
  him declare himself, but in this she made a woeful mistake. The little
• 4:06:22
  incident occurred in the evening. Suddenly Mademoiselle Blanche realized that the Prince had not
• 4:06:28
  even a copper to his name, but on the contrary, was minded to
• 4:06:33
  borrow of her money wherewith to play at roulette. In high displeasure, she
• 4:06:37
  drove him from her presence and shut herself up in her room. The same
• 4:06:43
  morning, I went to sea or rather to look for mister Astley, but
• 4:06:46
  was unsuccessful in my quest. Neither in his rooms, nor in the casino,
• 4:06:50
  nor in the park was he to be found, Nor did he that
• 4:06:54
  day lunch at his hotel as usual. However, at about five o'clock I
• 4:06:58
  caught sight of him walking from the railway station to the hotel Dangletaire. He
• 4:07:03
  seemed to be in a great hurry and much preoccupied, though in his face
• 4:07:07
  I could discern no actual traces of worry or perturbation. He held out to
• 4:07:13
  me a friendly hand with his usual ejaculation of ah, but did not check
• 4:07:16
  his stride. I turned and walked beside him, but found somehow that his
• 4:07:22
  answers forbade any putting of definite questions. Moreover, I felt reluctant to speak
• 4:07:28
  to him of Polina, nor for his part, did he ask me any
• 4:07:31
  questions concerning her, although on my telling him of the grandmother's exploits, he
• 4:07:35
  listened attentively and gravely, and then shrugged his shoulders. She is gambling away
• 4:07:41
  everything that she has, I remarked. Indeed, she arrived at the casino
• 4:07:46
  even before I had taken my departure by train, so I knew she had
• 4:07:50
  been playing. If I should have time, I will go to the casino
• 4:07:52
  to night and take a look at her. The thing interests me. Where
• 4:07:58
  have you been to day? I asked, surprised at myself for having as
• 4:08:01
  yet omitted to put to him that question. To frankfort on business on business?
• 4:08:09
  What more was there to be asked? After that, I accompanied him
• 4:08:13
  until as we drew level with the Hotel de cat Seizon, he suddenly nodded
• 4:08:18
  to me and disappeared. For myself, I returned home and came to the
• 4:08:24
  conclusion that even had I met him at two o'clock in the afternoon, I
• 4:08:28
  should have learnt no more from him than I had done at five o'clock.
• 4:08:31
  For the reason that I had no definite question to ask, it was bound
• 4:08:35
  to have been so for me to formulate the query which I really wished to
• 4:08:39
  put, was a simple impossibility. Polina spent the whole of that day either
• 4:08:45
  in walking about the park with the nurse and children, or in sitting in
• 4:08:48
  her own room. For a long while past she had avoided the General and
• 4:08:52
  had scarcely had a word to say to him, scarcely a word, I
• 4:08:56
  mean, on any serious topic. Yes, that I had noticed. Still,
• 4:09:03
  even though I was aware of the position in which the General was placed,
• 4:09:07
  it had never occurred to me that he would have any reason to avoid
• 4:09:09
  her or to trouble her with family explanations. Indeed, when I was returning
• 4:09:16
  to the hotel after my conversation with Astley and chanced to meet Polina and the
• 4:09:22
  children, I could see that her face was as calm as though the family
• 4:09:24
  disturbances had never touched her. To my salute, she responded with a slight
• 4:09:30
  bow, and I retired to my room in a very bad humor. Of
• 4:09:33
  course, since the affair with the Birmergelms, I had exchanged not a word
• 4:09:37
  with Polina, nor had with her any kind of intercourse. Yet I had
• 4:09:43
  been at my wits end, for as time went on there was a rising
• 4:09:46
  in me and ever seething dissatisfaction. Even if she did not love me,
• 4:09:50
  she ought not to have trampled upon my feelings, nor to have accepted my
• 4:09:54
  confessions with such contempt. Seeing that she must have been aware that I loved
• 4:09:58
  her, of her own accord, she had allowed me to tell her as
• 4:10:03
  much. Of course, the situation between us had arisen in a curious manner.
• 4:10:07
  About two months ago. I had noticed that she had a desire to
• 4:10:11
  make me her friend, her confidant, that she was making trial of me
• 4:10:15
  for the purpose. But for some reason or another, the desired result had
• 4:10:18
  never come about, and we had fallen into the present strange relations, which
• 4:10:24
  had led me to address her as I had done. At the same time.
• 4:10:28
  If my love was distasteful to her, why had she not forbidden me
• 4:10:31
  to speak of it to her? But she had not so forbidden me.
• 4:10:37
  On the contrary, there had been occasions when she had even invited me to
• 4:10:41
  speak. Of course, this might have been done out of sheer wantonness,
• 4:10:46
  for I well knew. I had remarked it only too often that after listening
• 4:10:50
  to what I had to say, and angering me almost beyond endurance, she
• 4:10:54
  loved suddenly to torture me with some fresh outburst of contempt and aloofness. Yet
• 4:11:00
  she must have known that I could not live without her. Three days had
• 4:11:03
  elapsed since the affair with the Baron, and I could bear the severance no
• 4:11:09
  longer. When that afternoon I met her near the Gasino, my heart almost
• 4:11:13
  made me faint it beat so violently. She too could not live without me.
• 4:11:18
  For had she not said that she had need of me, or had
• 4:11:20
  that too been spoken in jest, that she had a secret of some kind,
• 4:11:26
  there could be no doubt what she had said to the Grandmother had stabbed
• 4:11:30
  me to the heart. On a thousand occasions I had challenged her to be
• 4:11:33
  open with me. Nor could she have been ignorant that I was ready to
• 4:11:37
  give my very life for her. Yet always she had kept me at a
• 4:11:41
  distance with that contemptuous air of hers, or else she had demanded of me
• 4:11:46
  in lieu of the life which I offered to lay at her feet. Such
• 4:11:48
  escapades as I had perpetrated with the Baron, Ah was it not torture to
• 4:11:54
  me all this? For? Could it be that her whole world was bound
• 4:12:00
  up with the Frenchman? What to about mister Astley? The affair was inexplicable
• 4:12:05
  throughout my God, what distress it caused me. Arrived home, I,
• 4:12:11
  in a fit of frenzy, indicted the following Polina Alexandrovna. I can see
• 4:12:18
  that there was approaching us an exposure which will involve you too. For the
• 4:12:22
  last time, I ask of you, Have you or have you not any
• 4:12:26
  need of my life? If you have, then make such dispositions as you
• 4:12:31
  wish, and I shall always be discoverable in my room if required. If
• 4:12:35
  you have need of my life, write or send for me. I sealed
• 4:12:39
  the letter and dispatched it by the hand of a corridor lackey, with orders
• 4:12:43
  to hand it to the addressee in person. Though I expected no answer.
• 4:12:48
  Scarcely three minutes had elapsed before the lackey returned with the compliments of a certain
• 4:12:52
  person. Next, about seven o'clock, I was sent for by the General.
• 4:12:58
  I found him in his study, apparently preparing to go out again,
• 4:13:01
  for his hat and stick were lying on the sofa when I entered he was
• 4:13:05
  standing in the middle of the room, his feet wide apart, and his
• 4:13:09
  head bent down. Also, he appeared to be talking to himself. But
• 4:13:13
  as soon as ever he saw me at the door, he came towards me
• 4:13:16
  in such a curious manner that involuntarily I retreated a step and was for leaving
• 4:13:22
  the room, whereupon he seized me by both hands, and drawing me towards
• 4:13:26
  the sofa, and seating himself thereon, he forced me to sit down on
• 4:13:30
  a chair opposite him. Then, without letting go of my hands, he
• 4:13:33
  exclaimed, with quivering lips and a sparkle of tears on his eyelashes, Oh,
• 4:13:39
  Alexis Ivanovitch, save me, save me, have some mercy upon me.
• 4:13:45
  For a long time I could not make out what he meant, although
• 4:13:48
  he kept talking and talking, and constantly repeating to himself, have mercy,
• 4:13:52
  mercy. At length, however, I divined that he was expecting me to
• 4:13:58
  give him something in the nature of advice, or rather that deserted by every
• 4:14:03
  one and overwhelmed with grief and apprehension, he had bethought himself of my existence
• 4:14:09
  and sent for me to relieve his feelings by talking and talking and talking.
• 4:14:15
  In fact, he was in such a confused and despondent state of mind that,
• 4:14:20
  clasping his hands together, he actually went down upon his knees and begged
• 4:14:24
  me to go to Mademoiselle Blanche and beseech and advise her to return to him
• 4:14:28
  and to accept him in marriage. But general, I exclaimed, possibly Mademoiselle
• 4:14:35
  Blanche has scarcely even remarked my existence. What could I do with her?
• 4:14:41
  It was in vain that I protested, for he could understand nothing that was
• 4:14:46
  said to him. Next, he started talking about the grandmother, but always
• 4:14:50
  in a disconnected sort of fashion, his one thought being to send for the
• 4:14:54
  police. In Russia, he said, suddenly boiling over with indignation, or
• 4:15:01
  in any well ordered state where there exists a government, old women like my
• 4:15:05
  mother are placed under proper guardianship, Yes, my good sir, he went
• 4:15:09
  on, relapsing into a scolding tone as he leaped to his feet and started
• 4:15:13
  to pace the room. Do you not know this, he seemed to be
• 4:15:18
  addressing some imaginary auditor in the corner. Do you not know this that in
• 4:15:22
  Russia, old women like her are subjected to restraint? The devil take them?
• 4:15:26
  Again? He threw himself down upon the sofa. A minute later,
• 4:15:31
  though sobbing and almost breathless, he managed to gasp out that Mademoiselle Blanche had
• 4:15:37
  refused to marry him for the reason that the grandmother had turned up in place
• 4:15:41
  of a telegram, and it was therefore clear that he had no inheritance to
• 4:15:45
  look for. Evidently, he supposed that I had hitherto been in entire ignorance
• 4:15:50
  of all this. Again, when I referred to de Griere, the General
• 4:15:54
  made a gesture of despair. He has gone away, he said, and
• 4:16:00
  everything which I possess is mortgage to him. I stand stripped to my skin.
• 4:16:04
  Even of the money which you brought me from Paris, I know not
• 4:16:08
  of seven hundred francs be left. Of course, that sum will do to
• 4:16:11
  go on with. But as regards the future, I know nothing. I
• 4:16:15
  know nothing. Then how will you pay your hotel bill? I cried,
• 4:16:21
  in consternation, And what shall you do? Afterwards? He looked at me
• 4:16:25
  vaguely, but it was clear that he had not understood, perhaps had not
• 4:16:27
  even heard my questions. Then I tried to get him to speak of Polina
• 4:16:32
  and the children, but he only returned brief answers of yes, yes,
• 4:16:37
  and again started to maunder about the prince and the likelihood of the latter marrying
• 4:16:41
  Mademoiselle Blanche. What on earth am I to do? He concluded, What
• 4:16:45
  on earth am I to do? Is this not ingratitude? Is it not
• 4:16:49
  sheer ingratitude? And he burst into tears. Nothing could be done with such
• 4:16:55
  a man, Yet to leave him alone was dangerous, for something might happen
• 4:16:59
  to him. I withdrew from his rooms for a little while, but warned
• 4:17:03
  the nursemaid to keep an eye upon him, as well as exchanged a word
• 4:17:07
  with the corridor Lackey, a very talkative fellow, who likewise promised to remain
• 4:17:11
  on the lookout. Hardly had I left the General when Potapitch approached me with
• 4:17:18
  a summons from the grandmother. It was now eight o'clock and she had returned
• 4:17:22
  from the casino after finally losing all that she possessed. I found her sitting
• 4:17:26
  in her chair, much distressed and evidently fatigued. Presently, Martha brought her
• 4:17:30
  a cup of tea and forced her to drink it. Yet even then I
• 4:17:34
  could detect in the old lady's tone and manner a great change. Good evening,
• 4:17:41
  Alexis Savanovitch, she said, slowly, with her head drooping. Pardon
• 4:17:45
  me for disturbing you again. Yes, you must pardon an old, old
• 4:17:48
  woman like myself, for I have left behind me all that I possess,
• 4:17:53
  nearly a hundred thousand roubles. You did quite write in declining to come with
• 4:17:59
  me this evening. Now I am without money, without a single groat.
• 4:18:03
  But I must not delay a moment. I must leave by the nine thirty
• 4:18:07
  train. I have sent for that English friend of yours and am going to
• 4:18:11
  beg of him three thousand francs for a week. Please try and persuade him
• 4:18:15
  to think nothing of it, nor yet to refuse me, for I am
• 4:18:18
  still a rich woman who possesses three villages and a couple of mansions. Yes,
• 4:18:23
  the money shall be found, for I have not yet squandered everything.
• 4:18:29
  I tell you this in order that he may have no doubts about ah.
• 4:18:33
  But here he is clearly he is a good fellow. True enough. Astley
• 4:18:37
  had come hot foot on receiving the grandmother's appeal. Scarcely stopping even to reflect,
• 4:18:44
  and with scarcely a word, he counted out the three thousand francs under
• 4:18:48
  a note of hand which she duly signed. Then his business done, he
• 4:18:52
  bowed and lost no time in taking his departure. You two leave me,
• 4:18:59
  Alexis Ivanovitch, said the grandmother. All my bones are aching, and I
• 4:19:03
  still have an hour in which to rest. Do not be hard upon me,
• 4:19:07
  old fool that I am. Never again shall I blame young people for
• 4:19:11
  being frivolous. I should think it wrong even to blame that unhappy general of
• 4:19:15
  yours. Nevertheless, I do not mean to let him have any of my
• 4:19:19
  money, which is all that he desires, for the reason that I look
• 4:19:23
  upon him as a perfect blockhead, and consider myself simpleton, though I be
• 4:19:29
  at least wiser than he is. How surely does God visit old age and
• 4:19:33
  punish it for its presumption? Well, good bye, Martha, come and
• 4:19:41
  lift me up. However, I had a mind to see the old lady
• 4:19:45
  off, and moreover, I was in an expectant frame of mind. Somehow
• 4:19:48
  I kept thinking that something was going to happen. Wherefore I could not rest
• 4:19:53
  quietly in my room, but stepped out into the corridor and then into the
• 4:19:57
  Chestnut Avenue for a few minutes. My letter to Polina had been clear and
• 4:20:03
  firm, and in the present crisis, I felt sure would prove final.
• 4:20:07
  I had heard of de Grier's departure, and however much Polina might reject me
• 4:20:12
  as a friend, she might not reject me altogether. As a servant.
• 4:20:17
  She would need me to fetch and carry for her, and I was ready
• 4:20:19
  to do so. How could it have been otherwise? Towards the hour of
• 4:20:26
  the train's departure, I hastened to the station and put the grandmother into her
• 4:20:30
  compartment. She and her party occupying a reserved family saloon. Thanks for your
• 4:20:36
  disinterested assistance, she said at parting. Oh, and please remind Prascovia of
• 4:20:41
  what I said to her last night. I expect soon to see her.
• 4:20:45
  Then I returned home. As I was passing the door of the General suite,
• 4:20:49
  I met the nursemaid and inquired after her master. There is nothing new
• 4:20:55
  to report, sir, she replied quietly. Nevertheless, I decided to enter,
• 4:21:00
  and was just doing so when I halted thunderstruck on the threshold. For
• 4:21:04
  before me, I beheld the General and Mademoiselle Blanche laughing gaily at one another,
• 4:21:10
  while beside them on the sofa there was seated her mother. Clearly,
• 4:21:14
  the General was almost out of his mind with joy, for he was talking
• 4:21:18
  all sorts of nonsense, and bubbling over with a long, drawn, nervous
• 4:21:22
  laugh, a laugh which twisted his face into innumerable wrinkles and caused his eyes
• 4:21:27
  almost to disappear. Afterwards, I learnt from Mademoiselle Blanche herself that after dismissing
• 4:21:36
  the prince and hearing of the general's tears, she bethought her of going to
• 4:21:40
  comfort the old man, and had just arrived for the purpose when I entered.
• 4:21:45
  Fortunately, the poor general did not know that his fate had been decided,
• 4:21:48
  that Mademoiselle had long ago packed her trunks in readiness for the first morning
• 4:21:53
  train to Paris. Hesitating a moment on the threshold, I changed my mind
• 4:22:00
  to entering and departed unnoticed. Ascending to my room and opening the door,
• 4:22:06
  I perceived in the semidarkness a figure seated on a chair in the corner by
• 4:22:10
  the window. The figure did not rise when I entered, so I approached
• 4:22:14
  it swiftly, peered at it closely, and felt my heart almost stop beating.
• 4:22:19
  The figure was Poulina. End of Chapter thirteen, Chapter fourteen. The
• 4:22:27
  shock made me utter an exclamation. What is the matter. What is the
• 4:22:33
  matter, she asked in a strange voice. She was looking pale, and
• 4:22:37
  her eyes were dim. What is the matter? I re echoed, Why
• 4:22:41
  the fact that you are here? If I am here, I have come
• 4:22:45
  with all that I have to bring, She said, such has always been
• 4:22:49
  my way, as you shall presently see. Please light a candle. I
• 4:22:55
  did so, whereupon she rose, approached the table and laid upon it and
• 4:23:00
  read it. She added, it is Degriere's handwriting, I cried as I
• 4:23:07
  seized the document. My hands were so tremulous that the lines on the pages
• 4:23:11
  danced before my eyes. Although at this distance of time I have forgotten the
• 4:23:15
  exact phraseology of the missive, I append, if not the precise words,
• 4:23:21
  at all events, the general sense, mademoiselle, the document ran certain untoward
• 4:23:27
  circumstances compel me to depart in haste. Of course, you have of yourself
• 4:23:33
  remarked that hitherto I have always refrained from having any final explanation with you,
• 4:23:37
  for the reason that I could not well state the whole circumstances. And now
• 4:23:41
  to my difficulties. The advent of the aged grandmother coupled with her subsequent proceedings,
• 4:23:48
  has put the final touch also the involved state of my affairs, forbids
• 4:23:52
  me to write with any finality concerning those hopes of ultimate bliss upon which for
• 4:23:57
  a long while past I have permitted my self to feed. I regret the
• 4:24:02
  past, but at the same time hope that in my conduct you have never
• 4:24:06
  been able to detect anything that was unworthy of a gentleman and a man of
• 4:24:10
  honor. Having lost, however, almost the whole of my money in debts
• 4:24:14
  incurred by your stepfather, I find myself driven to the necessity of saving the
• 4:24:18
  remainder. Wherefore I have instructed certain friends of mine in Saint Petersburg to arrange
• 4:24:26
  for the sale of all the property which has been mortgage to myself. At
• 4:24:30
  the same time, knowing that in addition, your frivolous stepfather has squandered money
• 4:24:33
  which is exclusively yours, I have decided to absolve him from a certain moiety
• 4:24:40
  of the mortgages on his property, in order that you may be in a
• 4:24:42
  position to recover of him what you have lost by suing him in legal fashion.
• 4:24:48
  I trust therefore that as matters now stand, this action of mine may
• 4:24:52
  bring you some advantage. I trust also that this same action leaves me in
• 4:24:56
  the position of having fulfilled every obligation which is incumbent upon a man of honor
• 4:25:02
  and refinement. Rest assured that your memory will forever remain graven in my heart.
• 4:25:08
  All this is clear enough, I commented, Surely you did not expect
• 4:25:12
  aught else from him? Somehow I was feeling annoyed. I expected nothing at
• 4:25:18
  all from him, She replied, quietly enough to all outwards, seeing yet
• 4:25:22
  with a note of irritation in her tone. Long ago I made up my
• 4:25:26
  mind on the subject, for I could read his thoughts and knew what he
• 4:25:32
  was thinking. He thought that possibly I should sue him, that one day
• 4:25:34
  I might become a nuisance. Here Polina halted for a moment and stood biting
• 4:25:40
  her lips. So of set purpose, I redoubled my contemptuous treatment of him,
• 4:25:44
  and waited to see what he would do. If a telegram to say
• 4:25:48
  that we had become legates had arrived from Saint Petersburg. I should have flung
• 4:25:52
  at him acquittance for my foolish stepfather's debts, and then dismissed him. For
• 4:25:57
  a long time, I have hated him, even in earlier days he was
• 4:26:00
  not a man. And now, oh, how gladly I could throw those
• 4:26:06
  fifty thousand roubles in his face and spit in it, and then rub the
• 4:26:10
  spittle in. But the document returning the fifty thousand rouble mortgage? Has the
• 4:26:17
  General got it? If so, possess yourself of it and send it to
• 4:26:19
  de Griere. No, no, the General has not got it, just
• 4:26:26
  as I expected. Well, what is the General going to do? Then
• 4:26:30
  an idea suddenly occurred to me. What about the grandmother? I asked.
• 4:26:36
  Paulina looked at me with impatience and bewilderment. What makes you speak of her?
• 4:26:40
  Was her irritable inquiry. I cannot go and live with her, nor,
• 4:26:45
  she added hotly, while I go down upon my knees to any one.
• 4:26:48
  Why should you, I cried, yet, to think that you should
• 4:26:51
  have loved de Griere the villain? The villain, but I will kill him
• 4:26:55
  in a duel. Where is he now in Frankfort, where he will be
• 4:26:59
  staying for the next three days. Well bid me do so, and I
• 4:27:02
  will go to him by the first train tomorrow, I exclaimed with enthusiasm.
• 4:27:06
  She smiled. If you were to do that, She said, He would
• 4:27:10
  merely tell you to be so good as to first return him the fifty thousand
• 4:27:12
  francs. What then, would be the use of having a quarrel with him?
• 4:27:18
  You talk, sheer nonsense. I ground my teeth. The question I
• 4:27:22
  went on is how to raise the fifty thousand francs. We cannot expect to
• 4:27:26
  find them lying about on the floor. Listen, what of mister Astley?
• 4:27:33
  Even as I spoke, a new and strange idea formed itself in my brain.
• 4:27:37
  Her eyes flashed fire. What you yourself wish me to leave you for
• 4:27:41
  him? She cried, with a scornful look and a proud smile. Never
• 4:27:47
  before had she addressed me thus. Then her head must have turned dizzy with
• 4:27:51
  emotion, for suddenly she seated herself upon the sofa, as though she were
• 4:27:55
  powerless any longer to stand. A flash of lightning seemed to strike me.
• 4:28:00
  As I stood there. I could scarcely believe my eyes or my ears.
• 4:28:04
  She did love me. Then it was to me, and not to mister
• 4:28:10
  Ashley, that she had turned. Although she an unprotected girl, had come
• 4:28:14
  to me in my room, in an hotel room, and had probably compromised
• 4:28:18
  herself thereby I had not understood. Then a second mad idea flashed into my
• 4:28:25
  brain. Paulina, I said, give me but an hour wait here,
• 4:28:29
  just one hour until I return. Yes, you must do so, do
• 4:28:33
  you not see what I mean? Just stay here for that time? And
• 4:28:37
  I rushed from the room without so much as answering her look of inquiry.
• 4:28:41
  She called something after me, but I did not return. Sometimes it happens
• 4:28:47
  that the most insane thought, the most impossible conception, will become so fixed
• 4:28:52
  in one's head that at length one believes the thought or the conception to be
• 4:28:55
  reality. Moreover, if with the thought or the conception there is combined a
• 4:29:02
  strong, a passionate desire, one will come to look upon the said thought
• 4:29:06
  or conception as something fated, inevitable, and foreordained, something bound to happen.
• 4:29:11
  Whether by this there is connoted something in the nature of a combination of
• 4:29:15
  presentiments, or a great effort of will, or a self anument of one's
• 4:29:19
  true expectations, and so on, I do not know. But at all
• 4:29:23
  events that night saw happen to me, a night which I shall never forget,
• 4:29:29
  something in the nature of the miraculous, Although the occurrence can easily be
• 4:29:33
  explained by arithmetic. I still believe it to have been a miracle. Yet
• 4:29:37
  why did this conviction take such a hold upon me at the time and remain
• 4:29:41
  with me ever since? Previously I had thought of the idea not as an
• 4:29:45
  occurrence which was ever likely to come about, but as something which never could
• 4:29:49
  come about. The time was a quarter past eleven o'clock when I entered the
• 4:29:53
  casino in such a state of hope, though at the same time of agitation
• 4:29:57
  as I had never before EXPERI verienced in the gaming rooms. There were still
• 4:30:02
  a large number of people, but not half as many as had been present
• 4:30:06
  in the morning at eleven o'clock. There usually remained behind only the real the
• 4:30:11
  desperate gamblers, persons for whom at spas there existed nothing beyond roulette, and
• 4:30:18
  who went thither for that alone. These gamesters took little note of what was
• 4:30:22
  going on around them, and were interested in none of the impertinences of the
• 4:30:26
  season, but played from morning till night, and would have been ready to
• 4:30:30
  play through the night until dawn, had that been possible. As it was,
• 4:30:33
  they used to disperse unwillingly when at midnight roulette came to an end,
• 4:30:40
  likewise, as soon as ever, roulette was drawing to a close, and
• 4:30:42
  the head croupier had called les trois d'arniere coups. Most of them were ready
• 4:30:48
  to stake on the last three rounds all that they had in their pockets,
• 4:30:52
  and for the most part lost it. For my own part, I proceeded
• 4:30:56
  towards the table at which the grandmother had lately sat, and since the crowd
• 4:31:00
  around it was not very large, I soon obtained standing room among the ring
• 4:31:04
  of gamblers. While directly in front of me on the green cloth I saw
• 4:31:10
  marked the word pass Pass was a row of numbers from nineteen to thirty six
• 4:31:15
  inclusive, while a row of numbers from one to eighteen inclusive was known as
• 4:31:19
  monk. But what had that to do with me? I had not noticed.
• 4:31:23
  I had not so much as heard the numbers upon which the previous coup
• 4:31:27
  had fallen, and so took no bearings when I began to play, as
• 4:31:32
  in my place any systematic gambler would have done. No. I merely extended
• 4:31:37
  my stock of twenty ten golden pieces and threw them down upon the space pass,
• 4:31:42
  which happened to be confronting me. Then deh called the croupier. I
• 4:31:48
  hit one. I staked upon the same again, both my original stake and
• 4:31:52
  my winnings. Pronte etant called the croupier. Again. I had won and
• 4:31:59
  was now in possession of eighty ten goulden pieces. Next, I moved the
• 4:32:03
  whole eighty on to twelve middle numbers, a stake which if successful would bring
• 4:32:07
  me in a triple profit, but also involved a risk of two chances to
• 4:32:11
  one. The wheel revolved and stopped at twenty four. Upon this I was
• 4:32:15
  paid out notes and gold, until I had by my side a total sum
• 4:32:21
  of two thousand goulden. It was as in a fever that I moved the
• 4:32:23
  pile on block on to the red. Then suddenly I came to myself,
• 4:32:29
  though that was the only time during the evening's play when fear cast its cold
• 4:32:33
  spell over me and showed itself in a trembling of the hands and knees.
• 4:32:37
  For with horror I had realized that I must win, and that upon that
• 4:32:41
  stake there depended all my life. Rouge called the croupier. I drew a
• 4:32:48
  long breath and hot shivers when coursing over my body. I was paid out
• 4:32:52
  my winnings in bank notes, amounting, of course, to a total of
• 4:32:55
  four thousand florins eight hundred goulden. I could still calculate the amounts After that,
• 4:33:03
  I remember I again staked two thousand florins upon twelve middle numbers, and
• 4:33:07
  lost. Again. I staked the whole of my gold with eight hundred gulden
• 4:33:11
  in notes, and lost. Then madness seemed to come upon me, and
• 4:33:15
  seizing my last two thousand florins, I staked them upon twelve of the first
• 4:33:19
  numbers, wholly by chance and at random, and without any sort of reckoning.
• 4:33:25
  Upon my doing so, there followed a moment of suspense only comparable to
• 4:33:30
  that which Madame Blanchard must have experienced when in Paris she was descending earthwards from
• 4:33:34
  a balloon. Kott called the croupier. Once more, with the addition of
• 4:33:41
  my original stake, I was in possession of six thousand florins. Once more,
• 4:33:45
  I looked around me like a conqueror. Once more I feared nothing as
• 4:33:48
  I threw down four thousand of these florins upon the black. The croupiers glanced
• 4:33:53
  around them and exchanged a few words. The bystanders murmured expectantly. The black
• 4:34:00
  turned up. After that I do not exactly remember either my calculations or the
• 4:34:04
  order of my stakings. I only remember that, as in a dream,
• 4:34:08
  I won in one round sixteen thousand florins, that in the three following rounds
• 4:34:14
  I lost twelve thousand, that I moved the remainder four thousand on to pass,
• 4:34:19
  though quite unconscious of what I was doing. I was merely waiting,
• 4:34:23
  as it were, mechanically and without reflection, for something and one, and
• 4:34:29
  that finally, four times in succession I lost. Yes, I can remember
• 4:34:33
  raking in money by thousands, but most frequently on the twelve middle numbers,
• 4:34:37
  to which I constantly adhered, and which kept appearing in a sort of regular
• 4:34:41
  order, first three or four times running, and then, after an interval
• 4:34:45
  of a couple of rounds, in another break of three or four appearances.
• 4:34:49
  Sometimes this astonishing regularity manifested itself in patches, a thing to upset all the
• 4:34:56
  calculations of note taking gamblers, who, with a pencil and a memorandum book
• 4:35:02
  in their hands, fortune perpetrates some terrible jests at roulette. Since my entry
• 4:35:07
  not more than half an hour could have elapsed. Suddenly a croupier informed me
• 4:35:12
  that I had one thirty thousand florins, as well as that, since the
• 4:35:17
  latter was the limit for which at any one time the bank could make itself
• 4:35:19
  responsible, Roulette at that table must close for the night. Accordingly, I
• 4:35:25
  caught up my pile of gold, stuffed it into my pocket, and,
• 4:35:27
  grasping my sheaf of bank notes, moved to the table in an adjoining salon,
• 4:35:33
  where a second game of roulette was in progress. The crowd followed me
• 4:35:36
  in a body and cleared a place for me at the table, after which
• 4:35:41
  I proceeded to stake as before, that is to say, at random,
• 4:35:44
  and without calculating what saved me from ruin. I do not know. Of
• 4:35:48
  course, there were times when fragmentary reckonings did come flashing into my brain.
• 4:35:53
  For instance, there were times when I attached myself for a while to certain
• 4:35:57
  figures and coups, though always leaving them again before long, without knowing what
• 4:36:03
  I was doing. In fact, I cannot have been in possession of all
• 4:36:07
  my faculties, for I can remember the croupiers correcting my play more than once,
• 4:36:11
  owing to my having made mistakes of the gravest order. My brows were
• 4:36:15
  damp with sweat, and my hands were shaking. Also, poles came around
• 4:36:18
  me to proffer their services, but I heeded none of them, nor did
• 4:36:22
  my luck fail me. Now suddenly there arose around me a loud din of
• 4:36:26
  talking and laughter. Bravo, Bravo was the general's shout, and some people
• 4:36:30
  even clapped their hands. I had raked in thirty thousand florins, and again
• 4:36:36
  the bank had had to close for the night. Go away, now,
• 4:36:40
  go away now, A voice whispered to me on my right. The person
• 4:36:45
  who had spoken to me was a certain jew of Frankfort, a man who
• 4:36:48
  had been standing beside me the whole while and occasionally helping me in my play.
• 4:36:53
  Yes, for God's sake, go, whispered a second voice in my
• 4:36:56
  left ear. Glancing around, I perceived that the second voice had come from
• 4:37:00
  a modestly, plainly dressed lady of rather less than thirty, a woman whose
• 4:37:06
  face, though pale and sickly looking, bore also very evident traces of former
• 4:37:10
  beauty. At the moment, I was stuffing the crumpled bank notes into my
• 4:37:15
  pockets and collecting all the gold that was left on the table. Seizing up
• 4:37:18
  my last note for five hundred gulden, I contrived to insinuate it, unperceived
• 4:37:23
  into the hand of the pale lady. An overpowering impulse. It made me
• 4:37:26
  do so, and I remember how her thin little fingers pressed mine in token
• 4:37:32
  of her lively gratitude. The whole affair was the work of a moment.
• 4:37:37
  Then, collecting my belongings, I crossed to where Tronte Corante was being played,
• 4:37:41
  a game which could boast of a more aristocratic public, and was played
• 4:37:45
  with cards instead of with a wheel. At this diversion, the bank made
• 4:37:48
  itself responsible for a hundred thousand dollars as the limit, but the highest stake
• 4:37:55
  allowable was, as in roulette, four thousand florins. Although I knew nothing
• 4:38:00
  of the game, and I scarcely knew the stakes except those on black and
• 4:38:03
  red, I joined the ring of players, while the rest of the crowd
• 4:38:07
  masked itself around me. At this distance of time, I cannot remember whether
• 4:38:11
  I ever gave a thought to Paulina. I seemed only to be conscious of
• 4:38:15
  a vague pleasure in seizing and raking in the banknotes, which kept massing themselves
• 4:38:19
  in a pile before me. But as ever, fortune seemed to be at
• 4:38:25
  my back, as though of set purpose, there came to my aid a
• 4:38:27
  circumstance which not infrequently repeats itself in gaming, the circumstances that not infrequently luck
• 4:38:34
  attaches itself to say the red, and does not leave it for a space
• 4:38:38
  of say ten or even fifteen rounds in succession. Three days ago I had
• 4:38:44
  heard that during the previous week there had been a run of twenty two coups
• 4:38:48
  on the Red, and occurrence never before known at roulette, so that men
• 4:38:53
  spoke of it with astonishment. Naturally enough, many deserted the Red after a
• 4:38:59
  dozen rounds, and practically no one could now be found to stake upon it.
• 4:39:03
  Yet upon the Black, also the antithesis of the Red, no experienced
• 4:39:07
  gambler would stake anything, for the reason that every practiced player knows the meaning
• 4:39:14
  of capricious fortune. That is to say, after the sixteenth or so success
• 4:39:18
  of the Red, one would think that the seventeenth coup would inevitably fall upon
• 4:39:22
  the Black. Wherefore novices would be apt to back the latter in the seventeenth
• 4:39:27
  round, and even to double or treble their stakes upon it, only in
• 4:39:32
  the end to lose. Yet some whim or other led me on remarking that
• 4:39:37
  the red had come up consecutively for seven times, to attach myself to that
• 4:39:41
  color. Probably this was mostly due to self conceit, for I wanted to
• 4:39:47
  astonish the bystanders with the riskiness of my play. Also, I remember that,
• 4:39:52
  oh strange sensation, I suddenly, without any challenge from my own presumption,
• 4:39:56
  became obsessed with a desire to take risks. If the spirit has passed
• 4:40:02
  through a great many sensations, possibly it can no longer be seated with them,
• 4:40:06
  but grows more excited and demands more sensations and stronger and stronger ones,
• 4:40:11
  until at length it falls exhausted. Certainly, if the rules of the game
• 4:40:15
  have permitted even of my staking fifty thousand florins at a time, I should
• 4:40:19
  have staked them. All of a sudden I heard exclamations, arising that the
• 4:40:22
  whole thing was a marvel, since the red was turning up for the fourteenth
• 4:40:26
  time. Monsieur Argonna Saint Mia florin a voice exclaimed beside me, I awoke
• 4:40:34
  to my senses what I had won a hundred thousand florins. If so,
• 4:40:41
  what more did I need to win? I grasped the bank notes stuffed them
• 4:40:45
  into my pockets, raked in the gold without counting it, and started to
• 4:40:48
  leave the casino. As I passed through the salons, people smiled to see
• 4:40:53
  my bulging pockets and unsteady gait, for the weight which I was carrying must
• 4:40:57
  have amounted to half a pood. Several hands I saw stretched out of my
• 4:41:02
  direction, and as I passed, I filled them with all the money that
• 4:41:04
  I could grasp in my own. At length, two jews stopped me near
• 4:41:07
  the exit. You are a bold, young fellow, one said, but
• 4:41:11
  mind you depart early tomorrow, as early as you can, for if you
• 4:41:15
  do not, you will lose everything that you have won. But I did
• 4:41:21
  not heed them. The avenue was so dark that it was barely possible to
• 4:41:23
  distinguish one's hand before one's face, while the distance to the hotel was half
• 4:41:27
  averst or so. But I feared neither pickpockets nor highwaymen. Indeed, never
• 4:41:33
  since my boyhood have I done that. Also, I cannot remember what I
• 4:41:38
  thought about on the way. I only felt a sort of fearful pleasure,
• 4:41:44
  the pleasure of success, of conquest of power. How can I best express
• 4:41:48
  it? Likewise? Before me there flitted the image of Polina, and I
• 4:41:52
  kept remembering and reminding myself that it was to her I was going, that
• 4:41:57
  it was in her presence I should soon be standing, that it was she
• 4:42:00
  to whom I should soon be able to relate and show everything. Scarcely once
• 4:42:06
  did I recall what she had lately said to me, or the reason why
• 4:42:10
  I had left her, or all those varied sensations which I had been experiencing
• 4:42:14
  a bare hour and a half ago. No, those sensations seemed to be
• 4:42:19
  things of the past, to be things which had righted themselves and grown old,
• 4:42:23
  to be things concerning which we needed to trouble ourselves no longer, since
• 4:42:27
  for us life was about to begin anew. Yet I had just reached the
• 4:42:33
  end of the avenue when there did come upon me a fear of being robbed
• 4:42:37
  or murdered. With each step, the fear increased, until in my terror
• 4:42:41
  I almost started to run. Suddenly, as I issued from the avenue,
• 4:42:45
  there burst upon me the lights at the hotel, sparkling with the myriad lamps.
• 4:42:49
  Yes, thanks be to God, I had reached home. Running up
• 4:42:55
  to my room, I flung open the door of it. Polina was still
• 4:42:59
  on the sofa with a lighted candle in front of her and her hands clasped.
• 4:43:03
  As I entered, she stared at me in astonishment, for at the
• 4:43:07
  moment I must have presented a strange spectacle. All I did, however,
• 4:43:11
  was to halt before her and, fling upon the table my burden of wealth.
• 4:43:18
  End of Chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen. I remember too, how without
• 4:43:23
  moving from her place or changing her attitude, she gazed into my face.
• 4:43:30
  I have one two hundred thousand francs, cried I. As I pulled out
• 4:43:33
  my last sheaf of bank notes. The pile of paper currency occupied the whole
• 4:43:37
  table. I could not withdraw my eyes from it. Consequently, for a
• 4:43:42
  moment or two, Polina escaped my mind. Then I set myself to arrange
• 4:43:47
  the pile in order, and to sort the notes, and to mass the
• 4:43:51
  gold in a separate heap. That done, I left everything where it lay
• 4:43:55
  and proceeded to pace the room with rapid strides as I lost myself than thought.
• 4:44:00
  Then I darted to the table once more and began to recount the money,
• 4:44:04
  until all of a sudden, as though I had remembered something, I
• 4:44:07
  rushed to the door and closed and double locked it. Finally I came to
• 4:44:12
  a meditative halt before my little trunk. Shall I put the money there until
• 4:44:17
  tomorrow? I asked, turning sharply round to Polina. As the recollection of
• 4:44:22
  her returned to me. She was still in her old place, still making
• 4:44:26
  not a sound. Yet her eyes had followed every one of my movements.
• 4:44:30
  Somehow in her face there was a strange expression, an expression which I did
• 4:44:36
  not like. I think that I shall not be wrong if I say that
• 4:44:38
  it indicated sheer hatred. Impulsively, I approached her, Paulina, I said,
• 4:44:45
  here are twenty five thousand florins fifty thousand francs or more. Take them
• 4:44:51
  and tomorrow throw them into Griere's face. She returned no answer, Or if
• 4:44:57
  you should prefer, I continued, let me take them to him myself tomorrow,
• 4:45:02
  Yes, early tomorrow morning. Shall I then all at once? She
• 4:45:07
  burst out laughing and laughed for a long while. With astonishment and a feeling
• 4:45:11
  of offense, I gazed at her. Her laughter was too like the derisive
• 4:45:15
  merriment which she had so often indulged in, of late merriment which had broken
• 4:45:19
  forth always at the time of my most passionate explanations at length, she ceased
• 4:45:26
  and frowned at me from under her eyebrows. I am not going to take
• 4:45:30
  your money, she said, contemptuously. Why not, I cried, why
• 4:45:34
  not, Polina, because I am not in the habit of receiving money for
• 4:45:38
  nothing, but I am offering it to you as a friend, in the
• 4:45:42
  same way I would offer you my very life. Upon this, she threw
• 4:45:47
  me a long, questioning glance, as though she were seeking to probe me
• 4:45:51
  to the depths. You are giving too much for me, she remarked,
• 4:45:55
  with a smile. The beloved of de Griere is not worth fifty thousand francs.
• 4:46:00
  Oh, Paulina, how can you speak? So, I exclaimed,
• 4:46:02
  reproachfully. Am I de grielle you? She cried, with her eyes suddenly
• 4:46:07
  flashing. Why I hate you? Yes, yes, I hate you.
• 4:46:12
  I love you no more than I do de Grieree. Then she buried her
• 4:46:17
  face in her hands and relapsed into hysterics. I darted to her side.
• 4:46:22
  Somehow I had an intuition of something having happened to her which had nothing to
• 4:46:26
  do with myself. She was like a person temporarily insane. Buy me,
• 4:46:32
  would you would you would you buy me for fifty thousand francs, as de
• 4:46:36
  Griee did. She gasped between her convulsive sobs. I clasped her in my
• 4:46:41
  arms, kissed her hands and feet, and fell upon my knees before her.
• 4:46:47
  Presently the hysterical fit passed away, and laying her hands upon my shoulders,
• 4:46:52
  she gazed for a while into my face, as though trying to read
• 4:46:55
  it something I said to her, But it was clear that she did not
• 4:46:59
  hear it. Her face looked so dark and despondent that I began to fear
• 4:47:03
  for her reason. At length she drew me towards herself, a trustful smile
• 4:47:07
  playing over her features, and then as suddenly she pushed me away again as
• 4:47:11
  she eyed me dimly. Finally she threw herself upon me in an embrace.
• 4:47:17
  Do you love me? She said? Do you you who were willing even
• 4:47:22
  to quarrel with the baron at my bidding? Then she laughed, laughed,
• 4:47:26
  as though something dear but laughable had recurred to her memory. Yes, she
• 4:47:32
  laughed and wept at the same time. What was I to do? I
• 4:47:36
  was like a man in a fever. I remember that she began to say
• 4:47:38
  something to me though what I do not know, since she spoke with a
• 4:47:41
  feverish lisp, as though she were trying to tell me something very quickly.
• 4:47:47
  At intervals, too, she would break off into the smile, which I
• 4:47:49
  was beginning to dread. No, No, she kept repeating, you are
• 4:47:53
  my dear one, you are the man I trust. Again, she laid
• 4:47:57
  her hands upon my shoulders, and again she gazed at me as she reiterated,
• 4:48:03
  you love me, you love me, will you always love me?
• 4:48:07
  I could not take my eyes off her. Never before had I seen her
• 4:48:11
  in this mood of humility and affection. True, the mood was the outcome
• 4:48:15
  of hysteria. But all of a sudden she noticed my ardent gaze and smiled
• 4:48:21
  slightly. The next moment, for no apparent reason, she began to talk
• 4:48:23
  of Astley. She continued talking and talking about him, but I could not
• 4:48:30
  make out all she said, more, particularly when she was endeavoring to tell
• 4:48:34
  me of something or other which had happened recently. On the whole, she
• 4:48:38
  appeared to be laughing at Astley, for she kept repeating that he was waiting
• 4:48:42
  for her. And did I know whether even at that moment he was not
• 4:48:47
  standing beneath the window. Yes, yes, he is there, she said,
• 4:48:52
  open the window and see if he is not. She pushed me in
• 4:48:55
  that direction. Yet no sooner did I make a movement to obey her behest
• 4:48:59
  than she burst into laughter, and I remained beside her, and she embraced
• 4:49:03
  me. Shall we go away tomorrow? Presently? She asked, as though
• 4:49:08
  some disturbing thought had recurred to her recollection. How would it be if we
• 4:49:12
  were to try and overtake Grandmamma. I think we should do so at Berlin?
• 4:49:18
  And what think you she would have to say to us when we caught
• 4:49:21
  her up and her eyes first lit upon us, What to about mister Astley?
• 4:49:26
  He would not leap from the Schlangenberg for my sake, No of that,
• 4:49:30
  I am very sure, And she laughed. Do you know where he
• 4:49:33
  is going? Next year? He says he intends to go to the North
• 4:49:37
  Pole for scientific investigations, and invited me to go with him. Ha ha
• 4:49:41
  ha. He also says that we Russians know nothing, can do nothing without
• 4:49:45
  European help, but he is a good fellow all the same. For instance,
• 4:49:51
  he does not blame the General in the matter, but declares that Mademoiselle
• 4:49:55
  Blanche that love. But no, I do not know. I do not
• 4:49:59
  know. She stopped suddenly, as though she had set her say and was
• 4:50:03
  feeling bewildered. What poor creatures these people are. How sorry I am for
• 4:50:07
  them and for grandmamma. But when are you going to kill de Grieree?
• 4:50:12
  Surely you do not intend actually to murder him, you fool. Do you
• 4:50:17
  suppose that I should allow you to fight de Grieree? Nor shall you kill
• 4:50:21
  the baron? Here? She burst out, laughing, How absurd you looked
• 4:50:26
  when you were talking to the Bermagelms. I was watching you all the time,
• 4:50:30
  watching you from where I was sitting. And how unwilling you were to
• 4:50:33
  go when I sent you. Oh, how I laughed and laughed. Then
• 4:50:37
  she kissed and embraced me again. Again she pressed her face to mine with
• 4:50:41
  tender passion. Yet I neither saw nor heard her, for my head was
• 4:50:45
  in a whirl. It must have been about seven o'clock in the morning when
• 4:50:48
  I awoke. Daylight had come, and Polina was sitting by my side,
• 4:50:52
  a strange expression on her face, as though she had seen a vision and
• 4:50:56
  was unable to collect her thoughts. She too, had just woke and was
• 4:51:00
  now staring at the money on the table, my head ached, it felt
• 4:51:04
  heavy. I attempted to take Paulina's hand, but she pushed me from her
• 4:51:08
  and leapt from the sofa. The dawn was full of mist, for rain
• 4:51:11
  had fallen. Yet she moved to the window, opened it, and,
• 4:51:15
  leaning her elbows upon the window sill, thrust out her head and shoulders to
• 4:51:19
  take the air. In this position did she remain for several minutes, without
• 4:51:25
  ever looking round at me or listening to what I was saying. Into my
• 4:51:30
  head, there came the uneasy thought, what is to happen? Now?
• 4:51:33
  How is it all to end? Suddenly Poulina rose from the window, approached
• 4:51:37
  the table, and, looking at me with an expression of infinite aversion,
• 4:51:41
  said with lips which quivered with anger, Well are you going to hand me
• 4:51:48
  over my fifty thousand francs? Polina? You say that again again? I
• 4:51:55
  exclaimed. You have changed your mind? Then, ha ha ha, you
• 4:52:00
  are sorry, you ever promised them. On the table where the previous night
• 4:52:04
  I had counted the money, there still was lying the packet of twenty five
• 4:52:08
  thousand florins. I handed it to her. The franks are mine, then,
• 4:52:14
  are they? They? Are mine, she inquired viciously, as she
• 4:52:18
  balanced the money in her hands. Yes, they have always been yours.
• 4:52:22
  I said, then take your fifty thousand francs, and she hurled them full
• 4:52:26
  in my face. The packet burst as she did so, and the floor
• 4:52:30
  became strewed with bank notes. The instant that the deed was done, she
• 4:52:33
  rushed from the room. At that moment she cannot have been in her right
• 4:52:40
  mind. Yet what was the cause of her temporary aberration? I cannot say.
• 4:52:45
  For a month past she had been unwell. Yet what had brought about
• 4:52:48
  this present condition of mind? Above all things? This outburst? Had it
• 4:52:53
  come of wounded pride? Had it come of despair over her decision to come
• 4:52:57
  to me? Had it come of the fact that, presuming too much of
• 4:53:00
  my good fortune, I had seemed to be intending to desert her, even
• 4:53:04
  as de Grier had done when once I had given her the fifty thousand francs.
• 4:53:11
  But on my honor I had never cherished any such intention. What was
• 4:53:15
  at fault, I think was her own pride, which kept urging her not
• 4:53:19
  to trust me, but rather to insult me, even though she had not
• 4:53:25
  realized the fact. In her eyes I corresponded to de Grier, and therefore
• 4:53:30
  had been condemned for a fault not wholly my own. Her mood of light
• 4:53:33
  had been a sort of delirium, a sort of light headedness that I knew
• 4:53:37
  full well, yet never had I sufficiently taken it into consideration. Perhaps she
• 4:53:44
  would not pardon me now, Ah, But this was the present. What
• 4:53:48
  about the future. Her delirium and sickness were not likely to make her forget
• 4:53:52
  what she had done in bringing me Degriere's letter. No, she must have
• 4:53:56
  known what she was doing when she brought it. Somehow I contrived to stuff
• 4:54:02
  the pile of notes and gold under the bed to cover them over, and
• 4:54:04
  then to leave the room. Some ten minutes after Polina. I felt sure
• 4:54:08
  that she had returned to her own room, wherefore I intended quietly to follow
• 4:54:14
  her, and to ask the nursemaid aide, who opened the door, how
• 4:54:18
  her mistress was judged. Therefore, of my surprise, when meeting the Domestic
• 4:54:22
  on the stairs, she informed me that Polina had not yet returned, and
• 4:54:26
  that she, the Domestic, was at that moment on her way to my
• 4:54:30
  room in quest of her. Mademoiselle left me but ten minutes ago, I
• 4:54:33
  said, what can have become of her? The nursemaid looked at me reproachfully.
• 4:54:40
  Already sundry rumors were flying about the hotel, both in the office of
• 4:54:44
  the Commissionaire and in that of the landlord. It was whispered that at seven
• 4:54:48
  o'clock that morning the Fraeulein had left the hotel and set off despite the rain,
• 4:54:52
  in the direction of the Hotel Dangltaire. From words and hints let fall
• 4:54:57
  I could see that the fact of Billina having spent the night in my room
• 4:55:02
  was now public property. Also, sundry rumors were circulating concerning the general's family
• 4:55:07
  affairs. It was known that last night he had gone out of his mind
• 4:55:11
  and paraded the hotel in tears. Also that the old lady who had arrived
• 4:55:15
  was his mother, and that she had come from Russia on purpose to forbid
• 4:55:19
  her son's marriage with Mademoiselle de Commiger, as well as to cut him out
• 4:55:23
  of her will if he should disobey her. Also that because he had disobeyed
• 4:55:27
  her, she had squandered all her money at Roulette in order to have nothing
• 4:55:32
  more to leave to him. Oh, these Russians exclaimed the landlord with an
• 4:55:36
  angry toss of the head, while the bystanders laughed, and the clerk betook
• 4:55:40
  himself to his accounts. Also, everyone had learnt about my winnings. Carl
• 4:55:45
  the corridor Lackey was the first to congratulate me. But with these folk I
• 4:55:49
  had nothing to do. My business was to set off at full speed to
• 4:55:53
  the hotel Angletaire. As yet it was early for mister Astley to receive visitors.
• 4:56:00
  But as soon as he learnt that it was I who had arrived,
• 4:56:03
  he came out into the corridor to meet me and stood looking at me in
• 4:56:07
  silence with his steel gray eyes as he waited to hear what I had to
• 4:56:11
  say. I inquired, after Polina. She is ill, he replied,
• 4:56:15
  still looking at me with his direct, unwavering gaze. And she is in
• 4:56:21
  your rooms, Yes, she is in my rooms. Then you are minded
• 4:56:26
  to keep her there? Yes, I am minded to keep her there.
• 4:56:32
  But mister Astley, that will raise a scandal. It ought not to be
• 4:56:34
  allowed. Besides, she is very ill. Perhaps you had not remarked that,
• 4:56:41
  yes I have. It was I who told you about it. Had
• 4:56:45
  she not been ill, she would not have gone and spent the night with
• 4:56:48
  you, then you know all about it. Yes, for last night she
• 4:56:52
  was to have accompanied me to the house of a relative of mine. Unfortunately,
• 4:56:57
  being ill, she made a mistake to your rooms instead. Indeed,
• 4:57:03
  then I wish you joy, mister Astley Apropos, you have reminded me of
• 4:57:08
  something. Were you beneath my window last night? Every moment Mademoiselle Paulina kept
• 4:57:14
  telling me to open the window and see if you were there, after which
• 4:57:18
  she always smiled. Indeed, no, I was not there, but I
• 4:57:22
  was waiting in the corridor and walking about the hotel. She ought to see
• 4:57:29
  a doctor, you know, mister Astley, Yes, she ought. I
• 4:57:32
  have sent for one, and if she dies, I shall hold you responsible.
• 4:57:37
  This surprised me. Pardon me, I replied, but what do you
• 4:57:41
  mean? Never mind? Tell me if it is true that last night you
• 4:57:45
  won two hundred thousand dollars, no, I won a hundred thousand florins.
• 4:57:52
  Good heavens, then I suppose you will be off to Paris this morning.
• 4:57:56
  Why because all Russians who have grown rich go to Paris, explained Astley,
• 4:58:03
  as though he had read the fact in a book. But what could I
• 4:58:06
  do in Paris? In summer time. I love her, mister Astley,
• 4:58:10
  surely you know that. Indeed, I am sure that you do not.
• 4:58:15
  Moreover, if you were to stay here, you would lose everything that you
• 4:58:18
  possess and have nothing left with which to pay your expenses in Paris. Well,
• 4:58:23
  good bye now, I feel sure that today will see you gone from
• 4:58:26
  here. Goodbye. But I am not going to Paris. Likewise, pardon
• 4:58:33
  me, what is to become of this family? I mean that the affair
• 4:58:37
  of the General and Mademoiselle Poulina will soon be all over the town, I
• 4:58:41
  dare say, yet I hardly suppose that it will break the General's heart.
• 4:58:47
  Moreover, Mademoiselle Paulina has a perfect right to live where she chooses. In
• 4:58:52
  short, we may say that as a family, this family has ceased to
• 4:58:56
  exist. I departed and found myself smiling at them. The Englishman's strange assurance
• 4:59:02
  that I should soon be leaving for Paris. I suppose he means to shoot
• 4:59:06
  me in a duel should Polina die. Yes, that is what he intends
• 4:59:10
  to do. Now. Although I was honestly sorry for Poulina, it is
• 4:59:15
  a fact that from the moment when the previous night I had approached the gaming
• 4:59:19
  table and begun to rake in the packets of bank notes. My love for
• 4:59:23
  her had entered upon a new plane. Yes, I can say that now,
• 4:59:27
  although at the time I was barely conscious of it. Was I then
• 4:59:32
  at heart a gambler? Did I, after all? Love Polina? Not
• 4:59:36
  so very much? No? No, As God is my witness, I
• 4:59:40
  loved her even when I was returning home from mister Astley's. My suffering was
• 4:59:45
  genuine, and my self reproached sincere but presently I was to go through an
• 4:59:49
  exceedingly strange and ugly experience. I was proceeding to the General's rooms when I
• 4:59:56
  heard a door near me open, and a voice called me by name.
• 5:00:00
  It was Mademoiselle's mother, the widow de Comte, who was inviting me in
• 5:00:03
  her daughter's name to enter. I did so, whereupon I heard a laugh
• 5:00:10
  and a little cry proceed from the bedroom. The pair occupied a suite of
• 5:00:14
  two apartments, where Mademoiselle Blanche was just arising. Ah, say, Louis
• 5:00:19
  fien, donc bete, is it true that you have won a mountain of
• 5:00:23
  gold and silver? Gemmiree mieux l'urs. Yes, I replied with a smile,
• 5:00:29
  how much a hundred thousand florins be be comte e bete, come in
• 5:00:36
  here, for I can't hear you where you are now, neu fern bonbons
• 5:00:40
  nespin. Entering her room, I found her lolling under a pink satin coverlet
• 5:00:45
  and revealing a pair of swarthy, wonderfully healthy shoulders, shoulders such as one
• 5:00:51
  sees in dreams. Shoulders covered over with a white cambric nightgown which trimmed with
• 5:00:56
  lace, stood out in striking relief, again against the darkness of her skin.
• 5:01:03
  Monthise atu de cour, she cried when she saw me, and then
• 5:01:07
  giggled. Her laugh had always been a very cheerful one, and at times
• 5:01:11
  it even sounded sincere two totre. I began paraphrasing Cornelia. See here,
• 5:01:18
  she prattled on, Please search for my stockings and help me to dress Posi
• 5:01:25
  si too nepa true bete jiutapon a pari I am just off. Let me
• 5:01:32
  tell you this moment. In half an hour, true enough, everything stood
• 5:01:37
  ready packed, trunks, portmanteau, and all coffee had long been served.
• 5:01:42
  Eb bien tu vera pari di donca csquse co uccitel tu ete bien bette con
• 5:01:52
  tu eete uccitele, where are my stockings? Please help me to dress?
• 5:01:59
  And she lifted up a really ravishing foot, small, swarthy and not misshapen
• 5:02:03
  like the majority of feet, which looked dainty only in Batine's. I laughed
• 5:02:08
  and started to draw on to the foot a silk stocking, while Mademoiselle Blanche
• 5:02:12
  sat on the edge of the bed and chattered abien courferratu sigeur prans avecmois.
• 5:02:21
  First of all, I must have fifty thousand francs, and you shall give
• 5:02:23
  them to me at Frankfurt. Then we will go on to Paris, where
• 5:02:26
  we will live together a jieu te ferreyvois dees tois en plangours. Yes,
• 5:02:33
  you shall see such women as your eyes have never lit upon. Stop a
• 5:02:37
  moment. If I were to give you those fifty thousand francs, what should
• 5:02:41
  I have left for myself another one hundred thousand francs? Please to remember.
• 5:02:47
  Besides, I could live with you in your rooms for a month, or
• 5:02:49
  even for two, or even for longer, but it would not take us
• 5:02:53
  more than two months to get through fifty thousand francs. For look, you,
• 5:02:59
  GUIs bona fante a tu vera deesetoala. You may be sure what you
• 5:03:04
  mean to say that we should spend the whole in two months? Certainly does
• 5:03:10
  that surprise you very much? Ah vi leslav? Why one month of that
• 5:03:15
  life would be better than all your previous existence? One month? Eh apre
• 5:03:22
  le de lugia matuni per comprondre vah away away You are not worth it,
• 5:03:30
  ah cofetou. For while drawing on the other stocking, I had felt constrained
• 5:03:37
  to kiss her. Immediately, she shrunk back, kicked me in the face
• 5:03:41
  with her toes, and turned me neck and prop out of the room.
• 5:03:45
  Ebbieen monuccitel, she called after me. Jutautin citou ve i start. In
• 5:03:52
  a quarter of an hour's time, I returned to my own room with my
• 5:03:56
  head in a whirl. It was not my fault that Polina had thrown a
• 5:03:59
  packet in my face and preferred mister Astley to myself. A few bank notes
• 5:04:03
  were still fluttering about the floor, and I picked them up. At that
• 5:04:07
  moment, the door opened and the landlord appeared, a person who until now
• 5:04:11
  had never bestowed upon me so much as a glance. He had come to
• 5:04:15
  know if I would prefer to move to a lower floor, to a suite
• 5:04:19
  which had just been tenanted by Count V. For a moment, I reflected
• 5:04:27
  no, I shouted my account, please, for in ten minutes I shall
• 5:04:32
  be gone to Paris. To Paris, I added to myself, every man
• 5:04:37
  of birth must make her acquaintance. Within a quarter of an hour, all
• 5:04:44
  three of us were seated in a family compartment, Mademoiselle Blanche, the widow
• 5:04:48
  de Commiger, and myself. Mademoiselle kept laughing hysterically as she looked at me,
• 5:04:53
  and Madame re echoed her. But I did not feel so cheerful.
• 5:04:57
  My life had broken in two and yesterday had infected me with a habit of
• 5:05:02
  staking my all upon a card. Although it might be that I had failed
• 5:05:06
  to win my stake, that I had lost my senses, that I desired
• 5:05:10
  nothing better, I felt that the scene was to be changed only for a
• 5:05:14
  time, within a month from now. I kept thinking to myself, I
• 5:05:18
  shall be back again in Roulettenburg, and then I mean to have it out
• 5:05:22
  with you, mister Astley. Yes, as now I look back at things,
• 5:05:26
  I remember that I felt greatly depressed, despite the absurd gigglings of the
• 5:05:30
  egregious blanche. What is the matter with you? How dull you are?
• 5:05:34
  She cried at length, as she interrupted her laughter, to take me seriously
• 5:05:37
  to task. Come, come, we are going to spend your two hundred
• 5:05:41
  thousand francs for you. Etusura surre comte poti rois, I myself will tie
• 5:05:48
  your tie for you and introduce you to Hortense. And when we have spent
• 5:05:52
  your money, you shall return here and break the bank again. What did
• 5:05:56
  those two Jews tell you that the thing most needed is dare and that you
• 5:06:00
  possess it. Consequently, this is not the first time that you will be
• 5:06:04
  hurrying to Paris with money in your pocket. Comet moi guve saens comte mille
• 5:06:11
  franz derante a alore. But what about the general, I interrupted the General.
• 5:06:18
  You know well enough that at about this hour every day he goes to
• 5:06:21
  buy me a bouquet. On this occasion I took care to tell him that
• 5:06:25
  he must hunt for the choicest of flowers, and when he returns home,
• 5:06:29
  the poor fellow will find the bird flown. Possibly he may take wing in
• 5:06:33
  pursuit, ha ha ha, And if so, I shall not be sorry,
• 5:06:37
  for he could be useful to me in Paris, and mister Astley will
• 5:06:41
  pay his debts here. In this manner did I depart for the gay city?
• 5:06:49
  End of Chapter fifteen, Chapter sixteen of Paris. What am I to
• 5:06:56
  say? The whole proceeding was a delirium a man. I spent a little
• 5:07:00
  over three weeks there, and during that time saw my hundred thousand francs come
• 5:07:06
  to an end. I speak only of the one hundred thousand francs. For
• 5:07:10
  the other one hundred thousand I gave to Mademoiselle Blanche in pure cash. That
• 5:07:15
  is to say, I handed her fifty thousand francs at Frankfurt, and three
• 5:07:18
  days later in Paris advanced her another fifty thousand on note of hand. Nevertheless,
• 5:07:25
  a week had not elapsed, ere she came to me for more money.
• 5:07:27
  A les Sant mill Franz quenu rastant, she added to Les maningerras avec
• 5:07:36
  moi monucitel. Yes, she always called me her uchitel. A person more
• 5:07:41
  economical, grasping and mean than Mademoiselle Blanche one could not imagine. But this
• 5:07:48
  was only as regards her own money. My hundred thousand francs. As she
• 5:07:52
  explained to me later, she needed to set up her establishment in Paris,
• 5:07:56
  so that once and for all I may be on a footing and proof against
• 5:08:02
  any stones which may be thrown at me at all events, for a long
• 5:08:04
  time to come. Nevertheless, I saw nothing of those hundred thousand francs.
• 5:08:10
  For my own purse, which she inspected daily, never managed to amass in
• 5:08:15
  it more than a hundred francs at a time, and generally the sum did
• 5:08:19
  not reach even that figure. What do you want with money? She would
• 5:08:22
  say to me, with air of absolute simplicity, and I never disputed the
• 5:08:26
  point. Nevertheless, though she fitted out her flat very badly with the money,
• 5:08:32
  the fact did not prevent her from saying, when later she was showing
• 5:08:36
  me over the rooms of her new abode, see what care and taste can
• 5:08:40
  do with the most wretched of means. However, her wretchedness had cost fifty
• 5:08:45
  thousand francs, while with the remaining fifty thousand she purchased a carriage and horses.
• 5:08:52
  Also, we gave a couple of balls. Evening parties attended by Hortense
• 5:08:57
  and Lisette and Cleopatra, who were women remarkable both for the number of their
• 5:09:03
  liaisons, and though only in some cases for their good looks. At these
• 5:09:07
  reunions, I had to play the part of host to meet and entertain fat,
• 5:09:11
  mercantile parvenus, who were impossible by reason of their rudeness and braggadocio.
• 5:09:18
  Colonels of various kinds, hungry authors and journalistic hacks, all of whom disported
• 5:09:23
  themselves in fashionable tail coats and pale yellow gloves, and displayed such an aggregate
• 5:09:29
  of conceit and gasconade as would be unthinkable even in Saint Petersburg, which is
• 5:09:33
  saying a great deal. They used to try to make fun of me,
• 5:09:38
  but I would console myself by drinking champagne and then lolling in a retiring room.
• 5:09:44
  Nevertheless, I found it deadly work. Setannuccitel Blanche would say of me
• 5:09:49
  quis agagnet de Saint mill Frant, and but for me would have had not
• 5:09:53
  a notion how to spend them. Presently he will have to return to his
• 5:09:57
  tutoring. Does anyone know of a vacant post? You know, one must
• 5:10:03
  do something for him. I had the more frequent recourse to champagne, in
• 5:10:07
  that I constantly felt depressed and bored, owing to the fact that I was
• 5:10:11
  living in the most bourgeois commercial milieu imaginable, a milieu wherein every sioux was
• 5:10:18
  counted and grudged. Indeed, two weeks had not elapsed before I perceived that
• 5:10:22
  Blanche had no real affection for me, even though she dressed me in elegant
• 5:10:26
  clothes and herself tied my tie each day. In short, she utterly despised
• 5:10:33
  me, but that caused me no concern. Blase and inert, I spent
• 5:10:37
  my evenings generally at the Chateau de Fleur, where I would get fuddled and
• 5:10:42
  then dance the can can, which in that establishment was a very indecent performance
• 5:10:48
  with a claw at length. The time came when Blanche had drained my purse
• 5:10:52
  dry. She had conceived an idea that during the term of our residence together,
• 5:10:57
  it would be well if I were always to walk behind her with a
• 5:11:00
  paper and pencil, in order to jot down exactly what she spent, what
• 5:11:04
  she had saved, what she was paying out, and what she was laying
• 5:11:08
  by Well. Of course, I could not fail to be aware that this
• 5:11:14
  would entail a battle over every ten francs. So although for every possible objection
• 5:11:18
  that I might make, she had prepared a suitable answer. She soon saw
• 5:11:22
  that I made no objections, and therefore had to start disputes herself. That
• 5:11:27
  is to say, she would burst out into tirades, which were met only
• 5:11:30
  with silence as I lolled on a sofa and stared fixedly at the ceiling.
• 5:11:36
  This greatly surprised her. At first, she imagined that it was due merely
• 5:11:40
  to the fact that I was a fool, an uchitel. Wherefore she would
• 5:11:45
  break off her harangue in the belief that, being too stupid to understand,
• 5:11:48
  I was a hopeless case. Then she would leave the room, but return
• 5:11:52
  ten minutes later to resume the contest. This continued throughout her squandering of my
• 5:11:56
  money, a squandering altogether out of portion to our means. An example is
• 5:12:03
  the way in which she changed her first pair of horses for a pair which
• 5:12:06
  cost sixteen thousand francs Bibi. She said on the latter occasion, as she
• 5:12:11
  approached me, surely you are not angry. No, I am merely tired,
• 5:12:17
  was my reply, as I pushed her from me. This seemed to
• 5:12:21
  her so curious that straightway she seated herself by my side. You see,
• 5:12:26
  she went on, I decided to spend so much upon these horses only because
• 5:12:30
  I can easily sell them again. They would go at any time for twenty
• 5:12:33
  thousand francs. Yes, yes, they are splendid horses, and you have
• 5:12:38
  got a splendid turnout. I am quite content. Let me hear no more
• 5:12:44
  of the matter. Then you are not angry? No, why should I
• 5:12:49
  be. You are wise to provide yourself with what you need, for it
• 5:12:52
  will all come in handy in the future. Yes, I quite see the
• 5:12:56
  necessity of your establishing yourself on a good basis, for without it you will
• 5:13:02
  never earn your million. My hundred thousand francs I look upon merely as a
• 5:13:06
  beginning, as a mere drop in the bucket. Blanche, who had by
• 5:13:11
  no means expected such declarations from me, but rather an uproar in protests,
• 5:13:17
  was rather taken aback. Well, well, what a man you are,
• 5:13:22
  she exclaimed, meteu a l'esprit poor comprondre set to mont Garson. Although you
• 5:13:30
  are a tutor, you ought to have been born a prince. Are you
• 5:13:33
  not sorry that your money should be going so quickly? No, the quicker
• 5:13:37
  it goes the better me. Sai too medi donc are you really rich?
• 5:13:44
  Men said too you have too much contempt for money. Kisseke tifera a pre
• 5:13:49
  di donc I pray I shall go to Hamburg and win another hundred thousand francs
• 5:13:56
  ui oui cysa se mena fiqu ah. I know you will win them and
• 5:14:02
  bring them to me. When you have done so, d dunc, you
• 5:14:06
  will end by making me love you. Since you are what you are,
• 5:14:08
  I mean to love you all the time and never to be unfaithful to you.
• 5:14:12
  You see I have not loved you before, Parsica juc croieer coutu ness
• 5:14:17
  coun uchitel galpache's combe unlackey nespah. Yet all the time I have been true
• 5:14:22
  to you, Parsica is your sue Bonfield? You lie, I interrupted?
• 5:14:26
  Did I not see you the other day with Albert with that black jowled officer,
• 5:14:32
  Oh oh metues. Yes, you are lying right enough, But what
• 5:14:37
  makes you suppose that I should be angry rubbish ill folks as junus sepas.
• 5:14:42
  Even if that officer were here now, I should refrain from putting him out
• 5:14:47
  of the room. If I thought you really cared for him. Only mind
• 5:14:49
  you do not give him any of my money. You hear you say,
• 5:14:55
  do you that you would not be angry met to s Andre philis Se to
• 5:15:00
  ui Andre Philisov ebienne che temireeche temiree to vera tut syra canton. True enough,
• 5:15:11
  from that time onward she seemed to attach herself only to me, and
• 5:15:15
  in this manner we spent our last ten days together. The promised Etoale I
• 5:15:19
  did not see. But in other respects, she to a certain extent kept
• 5:15:23
  her word. Moreover, she introduced me to Hortense, who was a remarkable
• 5:15:29
  woman in her way, and known among us as Teres Philisov. But I
• 5:15:33
  need not enlarge further, for to do so would require a story to itself,
• 5:15:38
  and entail a coloring which I am loath to impart to the present narrative.
• 5:15:44
  The point is that, with all my faculties, I desired the episode
• 5:15:47
  to come to an end as speedily as possible. Unfortunately, our one hundred
• 5:15:51
  thousand francs lasted us, as I have said, for very nearly a month,
• 5:15:56
  which greatly surprised me. At all events, Bush bought herself articles to
• 5:16:00
  the tune of eighty thousand francs, and the rest sufficed just to meet our
• 5:16:06
  expenses of living. Towards the close of the affair, Blanche grew almost frank
• 5:16:11
  with me. At least she scarcely lied to me at all, declaring,
• 5:16:15
  amongst other things, that none of the debts which she had been obliged to
• 5:16:18
  incur were going to fall upon my head. I have purposely refrained from making
• 5:16:23
  you responsible for my bills or borrowings, she said, for the reason that
• 5:16:29
  I am sorry for you. Any other woman in my place would have done
• 5:16:33
  so and have let you go to prison. See then, how much I
• 5:16:37
  love you, and how good hearted I am think too, what this accursed
• 5:16:41
  marriage with the General is going to cost me. True enough, the marriage
• 5:16:45
  took place, It did so at the close of our month together, and
• 5:16:48
  I am bound to suppose that it was upon the ceremony that the last remnants
• 5:16:52
  of my money were spent with it. The episode, that is to say,
• 5:16:56
  my sojourn with the frenchwoman, came to an end, and I formerly
• 5:17:00
  retired from the scene. It happened thus, a week after we had taken
• 5:17:04
  up our abode in Paris, there arrived thither the General. He came straight
• 5:17:10
  to see us, and thenceforward lived with us practically as our guest, though
• 5:17:14
  he had a flat of his own as well. Blanche met him with merry
• 5:17:18
  badinage and laughter, and even threw her arms around him. In fact,
• 5:17:22
  she managed it so that he had to follow everywhere in her train, whether
• 5:17:26
  when promenading on the boulevards, or when driving, or when going to the
• 5:17:30
  theater, or when paying calls. And this use which she made of him
• 5:17:34
  quite satisfied the General. Still of imposing appearance and presence, as well as
• 5:17:40
  of fair height, he had a dyed mustache and whiskers he had formerly been
• 5:17:45
  in the coursiers, and a handsome, though a somewhat wrinkled face. Also,
• 5:17:51
  his manners were excellent, and he could carry a frock coat well,
• 5:17:55
  the more so since in Paris he took to wearing his orders. To promenade
• 5:17:59
  the boulevards with such a man was not only a thing possible, but also,
• 5:18:03
  so to speak, a thing advisable. And with this program, the
• 5:18:07
  good but foolish General had not a fault to find the truth is that he
• 5:18:11
  had never counted upon this program when he came to Paris to seek us out
• 5:18:15
  on that occasion, he had made his appearance nearly shaking with terror, for
• 5:18:19
  he had supposed that Blanche would at once raise an outcry and have him put
• 5:18:22
  from the door. Wherefore he was the more enraptured at the turn that things
• 5:18:27
  had taken, and spent the month in a state of senseless ecstasy. Already
• 5:18:33
  I had learnt that after our unexpected departure from Roulettenburg he had had a sort
• 5:18:38
  of fit, that he had fallen into a swoon, and spent a week
• 5:18:42
  in a species of garrulous delirium. Doctors had been summoned to him, but
• 5:18:48
  he had broken away from them and suddenly taken a train to Paris. Of
• 5:18:52
  course, Blanche's reception of him had acted as the best of all possible cures,
• 5:18:56
  But for long enough he carried the marks of his affliction. Despite his
• 5:19:00
  present condition of rapture and delight, to think clearly, or even to engage
• 5:19:04
  in any serious conversation had now become impossible for him. He could only ejaculate
• 5:19:10
  after each word, hum and then nod his head in confirmation. Sometimes also
• 5:19:15
  he would laugh, but only in a nervous, hysterical sort of a fashion,
• 5:19:19
  while at other times he would sit for hours, looking as black as
• 5:19:23
  night, with his heavy eyebrows knitted of much that went on, he remained
• 5:19:27
  wholly oblivious, for he grew extremely absent minded and took to talking to himself.
• 5:19:33
  Only Blanche could awake him to any semblance of life. His fits of
• 5:19:37
  depression and moodiness in corners always meant either that he had not seen her for
• 5:19:41
  some while, or that she had gone out without taking him with her,
• 5:19:45
  or that she had omitted to caress him before departing. When in this condition,
• 5:19:49
  he would refuse to say what he wanted, nor had he the least
• 5:19:52
  idea that he was thus sulking and moping next after remaining in this condition for
• 5:19:59
  an hour or two. This I remarked on two occasions, when Blanche had
• 5:20:03
  gone up for the day, probably to see Albert, he would begin to
• 5:20:06
  look about him and to grow uneasy, and to hurry about with an air
• 5:20:08
  as though he had suddenly remembered something and must try and find it, after
• 5:20:14
  which, not perceiving the object of his search, nor succeeding in recalling what
• 5:20:18
  that object had been, he would suddenly relapse into oblivion and continue so until
• 5:20:22
  the reappearance of Blanche. Mary wanton, half dressed and laughing her strident laugh
• 5:20:29
  as she approached to pet him and even to kiss him, though the latter
• 5:20:33
  reward he seldom received. Once he was so overjoyed at her doing so that
• 5:20:37
  he burst into tears. Even I myself was surprised. From the first moment
• 5:20:42
  of his arrival in Paris, Blanche set herself to plead with me on his
• 5:20:47
  behalf, and at such times she even rose to heights of eloquence, saying
• 5:20:52
  that it was for me she had abandoned him, though she had almost become
• 5:20:56
  his betrothed and promised to become so, that it was for her sake he
• 5:21:00
  had deserted his family, that having been in his service, I ought to
• 5:21:03
  remember the fact, and to feel ashamed. To all this, I would
• 5:21:07
  say nothing. However much she chattered on, until at length I would burst
• 5:21:12
  out laughing, and the incident would come to an end. At first,
• 5:21:15
  as I have said, she had thought me a fool. But since she
• 5:21:18
  had come to deem me a man of sense and sensibility, in short,
• 5:21:22
  I had the happiness of calling her better nature into play, For though at
• 5:21:26
  first I had not deemed her so, she was in reality a kind hearted
• 5:21:30
  woman after her own fashion. You are good and clever, she said to
• 5:21:36
  me towards the finish, and my one regret is that you are also wrong
• 5:21:40
  headed. You will never be a rich man. Unvre russ un Kalmuk,
• 5:21:47
  she usually called me. Several times she sent me to give the General an
• 5:21:51
  airing in the streets, even as she might have done with a lackey and
• 5:21:55
  her spaniel. But I preferred to take him to the theater, to the
• 5:21:59
  bal mabille, and to restaurants. For this purpose she usually allowed me some
• 5:22:03
  money, though the General had a little of his own and enjoyed taking out
• 5:22:07
  his purse before strangers. Once I had to use actual force to prevent him
• 5:22:11
  from buying a phaeton at a price of seven hundred francs, after a vehicle
• 5:22:17
  had caught his fancy in the Palais Royal as seeming to be a desirable present
• 5:22:22
  for Blanche. What could she have done with a seven hundred franc phaeton,
• 5:22:26
  and the General possessed in the world but a thousand francs. The origin even
• 5:22:32
  of those francs I could never determine, but imagined them to have emanated for
• 5:22:36
  mister Astley. The more so since the latter had paid the family's hotel bill.
• 5:22:41
  As for what view the General took of myself, I think that he
• 5:22:45
  never divined the footing on which I stood with Blanche. True he had heard
• 5:22:49
  in a dim sort of way that I had won a good deal of money,
• 5:22:52
  But more probably he supposed me to be acting as secretary, or even
• 5:22:56
  as a kind of servant to his innmal. At all events, he continued
• 5:23:02
  to address me, in his old haughty style, as my superior. At
• 5:23:07
  times he even took it upon himself to scold me. One morning, in
• 5:23:10
  particular, he started to sneer at me over our matutinal coffee. Though not
• 5:23:15
  a man prone to take offense, he suddenly, and for some reason of
• 5:23:18
  which to this day I am ignorant, fell out with me. Of course,
• 5:23:22
  even he himself did not know the reason. To put things shortly,
• 5:23:26
  he began a speech which had neither beginning nor ending, and cried out a
• 5:23:30
  button rampeut that I was a boy whom he would soon put to rights,
• 5:23:34
  and so forth and so forth. Yet no one could understand what he was
• 5:23:37
  saying, and at length Blanche exploded in a burst of laughter. Finally something
• 5:23:42
  appeased him, and he was taken out for his walk more than once.
• 5:23:47
  However, I noticed that his depression was growing upon him, that he seemed
• 5:23:52
  to be feeling the want of somebody or something, that despite Blanche's presence,
• 5:23:56
  he was missing some person in particular. Twy on these occasions did he plunge
• 5:24:00
  into a conversation with me, though he could not make himself intelligible, and
• 5:24:06
  only went on rambling about the service his late wife, his home, and
• 5:24:10
  his property. Every now and then, also some particular word would please him,
• 5:24:14
  whereupon he would repeat it a hundred times in the day, even though
• 5:24:18
  the word happened to express neither his thoughts nor his feelings. Again, I
• 5:24:22
  would try to get him to talk about his children, but always he cut
• 5:24:26
  me short in his old snappish way and passed to another subject. Yes,
• 5:24:30
  yes, my children, was all that I could extract from him. Yes,
• 5:24:34
  you are right in what you have said about them. Only once did
• 5:24:37
  he disclose his real feelings. That was when we were taking him to the
• 5:24:41
  theater, and suddenly he exclaimed, my unfortunate children, Yes, sir,
• 5:24:47
  they are unfortunate children. Once too, when I chanced to mention Polina,
• 5:24:53
  he grew quite bitter against her. She is an ungrateful woman, he exclaimed.
• 5:24:57
  She is a bad and ungrateful woman. She has broken up a family.
• 5:25:02
  If there were laws here, I would have her impaled, Yes I
• 5:25:06
  would. As for de Griere, the General would not have his name mentioned.
• 5:25:11
  He has ruined me, he would say, he has robbed me and
• 5:25:14
  cut my throat. For two years. He was a perfect nightmare to me
• 5:25:18
  for months at a time. He never left me in my dreams. Do
• 5:25:21
  not speak of him again. It was now clear to me that Blanche and
• 5:25:25
  he were on the point of coming to terms. Yet true to my usual
• 5:25:29
  custom, I said nothing at length. Blanche took the initiative in explaining matters.
• 5:25:33
  She did so a week before we parted. Ill adouchance. She prattled,
• 5:25:40
  for the grandmother is now really ill and therefore bound to die. Mister
• 5:25:44
  Astley has just sent a telegram to say so, and you will agree with
• 5:25:48
  me that the General is likely to be her heir. Even if he should
• 5:25:52
  not be so. He will not come amiss, since in the first place
• 5:25:55
  he has his pension, and in the second place he will be content to
• 5:25:59
  live in a backward whereas I shall be Madame General and get into a good
• 5:26:03
  circle of society. She was always thinking of this and become a Russian chatelaine.
• 5:26:08
  Yes, I shall have a mansion of my own and peasants and a
• 5:26:12
  million of money at my back. But suppose he should prove jealous, he
• 5:26:18
  might demand all sorts of things. You know, do you follow me?
• 5:26:22
  Oh, dear, No, how ridiculous that would be of him. Besides,
• 5:26:26
  I have taken measures to prevent it. You need not be alarmed.
• 5:26:30
  That is to say, I have induced him to sign notes of hand in
• 5:26:33
  Albert's name. Consequently, at any time I could get him punished. Isn't
• 5:26:37
  he ridiculous? Very well, then marry him, and in truth she did
• 5:26:44
  so, though the marriage was a family one only and involved no pomp or
• 5:26:48
  ceremony. In fact, she invited to the nuptials none but Albert and a
• 5:26:52
  few other friends, Hortense, Cleopatra, and the rest she kept firmly at
• 5:26:56
  a distance. As for the bride, he took a great interest in his
• 5:27:00
  new position. Blanche herself tied his tie, and Blanche herself pomaded him,
• 5:27:07
  with the result that in his frock coat and white waistcoat, he looked quite
• 5:27:11
  comillefo e l portin tre comille fo Blanche remarked when she issued from his room,
• 5:27:19
  as though the idea that he was tre comille fau had impressed even her.
• 5:27:25
  For myself, I had so little knowledge of the minor details of the
• 5:27:27
  affair, and took part in it so much as a supine spectator, that
• 5:27:33
  I had forgotten most of what passed on this occasion. I only remember that
• 5:27:37
  Blanche and the widow figured at it not as de cominges, but as duplace.
• 5:27:42
  Why they had hitherto been d comige, I do not know. I
• 5:27:47
  only know that this entirely satisfied the General, that he liked the name du
• 5:27:52
  Place even better than he had liked the name de Comynge. On the morning
• 5:27:56
  of the wedding, he paced the salon in his gala attire and kept repeating
• 5:28:00
  to himself with an air of great gravity and importance, Mademoiselle Blanche de Plasei,
• 5:28:07
  Mademoiselle Blanche de Plaseille du placey. He beamed with satisfaction. As he
• 5:28:11
  did so both in the church and at the wedding breakfast. He remained not
• 5:28:15
  only pleased and contented, but even proud. She too underwent a change,
• 5:28:21
  for now she assumed an air of added dignity. I must behave altogether differently,
• 5:28:26
  she confided to me, with a serious air. Yet, mark you,
• 5:28:30
  there was a tiresome circumstance of which I had never before thought, Which
• 5:28:34
  is, how best to pronounce my new family name Segorianski Segozianski, Madame la
• 5:28:41
  General d Sago, Madame la general de fourteene consonants. Oh, these infernal
• 5:28:48
  Russian names, the last of them would be the best to use, don't
• 5:28:52
  you think? At length, the time had come for us to part,
• 5:28:55
  and Blanche, the egregious Blanche, shed real tears as she took her leave
• 5:28:59
  of me to a tabau enfant. She said with a sob jeu de croier,
• 5:29:03
  bete a tout and a a leaire. But it suited you. Then,
• 5:29:08
  having given me a final handshake, she exclaimed a tongue, whereafter running
• 5:29:14
  into her boudoir, she brought me thence two thousand franc notes. I could
• 5:29:18
  scarcely believe my eyes. They may come in handy for you, she explained,
• 5:29:23
  For though you are a very learned tutor, you are a very stupid
• 5:29:27
  man. More than two thousand francs. However, I am not going to
• 5:29:30
  give you for the reason that if I did so, you would gamble them
• 5:29:34
  all away. Now good bye neus cern toujours bon ami, and if you
• 5:29:40
  win again, do not fail to come to me a tou cerrasare. I
• 5:29:44
  myself had still five hundred francs left, as well as a watch worth a
• 5:29:48
  thousand francs, a few diamond studs, and so on. Consequently, I
• 5:29:52
  could subsist for quite a length of time without particularly bestirring myself. Purposely,
• 5:29:56
  I have taken up my abode where I am now, partly to pull myself
• 5:30:00
  together, and partly to wait for mister Astley, who I have learnt will
• 5:30:03
  soon be here for a day or so on business. Yes, I know
• 5:30:07
  that, and then and then I shall go to Hamburg. But to Roulettemburg
• 5:30:12
  I shall not go until next year, for they say it is bad to
• 5:30:17
  try one's luck twice in succession at a table. Moreover, Hamburg is where
• 5:30:22
  the best play is carried. On end of chapter sixteen, Chapter seventeen,
• 5:30:30
  it is a year and eight months since I last looked at these notes of
• 5:30:34
  mine. I do so now only because, being overwhelmed with depression, I
• 5:30:40
  wish to distract my mind by reading them. Through at random. I left
• 5:30:45
  them off at the point where I was just going to Hamburg, My God,
• 5:30:49
  with what a light heart? Comparatively speaking did I write the concluding lines,
• 5:30:55
  Though it may be not so much with a light heart as with a
• 5:30:57
  measure of self confidence and unco quenchable hope. At that time had I any
• 5:31:03
  doubts of myself? Yet? Behold me now, scarcely a year and a
• 5:31:07
  half have passed. Yet I am in a worse position than the meanest beggar.
• 5:31:12
  But what is a beggar a fig for beggary? I have ruined myself,
• 5:31:18
  that is all. Nor is there anything with which I can compare myself.
• 5:31:23
  There is no moral which it would be of any use for you to
• 5:31:26
  read to me at the present moment. Nothing could well be more incongruous than
• 5:31:30
  a moral. Oh, you self satisfied persons, who, in your unctuous
• 5:31:36
  pride are forever ready to mouth your maxims. If only you knew how fully
• 5:31:41
  I myself comprehend the sordidness of my present state, you would not trouble to
• 5:31:45
  wag your tongues at me. What could you say to me that I do
• 5:31:49
  not already know well wherein lies my difficulty. It lies in the fact that
• 5:31:56
  by a single turn of a roulette wheel everything for me has become changed.
• 5:32:02
  Yet had things befallen otherwise, these moralists would have been among the first.
• 5:32:07
  Yes, I feel persuaded of it to approach me with friendly jests and congratulations.
• 5:32:12
  Yes, they would never have turned from me as they are doing now
• 5:32:18
  A fig for all of them. What am I? I am? Zero?
• 5:32:22
  Nothing? What shall I be Tomorrow? I may be risen from the
• 5:32:26
  dead and have begun life anew. For still I may discover the man in
• 5:32:30
  myself, if only my manhood has not become utterly shattered. I went,
• 5:32:37
  i say, to Hamburg, but afterwards went also to Rouluttenburg, as well
• 5:32:42
  as to Spa and Baden, in which latter place. For a time I
• 5:32:47
  acted as valet to a certain rascal of a privy councilor by name Heintz,
• 5:32:52
  who until lately was also my master. Here. Yes, for five months
• 5:32:57
  I lived my life with lackeys. That was just after I had come out
• 5:33:02
  of Roulettenburg prison, where I had lain for a small debt which I owed.
• 5:33:07
  Out of that prison I was bailed by by whom by mister Astley,
• 5:33:12
  by Paulina, I do not know at all events. The debt was paid
• 5:33:18
  to the tune of two hundred dollars, and I sallied forth a freeman.
• 5:33:23
  But what was I to do with myself in my dilemma? I had recourse
• 5:33:27
  to this Heinz, who was a young scapegrace and the sort of man who
• 5:33:33
  could speak and write three languages. At first I acted as his secretary at
• 5:33:37
  a salary of thirty gulden a month. But afterwards I became his lackey.
• 5:33:42
  For the reason that he could not afford to keep a secretary, only an
• 5:33:45
  unpaid servant. I had nothing else to turn to, so I remained with
• 5:33:51
  him and allowed myself to become his flunky. But by stinting myself in meat
• 5:33:56
  and drink I saved during my five months of service some seventy gulden, and
• 5:34:02
  one evening, when we were at Baden, I told him that I wished
• 5:34:06
  to resign my post, and then hastened to betake myself to roulette. Oh
• 5:34:11
  how my heart beat as I did so. No, it was not the
• 5:34:15
  money that I valued. What I wanted was to make all this mob of
• 5:34:18
  Heinz's hotel proprietors and fine ladies about and talk about me, recount my story,
• 5:34:23
  wonder at me, extol my doings, and worship my winnings. True,
• 5:34:30
  these were childish fancies and aspirations. But who knows but that I might
• 5:34:34
  meet Paulina and be able to tell her everything and see her look of surprise
• 5:34:37
  at the fact that I had overcome so many adverse strokes of fortune. No,
• 5:34:45
  I had no desire for money for its own sake, for I was
• 5:34:48
  perfectly well aware that I should only squander it upon some new blanche and spend
• 5:34:52
  another three weeks in Paris after buying a pair of horses, which had cost
• 5:34:56
  sixteen thousand francs. No, I never believed myself to be a hoarder.
• 5:35:02
  In fact, I knew only too well that I was a spendthrift, and
• 5:35:06
  already with a sort of fear, a sort of sinking in my heart.
• 5:35:10
  I could hear the cries of the croupiers trante et un rouge, imperre epas
• 5:35:17
  courte noir peerre e monk. How greedily I gazed upon the gaming table with
• 5:35:22
  its scattered Louis door, ten goulden pieces and tollers, upon the streams of
• 5:35:29
  gold, as they issued from the croupier's hands and piled themselves up into heaps
• 5:35:33
  of gold, scintillating as fire upon the l long rolls of silver lying around
• 5:35:38
  the croupier. Even at a distance of two rooms, I could hear the
• 5:35:42
  chink of that money, so much so that I nearly fell into convulsions.
• 5:35:48
  Ah. The evening when I took those seventy goulden to the gaming table was
• 5:35:51
  a memorable one for me. I began by staking ten goulden upon pass.
• 5:35:56
  For pass, I had always had a sort of predilection, yet I lost
• 5:36:00
  my stake upon it. This left me with sixty gulden in silver. After
• 5:36:04
  a moment's thought, I selected zero, beginning by staking five gulden at a
• 5:36:08
  time. Twice I lost, but the third round suddenly brought up the desired
• 5:36:14
  coup. I could almost have died with joy as I received my one hundred
• 5:36:18
  and seventy five gulden. Indeed, I have been less pleased when in former
• 5:36:22
  times I have won a hundred thousand goulden, losing no time. I staked
• 5:36:27
  another hundred gulden upon the red, and one two hundred upon the Red,
• 5:36:32
  and one four hundred upon the Black, and one eight hundred upon monk and
• 5:36:37
  one. Thus, with the addition of the remainder of my original capital,
• 5:36:42
  I found myself possessed within five minutes of seventeen hundred gulden Ah. At such
• 5:36:51
  moments one forgets both one's self and one's former failures. This I had gained
• 5:36:56
  by risking my very life. I had dared so to risk and behold again
• 5:37:00
  I was a member of mankind. I went and hired a room. I
• 5:37:06
  shut myself up in it and sat counting my money until three o'clock in the
• 5:37:10
  morning. To think that when I awoke on the morrow, I was no
• 5:37:12
  lackey. I decided to leave at once for Hamburg. There I should neither
• 5:37:18
  have to serve as a footman, nor to lie in prison. Half an
• 5:37:22
  hour before starting, I went and ventured a couple of stakes no more,
• 5:37:26
  with the result that in all I lost fifteen hundred florins. Nevertheless, I
• 5:37:32
  proceeded to Hamburg and have now been there for a month. Of course,
• 5:37:37
  I am living in constant trepidation, playing for the smallest of stakes, and
• 5:37:41
  always looking out for something, calculating, standing whole days by the gaming tables
• 5:37:45
  to watch the play, even seeing that play in my dreams, yet seeming
• 5:37:51
  the while to be in some way stiffening, to be growing caked, as
• 5:37:55
  it were in mire. But I must conclude my notes, which I finish
• 5:37:59
  under the impression of a recent encounter with mister Astley. I had not seen
• 5:38:03
  him since we parted at Roulettenburg, and now we met quite by accident.
• 5:38:07
  At the time, I was walking in the public gardens and meditating upon the
• 5:38:11
  fact that not only had I still some fifty old in in my possession,
• 5:38:15
  but also I had fully paid up my hotel bill three days ago. Consequently,
• 5:38:19
  I was in a position to try my luck again at roulette, and
• 5:38:22
  if I won anything, I should be able to continue my play, whereas
• 5:38:26
  if I lost what I now possessed, I should once more have to accept
• 5:38:30
  a Lackey's place, provided that in the alternative I failed to discover a Russian
• 5:38:34
  family which stood in need of a tutor. Plunged in these reflections, I
• 5:38:41
  started on my daily walk through the park and forest towards a neighboring principality.
• 5:38:45
  Sometimes on such occasions I spent four hours on the way and would return to
• 5:38:49
  Hamburg tired and hungry. But on this particular occasion, I had scarcely left
• 5:38:56
  the gardens for the park when I caught sight of Astley seated on a b
• 5:39:00
  As soon as he perceived me, he called me by name, and I
• 5:39:03
  went and sat down beside him. But on noticing that he seemed a little
• 5:39:07
  stiff in his manner, I hastened to moderate the expression of joy which the
• 5:39:12
  sight of him had called. Forth. You here, he said, Well,
• 5:39:18
  I had an idea that I should meet you. Do not trouble to
• 5:39:21
  tell me anything, for I know all, yes, all. In fact,
• 5:39:25
  your whole life during the past twenty months lies within my knowledge. How
• 5:39:30
  closely you watched the doings of your old friends. I replied, that does
• 5:39:34
  you infinite credit? But stop a moment. You have reminded me of something.
• 5:39:40
  Was it you who bailed me out of Roulettenburg Prison when I was lying
• 5:39:42
  there for a debt of two hundred gulden? Someone did so? Oh,
• 5:39:48
  dear, No, though I knew all the time that you were lying there.
• 5:39:52
  Perhaps you could tell me who did bail me out? No, I'm
• 5:39:57
  afraid I could not. What a strange thing, for I know no Russians
• 5:40:03
  at all here, so it cannot have been a Russian who befriended me.
• 5:40:07
  In Russia, we orthodox folk do go bail for one another, but in
• 5:40:11
  this case I thought it must have been done by some English stranger who was
• 5:40:15
  not conversant with the ways of the country. Mister Astley seemed to listen to
• 5:40:19
  me with a sort of surprise. Evidently he had expected to see me looking
• 5:40:23
  more crushed and broken than I was. Well, he said, not very
• 5:40:29
  pleasantly. I am none the less glad to find that you retain your old
• 5:40:33
  independence of spirit as well as your buoyancy, which means that you are vexed
• 5:40:37
  at not having found me more abased and humiliated than I am, I retorted
• 5:40:42
  with a smile. Astley was not quick to understand this, but presently did
• 5:40:47
  so and laughed. Your remarks pleased me as they always did, he continued.
• 5:40:52
  In those words, I see the clever, triumphant, and above all
• 5:40:56
  things cynical friend of former days. Only Rushians have the faculty of combining within
• 5:41:02
  themselves so many opposite qualities. Yes, most men love to see their best
• 5:41:07
  friend in abasement, For generally it is on such a basement that friendship is
• 5:41:11
  founded. All thinking persons know that ancient truth. Yet on the present occasion,
• 5:41:18
  I assure you, I am sincerely glad to see that you are not
• 5:41:21
  cast down. Tell me, are you never going to give up gambling?
• 5:41:26
  Damn the gambling? Yes, I should certainly have given it up. Were
• 5:41:30
  it not that that you are losing? I thought, so, you need
• 5:41:36
  not tell me any more. I know how things stand, for you have
• 5:41:40
  said that last in despair, and therefore truthfully have you no other employment than
• 5:41:45
  gambling? No, none, whatever? Astley gave me a searching glance.
• 5:41:51
  At that time it was ages since I had last looked at a paper or
• 5:41:55
  turned the pages of a book. You are growing blase, he said.
• 5:42:00
  You have not only renounced life, with its interests and social ties, but
• 5:42:03
  the duties of a citizen and a man. You have not only renounced the
• 5:42:07
  friends whom I know you to have had, and every aim in life but
• 5:42:11
  that of winning money. But you have also renounced your memory. Though I
• 5:42:17
  can remember you in the strong ardent period of your life, I feel persuaded
• 5:42:21
  that you have now forgotten every better feeling of that period. That your present
• 5:42:26
  dreams and aspirations of subsistence do not rise above pair impair rouge noir. The
• 5:42:32
  twelve Middle numbers and so forth. Enough, mister Astley, I cried,
• 5:42:37
  with some irritation, almost in anger. Kindly, do not recall to me
• 5:42:42
  any more recollections. For I can remember things for myself only for a time.
• 5:42:48
  Have I put them out of my head only until I shall have rehabilitated
• 5:42:52
  myself? Am I keeping my memory dulled? When that hour shall come,
• 5:42:56
  you will see me arise from the dead. Then you will have to be
• 5:43:02
  here another ten years, he replied, Should I then be alive, I
• 5:43:06
  will remind you here on this very bench of what I have just said.
• 5:43:10
  In fact, I will bet you a wager that I shall do so.
• 5:43:14
  Say no more, I interrupted, impatiently, and to show you that I
• 5:43:17
  have not wholly forgotten the past. May I inquire where Mademoiselle Poulina is.
• 5:43:22
  If it was not you who bailed me out of prison, it must have
• 5:43:23
  been she. Yet never have I heard a word concerning her. No,
• 5:43:30
  I do not think it was she. At the present moment. She is
• 5:43:33
  in Switzerland, and you will do me a favor by ceasing to ask me
• 5:43:37
  these questions about her. Astley said this with a firm and even an angry
• 5:43:41
  air, which means that she has dealt you a serious wound. I burst
• 5:43:45
  out with an involuntary sneer. Mademoiselle Poulina, he continued, is the best
• 5:43:52
  of all possible living beings. But I repeat that I shall thank you to
• 5:43:57
  cease questioning me about her. You never really knew her, and her name
• 5:44:02
  on your lips is an offense to my moral feeling. Indeed, on what
• 5:44:07
  subject, then have I a better right to speak to you than on this?
• 5:44:11
  With it are bound up all your recollections and mine. However, do
• 5:44:15
  not be alarmed. I have no wish to probe too far into your private,
• 5:44:18
  your secret affairs. My interest in Mademoiselle Poulina does not extend beyond her
• 5:44:23
  outward circumstances and surroundings. About them, you could tell me in two words,
• 5:44:30
  well, on condition that the matter shall end there, I will tell
• 5:44:33
  you that for a long time Mademoiselle Poulina was ill, and still is so
• 5:44:38
  my mother and sister entertained her for a while at their home in the north
• 5:44:41
  of England, and thereafter Mademoiselle Poulina's grandmother, you remember, the mad old
• 5:44:47
  woman, died and left Mademoiselle Poulina a personal legacy of seven thousand pounds sterling.
• 5:44:53
  That was about six months ago, and now Mademoiselle is traveling with my
• 5:44:57
  sister's family, my sister having since married. Mademoiselle's little brother and sister also
• 5:45:03
  benefited by the grandmother's will and are now being educated in London. As for
• 5:45:08
  the General, he died in Paris last month of a stroke. Mademoiselle Blanche
• 5:45:14
  did well by him, for she succeeded in having transferred to herself all that
• 5:45:18
  he received from the grandmother. That I think concludes all that I have to
• 5:45:22
  tell. And Debrieree, is he too traveling in Switzerland? No, nor
• 5:45:29
  do I know where he is. Also, I warn you once more that
• 5:45:33
  you had better avoid such hints and ignoble suppositions, otherwise you will assuredly have
• 5:45:38
  to reckon with me. What in spite of our old friendship, Yes,
• 5:45:45
  in spite of our old friendship. Then I beg your pardon a thousand times,
• 5:45:49
  mister Astley. I meant nothing offensive to Mademoiselle Poulina, for I have
• 5:45:53
  nothing of which to accuse her. Moreover, the question of there being anything
• 5:45:59
  between them and this Frenchman and this Russian lady is not one which you and
• 5:46:03
  I need discuss, nor even attempt to understand. If, replied Ashley,
• 5:46:08
  you do not care to hear their names coupled together? May I ask you
• 5:46:12
  what you mean by the expressions this Frenchman, this Russian lady, and there
• 5:46:17
  being anything between them? Why do you call them so, particularly a Frenchman
• 5:46:22
  and a Russian lady. Ah, I see you are interested, mister Astley,
• 5:46:27
  but it is a long, long story and calls for a lengthy preface.
• 5:46:33
  At the same time, the question is an important one, however ridiculous
• 5:46:36
  it may seem at the first glance. A Frenchman, mister Astley, is
• 5:46:41
  merely a fine figure of a man. With this, you, as a
• 5:46:45
  Britisher, may not agree with it. I also, as a Russian,
• 5:46:48
  may not agree out of envy. Yet possibly our good ladies are of another
• 5:46:52
  opinion. For instance, one may look upon Racine as a broken down,
• 5:46:59
  hobbled, perfumed individual. One may even be unable to read him, and
• 5:47:04
  I too may think him the same, as well as in some respects a
• 5:47:07
  subject for ridicule. Yet about him, mister Astley, there is a certain
• 5:47:12
  charm, and above all things he is a great poet. Though one might
• 5:47:17
  like to deny it. Yes, the Frenchman, the Parisian as a national
• 5:47:22
  figure, was in process of developing into a figure of elegance before we Russians
• 5:47:26
  had even ceased to be bears. The Revolution bequeathed to the French nobility its
• 5:47:32
  heritage. And now every whipper snapper of a Parisian may possess manners, methods
• 5:47:36
  of expression, and even thoughts that are above reproach and form, while all
• 5:47:41
  the time he himself may share in that form, neither an initiative, nor
• 5:47:44
  in intellect, nor in soul, his manners and the rest having come to
• 5:47:48
  him through inheritance, yes, taken by himself. The Frenchman is frequently a
• 5:47:55
  fool of fools and a villain of villains. Per contra, there is no
• 5:48:00
  one in the world more worthy of confidence and respect than this young Russian lady.
• 5:48:04
  Debrie might so mask his face and play a part as easily to overcome
• 5:48:10
  her heart. For he has an imposing figure, mister Astley, and this
• 5:48:14
  young lady might easily take that figure for his real self, for the natural
• 5:48:18
  form of his heart and soul, instead of the mere cloak with which heredity
• 5:48:22
  has dowered him. And even though it may offend you, I feel bound
• 5:48:27
  to say that the majority also of English people are uncouth and unrefined, whereas
• 5:48:33
  we Russian folk can recognize beauty wherever we see it and are always eager to
• 5:48:37
  cultivate the same. But to distinguish beauty of soul and personal originality, there
• 5:48:44
  is needed far more independence and freedom than is possessed by our women, especially
• 5:48:48
  by our younger ladies. At all events. They need more experience. For
• 5:48:55
  instance, this Mademoiselle Paulina, pardon me, but the name has passed my
• 5:48:59
  lips and I cannot well recall. It is taking a very long time to
• 5:49:02
  make up her mind to prefer you to Monsieur de Grieer. She may respect
• 5:49:07
  you, she may become your friend, she may open out her heart to
• 5:49:10
  you. Yet over that heart there will be reigning, that loathsome villain,
• 5:49:15
  that mean and petty usurer de Griere. This will be due to obstinacy and
• 5:49:19
  self love, to the fact that de Griere once appeared to her in the
• 5:49:23
  transfigured guise of a marquis, of a disenchanted and ruined liberal who was doing
• 5:49:29
  his best to help her family, in the frivolous old general and although these
• 5:49:33
  transactions of his have since been exposed, you will find that the exposure has
• 5:49:37
  made no impression upon her mind. Only give her the degriere of former days,
• 5:49:42
  and she will ask of you no more. The more she may detest
• 5:49:47
  the present de griere, the more she will lament the degree of the past,
• 5:49:51
  even though the latter never existed. But in her own imagination, you
• 5:49:56
  are a sugar refiner, mister Astley, are you not. Yes, I
• 5:50:00
  belong to the well known firm of Lovell and Company. Then see here,
• 5:50:04
  on the one hand, you are a sugar refiner, while on the other
• 5:50:07
  hand you are an Apollo Belvedere. But the two characters do not mix with
• 5:50:12
  one another. I again, am not even a sugar refiner. I am
• 5:50:17
  a mere roulette gambler who is also served as a lackey. Of this fact,
• 5:50:22
  Mademoiselle Pauline is probably well aware, since she appears to have an excellent
• 5:50:26
  force of police at her disposal. You are saying this because you are feeling
• 5:50:30
  bitter, said Astley, with cold indifference. Yet there is not the least
• 5:50:34
  originality in your words. I agree, But therein lies the horror of it
• 5:50:41
  all that how trepidation playing ever mean and farcical. My accusations may be,
• 5:50:48
  they are none the less true. But I am only wasting words. Yes,
• 5:50:52
  you are, for you are only talking nonsense, exclaimed my companion,
• 5:50:57
  his voice now trembling and his eye flashing fire. Are you aware, he
• 5:51:02
  continued, that wretched, ignoble, petty, unfortunate man though you are.
• 5:51:07
  It was at her request that I came to Hamburg in order to see you,
• 5:51:11
  and to have a long serious talk with you, and to report to
• 5:51:14
  her your feelings and thoughts and hopes. Yes, and your recollections of her
• 5:51:18
  too. Indeed, is that really so? I cried, the tears beginning
• 5:51:23
  to well from my eyes. Never before had this happened. Yes, poor
• 5:51:30
  unfortunate continued Astley, She did love you, and I may tell you this
• 5:51:34
  now for the reason that now you are utterly lost. Even if I were
• 5:51:38
  also to tell you that she still loves you, you would none the less
• 5:51:42
  have to remain where you are. Yes, you have ruined yourself beyond redemption.
• 5:51:48
  Once upon a time you had a certain amount of talent, and you
• 5:51:52
  were of a lively disposition, and your good looks were not to be despised.
• 5:51:56
  You might even have been useful to your country, which needs men like
• 5:51:59
  you. Yet you remained here and your life is now over. I am
• 5:52:03
  not blaming you for this. In my view, all Russians resemble you,
• 5:52:07
  or are inclined to do so. If it is not roulette, then it
• 5:52:11
  is something else. The exceptions are very rare. Nor are you the first
• 5:52:17
  to learn what a task master is yours, for roulette is not exclusively a
• 5:52:22
  Russian game. Hitherto you have honorably preferred to serve as a lackey rather than
• 5:52:27
  to act as a thief. But what the future may have in store for
• 5:52:32
  you, I tremble to think. Now goodbye? You are in want of
• 5:52:36
  money. I suppose then take these ten louis d'Or more. I shall not
• 5:52:41
  give you, for you would only gamble it away. Take care of these
• 5:52:45
  coins and farewell once more. Take care of them, No, mister Astley,
• 5:52:52
  after all that has been said, I take care of them. Repeated,
• 5:52:56
  my friend, I am certain you are still a gentleman, and therefore
• 5:52:59
  I give you them money, as one gentleman may give money to another.
• 5:53:03
  Also, if I could be certain that you would leave both Hamburg and the
• 5:53:06
  gaming tables and return to your own country, I would give you one thousand
• 5:53:10
  pounds down to start life afresh. But I give you ten louis d'Or instead
• 5:53:15
  of a thousand pounds, for the reason that at the present time a thousand
• 5:53:19
  pounds and ten louis d'Or will be all the same to you. You will
• 5:53:23
  lose the one as readily as you will the other. Take the money therefore,
• 5:53:29
  and goodbye. Yes, I will take it, if at the same
• 5:53:33
  time you will embrace me with pleasure. So we parted on terms of sincere
• 5:53:38
  affection. But he was wrong. If I was hard and undiscerning as regards
• 5:53:45
  Polina and Debriere, he was hard and undiscerning as regards Russian people. Generally,
• 5:53:52
  of myself, I say nothing yet yet words are only words. I
• 5:53:56
  need to act above all things. I need to think of Switzerland tomorrow.
• 5:54:00
  Tomorrow. Ah, But if only I could set things right tomorrow and be
• 5:54:04
  born again and rise again from the dead. But no, I cannot.
• 5:54:11
  Yet I must show her what I can do, even if she should do
• 5:54:15
  no more than learn that I can still play the man. It would be
• 5:54:18
  worth it to day. It is too late, but tomorrow. Yet I
• 5:54:22
  have a presentiment that things can never be otherwise I have got fifteen Louis d'Or
• 5:54:27
  in my possession, although I began with fifteen Gulden, if I were to
• 5:54:32
  play carefully at the start. But no, no, surely I am not
• 5:54:36
  such a fool as that. Yet, why should I not rise from the
• 5:54:40
  dead. I should require at first but to go cautiously and patiently, and
• 5:54:45
  the rest would follow. I should require but to put a check upon my
• 5:54:48
  nature for one hour, and my fortunes would be changed entirely. Yes,
• 5:54:52
  my nature is my weak point. I have only to remember what happened to
• 5:54:56
  me some months ago at Roulettenburg, before my final ruin. What a notable
• 5:55:03
  instance that was of my capacity for resolution. On the occasion in question,
• 5:55:07
  I had lost everything everything. Yet just as I was leaving the casino,
• 5:55:12
  I heard another Goulden give a rattle in my pocket. Perhaps I shall need
• 5:55:18
  it for a meal, I thought to myself. But a hundred paces further
• 5:55:22
  on I changed my mind and returned that Goulden. I staked upon monk.
• 5:55:29
  And there is something in the feeling that though one is alone and in a
• 5:55:32
  foreign land, and far from one's own home and friends, and ignorant of
• 5:55:36
  whence one's next meal is to come, one is nevertheless staking one's very last
• 5:55:41
  coin. Well, I won the stake, and in twenty minutes had left
• 5:55:45
  the casino with a hundred and seventy goulden in my pocket. That is a
• 5:55:49
  fact, and it shows what a last remaining goulden can do. But what
• 5:55:53
  if my heart had failed me, or I had shrunk from making up my
• 5:55:57
  mind? No, tomorrow all shall be ended. End of Chapter seventeen and
• 5:56:07
  end of The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky