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diff --git a/2197-h/2197-h.htm b/2197-h/2197-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fda647a --- /dev/null +++ b/2197-h/2197-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8805 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Gambler, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.right {text-align: right; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.footnote {font-size: 90%; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +sup { vertical-align: top; font-size: 0.6em; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gambler, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: The Gambler + +Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky + +Translated by C. J. Hogarth + +Release Date: May, 2000 [EBook #2197] +[Most recently updated: June 30, 2020] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GAMBLER *** + + + + +Produced by Martin Adamson. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>The Gambler</h1> + +<h2>by Fyodor Dostoyevsky</h2> + +<h3>Translated by C. J. Hogarth</h3> + +<hr /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">Chapter I</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">Chapter II</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">Chapter III</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">Chapter IV</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">Chapter V</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">Chapter VI</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">Chapter VII</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">Chapter VIII</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">Chapter IX</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">Chapter X</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11">Chapter XI</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12">Chapter XII</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap13">Chapter XIII</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap14">Chapter XIV</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap15">Chapter XV</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap16">Chapter XVI</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap17">Chapter XVII</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>I</h2> + +<p> +At length I returned from two weeks leave of absence to find that my patrons +had arrived three days ago in Roulettenberg. I received from them a welcome +quite different to that which I had expected. The General eyed me coldly, +greeted me in rather haughty fashion, and dismissed me to pay my respects to +his sister. It was clear that from <i>somewhere</i> money had been acquired. I +thought I could even detect a certain shamefacedness in the General’s +glance. Maria Philipovna, too, seemed distraught, and conversed with me with an +air of detachment. Nevertheless, she took the money which I handed to her, +counted it, and listened to what I had to tell. To luncheon there were expected +that day a Monsieur Mezentsov, a French lady, and an Englishman; for, whenever +money was in hand, a banquet in Muscovite style was always given. Polina +Alexandrovna, on seeing me, inquired why I had been so long away. Then, without +waiting for an answer, she departed. Evidently this was not mere accident, and +I felt that I must throw some light upon matters. It was high time that I did +so. +</p> + +<p> +I was assigned a small room on the fourth floor of the hotel (for you must know +that I belonged to the General’s suite). So far as I could see, the party +had already gained some notoriety in the place, which had come to look upon the +General as a Russian nobleman of great wealth. Indeed, even before luncheon he +charged me, among other things, to get two thousand-franc notes changed for him +at the hotel counter, which put us in a position to be thought millionaires at +all events for a week! Later, I was about to take Mischa and Nadia for a walk +when a summons reached me from the staircase that I must attend the General. He +began by deigning to inquire of me where I was going to take the children; and +as he did so, I could see that he failed to look me in the eyes. He +<i>wanted</i> to do so, but each time was met by me with such a fixed, +disrespectful stare that he desisted in confusion. In pompous language, +however, which jumbled one sentence into another, and at length grew +disconnected, he gave me to understand that I was to lead the children +altogether away from the Casino, and out into the park. Finally his anger +exploded, and he added sharply: +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose you would like to take them to the Casino to play roulette? +Well, excuse my speaking so plainly, but I know how addicted you are to +gambling. Though I am not your mentor, nor wish to be, at least I have a right +to require that you shall not actually <i>compromise</i> me.” +</p> + +<p> +“I have no money for gambling,” I quietly replied. +</p> + +<p> +“But you will soon be in receipt of some,” retorted the General, +reddening a little as he dived into his writing desk and applied himself to a +memorandum book. From it he saw that he had 120 roubles of mine in his keeping. +</p> + +<p> +“Let us calculate,” he went on. “We must translate these +roubles into thalers. Here—take 100 thalers, as a round sum. The rest +will be safe in my hands.” +</p> + +<p> +In silence I took the money. +</p> + +<p> +“You must not be offended at what I say,” he continued. “You +are too touchy about these things. What I have said I have said merely as a +warning. To do so is no more than my right.” +</p> + +<p> +When returning home with the children before luncheon, I met a cavalcade of our +party riding to view some ruins. Two splendid carriages, magnificently horsed, +with Mlle. Blanche, Maria Philipovna, and Polina Alexandrovna in one of them, +and the Frenchman, the Englishman, and the General in attendance on horseback! +The passers-by stopped to stare at them, for the effect was splendid—the +General could not have improved upon it. I calculated that, with the 4000 +francs which I had brought with me, added to what my patrons seemed already to +have acquired, the party must be in possession of at least 7000 or 8000 +francs—though that would be none too much for Mlle. Blanche, who, with +her mother and the Frenchman, was also lodging in our hotel. The latter +gentleman was called by the lacqueys “Monsieur le Comte,” and Mlle. +Blanche’s mother was dubbed “Madame la Comtesse.” Perhaps in +very truth they <i>were</i> “Comte et Comtesse.” +</p> + +<p> +I knew that “Monsieur le Comte” would take no notice of me when we +met at dinner, as also that the General would not dream of introducing us, nor +of recommending me to the “Comte.” However, the latter had lived +awhile in Russia, and knew that the person referred to as an +“uchitel” is never looked upon as a bird of fine feather. Of +course, strictly speaking, he <i>knew</i> me; but I was an uninvited guest at the +luncheon—the General had forgotten to arrange otherwise, or I should have +been dispatched to dine at the table d’hôte. Nevertheless, I presented +myself in such guise that the General looked at me with a touch of approval; +and, though the good Maria Philipovna was for showing me my place, the fact of +my having previously met the Englishman, Mr. Astley, saved me, and +thenceforward I figured as one of the company. +</p> + +<p> +This strange Englishman I had met first in Prussia, where we had happened to +sit <i>vis-à-vis</i> in a railway train in which I was travelling to overtake +our party; while, later, I had run across him in France, and again in +Switzerland—twice within the space of two weeks! To think, therefore, +that I should suddenly encounter him again here, in Roulettenberg! Never in my +life had I known a more retiring man, for he was shy to the pitch of +imbecility, yet well aware of the fact (for he was no fool). At the same time, +he was a gentle, amiable sort of an individual, and, even on our first +encounter in Prussia I had contrived to draw him out, and he had told me that +he had just been to the North Cape, and was now anxious to visit the fair at +Nizhni Novgorod. How he had come to make the General’s acquaintance I do +not know, but, apparently, he was much struck with Polina. Also, he was +delighted that I should sit next him at table, for he appeared to look upon me +as his bosom friend. +</p> + +<p> +During the meal the Frenchman was in great feather: he was discursive and +pompous to every one. In Moscow too, I remembered, he had blown a great many +bubbles. Interminably he discoursed on finance and Russian politics, and +though, at times, the General made feints to contradict him, he did so humbly, +and as though wishing not wholly to lose sight of his own dignity. +</p> + +<p> +For myself, I was in a curious frame of mind. Even before luncheon was half +finished I had asked myself the old, eternal question: “<i>Why</i> do I +continue to dance attendance upon the General, instead of having left him and +his family long ago?” Every now and then I would glance at Polina +Alexandrovna, but she paid me no attention; until eventually I became so +irritated that I decided to play the boor. +</p> + +<p> +First of all I suddenly, and for no reason whatever, plunged loudly and +gratuitously into the general conversation. Above everything I wanted to pick a +quarrel with the Frenchman; and, with that end in view I turned to the General, +and exclaimed in an overbearing sort of way—indeed, I think that I +actually interrupted him—that that summer it had been almost impossible +for a Russian to dine anywhere at tables d’hôte. The General bent upon me +a glance of astonishment. +</p> + +<p> +“If one is a man of self-respect,” I went on, “one risks +abuse by so doing, and is forced to put up with insults of every kind. Both at +Paris and on the Rhine, and even in Switzerland—there are so many Poles, +with their sympathisers, the French, at these tables d’hôte that one +cannot get a word in edgeways if one happens only to be a Russian.” +</p> + +<p> +This I said in French. The General eyed me doubtfully, for he did not know +whether to be angry or merely to feel surprised that I should so far forget +myself. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course, one always learns <i>something everywhere</i>,” said +the Frenchman in a careless, contemptuous sort of tone. +</p> + +<p> +“In Paris, too, I had a dispute with a Pole,” I continued, +“and then with a French officer who supported him. After that a section +of the Frenchmen present took my part. They did so as soon as I told them the +story of how once I threatened to spit into Monsignor’s coffee.” +</p> + +<p> +“To spit into it?” the General inquired with grave disapproval in +his tone, and a stare, of astonishment, while the Frenchman looked at me +unbelievingly. +</p> + +<p> +“Just so,” I replied. “You must know that, on one occasion, +when, for two days, I had felt certain that at any moment I might have to +depart for Rome on business, I repaired to the Embassy of the Holy See in +Paris, to have my passport visaed. There I encountered a sacristan of about +fifty, and a man dry and cold of mien. After listening politely, but with great +reserve, to my account of myself, this sacristan asked me to wait a little. I +was in a great hurry to depart, but of course I sat down, pulled out a copy of +<i>L’Opinion Nationale</i>, and fell to reading an extraordinary piece of +invective against Russia which it happened to contain. As I was thus engaged I +heard some one enter an adjoining room and ask for Monsignor; after which I saw +the sacristan make a low bow to the visitor, and then another bow as the +visitor took his leave. I ventured to remind the good man of my own business +also; whereupon, with an expression of, if anything, increased dryness, he +again asked me to wait. Soon a third visitor arrived who, like myself, had come +on business (he was an Austrian of some sort); and as soon as ever he had +stated his errand he was conducted upstairs! This made me very angry. I rose, +approached the sacristan, and told him that, since Monsignor was receiving +callers, his lordship might just as well finish off my affair as well. Upon +this the sacristan shrunk back in astonishment. It simply passed his +understanding that any insignificant Russian should dare to compare himself +with other visitors of Monsignor’s! In a tone of the utmost effrontery, +as though he were delighted to have a chance of insulting me, he looked me up +and down, and then said: “Do you suppose that Monsignor is going to put +aside his coffee for <i>you?</i>” But I only cried the louder: “Let +me tell you that I am going to <i>spit</i> into that coffee! Yes, and if you do +not get me my passport visaed this very minute, I shall take it to Monsignor +myself.” +</p> + +<p> +“What? While he is engaged with a Cardinal?” screeched the +sacristan, again shrinking back in horror. Then, rushing to the door, he spread +out his arms as though he would rather die than let me enter. +</p> + +<p> +Thereupon I declared that I was a heretic and a barbarian—“Je suis +hérétique et barbare,” I said, “and that these archbishops and +cardinals and monsignors, and the rest of them, meant nothing at all to me. In +a word, I showed him that I was not going to give way. He looked at me with an +air of infinite resentment. Then he snatched up my passport, and departed with +it upstairs. A minute later the passport had been visaed! Here it is now, if +you care to see it,”—and I pulled out the document, and exhibited +the Roman visa. +</p> + +<p> +“But—” the General began. +</p> + +<p> +“What really saved you was the fact that you proclaimed yourself a +heretic and a barbarian,” remarked the Frenchman with a smile. +“Cela n’était pas si bête.” +</p> + +<p> +“But is <i>that</i> how Russian subjects ought to be treated? Why, when +they settle here they dare not utter even a word—they are ready even to +deny the fact that they are Russians! At all events, at my hotel in Paris I +received far more attention from the company after I had told them about the +fracas with the sacristan. A fat Polish nobleman, who had been the most +offensive of all who were present at the table d’hôte, at once went +upstairs, while some of the Frenchmen were simply disgusted when I told them +that two years ago I had encountered a man at whom, in 1812, a French +‘hero’ fired for the mere fun of discharging his musket. That man +was then a boy of ten and his family are still residing in Moscow.” +</p> + +<p> +“Impossible!” the Frenchman spluttered. “No French soldier +would fire at a child!” +</p> + +<p> +“Nevertheless the incident was as I say,” I replied. “A very +respected ex-captain told me the story, and I myself could see the scar left on +his cheek.” +</p> + +<p> +The Frenchman then began chattering volubly, and the General supported him; but +I recommended the former to read, for example, extracts from the memoirs of +General Perovski, who, in 1812, was a prisoner in the hands of the French. +Finally Maria Philipovna said something to interrupt the conversation. The +General was furious with me for having started the altercation with the +Frenchman. On the other hand, Mr. Astley seemed to take great pleasure in my +brush with Monsieur, and, rising from the table, proposed that we should go and +have a drink together. The same afternoon, at four o’clock, I went to +have my customary talk with Polina Alexandrovna; and, the talk soon extended to +a stroll. We entered the Park, and approached the Casino, where Polina seated +herself upon a bench near the fountain, and sent Nadia away to a little +distance to play with some other children. Mischa also I dispatched to play by +the fountain, and in this fashion we—that is to say, Polina and +myself—contrived to find ourselves alone. +</p> + +<p> +Of course, we began by talking on business matters. Polina seemed furious when +I handed her only 700 gülden, for she had thought to receive from Paris, as the +proceeds of the pledging of her diamonds, at least 2000 gülden, or even more. +</p> + +<p> +“Come what may, I <i>must</i> have money,” she said. “And get +it somehow I will—otherwise I shall be ruined.” +</p> + +<p> +I asked her what had happened during my absence. +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing; except that two pieces of news have reached us from St. +Petersburg. In the first place, my grandmother is very ill, and unlikely to +last another couple of days. We had this from Timothy Petrovitch himself, and +he is a reliable person. Every moment we are expecting to receive news of the +end.” +</p> + +<p> +“All of you are on the tiptoe of expectation?” I queried. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course—all of us, and every minute of the day. For a +year-and-a-half now we have been looking for this.” +</p> + +<p> +“Looking for it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, looking for it. I am not her blood relation, you know—I am +merely the General’s step-daughter. Yet I am certain that the old lady +has remembered me in her will.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I believe that you <i>will</i> come in for a good deal,” I +said with some assurance. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, for she is fond of me. But how come you to think so?” +</p> + +<p> +I answered this question with another one. “That Marquis of yours,” +I said, “—is <i>he</i> also familiar with your family +secrets?” +</p> + +<p> +“And why are you yourself so interested in them?” was her retort as +she eyed me with dry grimness. +</p> + +<p> +“Never mind. If I am not mistaken, the General has succeeded in borrowing +money of the Marquis.” +</p> + +<p> +“It may be so.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is it likely that the Marquis would have lent the money if he had not +known something or other about your grandmother? Did you notice, too, that +three times during luncheon, when speaking of her, he called her ‘La +Baboulenka’?<a href="#fn-1" name="fnref-1" id="fnref-1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>. +What loving, friendly behaviour, to be sure!” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-1" id="fn-1"></a> <a href="#fnref-1">[1]</a> +Dear little Grandmother. +</p> +<p> +“Yes, that is true. As soon as ever he learnt that I was likely to +inherit something from her he began to pay me his addresses. I thought you +ought to know that.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then he has only just begun his courting? Why, I thought he had been +doing so a long while!” +</p> + +<p> +“You <i>know</i> he has not,” retorted Polina angrily. “But +where on earth did you pick up this Englishman?” She said this after a +pause. +</p> + +<p> +“I <i>knew</i> you would ask about him!” Whereupon I told her of my +previous encounters with Astley while travelling. +</p> + +<p> +“He is very shy,” I said, “and susceptible. Also, he is in +love with you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, he <i>is</i> in love with me,” she replied. +</p> + +<p> +“And he is ten times richer than the Frenchman. In fact, what does the +Frenchman possess? To me it seems at least doubtful that he possesses anything +at all.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no, there is no doubt about it. He does possess some château or +other. Last night the General told me that for certain. <i>Now</i> are you +satisfied?” +</p> + +<p> +“Nevertheless, in your place I should marry the Englishman.” +</p> + +<p> +“And why?” asked Polina. +</p> + +<p> +“Because, though the Frenchman is the handsomer of the two, he is also +the baser; whereas the Englishman is not only a man of honour, but ten times +the wealthier of the pair.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes? But then the Frenchman is a marquis, and the cleverer of the +two,” remarked Polina imperturbably. +</p> + +<p> +“Is that so?” I repeated. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; absolutely.” +</p> + +<p> +Polina was not at all pleased at my questions; I could see that she was doing +her best to irritate me with the brusquerie of her answers. But I took no +notice of this. +</p> + +<p> +“It amuses me to see you grow angry,” she continued. +“However, inasmuch as I allow you to indulge in these questions and +conjectures, you ought to pay me something for the privilege.” +</p> + +<p> +“I consider that I have a perfect right to put these questions to +you,” was my calm retort; “for the reason that I am ready to pay +for them, and also care little what becomes of me.” +</p> + +<p> +Polina giggled. +</p> + +<p> +“Last time you told me—when on the Shlangenberg—that at a +word from me you would be ready to jump down a thousand feet into the abyss. +Some day I may remind you of that saying, in order to see if you will be as +good as your word. Yes, you may depend upon it that I shall do so. I hate you +because I have allowed you to go to such lengths, and I also hate you and still +more—because you are so necessary to me. For the time being I want you, +so I must keep you.” +</p> + +<p> +Then she made a movement to rise. Her tone had sounded very angry. Indeed, of +late her talks with me had invariably ended on a note of temper and +irritation—yes, of real temper. +</p> + +<p> +“May I ask you who is this Mlle. Blanche?” I inquired (since I did +not wish Polina to depart without an explanation). +</p> + +<p> +“You <i>know</i> who she is—just Mlle. Blanche. Nothing further has +transpired. Probably she will soon be Madame General—that is to say, if +the rumours that Grandmamma is nearing her end should prove true. Mlle. +Blanche, with her mother and her cousin, the Marquis, know very well that, as +things now stand, we are ruined.” +</p> + +<p> +“And is the General at last in love?” +</p> + +<p> +“That has nothing to do with it. Listen to me. Take these 700 florins, +and go and play roulette with them. Win as much for me as you can, for I am +badly in need of money.” +</p> + +<p> +So saying, she called Nadia back to her side, and entered the Casino, where she +joined the rest of our party. For myself, I took, in musing astonishment, the +first path to the left. Something had seemed to strike my brain when she told +me to go and play roulette. Strangely enough, that something had also seemed to +make me hesitate, and to set me analysing my feelings with regard to her. In +fact, during the two weeks of my absence I had felt far more at my ease than I +did now, on the day of my return; although, while travelling, I had moped like +an imbecile, rushed about like a man in a fever, and actually beheld her in my +dreams. Indeed, on one occasion (this happened in Switzerland, when I was +asleep in the train) I had spoken aloud to her, and set all my +fellow-travellers laughing. Again, therefore, I put to myself the question: +“Do I, or do I not love her?” and again I could return myself no +answer or, rather, for the hundredth time I told myself that I detested her. +Yes, I detested her; there were moments (more especially at the close of our +talks together) when I would gladly have given half my life to have strangled +her! I swear that, had there, at such moments, been a sharp knife ready to my +hand, I would have seized that knife with pleasure, and plunged it into her +breast. Yet I also swear that if, on the Shlangenberg, she had <i>really</i> +said to me, “Leap into that abyss,” I should have leapt into it, +and with equal pleasure. Yes, this I knew well. One way or the other, the thing +must soon be ended. She, too, knew it in some curious way; the thought that I +was fully conscious of her inaccessibility, and of the impossibility of my ever +realising my dreams, afforded her, I am certain, the keenest possible pleasure. +Otherwise, is it likely that she, the cautious and clever woman that she was, +would have indulged in this familiarity and openness with me? Hitherto (I +concluded) she had looked upon me in the same light that the old Empress did +upon her servant—the Empress who hesitated not to unrobe herself before +her slave, since she did not account a slave a man. Yes, often Polina must have +taken me for something less than a man!” +</p> + +<p> +Still, she had charged me with a commission—to win what I could at +roulette. Yet all the time I could not help wondering <i>why</i> it was so +necessary for her to win something, and what new schemes could have sprung to +birth in her ever-fertile brain. A host of new and unknown factors seemed to +have arisen during the last two weeks. Well, it behoved me to divine them, and +to probe them, and that as soon as possible. Yet not now: at the present moment +I must repair to the roulette-table. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>II</h2> + +<p> +I confess I did not like it. Although I had made up my mind to play, I felt +averse to doing so on behalf of some one else. In fact, it almost upset my +balance, and I entered the gaming rooms with an angry feeling at my heart. At +first glance the scene irritated me. Never at any time have I been able to bear +the flunkeyishness which one meets in the Press of the world at large, but more +especially in that of Russia, where, almost every evening, journalists write on +two subjects in particular—namely, on the splendour and luxury of the +casinos to be found in the Rhenish towns, and on the heaps of gold which are +daily to be seen lying on their tables. Those journalists are not paid for +doing so: they write thus merely out of a spirit of disinterested complaisance. +For there is nothing splendid about the establishments in question; and, not +only are there no heaps of gold to be seen lying on their tables, but also +there is very little money to be seen at all. Of course, during the season, +<i>some</i> madman or another may make his appearance—generally an +Englishman, or an Asiatic, or a Turk—and (as had happened during the +summer of which I write) win or lose a great deal; but, as regards the rest of +the crowd, it plays only for petty gülden, and seldom does much wealth figure +on the board. +</p> + +<p> +When, on the present occasion, I entered the gaming-rooms (for the first time +in my life), it was several moments before I could even make up my mind to +play. For one thing, the crowd oppressed me. Had I been playing for myself, I +think I should have left at once, and never have embarked upon gambling at all, +for I could feel my heart beginning to beat, and my heart was anything but +cold-blooded. Also, I knew, I had long ago made up my mind, that never should I +depart from Roulettenberg until some radical, some final, change had taken +place in my fortunes. Thus, it must and would be. However ridiculous it may +seem to you that I was expecting to win at roulette, I look upon the generally +accepted opinion concerning the folly and the grossness of hoping to win at +gambling as a thing even more absurd. For why is gambling a whit worse than any +other method of acquiring money? How, for instance, is it worse than trade? +True, out of a hundred persons, only one can win; yet what business is that of +yours or of mine? +</p> + +<p> +At all events, I confined myself at first simply to looking on, and decided to +attempt nothing serious. Indeed, I felt that, if I began to do anything at all, +I should do it in an absent-minded, haphazard sort of way—of that I felt +certain. Also, it behoved me to learn the game itself; since, despite a +thousand descriptions of roulette which I had read with ceaseless avidity, I +knew nothing of its rules, and had never even seen it played. +</p> + +<p> +In the first place, everything about it seemed to me so foul—so morally +mean and foul. Yet I am not speaking of the hungry, restless folk who, by +scores nay, even by hundreds—could be seen crowded around the +gaming-tables. For in a desire to win quickly and to win much I can see nothing +sordid; I have always applauded the opinion of a certain dead and gone, but +cocksure, moralist who replied to the excuse that “one may always gamble +moderately”, by saying that to do so makes things worse, since, in that +case, the profits too will always be moderate. +</p> + +<p> +Insignificant profits and sumptuous profits do not stand on the same footing. +No, it is all a matter of proportion. What may seem a small sum to a Rothschild +may seem a large sum to me, and it is not the fault of stakes or of winnings +that everywhere men can be found winning, can be found depriving their fellows +of something, just as they do at roulette. As to the question whether stakes +and winnings are, in themselves, immoral is another question altogether, and I +wish to express no opinion upon it. Yet the very fact that I was full of a +strong desire to win caused this gambling for gain, in spite of its attendant +squalor, to contain, if you will, something intimate, something sympathetic, to +my eyes: for it is always pleasant to see men dispensing with ceremony, and +acting naturally, and in an unbuttoned mood.... +</p> + +<p> +Yet why should I so deceive myself? I could see that the whole thing was a vain +and unreasoning pursuit; and what, at the first glance, seemed to me the +ugliest feature in this mob of roulette players was their respect for their +occupation—the seriousness, and even the humility, with which they stood +around the gaming tables. Moreover, I had always drawn sharp distinctions +between a game which is <i>de mauvais genre</i> and a game which is permissible +to a decent man. In fact, there are two sorts of gaming—namely, the game +of the gentleman and the game of the plebs—the game for gain, and the +game of the herd. Herein, as said, I draw sharp distinctions. Yet how +essentially base are the distinctions! For instance, a gentleman may stake, +say, five or ten louis d’or—seldom more, unless he is a very rich +man, when he may stake, say, a thousand francs; but, he must do this simply for +the love of the game itself—simply for sport, simply in order to observe +the process of winning or of losing, and, above all things, as a man who +remains quite uninterested in the possibility of his issuing a winner. If he +wins, he will be at liberty, perhaps, to give vent to a laugh, or to pass a +remark on the circumstance to a bystander, or to stake again, or to double his +stake; but, even this he must do solely out of curiosity, and for the pleasure +of watching the play of chances and of calculations, and not because of any +vulgar desire to win. In a word, he must look upon the gaming-table, upon +roulette, and upon trente et quarante, as mere relaxations which have been +arranged solely for his amusement. Of the existence of the lures and gains upon +which the bank is founded and maintained he must profess to have not an +inkling. Best of all, he ought to imagine his fellow-gamblers and the rest of +the mob which stands trembling over a coin to be equally rich and gentlemanly +with himself, and playing solely for recreation and pleasure. This complete +ignorance of the realities, this innocent view of mankind, is what, in my +opinion, constitutes the truly aristocratic. For instance, I have seen even +fond mothers so far indulge their guileless, elegant daughters—misses of +fifteen or sixteen—as to give them a few gold coins and teach them how to +play; and though the young ladies may have won or have lost, they have +invariably laughed, and departed as though they were well pleased. In the same +way, I saw our General once approach the table in a stolid, important manner. A +lacquey darted to offer him a chair, but the General did not even notice him. +Slowly he took out his money bags, and slowly extracted 300 francs in gold, +which he staked on the black, and won. Yet he did not take up his +winnings—he left them there on the table. Again the black turned up, and +again he did not gather in what he had won; and when, in the third round, the +<i>red</i> turned up he lost, at a stroke, 1200 francs. Yet even then he rose +with a smile, and thus preserved his reputation; yet I knew that his money bags +must be chafing his heart, as well as that, had the stake been twice or thrice +as much again, he would still have restrained himself from venting his +disappointment. +</p> + +<p> +On the other hand, I saw a Frenchman first win, and then lose, 30,000 francs +cheerfully, and without a murmur. Yes; even if a gentleman should lose his +whole substance, he must never give way to annoyance. Money must be so +subservient to gentility as never to be worth a thought. Of course, the +<i>supremely</i> aristocratic thing is to be entirely oblivious of the mire of +rabble, with its setting; but sometimes a reverse course may be aristocratic to +remark, to scan, and even to gape at, the mob (for preference, through a +lorgnette), even as though one were taking the crowd and its squalor for a sort +of raree show which had been organised specially for a gentleman’s +diversion. Though one may be squeezed by the crowd, one must look as though one +were fully assured of being the observer—of having neither part nor lot +with the observed. At the same time, to stare fixedly about one is unbecoming; +for that, again, is ungentlemanly, seeing that no spectacle is worth an open +stare—are no spectacles in the world which merit from a gentleman too +pronounced an inspection. +</p> + +<p> +However, to me personally the scene <i>did</i> seem to be worth undisguised +contemplation—more especially in view of the fact that I had come there +not only to look at, but also to number myself sincerely and wholeheartedly +with, the mob. As for my secret moral views, I had no room for them amongst my +actual, practical opinions. Let that stand as written: I am writing only to +relieve my conscience. Yet let me say also this: that from the first I have +been consistent in having an intense aversion to any trial of my acts and +thoughts by a moral standard. Another standard altogether has directed my +life.... +</p> + +<p> +As a matter of fact, the mob was playing in exceedingly foul fashion. Indeed, I +have an idea that sheer robbery was going on around that gaming-table. The +croupiers who sat at the two ends of it had not only to watch the stakes, but +also to calculate the game—an immense amount of work for two men! As for +the crowd itself—well, it consisted mostly of Frenchmen. Yet I was not +then taking notes merely in order to be able to give you a description of +roulette, but in order to get my bearings as to my behaviour when I myself +should begin to play. For example, I noticed that nothing was more common than +for another’s hand to stretch out and grab one’s winnings whenever +one had won. Then there would arise a dispute, and frequently an uproar; and it +would be a case of “I beg of you to prove, and to produce witnesses to +the fact, that the stake is yours.” +</p> + +<p> +At first the proceedings were pure Greek to me. I could only divine and +distinguish that stakes were hazarded on numbers, on “odd” or +“even,” and on colours. Polina’s money I decided to risk, +that evening, only to the amount of 100 gülden. The thought that I was not +going to play for myself quite unnerved me. It was an unpleasant sensation, and +I tried hard to banish it. I had a feeling that, once I had begun to play for +Polina, I should wreck my own fortunes. Also, I wonder if any one has +<i>ever</i> approached a gaming-table without falling an immediate prey to +superstition? I began by pulling out fifty gülden, and staking them on +“even.” The wheel spun and stopped at 13. I had lost! With a +feeling like a sick qualm, as though I would like to make my way out of the +crowd and go home, I staked another fifty gülden—this time on the red. +The red turned up. Next time I staked the 100 gülden just where they +lay—and again the red turned up. Again I staked the whole sum, and again +the red turned up. Clutching my 400 gülden, I placed 200 of them on twelve +figures, to see what would come of it. The result was that the croupier paid me +out three times my total stake! Thus from 100 gülden my store had grown to 800! +Upon that such a curious, such an inexplicable, unwonted feeling overcame me +that I decided to depart. Always the thought kept recurring to me that if I had +been playing for myself alone I should never have had such luck. Once more I +staked the whole 800 gülden on the “even.” The wheel stopped at 4. +I was paid out another 800 gülden, and, snatching up my pile of 1600, departed +in search of Polina Alexandrovna. +</p> + +<p> +I found the whole party walking in the park, and was able to get an interview +with her only after supper. This time the Frenchman was absent from the meal, +and the General seemed to be in a more expansive vein. Among other things, he +thought it necessary to remind me that he would be sorry to see me playing at +the gaming-tables. In his opinion, such conduct would greatly compromise +him—especially if I were to lose much. “And even if you were to +<i>win</i> much I should be compromised,” he added in a meaning sort of +way. “Of course I have no <i>right</i> to order your actions, but you +yourself will agree that...” As usual, he did not finish his sentence. I +answered drily that I had very little money in my possession, and that, +consequently, I was hardly in a position to indulge in any conspicuous play, +even if I did gamble. At last, when ascending to my own room, I succeeded in +handing Polina her winnings, and told her that, next time, I should not play +for her. +</p> + +<p> +“Why not?” she asked excitedly. +</p> + +<p> +“Because I wish to play <i>for myself</i>,” I replied with a +feigned glance of astonishment. “That is my sole reason.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then are you so certain that your roulette-playing will get us out of +our difficulties?” she inquired with a quizzical smile. +</p> + +<p> +I said very seriously, “Yes,” and then added: “Possibly my +certainty about winning may seem to you ridiculous; yet, pray leave me in +peace.” +</p> + +<p> +Nonetheless she insisted that I ought to go halves with her in the day’s +winnings, and offered me 800 gülden on condition that henceforth, I gambled +only on those terms; but I refused to do so, once and for all—stating, as +my reason, that I found myself unable to play on behalf of any one else, +“I am not unwilling so to do,” I added, “but in all +probability I should lose.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, absurd though it be, I place great hopes on your playing of +roulette,” she remarked musingly; “wherefore, you ought to play as +my partner and on equal shares; wherefore, of course, you will do as I +wish.” +</p> + +<p> +Then she left me without listening to any further protests on my part. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>III</h2> + +<p> +On the morrow she said not a word to me about gambling. In fact, she purposely +avoided me, although her old manner to me had not changed: the same serene +coolness was hers on meeting me—a coolness that was mingled even with a +spice of contempt and dislike. In short, she was at no pains to conceal her +aversion to me. That I could see plainly. Also, she did not trouble to conceal +from me the fact that I was necessary to her, and that she was keeping me for +some end which she had in view. Consequently there became established between +us relations which, to a large extent, were incomprehensible to me, considering +her general pride and aloofness. For example, although she knew that I was +madly in love with her, she allowed me to speak to her of my passion (though +she could not well have showed her contempt for me more than by permitting me, +unhindered and unrebuked, to mention to her my love). +</p> + +<p> +“You see,” her attitude expressed, “how little I regard your +feelings, as well as how little I care for what you say to me, or for what you +feel for me.” Likewise, though she spoke as before concerning her +affairs, it was never with complete frankness. In her contempt for me there +were refinements. Although she knew well that I was aware of a certain +circumstance in her life of something which might one day cause her trouble, +she would speak to me about her affairs (whenever she had need of me for a +given end) as though I were a slave or a passing acquaintance—yet tell +them me only in so far as one would need to know them if one were going to be +made temporary use of. Had I not known the whole chain of events, or had she +not seen how much I was pained and disturbed by her teasing insistency, she +would never have thought it worthwhile to soothe me with this +frankness—even though, since she not infrequently used me to execute +commissions that were not only troublesome, but risky, she ought, in my +opinion, to have been frank in <i>any</i> case. But, forsooth, it was not worth +her while to trouble about <i>my</i> feelings—about the fact that +<i>I</i> was uneasy, and, perhaps, thrice as put about by her cares and +misfortunes as she was herself! +</p> + +<p> +For three weeks I had known of her intention to take to roulette. She had even +warned me that she would like me to play on her behalf, since it was unbecoming +for her to play in person; and, from the tone of her words I had gathered that +there was something on her mind besides a mere desire to win money. As if money +could matter to <i>her!</i> No, she had some end in view, and there were +circumstances at which I could guess, but which I did not know for certain. +True, the slavery and abasement in which she held me might have given me (such +things often do so) the power to question her with abrupt directness (seeing +that, inasmuch as I figured in her eyes as a mere slave and nonentity, she +could not very well have taken offence at any rude curiosity); but the fact was +that, though she let me question her, she never returned me a single answer, +and at times did not so much as notice me. That is how matters stood. +</p> + +<p> +Next day there was a good deal of talk about a telegram which, four days ago, +had been sent to St. Petersburg, but to which there had come no answer. The +General was visibly disturbed and moody, for the matter concerned his mother. +The Frenchman, too, was excited, and after dinner the whole party talked long +and seriously together—the Frenchman’s tone being extraordinarily +presumptuous and offhand to everybody. It almost reminded one of the proverb, +“Invite a man to your table, and soon he will place his feet upon +it.” Even to Polina he was brusque almost to the point of rudeness. Yet +still he seemed glad to join us in our walks in the Casino, or in our rides and +drives about the town. I had long been aware of certain circumstances which +bound the General to him; I had long been aware that in Russia they had hatched +some scheme together although I did not know whether the plot had come to +anything, or whether it was still only in the stage of being talked of. +Likewise I was aware, in part, of a family secret—namely, that, last +year, the Frenchman had bailed the General out of debt, and given him 30,000 +roubles wherewith to pay his Treasury dues on retiring from the service. And +now, of course, the General was in a vice—although the chief part in the +affair was being played by Mlle. Blanche. Yes, of this last I had no doubt. +</p> + +<p> +But <i>who</i> was this Mlle. Blanche? It was said of her that she was a +Frenchwoman of good birth who, living with her mother, possessed a colossal +fortune. It was also said that she was some relation to the Marquis, but only a +distant one a cousin, or cousin-german, or something of the sort. Likewise I +knew that, up to the time of my journey to Paris, she and the Frenchman had +been more ceremonious towards our party—they had stood on a much more +precise and delicate footing with them; but that now their +acquaintanceship—their friendship, their intimacy—had taken on a +much more off-hand and rough-and-ready air. Perhaps they thought that our means +were too modest for them, and, therefore, unworthy of politeness or reticence. +Also, for the last three days I had noticed certain looks which Astley had kept +throwing at Mlle. Blanche and her mother; and it had occurred to me that he +must have had some previous acquaintance with the pair. I had even surmised +that the Frenchman too must have met Mr. Astley before. Astley was a man so +shy, reserved, and taciturn in his manner that one might have looked for +anything from him. At all events the Frenchman accorded him only the slightest +of greetings, and scarcely even looked at him. Certainly he did not seem to be +afraid of him; which was intelligible enough. But why did Mlle. Blanche also +never look at the Englishman?—particularly since, <i>à propos</i> of +something or another, the Marquis had declared the Englishman to be immensely +and indubitably rich? Was not that a sufficient reason to make Mlle. Blanche +look at the Englishman? Anyway the General seemed extremely uneasy; and, one +could well understand what a telegram to announce the death of his mother would +mean for him! +</p> + +<p> +Although I thought it probable that Polina was avoiding me for a definite +reason, I adopted a cold and indifferent air; for I felt pretty certain that it +would not be long before she herself approached me. For two days, therefore, I +devoted my attention to Mlle. Blanche. The poor General was in despair! To fall +in love at fifty-five, and with such vehemence, is indeed a misfortune! And add +to that his widowerhood, his children, his ruined property, his debts, and the +woman with whom he had fallen in love! Though Mlle. Blanche was extremely +good-looking, I may or may not be understood when I say that she had one of +those faces which one is afraid of. At all events, I myself have always feared +such women. Apparently about twenty-five years of age, she was tall and +broad-shouldered, with shoulders that sloped; yet though her neck and bosom +were ample in their proportions, her skin was dull yellow in colour, while her +hair (which was extremely abundant—sufficient to make two coiffures) was +as black as Indian ink. Add to that a pair of black eyes with yellowish whites, +a proud glance, gleaming teeth, and lips which were perennially pomaded and +redolent of musk. As for her dress, it was invariably rich, effective, and +chic, yet in good taste. Lastly, her feet and hands were astonishing, and her +voice a deep contralto. Sometimes, when she laughed, she displayed her teeth, +but at ordinary times her air was taciturn and haughty—especially in the +presence of Polina and Maria Philipovna. Yet she seemed to me almost destitute +of education, and even of wits, though cunning and suspicious. This, +apparently, was not because her life had been lacking in incident. Perhaps, if +all were known, the Marquis was not her kinsman at all, nor her mother, her +mother; but there was evidence that, in Berlin, where we had first come across +the pair, they had possessed acquaintances of good standing. As for the Marquis +himself, I doubt to this day if he was a Marquis—although about the fact +that he had formerly belonged to high society (for instance, in Moscow and +Germany) there could be no doubt whatever. What he had formerly been in France +I had not a notion. All I knew was that he was said to possess a château. +During the last two weeks I had looked for much to transpire, but am still +ignorant whether at that time anything decisive ever passed between +Mademoiselle and the General. Everything seemed to depend upon our +means—upon whether the General would be able to flourish sufficient money +in her face. If ever the news should arrive that the grandmother was not dead, +Mlle. Blanche, I felt sure, would disappear in a twinkling. Indeed, it +surprised and amused me to observe what a passion for intrigue I was +developing. But how I loathed it all! With what pleasure would I have given +everybody and everything the go-by! Only—I could not leave Polina. How, +then, could I show contempt for those who surrounded her? Espionage is a base +thing, but—what have I to do with that? +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Astley, too, I found a curious person. I was only sure that he had fallen +in love with Polina. A remarkable and diverting circumstance is the amount +which may lie in the mien of a shy and painfully modest man who has been +touched with the divine passion—especially when he would rather sink into +the earth than betray himself by a single word or look. Though Mr. Astley +frequently met us when we were out walking, he would merely take off his hat +and pass us by, though I knew he was dying to join us. Even when invited to do +so, he would refuse. Again, in places of amusement—in the Casino, at +concerts, or near the fountain—he was never far from the spot where we +were sitting. In fact, <i>wherever</i> we were in the Park, in the forest, or +on the Shlangenberg—one needed but to raise one’s eyes and glance +around to catch sight of at least a <i>portion</i> of Mr. Astley’s frame +sticking out—whether on an adjacent path or behind a bush. Yet never did +he lose any chance of speaking to myself; and, one morning when we had met, and +exchanged a couple of words, he burst out in his usual abrupt way, without +saying “Good-morning.” +</p> + +<p> +“That Mlle. Blanche,” he said. “Well, I have seen a good many +women like her.” +</p> + +<p> +After that he was silent as he looked me meaningly in the face. What he meant I +did not know, but to my glance of inquiry he returned only a dry nod, and a +reiterated “It is so.” Presently, however, he resumed: +</p> + +<p> +“Does Mlle. Polina like flowers?” +</p> + +<p> +“I really cannot say,” was my reply. +</p> + +<p> +“What? You cannot say?” he cried in great astonishment. +</p> + +<p> +“No; I have never noticed whether she does so or not,” I repeated +with a smile. +</p> + +<p> +“Hm! Then I have an idea in my mind,” he concluded. Lastly, with a +nod, he walked away with a pleased expression on his face. The conversation had +been carried on in execrable French. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>IV</h2> + +<p> +Today has been a day of folly, stupidity, and ineptness. The time is now eleven +o’clock in the evening, and I am sitting in my room and thinking. It all +began, this morning, with my being forced to go and play roulette for Polina +Alexandrovna. When she handed me over her store of six hundred gülden I exacted +two conditions—namely, that I should not go halves with her in her +winnings, if any (that is to say, I should not take anything for myself), and +that she should explain to me, that same evening, why it was so necessary for +her to win, and how much was the sum which she needed. For, I could not suppose +that she was doing all this merely for the sake of money. Yet clearly she +<i>did</i> need some money, and that as soon as possible, and for a special +purpose. Well, she promised to explain matters, and I departed. There was a +tremendous crowd in the gaming-rooms. What an arrogant, greedy crowd it was! I +pressed forward towards the middle of the room until I had secured a seat at a +croupier’s elbow. Then I began to play in timid fashion, venturing only +twenty or thirty gülden at a time. Meanwhile, I observed and took notes. It +seemed to me that calculation was superfluous, and by no means possessed of the +importance which certain other players attached to it, even though they sat +with ruled papers in their hands, whereon they set down the coups, calculated +the chances, reckoned, staked, and—lost exactly as we more simple mortals +did who played without any reckoning at all. +</p> + +<p> +However, I deduced from the scene one conclusion which seemed to me +reliable—namely, that in the flow of fortuitous chances there is, if not +a system, at all events a sort of order. This, of course, is a very strange +thing. For instance, after a dozen middle figures there would always occur a +dozen or so outer ones. Suppose the ball stopped twice at a dozen outer +figures; it would then pass to a dozen of the first ones, and then, again, to a +dozen of the middle ciphers, and fall upon them three or four times, and then +revert to a dozen outers; whence, after another couple of rounds, the ball +would again pass to the first figures, strike upon them once, and then return +thrice to the middle series—continuing thus for an hour and a half, or +two hours. One, three, two: one, three, two. It was all very curious. Again, +for the whole of a day or a morning the red would alternate with the black, but +almost without any order, and from moment to moment, so that scarcely two +consecutive rounds would end upon either the one or the other. Yet, next day, +or, perhaps, the next evening, the red alone would turn up, and attain a run of +over two score, and continue so for quite a length of time—say, for a +whole day. Of these circumstances the majority were pointed out to me by Mr. +Astley, who stood by the gaming-table the whole morning, yet never once staked +in person. +</p> + +<p> +For myself, I lost all that I had on me, and with great speed. To begin with, I +staked two hundred gülden on “even,” and won. Then I staked the +same amount again, and won: and so on some two or three times. At one moment I +must have had in my hands—gathered there within a space of five +minutes—about 4000 gülden. That, of course, was the proper moment for me +to have departed, but there arose in me a strange sensation as of a challenge +to Fate—as of a wish to deal her a blow on the cheek, and to put out my +tongue at her. Accordingly I set down the largest stake allowed by the +rules—namely, 4000 gülden—and lost. Fired by this mishap, I pulled +out all the money left to me, staked it all on the same venture, +and—again lost! Then I rose from the table, feeling as though I were +stupefied. What had happened to me I did not know; but, before luncheon I told +Polina of my losses—until which time I walked about the Park. +</p> + +<p> +At luncheon I was as excited as I had been at the meal three days ago. Mlle. +Blanche and the Frenchman were lunching with us, and it appeared that the +former had been to the Casino that morning, and had seen my exploits there. So +now she showed me more attention when talking to me; while, for his part, the +Frenchman approached me, and asked outright if it had been my own money that I +had lost. He appeared to be suspicious as to something being on foot between +Polina and myself, but I merely fired up, and replied that the money had been +all my own. +</p> + +<p> +At this the General seemed extremely surprised, and asked me whence I had +procured it; whereupon I replied that, though I had begun only with 100 gülden, +six or seven rounds had increased my capital to 5000 or 6000 gülden, and that +subsequently I had lost the whole in two rounds. +</p> + +<p> +All this, of course, was plausible enough. During my recital I glanced at +Polina, but nothing was to be discerned on her face. However, she had allowed +me to fire up without correcting me, and from that I concluded that it was my +<i>cue</i> to fire up, and to conceal the fact that I had been playing on her +behalf. “At all events,” I thought to myself, “she, in her +turn, has promised to give me an explanation to-night, and to reveal to me +something or another.” +</p> + +<p> +Although the General appeared to be taking stock of me, he said nothing. Yet I +could see uneasiness and annoyance in his face. Perhaps his straitened +circumstances made it hard for him to have to hear of piles of gold passing +through the hands of an irresponsible fool like myself within the space of a +quarter of an hour. Now, I have an idea that, last night, he and the Frenchman +had a sharp encounter with one another. At all events they closeted themselves +together, and then had a long and vehement discussion; after which the +Frenchman departed in what appeared to be a passion, but returned, early this +morning, to renew the combat. On hearing of my losses, however, he only +remarked with a sharp, and even a malicious, air that “a man ought to go +more carefully.” Next, for some reason or another, he added that, +“though a great many Russians go in for gambling, they are no good at the +game.” +</p> + +<p> +“<i>I</i> think that roulette was devised specially for Russians,” +I retorted; and when the Frenchman smiled contemptuously at my reply I further +remarked that I was sure I was right; also that, speaking of Russians in the +capacity of gamblers, I had far more blame for them than praise—of that +he could be quite sure. +</p> + +<p> +“Upon what do you base your opinion?” he inquired. +</p> + +<p> +“Upon the fact that to the virtues and merits of the civilised Westerner +there has become historically added—though this is not his chief +point—a capacity for acquiring capital; whereas, not only is the Russian +incapable of acquiring capital, but also he exhausts it wantonly and of sheer +folly. None the less we Russians often need money; wherefore, we are glad of, +and greatly devoted to, a method of acquisition like roulette—whereby, in +a couple of hours, one may grow rich without doing any work. This method, I +repeat, has a great attraction for us, but since we play in wanton fashion, and +without taking any trouble, we almost invariably lose.” +</p> + +<p> +“To a certain extent that is true,” assented the Frenchman with a +self-satisfied air. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh no, it is not true,” put in the General sternly. “And +you,” he added to me, “you ought to be ashamed of yourself for +traducing your own country!” +</p> + +<p> +“I beg pardon,” I said. “Yet it would be difficult to say +which is the worst of the two—Russian ineptitude or the German method of +growing rich through honest toil.” +</p> + +<p> +“What an extraordinary idea,” cried the General. +</p> + +<p> +“And what a <i>Russian</i> idea!” added the Frenchman. +</p> + +<p> +I smiled, for I was rather glad to have a quarrel with them. +</p> + +<p> +“I would rather live a wandering life in tents,” I cried, +“than bow the knee to a German idol!” +</p> + +<p> +“To <i>what</i> idol?” exclaimed the General, now seriously angry. +</p> + +<p> +“To the German method of heaping up riches. I have not been here very +long, but I can tell you that what I have seen and verified makes my Tartar +blood boil. Good Lord! I wish for no virtues of that kind. Yesterday I went for +a walk of about ten versts; and, everywhere I found that things were even as we +read of them in good German picture-books—that every house has its +‘Vater,’ who is horribly beneficent and extraordinarily honourable. +So honourable is he that it is dreadful to have anything to do with him; and I +cannot bear people of that sort. Each such ‘Vater’ has his family, +and in the evenings they read improving books aloud. Over their roof-trees +there murmur elms and chestnuts; the sun has sunk to his rest; a stork is +roosting on the gable; and all is beautifully poetic and touching. Do not be +angry, General. Let me tell you something that is even more touching than that. +I can remember how, of an evening, my own father, now dead, used to sit under +the lime trees in his little garden, and to read books aloud to myself and my +mother. Yes, I know how things ought to be done. Yet every German family is +bound to slavery and to submission to its ‘Vater.’ They work like +oxen, and amass wealth like Jews. Suppose the ‘Vater’ has put by a +certain number of gülden which he hands over to his eldest son, in order that +the said son may acquire a trade or a small plot of land. Well, one result is +to deprive the daughter of a dowry, and so leave her among the unwedded. For +the same reason, the parents will have to sell the younger son into bondage or +the ranks of the army, in order that he may earn more towards the family +capital. Yes, such things ARE done, for I have been making inquiries on the +subject. It is all done out of sheer rectitude—out of a rectitude which +is magnified to the point of the younger son believing that he has been +<i>rightly</i> sold, and that it is simply idyllic for the victim to rejoice +when he is made over into pledge. What more have I to tell? Well, +this—that matters bear just as hardly upon the eldest son. Perhaps he has +his Gretchen to whom his heart is bound; but he cannot marry her, for the +reason that he has not yet amassed sufficient gülden. So, the pair wait on in a +mood of sincere and virtuous expectation, and smilingly deposit themselves in +pawn the while. Gretchen’s cheeks grow sunken, and she begins to wither; +until at last, after some twenty years, their substance has multiplied, and +sufficient gülden have been honourably and virtuously accumulated. Then the +‘Vater’ blesses his forty-year-old heir and the +thirty-five-year-old Gretchen with the sunken bosom and the scarlet nose; after +which he bursts, into tears, reads the pair a lesson on morality, and dies. In +turn the eldest son becomes a virtuous ‘Vater,’ and the old story +begins again. In fifty or sixty years’ time the grandson of the original +‘Vater’ will have amassed a considerable sum; and that sum he will +hand over to, his son, and the latter to <i>his</i> son, and so on for several +generations; until at length there will issue a Baron Rothschild, or a +‘Hoppe and Company,’ or the devil knows what! Is it not a beautiful +spectacle—the spectacle of a century or two of inherited labour, +patience, intellect, rectitude, character, perseverance, and calculation, with +a stork sitting on the roof above it all? What is more; they think there can +never be anything better than this; wherefore, from <i>their</i> point of view +they begin to judge the rest of the world, and to censure all who are at +fault—that is to say, who are not exactly like themselves. Yes, there you +have it in a nutshell. For my own part, I would rather grow fat after the +Russian manner, or squander my whole substance at roulette. I have no wish to +be ‘Hoppe and Company’ at the end of five generations. I want the +money for <i>myself</i>, for in no way do I look upon my personality as +necessary to, or meet to be given over to, capital. I may be wrong, but there +you have it. Those are <i>my</i> views.” +</p> + +<p> +“How far you may be right in what you have said I do not know,” +remarked the General moodily; “but I <i>do</i> know that you are becoming +an insufferable <i>farçeur</i> whenever you are given the least chance.” +</p> + +<p> +As usual, he left his sentence unfinished. Indeed, whenever he embarked upon +anything that in the least exceeded the limits of daily small-talk, he left +unfinished what he was saying. The Frenchman had listened to me contemptuously, +with a slight protruding of his eyes; but, he could not have understood very +much of my harangue. As for Polina, she had looked on with serene indifference. +She seemed to have heard neither my voice nor any other during the progress of +the meal. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>V</h2> + +<p> +Yes, she had been extraordinarily meditative. Yet, on leaving the table, she +immediately ordered me to accompany her for a walk. We took the children with +us, and set out for the fountain in the Park. +</p> + +<p> +I was in such an irritated frame of mind that in rude and abrupt fashion I +blurted out a question as to “why our Marquis de Griers had ceased to +accompany her for strolls, or to speak to her for days together.” +</p> + +<p> +“Because he is a brute,” she replied in rather a curious way. It +was the first time that I had heard her speak so of De Griers: consequently, I +was momentarily awed into silence by this expression of resentment. +</p> + +<p> +“Have you noticed, too, that today he is by no means on good terms with +the General?” I went on. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes—and I suppose you want to know why,” she replied with +dry captiousness. “You are aware, are you not, that the General is +mortgaged to the Marquis, with all his property? Consequently, if the +General’s mother does not die, the Frenchman will become the absolute +possessor of everything which he now holds only in pledge.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then it is really the case that everything is mortgaged? I have heard +rumours to that effect, but was unaware how far they might be true.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, they <i>are</i> true. What then?” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, it will be a case of ‘Farewell, Mlle. Blanche,’” +I remarked; “for in such an event she would never become Madame General. +Do you know, I believe the old man is so much in love with her that he will +shoot himself if she should throw him over. At his age it is a dangerous thing +to fall in love.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, something, I believe, <i>will</i> happen to him,” assented +Polina thoughtfully. +</p> + +<p> +“And what a fine thing it all is!” I continued. “Could +anything be more abominable than the way in which she has agreed to marry for +money alone? Not one of the decencies has been observed; the whole affair has +taken place without the least ceremony. And as for the grandmother, what could +be more comical, yet more dastardly, than the sending of telegram after +telegram to know if she is dead? What do you think of it, Polina +Alexandrovna?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, it is very horrible,” she interrupted with a shudder. +“Consequently, I am the more surprised that <i>you</i> should be so +cheerful. What are <i>you</i> so pleased about? About the fact that you have +gone and lost my money?” +</p> + +<p> +“What? The money that you gave me to lose? I told you I should never win +for other people—least of all for you. I obeyed you simply because you +ordered me to; but you must not blame me for the result. I warned you that no +good would ever come of it. You seem much depressed at having lost your money. +Why do you need it so greatly?” +</p> + +<p> +“Why do <i>you</i> ask me these questions?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because you promised to explain matters to me. Listen. I am certain +that, as soon as ever I ‘begin to play for myself’ (and I still +have 120 gülden left), I shall win. You can then take of me what you +require.” +</p> + +<p> +She made a contemptuous grimace. +</p> + +<p> +“You must not be angry with me,” I continued, “for making +such a proposal. I am so conscious of being only a nonentity in your eyes that +you need not mind accepting money from me. A gift from me could not possibly +offend you. Moreover, it was I who lost your gülden.” +</p> + +<p> +She glanced at me, but, seeing that I was in an irritable, sarcastic mood, +changed the subject. +</p> + +<p> +“My affairs cannot possibly interest you,” she said. “Still, +if you <i>do</i> wish to know, I am in debt. I borrowed some money, and must +pay it back again. I have a curious, senseless idea that I am bound to win at +the gaming-tables. Why I think so I cannot tell, but I do think so, and with +some assurance. Perhaps it is because of that assurance that I now find myself +without any other resource.” +</p> + +<p> +“Or perhaps it is because it is so <i>necessary</i> for you to win. It is +like a drowning man catching at a straw. You yourself will agree that, unless +he were drowning he would not mistake a straw for the trunk of a tree.” +</p> + +<p> +Polina looked surprised. +</p> + +<p> +“What?” she said. “Do not you also hope something from it? +Did you not tell me again and again, two weeks ago, that you were certain of +winning at roulette if you played here? And did you not ask me not to consider +you a fool for doing so? Were you joking? You cannot have been, for I remember +that you spoke with a gravity which forbade the idea of your jesting.” +</p> + +<p> +“True,” I replied gloomily. “I always felt certain that I +should win. Indeed, what you say makes me ask myself—Why have my absurd, +senseless losses of today raised a doubt in my mind? Yet I am <i>still</i> +positive that, so soon as ever I begin to play for myself, I shall infallibly +win.” +</p> + +<p> +“And why are you so certain?” +</p> + +<p> +“To tell the truth, I do not know. I only know that I <i>must</i> +win—that it is the one resource I have left. Yes, why do I feel so +assured on the point?” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps because one cannot help winning if one is fanatically certain of +doing so.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yet I dare wager that you do not think me capable of serious feeling in +the matter?” +</p> + +<p> +“I do not care whether you are so or not,” answered Polina with +calm indifference. “Well, since you ask me, I <i>do</i> doubt your +ability to take anything seriously. You are capable of worrying, but not +deeply. You are too ill-regulated and unsettled a person for that. But why do +you want money? Not a single one of the reasons which you have given can be +looked upon as serious.” +</p> + +<p> +“By the way,” I interrupted, “you say you want to pay off a +debt. It must be a large one. Is it to the Frenchman?” +</p> + +<p> +“What do you mean by asking all these questions? You are very clever +today. Surely you are not drunk?” +</p> + +<p> +“You know that you and I stand on no ceremony, and that sometimes I put +to you very plain questions. I repeat that I am your slave—and slaves +cannot be shamed or offended.” +</p> + +<p> +“You talk like a child. It is always possible to comport oneself with +dignity. If one has a quarrel it ought to elevate rather than to degrade +one.” +</p> + +<p> +“A maxim straight from the copybook! Suppose I <i>cannot</i> comport +myself with dignity. By that I mean that, though I am a man of self-respect, I +am unable to carry off a situation properly. Do you know the reason? It is +because we Russians are too richly and multifariously gifted to be able at once +to find the proper mode of expression. It is all a question of mode. Most of us +are so bounteously endowed with intellect as to require also a spice of genius +to choose the right form of behaviour. And genius is lacking in us for the +reason that so little genius at all exists. It belongs only to the +French—though a few other Europeans have elaborated their forms so well +as to be able to figure with extreme dignity, and yet be wholly undignified +persons. That is why, with us, the mode is so all-important. The Frenchman may +receive an insult—a real, a venomous insult: yet, he will not so much as +frown. But a tweaking of the nose he cannot bear, for the reason that such an +act is an infringement of the accepted, of the time-hallowed order of decorum. +That is why our good ladies are so fond of Frenchmen—the +Frenchman’s manners, they say, are perfect! But in my opinion there is no +such thing as a Frenchman’s manners. The Frenchman is only a +bird—the <i>coq gaulois</i>. At the same time, as I am not a woman, I do +not properly understand the question. Cocks may be excellent birds. If I am +wrong you must stop me. You ought to stop and correct me more often when I am +speaking to you, for I am too apt to say everything that is in my head. +</p> + +<p> +“You see, I have lost my manners. I agree that I have none, nor yet any +dignity. I will tell you why. I set no store upon such things. Everything in me +has undergone a cheek. You know the reason. I have not a single human thought +in my head. For a long while I have been ignorant of what is going on in the +world—here or in Russia. I have been to Dresden, yet am completely in the +dark as to what Dresden is like. You know the cause of my obsession. I have no +hope now, and am a mere cipher in your eyes; wherefore, I tell you outright +that wherever I go I see only you—all the rest is a matter of +indifference. +</p> + +<p> +“Why or how I have come to love you I do not know. It may be that you are +not altogether fair to look upon. Do you know, I am ignorant even as to what +your face is like. In all probability, too, your heart is not comely, and it is +possible that your mind is wholly ignoble.” +</p> + +<p> +“And because you do not believe in my nobility of soul you think to +purchase me with money?” she said. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>When</i> have I thought to do so?” was my reply. +</p> + +<p> +“You are losing the thread of the argument. If you do not wish to +purchase me, at all events you wish to purchase my respect.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not at all. I have told you that I find it difficult to explain myself. +You are hard upon me. Do not be angry at my chattering. You know why you ought +not to be angry with me—that I am simply an imbecile. However, I do not +mind if you <i>are</i> angry. Sitting in my room, I need but to think of you, +to imagine to myself the rustle of your dress, and at once I fall almost to +biting my hands. Why should you be angry with me? Because I call myself your +slave? Revel, I pray you, in my slavery—revel in it. Do you know that +sometimes I could kill you?—not because I do not love you, or am jealous +of you, but, because I feel as though I could simply devour you... You are +laughing!” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I am not,” she retorted. “But I order you, nevertheless, +to be silent.” +</p> + +<p> +She stopped, well nigh breathless with anger. God knows, she may not have been +a beautiful woman, yet I loved to see her come to a halt like this, and was +therefore, the more fond of arousing her temper. Perhaps she divined this, and +for that very reason gave way to rage. I said as much to her. +</p> + +<p> +“What rubbish!” she cried with a shudder. +</p> + +<p> +“I do not care,” I continued. “Also, do you know that it is +not safe for us to take walks together? Often I have a feeling that I should +like to strike you, to disfigure you, to strangle you. Are you certain that it +will never come to that? You are driving me to frenzy. Am I afraid of a +scandal, or of your anger? Why should I fear your anger? I love without hope, +and know that hereafter I shall love you a thousand times more. If ever I +should kill you I should have to kill myself too. But I shall put off doing so +as long as possible, for I wish to continue enjoying the unbearable pain which +your coldness gives me. Do you know a very strange thing? It is that, with +every day, my love for you increases—though that would seem to be almost +an impossibility. Why should I not become a fatalist? Remember how, on the +third day that we ascended the Shlangenberg, I was moved to whisper in your +ear: ‘Say but the word, and I will leap into the abyss.’ Had you +said it, I should have leapt. Do you not believe me?” +</p> + +<p> +“What stupid rubbish!” she cried. +</p> + +<p> +“I care not whether it be wise or stupid,” I cried in return. +“I only know that in your presence I must speak, speak, speak. Therefore, +I am speaking. I lose all conceit when I am with you, and everything ceases to +matter.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why should I have wanted you to leap from the Shlangenberg?” she +said drily, and (I think) with wilful offensiveness. “<i>That</i> would +have been of no use to me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Splendid!” I shouted. “I know well that you must have used +the words ‘of no use’ in order to crush me. <i>I</i> can see +through you. ‘Of no use,’ did you say? Why, to give pleasure is +<i>always</i> of use; and, as for barbarous, unlimited power—even if it +be only over a fly—why, it is a kind of luxury. Man is a despot by +nature, and loves to torture. You, in particular, love to do so.” +</p> + +<p> +I remember that at this moment she looked at me in a peculiar way. The fact is +that my face must have been expressing all the maze of senseless, gross +sensations which were seething within me. To this day I can remember, word for +word, the conversation as I have written it down. My eyes were suffused with +blood, and the foam had caked itself on my lips. Also, on my honour I swear +that, had she bidden me cast myself from the summit of the Shlangenberg, I +should have done it. Yes, had she bidden me in jest, or only in contempt and +with a spit in my face, I should have cast myself down. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh no! Why so? I believe you,” she said, but in such a +manner—in the manner of which, at times, she was a mistress—and +with such a note of disdain and viperish arrogance in her tone, that God knows +I could have killed her. +</p> + +<p> +Yes, at that moment she stood in peril. I had not lied to her about that. +</p> + +<p> +“Surely you are not a coward?” suddenly she asked me. +</p> + +<p> +“I do not know,” I replied. “Perhaps I am, but I do not know. +I have long given up thinking about such things.” +</p> + +<p> +“If I said to you, ‘Kill that man,’ would you kill +him?” +</p> + +<p> +“Whom?” +</p> + +<p> +“Whomsoever I wish?” +</p> + +<p> +“The Frenchman?” +</p> + +<p> +“Do not ask me questions; return me answers. I repeat, whomsoever I wish? +I desire to see if you were speaking seriously just now.” +</p> + +<p> +She awaited my reply with such gravity and impatience that I found the +situation unpleasant. +</p> + +<p> +“Do <i>you</i>, rather, tell me,” I said, “what is going on +here? Why do you seem half-afraid of me? I can see for myself what is wrong. +You are the step-daughter of a ruined and insensate man who is smitten with +love for this devil of a Blanche. And there is this Frenchman, too, with his +mysterious influence over you. Yet, you actually ask me such a question! If you +do not tell me how things stand, I shall have to put in my oar and do +something. Are you ashamed to be frank with me? Are you shy of me?” +</p> + +<p> +“I am not going to talk to you on that subject. I have asked you a +question, and am waiting for an answer.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, then—I will kill whomsoever you wish,” I said. +“But are you <i>really</i> going to bid me do such deeds?” +</p> + +<p> +“Why should you think that I am going to let you off? I shall bid you do +it, or else renounce me. Could you ever do the latter? No, you know that you +couldn’t. You would first kill whom I had bidden you, and then kill +<i>me</i> for having dared to send you away!” +</p> + +<p> +Something seemed to strike upon my brain as I heard these words. Of course, at +the time I took them half in jest and half as a challenge; yet, she had spoken +them with great seriousness. I felt thunderstruck that she should so express +herself, that she should assert such a right over me, that she should assume +such authority and say outright: “Either you kill whom I bid you, or I +will have nothing more to do with you.” Indeed, in what she had said +there was something so cynical and unveiled as to pass all bounds. For how +could she ever regard me as the same after the killing was done? This was more +than slavery and abasement; it was sufficient to bring a man back to his right +senses. Yet, despite the outrageous improbability of our conversation, my heart +shook within me. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly, she burst out laughing. We were seated on a bench near the spot where +the children were playing—just opposite the point in the alley-way before +the Casino where the carriages drew up in order to set down their occupants. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you see that fat Baroness?” she cried. “It is the +Baroness Burmergelm. She arrived three days ago. Just look at her +husband—that tall, wizened Prussian there, with the stick in his hand. Do +you remember how he stared at us the other day? Well, go to the Baroness, take +off your hat to her, and say something in French.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because you have sworn that you would leap from the Shlangenberg for my +sake, and that you would kill any one whom I might bid you kill. Well, instead +of such murders and tragedies, I wish only for a good laugh. Go without +answering me, and let me see the Baron give you a sound thrashing with his +stick.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you throw me out a challenge?—you think that I will not do +it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I do challenge you. Go, for such is my will.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I <i>will</i> go, however mad be your fancy. Only, look here: shall +you not be doing the General a great disservice, as well as, through him, a +great disservice to yourself? It is not about myself I am worrying—it is +about you and the General. Why, for a mere fancy, should I go and insult a +woman?” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah! Then I can see that you are only a trifler,” she said +contemptuously. “Your eyes are swimming with blood—but only because +you have drunk a little too much at luncheon. Do I not know that what I have +asked you to do is foolish and wrong, and that the General will be angry about +it? But I want to have a good laugh, all the same. I want that, and nothing +else. Why should you insult a woman, indeed? Well, you will be given a sound +thrashing for so doing.” +</p> + +<p> +I turned away, and went silently to do her bidding. Of course the thing was +folly, but I could not get out of it. I remember that, as I approached the +Baroness, I felt as excited as a schoolboy. I was in a frenzy, as though I were +drunk. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>VI</h2> + +<p> +Two days have passed since that day of lunacy. What a noise and a fuss and a +chattering and an uproar there was! And what a welter of unseemliness and +disorder and stupidity and bad manners! And <i>I</i> the cause of it all! Yet +part of the scene was also ridiculous—at all events to myself it was so. +I am not quite sure what was the matter with me—whether I was merely +stupefied or whether I purposely broke loose and ran amok. At times my mind +seems all confused; while at other times I seem almost to be back in my +childhood, at the school desk, and to have done the deed simply out of +mischief. +</p> + +<p> +It all came of Polina—yes, of Polina. But for her, there might never have +been a fracas. Or perhaps I did the deed in a fit of despair (though it may be +foolish of me to think so)? What there is so attractive about her I cannot +think. Yet there <i>is</i> something attractive about her—something +passing fair, it would seem. Others besides myself she has driven to +distraction. She is tall and straight, and very slim. Her body looks as though +it could be tied into a knot, or bent double, like a cord. The imprint of her +foot is long and narrow. It is, a maddening imprint—yes, simply a +maddening one! And her hair has a reddish tint about it, and her eyes are like +cat’s eyes—though able also to glance with proud, disdainful mien. +On the evening of my first arrival, four months ago, I remember that she was +sitting and holding an animated conversation with De Griers in the salon. And +the way in which she looked at him was such that later, when I retired to my +own room upstairs, I kept fancying that she had smitten him in the +face—that she had smitten him right on the cheek, so peculiar had been +her look as she stood confronting him. Ever since that evening I have loved +her. +</p> + +<p> +But to my tale. +</p> + +<p> +I stepped from the path into the carriage-way, and took my stand in the middle +of it. There I awaited the Baron and the Baroness. When they were but a few +paces distant from me I took off my hat, and bowed. +</p> + +<p> +I remember that the Baroness was clad in a voluminous silk dress, pale grey in +colour, and adorned with flounces and a crinoline and train. Also, she was +short and inordinately stout, while her gross, flabby chin completely concealed +her neck. Her face was purple, and the little eyes in it had an impudent, +malicious expression. Yet she walked as though she were conferring a favour +upon everybody by so doing. As for the Baron, he was tall, wizened, bony-faced +after the German fashion, spectacled, and, apparently, about forty-five years +of age. Also, he had legs which seemed to begin almost at his chest—or, +rather, at his chin! Yet, for all his air of peacock-like conceit, his clothes +sagged a little, and his face wore a sheepish air which might have passed for +profundity. +</p> + +<p> +These details I noted within a space of a few seconds. +</p> + +<p> +At first my bow and the fact that I had my hat in my hand barely caught their +attention. The Baron only scowled a little, and the Baroness swept straight on. +</p> + +<p> +“Madame la Baronne,” said I, loudly and +distinctly—embroidering each word, as it were—“j’ai +l’honneur d’être votre esclave.” +</p> + +<p> +Then I bowed again, put on my hat, and walked past the Baron with a rude smile +on my face. +</p> + +<p> +Polina had ordered me merely to take off my hat: the bow and the general +effrontery were of my own invention. God knows what instigated me to perpetrate +the outrage! In my frenzy I felt as though I were walking on air. +</p> + +<p> +“Hein!” ejaculated—or, rather, growled—the Baron as he +turned towards me in angry surprise. +</p> + +<p> +I too turned round, and stood waiting in pseudo-courteous expectation. Yet +still I wore on my face an impudent smile as I gazed at him. He seemed to +hesitate, and his brows contracted to their utmost limits. Every moment his +visage was growing darker. The Baroness also turned in my direction, and gazed +at me in wrathful perplexity, while some of the passers-by also began to stare +at us, and others of them halted outright. +</p> + +<p> +“Hein!” the Baron vociferated again, with a redoubled growl and a +note of growing wrath in his voice. +</p> + +<p> +“Ja wohl!” I replied, still looking him in the eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“Sind Sie rasend?” he exclaimed, brandishing his stick, and, +apparently, beginning to feel nervous. Perhaps it was my costume which +intimidated him, for I was well and fashionably dressed, after the manner of a +man who belongs to indisputably good society. +</p> + +<p> +“Ja wo-o-ohl!” cried I again with all my might with a longdrawn +rolling of the “ohl” sound after the fashion of the Berliners (who +constantly use the phrase “Ja wohl!” in conversation, and more or +less prolong the syllable “ohl” according as they desire to express +different shades of meaning or of mood). +</p> + +<p> +At this the Baron and the Baroness faced sharply about, and almost fled in +their alarm. Some of the bystanders gave vent to excited exclamations, and +others remained staring at me in astonishment. But I do not remember the +details very well. +</p> + +<p> +Wheeling quietly about, I returned in the direction of Polina Alexandrovna. +But, when I had got within a hundred paces of her seat, I saw her rise and set +out with the children towards the hotel. +</p> + +<p> +At the portico I caught up to her. +</p> + +<p> +“I have perpetrated the—the piece of idiocy,” I said as I +came level with her. +</p> + +<p> +“Have you? Then you can take the consequences,” she replied without +so much as looking at me. Then she moved towards the staircase. +</p> + +<p> +I spent the rest of the evening walking in the park. Thence I passed into the +forest, and walked on until I found myself in a neighbouring principality. At a +wayside restaurant I partook of an omelette and some wine, and was charged for +the idyllic repast a thaler and a half. +</p> + +<p> +Not until eleven o’clock did I return home—to find a summons +awaiting me from the General. +</p> + +<p> +Our party occupied two suites in the hotel; each of which contained two rooms. +The first (the larger suite) comprised a salon and a smoking-room, with, +adjoining the latter, the General’s study. It was here that he was +awaiting me as he stood posed in a majestic attitude beside his writing-table. +Lolling on a divan close by was De Griers. +</p> + +<p> +“My good sir,” the General began, “may I ask you what this is +that you have gone and done?” +</p> + +<p> +“I should be glad,” I replied, “if we could come straight to +the point. Probably you are referring to my encounter of today with a +German?” +</p> + +<p> +“With a German? Why, the German was the Baron Burmergelm—a most +important personage! I hear that you have been rude both to him and to the +Baroness?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I have not.” +</p> + +<p> +“But I understand that you simply terrified them, my good sir?” +shouted the General. +</p> + +<p> +“Not in the least,” I replied. “You must know that when I was +in Berlin I frequently used to hear the Berliners repeat, and repellently +prolong, a certain phrase—namely, ‘Ja wohl!’; and, happening +to meet this couple in the carriage-drive, I found, for some reason or another, +that this phrase suddenly recurred to my memory, and exercised a rousing effect +upon my spirits. Moreover, on the three previous occasions that I have met the +Baroness she has walked towards me as though I were a worm which could easily +be crushed with the foot. Not unnaturally, I too possess a measure of +self-respect; wherefore, on <i>this</i> occasion I took off my hat, and said +politely (yes, I assure you it was said politely): ‘Madame, j’ai +l’honneur d’être votre esclave.’ Then the Baron turned round, +and said ‘Hein!’; whereupon I felt moved to ejaculate in answer +‘Ja wohl!’ Twice I shouted it at him—the first time in an +ordinary tone, and the second time with the greatest prolonging of the words of +which I was capable. That is all.” +</p> + +<p> +I must confess that this puerile explanation gave me great pleasure. I felt a +strong desire to overlay the incident with an even added measure of grossness; +so, the further I proceeded, the more did the gusto of my proceeding increase. +</p> + +<p> +“You are only making fun of me!” vociferated the General as, +turning to the Frenchman, he declared that my bringing about of the incident +had been gratuitous. De Griers smiled contemptuously, and shrugged his +shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +“Do not think <i>that</i>,” I put in. “It was not so at all. +I grant you that my behaviour was bad—I fully confess that it was so, and +make no secret of the fact. I would even go so far as to grant you that my +behaviour might well be called stupid and indecent tomfoolery; but, <i>more</i> +than that it was not. Also, let me tell you that I am very sorry for my +conduct. Yet there is one circumstance which, in my eyes, almost absolves me +from regret in the matter. Of late—that is to say, for the last two or +three weeks—I have been feeling not at all well. That is to say, I have +been in a sick, nervous, irritable, fanciful condition, so that I have +periodically lost control over myself. For instance, on more than one occasion +I have tried to pick a quarrel even with Monsieur le Marquise here; and, under +the circumstances, he had no choice but to answer me. In short, I have recently +been showing signs of ill-health. Whether the Baroness Burmergelm will take +this circumstance into consideration when I come to beg her pardon (for I +<i>do</i> intend to make her amends) I do not know; but I doubt if she will, +and the less so since, so far as I know, the circumstance is one which, of +late, has begun to be abused in the legal world, in that advocates in criminal +cases have taken to justifying their clients on the ground that, at the moment +of the crime, they (the clients) were unconscious of what they were +doing—that, in short, they were out of health. ‘My client committed +the murder—that is true; but he has no recollection of having committed +it.’ And doctors actually support these advocates by affirming that there +really is such a malady—that there really <i>can</i> arise temporary +delusions which make a man remember nothing of a given deed, or only a half or +a quarter of it! But the Baron and Baroness are members of an older generation, +as well as Prussian Junkers and landowners. To them such a process in the +medico-judicial world will be unknown, and therefore, they are the more +unlikely to accept any such explanation. What is <i>your</i> opinion about it, +General?” +</p> + +<p> +“Enough, sir!” he thundered with barely restrained fury. +“Enough, I say! Once and for all I must endeavour to rid myself of you +and your impertinence. To justify yourself in the eyes of the Baron and +Baroness will be impossible. Any intercourse with you, even though it be +confined to a begging of their pardons, they would look upon as a degradation. +I may tell you that, on learning that you formed part of my household, the +Baron approached me in the Casino, and demanded of me additional satisfaction. +Do you understand, then, what it is that you have entailed upon me—upon +<i>me</i>, my good sir? You have entailed upon me the fact of my being forced +to sue humbly to the Baron, and to give him my word of honour that this very +day you shall cease to belong to my establishment!” +</p> + +<p> +“Excuse me, General,” I interrupted, “but did he make an +express point of it that I should ‘cease to belong to your +establishment,’ as you call it?” +</p> + +<p> +“No; I, of my own initiative, thought that I ought to afford him that +satisfaction; and, with it he was satisfied. So we must part, good sir. It is +my duty to hand over to you forty gülden, three florins, as per the +accompanying statement. Here is the money, and here the account, which you are +at liberty to verify. Farewell. From henceforth we are strangers. From you I +have never had anything but trouble and unpleasantness. I am about to call the +landlord, and explain to him that from tomorrow onwards I shall no longer be +responsible for your hotel expenses. Also I have the honour to remain your +obedient servant.” +</p> + +<p> +I took the money and the account (which was indicted in pencil), and, bowing +low to the General, said to him very gravely: +</p> + +<p> +“The matter cannot end here. I regret very much that you should have been +put to unpleasantness at the Baron’s hands; but, the fault (pardon me) is +your own. How came you to answer for me to the Baron? And what did you mean by +saying that I formed part of your household? I am merely your family +tutor—not a son of yours, nor yet your ward, nor a person of any kind for +whose acts you need be responsible. I am a judicially competent person, a man +of twenty-five years of age, a university graduate, a gentleman, and, until I +met yourself, a complete stranger to you. Only my boundless respect for your +merits restrains me from demanding satisfaction at your hands, as well as a +further explanation as to the reasons which have led you to take it upon +yourself to answer for my conduct.” +</p> + +<p> +So struck was he with my words that, spreading out his hands, he turned to the +Frenchman, and interpreted to him that I had challenged himself (the General) +to a duel. The Frenchman laughed aloud. +</p> + +<p> +“Nor do I intend to let the Baron off,” I continued calmly, but +with not a little discomfiture at De Griers’ merriment. “And since +you, General, have today been so good as to listen to the Baron’s +complaints, and to enter into his concerns—since you have made yourself a +participator in the affair—I have the honour to inform you that, tomorrow +morning at the latest, I shall, in my own name, demand of the said Baron a +formal explanation as to the reasons which have led him to disregard the fact +that the matter lies between him and myself alone, and to put a slight upon me +by referring it to another person, as though I were unworthy to answer for my +own conduct.” +</p> + +<p> +Then there happened what I had foreseen. The General on hearing of this further +intended outrage, showed the white feather. +</p> + +<p> +“What?” he cried. “Do you intend to go on with this damned +nonsense? Do you not realise the harm that it is doing me? I beg of you not to +laugh at me, sir—not to laugh at me, for we have police authorities here +who, out of respect for my rank, and for that of the Baron... In short, sir, I +swear to you that I will have you arrested, and marched out of the place, to +prevent any further brawling on your part. Do you understand what I say?” +He was almost breathless with anger, as well as in a terrible fright. +</p> + +<p> +“General,” I replied with that calmness which he never could abide, +“one cannot arrest a man for brawling until he has brawled. I have not so +much as begun my explanations to the Baron, and you are altogether ignorant as +to the form and time which my intended procedure is likely to assume. I wish +but to disabuse the Baron of what is, to me, a shameful +supposition—namely, that I am under the guardianship of a person who is +qualified to exercise control over my free will. It is vain for you to disturb +and alarm yourself.” +</p> + +<p> +“For God’s sake, Alexis Ivanovitch, do put an end to this senseless +scheme of yours!” he muttered, but with a sudden change from a truculent +tone to one of entreaty as he caught me by the hand. “Do you know what is +likely to come of it? Merely further unpleasantness. You will agree with me, I +am sure, that at present I ought to move with especial care—yes, with +very especial care. You cannot be fully aware of how I am situated. When we +leave this place I shall be ready to receive you back into my household; but, +for the time being I— Well, I cannot tell you all my reasons.” With +that he wound up in a despairing voice: “O Alexis Ivanovitch, Alexis +Ivanovitch!” +</p> + +<p> +I moved towards the door—begging him to be calm, and promising that +everything should be done decently and in order; whereafter I departed. +</p> + +<p> +Russians, when abroad, are over-apt to play the poltroon, to watch all their +words, and to wonder what people are thinking of their conduct, or whether such +and such a thing is <i>comme il faut</i>. In short, they are over-apt to cosset +themselves, and to lay claim to great importance. Always they prefer the form +of behaviour which has once and for all become accepted and established. This +they will follow slavishly whether in hotels, on promenades, at meetings, or +when on a journey. But the General had avowed to me that, over and above such +considerations as these, there were circumstances which compelled him to +“move with especial care at present”, and that the fact had +actually made him poor-spirited and a coward—it had made him altogether +change his tone towards me. This fact I took into my calculations, and duly +noted it, for, of course, he <i>might</i> apply to the authorities tomorrow, +and it behoved me to go carefully. +</p> + +<p> +Yet it was not the General but Polina that I wanted to anger. She had treated +me with such cruelty, and had got me into such a hole, that I felt a longing to +force her to beseech me to stop. Of course, my tomfoolery might compromise her; +yet certain other feelings and desires had begun to form themselves in my +brain. If I was never to rank in her eyes as anything but a nonentity, it would +not greatly matter if I figured as a draggle-tailed cockerel, and the Baron +were to give me a good thrashing; but, the fact was that I desired to have the +laugh of them all, and to come out myself unscathed. Let people see what they +<i>would</i> see. Let Polina, for once, have a good fright, and be forced to +whistle me to heel again. But, however much she might whistle, she should see +that I was at least no draggle-tailed cockerel! +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +I have just received a surprising piece of news. I have just met our +chambermaid on the stairs, and been informed by her that Maria Philipovna +departed today, by the night train, to stay with a cousin at Carlsbad. What can +that mean? The maid declares that Madame packed her trunks early in the day. +Yet how is it that no one else seems to have been aware of the circumstance? Or +is it that <i>I</i> have been the only person to be unaware of it? Also, the +maid has just told me that, three days ago, Maria Philipovna had some high +words with the General. I understand, then! Probably the words were concerning +Mlle. Blanche. Certainly something decisive is approaching. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a>VII</h2> + +<p> +In the morning I sent for the maître d’hôtel, and explained to him that, +in future, my bill was to be rendered to me personally. As a matter of fact, my +expenses had never been so large as to alarm me, nor to lead me to quit the +hotel; while, moreover, I still had 160 gülden left to me, and—in +them—yes, in them, perhaps, riches awaited me. It was a curious fact, +that, though I had not yet won anything at play, I nevertheless acted, thought, +and felt as though I were sure, before long, to become wealthy—since I +could not imagine myself otherwise. +</p> + +<p> +Next, I bethought me, despite the earliness of the hour, of going to see Mr. +Astley, who was staying at the Hôtel de l’Angleterre (a hostelry at no +great distance from our own). But suddenly De Griers entered my room. This had +never before happened, for of late that gentleman and I had stood on the most +strained and distant of terms—he attempting no concealment of his +contempt for me (he even made an express point of showing it), and I having no +reason to desire his company. In short, I detested him. Consequently, his entry +at the present moment the more astounded me. At once I divined that something +out of the way was on the carpet. +</p> + +<p> +He entered with marked affability, and began by complimenting me on my room. +Then, perceiving that I had my hat in my hands, he inquired whither I was going +so early; and, no sooner did he hear that I was bound for Mr. Astley’s +than he stopped, looked grave, and seemed plunged in thought. +</p> + +<p> +He was a true Frenchman insofar as that, though he could be lively and engaging +when it suited him, he became insufferably dull and wearisome as soon as ever +the need for being lively and engaging had passed. Seldom is a Frenchman +<i>naturally</i> civil: he is civil only as though to order and of set purpose. +Also, if he thinks it incumbent upon him to be fanciful, original, and out of +the way, his fancy always assumes a foolish, unnatural vein, for the reason +that it is compounded of trite, hackneyed forms. In short, the natural +Frenchman is a conglomeration of commonplace, petty, everyday positiveness, so +that he is the most tedious person in the world. Indeed, I believe that none +but greenhorns and excessively Russian people feel an attraction towards the +French; for, to any man of sensibility, such a compendium of outworn +forms—a compendium which is built up of drawing-room manners, +expansiveness, and gaiety—becomes at once over-noticeable and unbearable. +</p> + +<p> +“I have come to see you on business,” De Griers began in a very +off-hand, yet polite, tone; “nor will I seek to conceal from you the fact +that I have come in the capacity of an emissary, of an intermediary, from the +General. Having small knowledge of the Russian tongue, I lost most of what was +said last night; but, the General has now explained matters, and I must confess +that—” +</p> + +<p> +“See here, Monsieur de Griers,” I interrupted. “I understand +that you have undertaken to act in this affair as an intermediary. Of course I +am only ‘un utchitel,’ a tutor, and have never claimed to be an +intimate of this household, nor to stand on at all familiar terms with it. +Consequently, I do not know the whole of its circumstances. Yet pray explain to +me this: have you yourself become one of its members, seeing that you are +beginning to take such a part in everything, and are now present as an +intermediary?” +</p> + +<p> +The Frenchman seemed not over-pleased at my question. It was one which was too +outspoken for his taste—and he had no mind to be frank with me. +</p> + +<p> +“I am connected with the General,” he said drily, “partly +through business affairs, and partly through special circumstances. My +principal has sent me merely to ask you to forego your intentions of last +evening. What you contemplate is, I have no doubt, very clever; yet he has +charged me to represent to you that you have not the slightest chance of +succeeding in your end, since not only will the Baron refuse to receive you, +but also he (the Baron) has at his disposal every possible means for obviating +further unpleasantness from you. Surely you can see that yourself? What, then, +would be the good of going on with it all? On the other hand, the General +promises that at the first favourable opportunity he will receive you back into +his household, and, in the meantime, will credit you with your +salary—with ‘vos appointements.’ Surely that will suit you, +will it not?” +</p> + +<p> +Very quietly I replied that he (the Frenchman) was labouring under a delusion; +that perhaps, after all, I should not be expelled from the Baron’s +presence, but, on the contrary, be listened to; finally, that I should be glad +if Monsieur de Griers would confess that he was now visiting me merely in order +to see how far I intended to go in the affair. +</p> + +<p> +“Good heavens!” cried de Griers. “Seeing that the General +takes such an interest in the matter, is there anything very unnatural in his +desiring also to know your plans?” +</p> + +<p> +Again I began my explanations, but the Frenchman only fidgeted and rolled his +head about as he listened with an expression of manifest and unconcealed irony +on his face. In short, he adopted a supercilious attitude. For my own part, I +endeavoured to pretend that I took the affair very seriously. I declared that, +since the Baron had gone and complained of me to the General, as though I were +a mere servant of the General’s, he had, in the first place, lost me my +post, and, in the second place, treated me like a person to whom, as to one not +qualified to answer for himself, it was not even worth while to speak. +Naturally, I said, I felt insulted at this. Yet, comprehending as I did, +differences of years, of social status, and so forth (here I could scarcely +help smiling), I was not anxious to bring about further scenes by going +personally to demand or to request satisfaction of the Baron. All that I felt +was that I had a right to go in person and beg the Baron’s and the +Baroness’s pardon—the more so since, of late, I had been feeling +unwell and unstrung, and had been in a fanciful condition. And so forth, and so +forth. Yet (I continued) the Baron’s offensive behaviour to me of +yesterday (that is to say, the fact of his referring the matter to the General) +as well as his insistence that the General should deprive me of my post, had +placed me in such a position that I could not well express my regret to him +(the Baron) and to his good lady, for the reason that in all probability both +he and the Baroness, with the world at large, would imagine that I was doing so +merely because I hoped, by my action, to recover my post. Hence, I found myself +forced to request the Baron to express to me <i>his own</i> regrets, as well as +to express them in the most unqualified manner—to say, in fact, that he +had never had any wish to insult me. After the Baron had done <i>that</i>, I +should, for my part, at once feel free to express to him, whole-heartedly and +without reserve, my own regrets. “In short,” I declared in +conclusion, “my one desire is that the Baron may make it possible for me +to adopt the latter course.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh fie! What refinements and subtleties!” exclaimed De Griers. +“Besides, what have you to express regret for? Confess, Monsieur, +Monsieur—pardon me, but I have forgotten your name—confess, I say, +that all this is merely a plan to annoy the General? Or perhaps, you have some +other and special end in view? Eh?” +</p> + +<p> +“In return you must pardon <i>me</i>, mon cher Marquis, and tell me what +<i>you</i> have to do with it.” +</p> + +<p> +“The General—” +</p> + +<p> +“But what of the General? Last night he said that, for some reason or +another, it behoved him to ‘move with especial care at present;’ +wherefore, he was feeling nervous. But I did not understand the +reference.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, there <i>do</i> exist special reasons for his doing so,” +assented De Griers in a conciliatory tone, yet with rising anger. “You +are acquainted with Mlle. de Cominges, are you not?” +</p> + +<p> +“Mlle. Blanche, you mean?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, Mlle. Blanche de Cominges. Doubtless you know also that the General +is in love with this young lady, and may even be about to marry her before he +leaves here? Imagine, therefore, what any scene or scandal would entail upon +him!” +</p> + +<p> +“I cannot see that the marriage scheme need, be affected by scenes or +scandals.” +</p> + +<p> +“Mais le Baron est si irascible—un caractère prussien, vous savez! +Enfin il fera une querelle d’Allemand.” +</p> + +<p> +“I do not care,” I replied, “seeing that I no longer belong +to his household” (of set purpose I was trying to talk as senselessly as +possible). “But is it quite settled that Mlle. is to marry the General? +What are they waiting for? Why should they conceal such a matter—at all +events from ourselves, the General’s own party?” +</p> + +<p> +“I cannot tell you. The marriage is not yet a settled affair, for they +are awaiting news from Russia. The General has business transactions to +arrange.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah! Connected, doubtless, with madame his mother?” +</p> + +<p> +De Griers shot at me a glance of hatred. +</p> + +<p> +“To cut things short,” he interrupted, “I have complete +confidence in your native politeness, as well as in your tact and good sense. I +feel sure that you will do what I suggest, even if it is only for the sake of +this family which has received you as a kinsman into its bosom and has always +loved and respected you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Be so good as to observe,” I remarked, “that the same family +has just <i>expelled</i> me from its bosom. All that you are saying you are +saying but for show; but, when people have just said to you, ‘Of course +we do not wish to turn you out, yet, for the sake of appearance’s, you +must <i>permit</i> yourself to be turned out,’ nothing can matter very +much.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well, then,” he said, in a sterner and more arrogant tone. +“Seeing that my solicitations have had no effect upon you, it is my duty +to mention that other measures will be taken. There exist here police, you must +remember, and this very day they shall send you packing. Que diable! To think +of a blanc bec like yourself challenging a person like the Baron to a duel! Do +you suppose that you will be <i>allowed</i> to do such things? Just try doing +them, and see if any one will be afraid of you! The reason why I have asked you +to desist is that I can see that your conduct is causing the General annoyance. +Do you believe that the Baron could not tell his lacquey simply to put you out +of doors?” +</p> + +<p> +“Nevertheless I should not GO out of doors,” I retorted with +absolute calm. “You are labouring under a delusion, Monsieur de Griers. +The thing will be done in far better trim than you imagine. I was just about to +start for Mr. Astley’s, to ask him to be my intermediary—in other +words, my second. He has a strong liking for me, and I do not think that he +will refuse. He will go and see the Baron on MY behalf, and the Baron will +certainly not decline to receive him. Although I am only a tutor—a kind +of subaltern, Mr. Astley is known to all men as the nephew of a real English +lord, the Lord Piebroch, as well as a lord in his own right. Yes, you may be +pretty sure that the Baron will be civil to Mr. Astley, and listen to him. Or, +should he decline to do so, Mr. Astley will take the refusal as a personal +affront to himself (for you know how persistent the English are?) and thereupon +introduce to the Baron a friend of his own (and he has many friends in a good +position). That being so, picture to yourself the issue of the affair—an +affair which will not quite end as you think it will.” +</p> + +<p> +This caused the Frenchman to bethink him of playing the coward. “Really +things may be as this fellow says,” he evidently thought. “Really +he <i>might</i> be able to engineer another scene.” +</p> + +<p> +“Once more I beg of you to let the matter drop,” he continued in a +tone that was now entirely conciliatory. “One would think that it +actually <i>pleased</i> you to have scenes! Indeed, it is a brawl rather than +genuine satisfaction that you are seeking. I have said that the affair may +prove to be diverting, and even clever, and that possibly you may attain +something by it; yet none the less I tell you” (he said this only because +he saw me rise and reach for my hat) “that I have come hither also to +hand you these few words from a certain person. Read them, please, for I must +take her back an answer.” +</p> + +<p> +So saying, he took from his pocket a small, compact, wafer-sealed note, and +handed it to me. In Polina’s handwriting I read: +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +“I hear that you are thinking of going on with this affair. You have lost +your temper now, and are beginning to play the fool! Certain circumstances, +however, I may explain to you later. Pray cease from your folly, and put a +check upon yourself. For folly it all is. I have need of you, and, moreover, +you have promised to obey me. Remember the Shlangenberg. I ask you to be +obedient. If necessary, I shall even <i>bid</i> you be obedient.—Your +own +</p> + +<p class="right"> +P<small>OLINA</small>. +</p> + +<p class="letter"> +“<i>P.S.</i>—If so be that you still bear a grudge against me for what +happened last night, pray forgive me.” +</p> + +<br/> + +<p> +Everything, to my eyes, seemed to change as I read these words. My lips grew +pale, and I began to tremble. Meanwhile, the cursed Frenchman was eyeing me +discreetly and askance, as though he wished to avoid witnessing my confusion. +It would have been better if he had laughed outright. +</p> + +<p> +“Very well,” I said, “you can tell Mlle. not to disturb +herself. But,” I added sharply, “I would also ask you why you have +been so long in handing me this note? Instead of chattering about trifles, you +ought to have delivered me the missive at once—if you have really come +commissioned as you say.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, pardon some natural haste on my part, for the situation is so +strange. I wished first to gain some personal knowledge of your intentions; +and, moreover, I did not know the contents of the note, and thought that it +could be given you at any time.” +</p> + +<p> +“I understand,” I replied. “So you were ordered to hand me +the note only in the last resort, and if you could not otherwise appease me? Is +it not so? Speak out, Monsieur de Griers.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps,” said he, assuming a look of great forbearance, but +gazing at me in a meaning way. +</p> + +<p> +I reached for my hat; whereupon he nodded, and went out. Yet on his lips I +fancied that I could see a mocking smile. How could it have been otherwise? +</p> + +<p> +“You and I are to have a reckoning later, Master Frenchman,” I +muttered as I descended the stairs. “Yes, we will measure our strength +together.” Yet my thoughts were all in confusion, for again something +seemed to have struck me dizzy. Presently the air revived me a little, and, a +couple of minutes later, my brain had sufficiently cleared to enable two ideas +in particular to stand out in it. Firstly, I asked myself, which of the absurd, +boyish, and extravagant threats which I had uttered at random last night had +made everybody so alarmed? Secondly, what was the influence which this +Frenchman appeared to exercise over Polina? He had but to give the word, and at +once she did as he desired—at once she wrote me a note to beg of me to +forbear! Of course, the relations between the pair had, from the first, been a +riddle to me—they had been so ever since I had first made their +acquaintance. But of late I had remarked in her a strong aversion for, even a +contempt for—him, while, for his part, he had scarcely even looked at +her, but had behaved towards her always in the most churlish fashion. Yes, I +had noted that. Also, Polina herself had mentioned to me her dislike for him, +and delivered herself of some remarkable confessions on the subject. Hence, he +must have got her into his power somehow—somehow he must be holding her +as in a vice. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a>VIII</h2> + +<p> +All at once, on the Promenade, as it was called—that is to say, in the +Chestnut Avenue—I came face to face with my Englishman. +</p> + +<p> +“I was just coming to see you,” he said; “and you appear to +be out on a similar errand. So you have parted with your employers?” +</p> + +<p> +“How do you know that?” I asked in astonishment. “Is <i>every +one</i> aware of the fact?” +</p> + +<p> +“By no means. Not every one would consider such a fact to be of moment. +Indeed, I have never heard any one speak of it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then how come you to know it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because I have had occasion to do so. Whither are you bound? I like you, +and was therefore coming to pay you a visit.” +</p> + +<p> +“What a splendid fellow you are, Mr. Astley!” I cried, though still +wondering how he had come by his knowledge. “And since I have not yet had +my coffee, and you have, in all probability, scarcely tasted yours, let us +adjourn to the Casino Café, where we can sit and smoke and have a talk.” +</p> + +<p> +The café in question was only a hundred paces away; so, when coffee had been +brought, we seated ourselves, and I lit a cigarette. Astley was no smoker, but, +taking a seat by my side, he prepared himself to listen. +</p> + +<p> +“I do not intend to go away,” was my first remark. “I intend, +on the contrary, to remain here.” +</p> + +<p> +“That I never doubted,” he answered good-humouredly. +</p> + +<p> +It is a curious fact that, on my way to see him, I had never even thought of +telling him of my love for Polina. In fact, I had purposely meant to avoid any +mention of the subject. Nor, during our stay in the place, had I ever made +aught but the scantiest reference to it. You see, not only was Astley a man of +great reserve, but also from the first I had perceived that Polina had made a +great impression upon him, although he never spoke of her. But now, strangely +enough, he had no sooner seated himself and bent his steely gaze upon me, than, +for some reason or another, I felt moved to tell him everything—to speak +to him of my love in all its phases. For an hour and a half did I discourse on +the subject, and found it a pleasure to do so, even though this was the first +occasion on which I had referred to the matter. Indeed, when, at certain +moments, I perceived that my more ardent passages confused him, I purposely +increased my ardour of narration. Yet one thing I regret: and that is that I +made references to the Frenchman which were a little over-personal. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Astley sat without moving as he listened to me. Not a word nor a sound of +any kind did he utter as he stared into my eyes. Suddenly, however, on my +mentioning the Frenchman, he interrupted me, and inquired sternly whether I did +right to speak of an extraneous matter (he had always been a strange man in his +mode of propounding questions). +</p> + +<p> +“No, I fear not,” I replied. +</p> + +<p> +“And concerning this Marquis and Mlle. Polina you know nothing beyond +surmise?” +</p> + +<p> +Again I was surprised that such a categorical question should come from such a +reserved individual. +</p> + +<p> +“No, I know nothing <i>for certain</i> about them” was my reply. +“No—nothing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you have done very wrong to speak of them to me, or even to imagine +things about them.” +</p> + +<p> +“Quite so, quite so,” I interrupted in some astonishment. “I +admit that. Yet that is not the question.” Whereupon I related to him in +detail the incident of two days ago. I spoke of Polina’s outburst, of my +encounter with the Baron, of my dismissal, of the General’s extraordinary +pusillanimity, and of the call which De Griers had that morning paid me. In +conclusion, I showed Astley the note which I had lately received. +</p> + +<p> +“What do you make of it?” I asked. “When I met you I was just +coming to ask you your opinion. For myself, I could have killed this Frenchman, +and am not sure that I shall not do so even yet.” +</p> + +<p> +“I feel the same about it,” said Mr. Astley. “As for Mlle. +Polina—well, you yourself know that, if necessity drives, one enters into +relation with people whom one simply detests. Even between this couple there +may be something which, though unknown to you, depends upon extraneous +circumstances. For, my own part, I think that you may reassure +yourself—or at all events partially. And as for Mlle. Polina’s +proceedings of two days ago, they were, of course, strange; not because she can +have meant to get rid of you, or to earn for you a thrashing from the +Baron’s cudgel (which for some curious reason, he did not use, although +he had it ready in his hands), but because such proceedings on the part of +such—well, of such a refined lady as Mlle. Polina are, to say the least +of it, unbecoming. But she cannot have guessed that you would carry out her +absurd wish to the letter?” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know what?” suddenly I cried as I fixed Mr. Astley with my +gaze. “I believe that you have already heard the story from some +one—very possibly from Mlle. Polina herself?” +</p> + +<p> +In return he gave me an astonished stare. +</p> + +<p> +“Your eyes look very fiery,” he said with a return of his former +calm, “and in them I can read suspicion. Now, you have no right whatever +to be suspicious. It is not a right which I can for a moment recognise, and I +absolutely refuse to answer your questions.” +</p> + +<p> +“Enough! You need say no more,” I cried with a strange emotion at +my heart, yet not altogether understanding what had aroused that emotion in my +breast. Indeed, when, where, and how could Polina have chosen Astley to be one +of her confidants? Of late I had come rather to overlook him in this +connection, even though Polina had always been a riddle to me—so much so +that now, when I had just permitted myself to tell my friend of my infatuation +in all its aspects, I had found myself struck, during the very telling, with +the fact that in my relations with her I could specify nothing that was +explicit, nothing that was positive. On the contrary, my relations had been +purely fantastic, strange, and unreal; they had been unlike anything else that +I could think of. +</p> + +<p> +“Very well, very well,” I replied with a warmth equal to +Astley’s own. “Then I stand confounded, and have no further +opinions to offer. But you are a good fellow, and I am glad to know what you +think about it all, even though I do not need your advice.” +</p> + +<p> +Then, after a pause, I resumed: +</p> + +<p> +“For instance, what reason should you assign for the General taking +fright in this way? Why should my stupid clowning have led the world to elevate +it into a serious incident? Even De Griers has found it necessary to put in his +oar (and he only interferes on the most important occasions), and to visit me, +and to address to me the most earnest supplications. Yes, <i>he</i>, De Griers, +has actually been playing the suppliant to <i>me!</i> And, mark you, although he +came to me as early as nine o’clock, he had ready-prepared in his hand +Mlle. Polina’s note. When, I would ask, was that note written? Mlle. +Polina must have been aroused from sleep for the express purpose of writing it. +At all events the circumstance shows that she is an absolute slave to the +Frenchman, since she actually begs my pardon in the note—actually begs my +pardon! Yet what is her personal concern in the matter? Why is she interested +in it at all? Why, too, is the whole party so afraid of this precious Baron? +And what sort of a business do you call it for the General to be going to marry +Mlle. Blanche de Cominges? He told me last night that, because of the +circumstance, he must ‘move with especial care at present.’ What is +your opinion of it all? Your look convinces me that you know more about it than +I do.” +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Astley smiled and nodded. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I think I <i>do</i> know more about it than you do,” he +assented. “The affair centres around this Mlle. Blanche. Of that I feel +certain.” +</p> + +<p> +“And what of Mlle. Blanche?” I cried impatiently (for in me there +had dawned a sudden hope that this would enable me to discover something about +Polina). +</p> + +<p> +“Well, my belief is that at the present moment Mlle. Blanche has, in very +truth, a special reason for wishing to avoid any trouble with the Baron and the +Baroness. It might lead not only to some unpleasantness, but even to a +scandal.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, oh!” +</p> + +<p> +“Also I may tell you that Mlle. Blanche has been in Roulettenberg before, +for she was staying here three seasons ago. I myself was in the place at the +time, and in those days Mlle. Blanche was not known as Mlle. de Cominges, nor +was her mother, the Widow de Cominges, even in existence. In any case no one +ever mentioned the latter. De Griers, too, had not materialised, and I am +convinced that not only do the parties stand in no relation to one another, but +also they have not long enjoyed one another’s acquaintance. Likewise, the +<i>Marquisate</i> de Griers is of recent creation. Of that I have reason to be +sure, owing to a certain circumstance. Even the name De Griers itself may be +taken to be a new invention, seeing that I have a friend who once met the said +‘Marquis’ under a different name altogether.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yet he possesses a good circle of friends?” +</p> + +<p> +“Possibly. Mlle. Blanche also may possess that. Yet it is not three years +since she received from the local police, at the instance of the Baroness, an +invitation to leave the town. And she left it.” +</p> + +<p> +“But why?” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I must tell you that she first appeared here in company with an +Italian—a prince of some sort, a man who bore an historic name (Barberini +or something of the kind). The fellow was simply a mass of rings and +diamonds—real diamonds, too—and the couple used to drive out in a +marvellous carriage. At first Mlle. Blanche played ‘trente et +quarante’ with fair success, but, later, her luck took a marked change +for the worse. I distinctly remember that in a single evening she lost an +enormous sum. But worse was to ensue, for one fine morning her prince +disappeared—horses, carriage, and all. Also, the hotel bill which he left +unpaid was enormous. Upon this Mlle. Zelma (the name which she assumed after +figuring as Madame Barberini) was in despair. She shrieked and howled all over +the hotel, and even tore her clothes in her frenzy. In the hotel there was +staying also a Polish count (you must know that ALL travelling Poles are +counts!), and the spectacle of Mlle. Zelma tearing her clothes and, catlike, +scratching her face with her beautiful, scented nails produced upon him a +strong impression. So the pair had a talk together, and, by luncheon time, she +was consoled. Indeed, that evening the couple entered the Casino +arm-in-arm—Mlle. Zelma laughing loudly, according to her custom, and +showing even more expansiveness in her manners than she had before shown. For +instance, she thrust her way into the file of women roulette-players in the +exact fashion of those ladies who, to clear a space for themselves at the +tables, push their fellow-players roughly aside. Doubtless you have noticed +them?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, certainly.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, they are not worth noticing. To the annoyance of the decent public +they are allowed to remain here—at all events such of them as daily +change 4000 franc notes at the tables (though, as soon as ever these women +cease to do so, they receive an invitation to depart). However, Mlle. Zelma +continued to change notes of this kind, but her play grew more and more +unsuccessful, despite the fact that such ladies’ luck is frequently good, +for they have a surprising amount of cash at their disposal. Suddenly, the +Count too disappeared, even as the Prince had done, and that same evening Mlle. +Zelma was forced to appear in the Casino alone. On this occasion no one offered +her a greeting. Two days later she had come to the end of her resources; +whereupon, after staking and losing her last louis d’or she chanced to +look around her, and saw standing by her side the Baron Burmergelm, who had +been eyeing her with fixed disapproval. To his distaste, however, Mlle. paid no +attention, but, turning to him with her well-known smile, requested him to +stake, on her behalf, ten louis on the red. Later that evening a complaint from +the Baroness led the authorities to request Mlle. not to re-enter the Casino. +If you feel in any way surprised that I should know these petty and unedifying +details, the reason is that I had them from a relative of mine who, later that +evening, drove Mlle. Zelma in his carriage from Roulettenberg to Spa. Now, mark +you, Mlle. wants to become Madame General, in order that, in future, she may be +spared the receipt of such invitations from Casino authorities as she received +three years ago. At present she is not playing; but that is only because, +according to the signs, she is lending money to other players. Yes, that is a +much more paying game. I even suspect that the unfortunate General is himself +in her debt, as well as, perhaps, also De Griers. Or, it may be that the latter +has entered into a partnership with her. Consequently you yourself will see +that, until the marriage shall have been consummated, Mlle. would scarcely like +to have the attention of the Baron and the Baroness drawn to herself. In short, +to any one in her position, a scandal would be most detrimental. You form a +member of the ménage of these people; wherefore, any act of yours might cause +such a scandal—and the more so since daily she appears in public arm in +arm with the General or with Mlle. Polina. <i>Now</i> do you understand?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I do not!” I shouted as I banged my fist down upon the +table—banged it with such violence that a frightened waiter came running +towards us. “Tell me, Mr. Astley, why, if you knew this history all +along, and, consequently, always knew who this Mlle. Blanche is, you never +warned either myself or the General, nor, most of all, Mlle. Polina” (who +is accustomed to appear in the Casino—in public everywhere with Mlle. +Blanche). “How could you do it?” +</p> + +<p> +“It would have done no good to warn you,” he replied quietly, +“for the reason that you could have effected nothing. Against what was I +to warn you? As likely as not, the General knows more about Mlle. Blanche even +than I do; yet the unhappy man still walks about with her and Mlle. Polina. +Only yesterday I saw this Frenchwoman riding, splendidly mounted, with De +Griers, while the General was careering in their wake on a roan horse. He had +said, that morning, that his legs were hurting him, yet his riding-seat was +easy enough. As he passed I looked at him, and the thought occurred to me that +he was a man lost for ever. However, it is no affair of mine, for I have only +recently had the happiness to make Mlle. Polina’s acquaintance. +Also”—he added this as an afterthought—“I have already +told you that I do not recognise your right to ask me certain questions, +however sincere be my liking for you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Enough,” I said, rising. “To me it is as clear as day that +Mlle. Polina knows all about this Mlle. Blanche, but cannot bring herself to +part with her Frenchman; wherefore, she consents also to be seen in public with +Mlle. Blanche. You may be sure that nothing else would ever have induced her +either to walk about with this Frenchwoman or to send me a note not to touch +the Baron. Yes, it is <i>there</i> that the influence lies before which +everything in the world must bow! Yet she herself it was who launched me at the +Baron! The devil take it, but I was left no choice in the matter.” +</p> + +<p> +“You forget, in the first place, that this Mlle. de Cominges is the +General’s inamorata, and, in the second place, that Mlle. Polina, the +General’s step-daughter, has a younger brother and sister who, though +they are the General’s own children, are completely neglected by this +madman, and robbed as well.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, yes; that is so. For me to go and desert the children now would +mean their total abandonment; whereas, if I remain, I should be able to defend +their interests, and, perhaps, to save a moiety of their property. Yes, yes; +that is quite true. And yet, and yet—Oh, I can well understand why they +are all so interested in the General’s mother!” +</p> + +<p> +“In whom?” asked Mr. Astley. +</p> + +<p> +“In the old woman of Moscow who declines to die, yet concerning whom they +are for ever expecting telegrams to notify the fact of her death.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, then of course their interests centre around her. It is a question +of succession. Let that but be settled, and the General will marry, Mlle. +Polina will be set free, and De Griers—” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, and De Griers?” +</p> + +<p> +“Will be repaid his money, which is what he is now waiting for.” +</p> + +<p> +“What? You think that he is waiting for <i>that?</i>” +</p> + +<p> +“I know of nothing else,” asserted Mr. Astley doggedly. +</p> + +<p> +“But, I do, I do!” I shouted in my fury. “He is waiting also +for the old woman’s will, for the reason that it awards Mlle. Polina a +dowry. As soon as ever the money is received, she will throw herself upon the +Frenchman’s neck. All women are like that. Even the proudest of them +become abject slaves where marriage is concerned. What Polina is good for is to +fall head over ears in love. That is <i>my</i> opinion. Look at +her—especially when she is sitting alone, and plunged in thought. All +this was pre-ordained and foretold, and is accursed. Polina could perpetrate +any mad act. She—she—But who called me by name?” I broke off. +“Who is shouting for me? I heard some one calling in Russian, +‘Alexis Ivanovitch!’ It was a woman’s voice. Listen!” +</p> + +<p> +At the moment, we were approaching my hotel. We had left the café long ago, +without even noticing that we had done so. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I <i>did</i> hear a woman’s voice calling, but whose I do not +know. The someone was calling you in Russian. Ah! NOW I can see whence the +cries come. They come from that lady there—the one who is sitting on the +settee, the one who has just been escorted to the verandah by a crowd of +lacqueys. Behind her see that pile of luggage! She must have arrived by +train.” +</p> + +<p> +“But why should she be calling <i>me?</i> Hear her calling again! See! +She is beckoning to us!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, so she is,” assented Mr. Astley. +</p> + +<p> +“Alexis Ivanovitch, Alexis Ivanovitch! Good heavens, what a stupid +fellow!” came in a despairing wail from the verandah. +</p> + +<p> +We had almost reached the portico, and I was just setting foot upon the space +before it, when my hands fell to my sides in limp astonishment, and my feet +glued themselves to the pavement! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a>IX</h2> + +<p> +For on the topmost tier of the hotel verandah, after being carried up the steps +in an armchair amid a bevy of footmen, maid-servants, and other menials of the +hotel, headed by the landlord (that functionary had actually run out to meet a +visitor who arrived with so much stir and din, attended by her own retinue, and +accompanied by so great a pile of trunks and portmanteaux)—on the topmost +tier of the verandah, I say, there was sitting—<i>the grandmother!</i> +Yes, it was <i>she</i>—rich, and imposing, and seventy-five years of +age—Antonida Vassilievna Tarassevitcha, landowner and <i>grande dame</i> +of Moscow—the “La Baboulenka” who had caused so many +telegrams to be sent off and received—who had been dying, yet not +dying—who had, in her own person, descended upon us even as snow might +fall from the clouds! Though unable to walk, she had arrived borne aloft in an +armchair (her mode of conveyance for the last five years), as brisk, +aggressive, self-satisfied, bolt-upright, loudly imperious, and generally +abusive as ever. In fact, she looked exactly as she had on the only two +occasions when I had seen her since my appointment to the General’s +household. Naturally enough, I stood petrified with astonishment. She had +sighted me a hundred paces off! Even while she was being carried along in her +chair she had recognised me, and called me by name and surname (which, as +usual, after hearing once, she had remembered ever afterwards). +</p> + +<p> +“And this is the woman whom they had thought to see in her grave after +making her will!” I thought to myself. “Yet she will outlive us, +and every one else in the hotel. Good Lord! what is going to become of us now? +What on earth is to happen to the General? She will turn the place upside +down!” +</p> + +<p> +“My good sir,” the old woman continued in a stentorian voice, +“what are you standing <i>there</i> for, with your eyes almost falling out of +your head? Cannot you come and say how-do-you-do? Are you too proud to shake +hands? Or do you not recognise me? Here, Potapitch!” she cried to an old +servant who, dressed in a frock coat and white waistcoat, had a bald, red head +(he was the chamberlain who always accompanied her on her journeys). +“Just think! Alexis Ivanovitch does not recognise me! They have buried me +for good and all! Yes, and after sending hosts of telegrams to know if I were +dead or not! Yes, yes, I have heard the whole story. I am very much alive, +though, as you may see.” +</p> + +<p> +“Pardon me, Antonida Vassilievna,” I replied good humouredly as I +recovered my presence of mind. “<i>I</i> have no reason to wish you ill. +I am merely rather astonished to see you. Why should I not be so, seeing how +unexpected—” +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Why</i> should you be astonished? I just got into my chair, and came. +Things are quiet enough in the train, for there is no one there to chatter. +Have you been out for a walk?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. I have just been to the Casino.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh? Well, it is quite nice here,” she went on as she looked about +her. “The place seems comfortable, and all the trees are out. I like it +very well. Are your people at home? Is the General, for instance, +indoors?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; and probably all of them.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do they observe the convenances, and keep up appearances? Such things +always give one tone. I have heard that they are keeping a carriage, even as +Russian gentlefolks ought to do. When abroad, our Russian people always cut a +dash. Is Prascovia here too?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. Polina Alexandrovna is here.” +</p> + +<p> +“And the Frenchwoman? However, I will go and look for them myself. Tell +me the nearest way to their rooms. Do <i>you</i> like being here?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I thank you, Antonida Vassilievna.” +</p> + +<p> +“And you, Potapitch, you go and tell that fool of a landlord to reserve +me a suitable suite of rooms. They must be handsomely decorated, and not too +high up. Have my luggage taken up to them. But what are you tumbling over +yourselves for? Why are you all tearing about? What scullions these fellows +are!—Who is that with you?” she added to myself. +</p> + +<p> +“A Mr. Astley,” I replied. +</p> + +<p> +“And who is Mr. Astley?” +</p> + +<p> +“A fellow-traveller, and my very good friend, as well as an acquaintance +of the General’s.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, an Englishman? Then that is why he stared at me without even opening +his lips. However, I like Englishmen. Now, take me upstairs, direct to their +rooms. Where are they lodging?” +</p> + +<p> +Madame was lifted up in her chair by the lacqueys, and I preceded her up the +grand staircase. Our progress was exceedingly effective, for everyone whom we +met stopped to stare at the cortège. It happened that the hotel had the +reputation of being the best, the most expensive, and the most aristocratic in +all the spa, and at every turn on the staircase or in the corridors we +encountered fine ladies and important-looking Englishmen—more than one of +whom hastened downstairs to inquire of the awestruck landlord who the newcomer +was. To all such questions he returned the same answer—namely, that the +old lady was an influential foreigner, a Russian, a Countess, and a <i>grande +dame</i>, and that she had taken the suite which, during the previous week, had +been tenanted by the Grande Duchesse de N. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile the cause of the sensation—the Grandmother—was being +borne aloft in her armchair. Every person whom she met she scanned with an +inquisitive eye, after first of all interrogating me about him or her at the +top of her voice. She was stout of figure, and, though she could not leave her +chair, one felt, the moment that one first looked at her, that she was also +tall of stature. Her back was as straight as a board, and never did she lean +back in her seat. Also, her large grey head, with its keen, rugged features, +remained always erect as she glanced about her in an imperious, challenging +sort of way, with looks and gestures that clearly were unstudied. Though she +had reached her seventy-sixth year, her face was still fresh, and her teeth had +not decayed. Lastly, she was dressed in a black silk gown and white mobcap. +</p> + +<p> +“She interests me tremendously,” whispered Mr. Astley as, still +smoking, he walked by my side. Meanwhile I was reflecting that probably the old +lady knew all about the telegrams, and even about De Griers, though little or +nothing about Mlle. Blanche. I said as much to Mr. Astley. +</p> + +<p> +But what a frail creature is man! No sooner was my first surprise abated than I +found myself rejoicing in the shock which we were about to administer to the +General. So much did the thought inspire me that I marched ahead in the gayest +of fashions. +</p> + +<p> +Our party was lodging on the third floor. Without knocking at the door, or in +any way announcing our presence, I threw open the portals, and the Grandmother +was borne through them in triumph. As though of set purpose, the whole party +chanced at that moment to be assembled in the General’s study. The time +was eleven o’clock, and it seemed that an outing of some sort (at which a +portion of the party were to drive in carriages, and others to ride on +horseback, accompanied by one or two extraneous acquaintances) was being +planned. The General was present, and also Polina, the children, the +latter’s nurses, De Griers, Mlle. Blanche (attired in a riding-habit), +her mother, the young Prince, and a learned German whom I beheld for the first +time. Into the midst of this assembly the lacqueys conveyed Madame in her +chair, and set her down within three paces of the General! +</p> + +<p> +Good heavens! Never shall I forget the spectacle which ensued! Just before our +entry, the General had been holding forth to the company, with De Griers in +support of him. I may also mention that, for the last two or three days, Mlle. +Blanche and De Griers had been making a great deal of the young Prince, under +the very nose of the poor General. In short, the company, though decorous and +conventional, was in a gay, familiar mood. But no sooner did the Grandmother +appear than the General stopped dead in the middle of a word, and, with jaw +dropping, stared hard at the old lady—his eyes almost starting out of his +head, and his expression as spellbound as though he had just seen a basilisk. +In return, the Grandmother stared at him silently and without +moving—though with a look of mingled challenge, triumph, and ridicule in +her eyes. For ten seconds did the pair remain thus eyeing one another, amid the +profound silence of the company; and even De Griers sat petrified—an +extraordinary look of uneasiness dawning on his face. As for Mlle. Blanche, she +too stared wildly at the Grandmother, with eyebrows raised and her lips +parted—while the Prince and the German savant contemplated the tableau in +profound amazement. Only Polina looked anything but perplexed or surprised. +Presently, however, she too turned as white as a sheet, and then reddened to +her temples. Truly the Grandmother’s arrival seemed to be a catastrophe +for everybody! For my own part, I stood looking from the Grandmother to the +company, and back again, while Mr. Astley, as usual, remained in the +background, and gazed calmly and decorously at the scene. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, here I am—and instead of a telegram, too!” the +Grandmother at last ejaculated, to dissipate the silence. “What? You were +not expecting me?” +</p> + +<p> +“Antonida Vassilievna! O my dearest mother! But how on earth did you, did +you—?” The mutterings of the unhappy General died away. +</p> + +<p> +I verily believe that if the Grandmother had held her tongue a few seconds +longer she would have had a stroke. +</p> + +<p> +“How on earth did I <i>what?</i>” she exclaimed. “Why, I just +got into the train and came here. What else is the railway meant for? But you +thought that I had turned up my toes and left my property to the lot of you. +Oh, I know <i>all</i> about the telegrams which you have been dispatching. They +must have cost you a pretty sum, I should think, for telegrams are not sent +from abroad for nothing. Well, I picked up my heels, and came here. Who is this +Frenchman? Monsieur de Griers, I suppose?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oui, madame,” assented De Griers. “Et, croyez, je suis si +enchanté! Votre santé—c’est un miracle vous voir ici. Une surprise +charmante!” +</p> + +<p> +“Just so. ‘Charmante!’ I happen to know you as a mountebank, +and therefore trust you no more than <i>this</i>.” She indicated her +little finger. “And who is <i>that?</i>” she went on, turning +towards Mlle. Blanche. Evidently the Frenchwoman looked so becoming in her +riding-habit, with her whip in her hand, that she had made an impression upon +the old lady. “Who is that woman there?” +</p> + +<p> +“Mlle. de Cominges,” I said. “And this is her mother, Madame +de Cominges. They also are staying in the hotel.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is the daughter married?” asked the old lady, without the least +semblance of ceremony. +</p> + +<p> +“No,” I replied as respectfully as possible, but under my breath. +</p> + +<p> +“Is she good company?” +</p> + +<p> +I failed to understand the question. +</p> + +<p> +“I mean, is she or is she not a bore? Can she speak Russian? When this De +Griers was in Moscow he soon learnt to make himself understood.” +</p> + +<p> +I explained to the old lady that Mlle. Blanche had never visited Russia. +</p> + +<p> +“Bonjour, then,” said Madame, with sudden brusquerie. +</p> + +<p> +“Bonjour, madame,” replied Mlle. Blanche with an elegant, +ceremonious bow as, under cover of an unwonted modesty, she endeavoured to +express, both in face and figure, her extreme surprise at such strange +behaviour on the part of the Grandmother. +</p> + +<p> +“How the woman sticks out her eyes at me! How she mows and minces!” +was the Grandmother’s comment. Then she turned suddenly to the General, +and continued: “I have taken up my abode here, so am going to be your +next-door neighbour. Are you glad to hear that, or are you not?” +</p> + +<p> +“My dear mother, believe me when I say that I am sincerely +delighted,” returned the General, who had now, to a certain extent, +recovered his senses; and inasmuch as, when occasion arose, he could speak with +fluency, gravity, and a certain effect, he set himself to be expansive in his +remarks, and went on: “We have been so dismayed and upset by the news of +your indisposition! We had received such hopeless telegrams about you! Then +suddenly—” +</p> + +<p> +“Fibs, fibs!” interrupted the Grandmother. +</p> + +<p> +“How on earth, too, did you come to decide upon the journey?” +continued the General, with raised voice as he hurried to overlook the old +lady’s last remark. “Surely, at your age, and in your present state +of health, the thing is so unexpected that our surprise is at least +intelligible. However, I am glad to see you (as indeed, are we +all”—he said this with a dignified, yet conciliatory, smile), +“and will use my best endeavours to render your stay here as pleasant as +possible.” +</p> + +<p> +“Enough! All this is empty chatter. You are talking the usual nonsense. I +shall know quite well how to spend my time. How did I come to undertake the +journey, you ask? Well, is there anything so very surprising about it? It was +done quite simply. What is every one going into ecstasies about?—How do +you do, Prascovia? What are <i>you</i> doing here?” +</p> + +<p> +“And how are <i>you</i>, Grandmother?” replied Polina, as she +approached the old lady. “Were you long on the journey?” +</p> + +<p> +“The most sensible question that I have yet been asked! Well, you shall +hear for yourself how it all happened. I lay and lay, and was doctored and +doctored, until at last I drove the physicians from me, and called in an +apothecary from Nicolai who had cured an old woman of a malady similar to my +own—cured her merely with a little hayseed. Well, he did me a great deal +of good, for on the third day I broke into a sweat, and was able to leave my +bed. Then my German doctors held another consultation, put on their spectacles, +and told me that if I would go abroad, and take a course of the waters, the +indisposition would finally pass away. ‘Why should it not?’ I +thought to myself. So I had got things ready, and on the following day, a +Friday, set out for here. I occupied a special compartment in the train, and +where ever I had to change I found at the station bearers who were ready to +carry me for a few coppers. You have nice quarters here,” she went on as +she glanced around the room. “But where on earth did you get the money +for them, my good sir? I thought that everything of yours had been mortgaged? +This Frenchman alone must be your creditor for a good deal. Oh, I know all +about it, all about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“I-I am surprised at you, my dearest mother,” said the General in +some confusion. “I-I am greatly surprised. But I do not need any +extraneous control of my finances. Moreover, my expenses do not exceed my +income, and we—” +</p> + +<p> +“They do not exceed it? Fie! Why, you are robbing your children of their +last kopeck—you, their guardian!” +</p> + +<p> +“After this,” said the General, completely taken aback, +“—after what you have just said, I do not know +whether—” +</p> + +<p> +“You do not know <i>what?</i> By heavens, are you <i>never</i> going to +drop that roulette of yours? Are you going to whistle all your property +away?” +</p> + +<p> +This made such an impression upon the General that he almost choked with fury. +</p> + +<p> +“Roulette, indeed? <i>I</i> play roulette? Really, in view of my +position—Recollect what you are saying, my dearest mother. You must still +be unwell.” +</p> + +<p> +“Rubbish, rubbish!” she retorted. “The truth is that you +<i>cannot</i> be got away from that roulette. You are simply telling lies. This +very day I mean to go and see for myself what roulette is like. Prascovia, tell +me what there is to be seen here; and do you, Alexis Ivanovitch, show me +everything; and do you, Potapitch, make me a list of excursions. What <i>is</i> +there to be seen?” again she inquired of Polina. +</p> + +<p> +“There is a ruined castle, and the Shlangenberg.” +</p> + +<p> +“The Shlangenberg? What is it? A forest?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, a mountain on the summit of which there is a place fenced off. From +it you can get a most beautiful view.” +</p> + +<p> +“Could a chair be carried up that mountain of yours?” +</p> + +<p> +“Doubtless we could find bearers for the purpose,” I interposed. +</p> + +<p> +At this moment Theodosia, the nursemaid, approached the old lady with the +General’s children. +</p> + +<p> +“No, I <i>don’t</i> want to see them,” said the Grandmother. +“I hate kissing children, for their noses are always wet. How are you +getting on, Theodosia?” +</p> + +<p> +“I am very well, thank you, Madame,” replied the nursemaid. +“And how is your ladyship? We have been feeling so anxious about +you!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I know, you simple soul—But who are those other +guests?” the old lady continued, turning again to Polina. “For +instance, who is that old rascal in the spectacles?” +</p> + +<p> +“Prince Nilski, Grandmamma,” whispered Polina. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, a Russian? Why, I had no idea that he could understand me! Surely he +did not hear what I said? As for Mr. Astley, I have seen him already, and I see +that he is here again. How do you do?” she added to the gentleman in +question. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Astley bowed in silence. +</p> + +<p> +“Have you <i>nothing</i> to say to me?” the old lady went on. +“Say something, for goodness’ sake! Translate to him, +Polina.” +</p> + +<p> +Polina did so. +</p> + +<p> +“I have only to say,” replied Mr. Astley gravely, but also with +alacrity, “that I am indeed glad to see you in such good health.” +This was interpreted to the Grandmother, and she seemed much gratified. +</p> + +<p> +“How well English people know how to answer one!” she remarked. +“That is why I like them so much better than French. Come here,” +she added to Mr. Astley. “I will try not to bore you too much. Polina, +translate to him that I am staying in rooms on a lower floor. Yes, on a lower +floor,” she repeated to Astley, pointing downwards with her finger. +</p> + +<p> +Astley looked pleased at receiving the invitation. +</p> + +<p> +Next, the old lady scanned Polina, from head to foot with minute attention. +</p> + +<p> +“I could almost have liked you, Prascovia,” suddenly she remarked, +“for you are a nice girl—the best of the lot. You have some +character about you. I too have character. Turn round. Surely that is not false +hair that you are wearing?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, Grandmamma. It is my own.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well. I do not like the stupid fashions of today. You are very +good looking. I should have fallen in love with you if I had been a man. Why do +you not get married? It is time now that I was going. I want to walk, yet I +always have to ride. Are you still in a bad temper?” she added to the +General. +</p> + +<p> +“No, indeed,” rejoined the now mollified General. +</p> + +<p> +“I quite understand that at your time of life—” +</p> + +<p> +“Cette vieille est tombée en enfance,” De Griers whispered to me. +</p> + +<p> +“But I want to look round a little,” the old lady added to the +General. Will you lend me Alexis Ivanovitch for the purpose? +</p> + +<p> +“As much as you like. But I myself—yes, and Polina and Monsieur de +Griers too—we all of us hope to have the pleasure of escorting +you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Mais, madame, cela sera un plaisir,” De Griers commented with a +bewitching smile. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Plaisir’ indeed! Why, I look upon you as a perfect fool, +monsieur.” Then she remarked to the General: “I am not going to let +you have any of my money. I must be off to my rooms now, to see what they are +like. Afterwards we will look round a little. Lift me up.” +</p> + +<p> +Again the Grandmother was borne aloft and carried down the staircase amid a +perfect bevy of followers—the General walking as though he had been hit +over the head with a cudgel, and De Griers seeming to be plunged in thought. +Endeavouring to be left behind, Mlle. Blanche next thought better of it, and +followed the rest, with the Prince in her wake. Only the German savant and +Madame de Cominges did not leave the General’s apartments. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a>X</h2> + +<p> +At spas—and, probably, all over Europe—hotel landlords and managers +are guided in their allotment of rooms to visitors, not so much by the wishes +and requirements of those visitors, as by their personal estimate of the same. +It may also be said that these landlords and managers seldom make a mistake. To +the Grandmother, however, our landlord, for some reason or another, allotted +such a sumptuous suite that he fairly overreached himself; for he assigned her +a suite consisting of four magnificently appointed rooms, with bathroom, +servants’ quarters, a separate room for her maid, and so on. In fact, +during the previous week the suite had been occupied by no less a personage +than a Grand Duchess: which circumstance was duly explained to the new +occupant, as an excuse for raising the price of these apartments. The +Grandmother had herself carried—or, rather, wheeled—through each +room in turn, in order that she might subject the whole to a close and +attentive scrutiny; while the landlord—an elderly, bald-headed +man—walked respectfully by her side. +</p> + +<p> +What every one took the Grandmother to be I do not know, but it appeared, at +least, that she was accounted a person not only of great importance, but also, +and still more, of great wealth; and without delay they entered her in the +hotel register as “Madame la générale, Princesse de +Tarassevitcheva,” although she had never been a princess in her life. Her +retinue, her reserved compartment in the train, her pile of unnecessary trunks, +portmanteaux, and strong-boxes, all helped to increase her prestige; while her +wheeled chair, her sharp tone and voice, her eccentric questions (put with an +air of the most overbearing and unbridled imperiousness), her whole +figure—upright, rugged, and commanding as it was—completed the +general awe in which she was held. As she inspected her new abode she ordered +her chair to be stopped at intervals in order that, with finger extended +towards some article of furniture, she might ply the respectfully smiling, yet +secretly apprehensive, landlord with unexpected questions. She addressed them +to him in French, although her pronunciation of the language was so bad that +sometimes I had to translate them. For the most part, the landlord’s +answers were unsatisfactory, and failed to please her; nor were the questions +themselves of a practical nature, but related, generally, to God knows what. +</p> + +<p> +For instance, on one occasion she halted before a picture which, a poor copy of +a well-known original, had a mythological subject. +</p> + +<p> +“Of whom is this a portrait?” she inquired. +</p> + +<p> +The landlord explained that it was probably that of a countess. +</p> + +<p> +“But how know you that?” the old lady retorted. +</p> + +<p> +“You live here, yet you cannot say for certain! And why is the picture +there at all? And why do its eyes look so crooked?” +</p> + +<p> +To all these questions the landlord could return no satisfactory reply, despite +his floundering endeavours. +</p> + +<p> +“The blockhead!” exclaimed the Grandmother in Russian. +</p> + +<p> +Then she proceeded on her way—only to repeat the same story in front of a +Saxon statuette which she had sighted from afar, and had commanded, for some +reason or another, to be brought to her. Finally, she inquired of the landlord +what was the value of the carpet in her bedroom, as well as where the said +carpet had been manufactured; but, the landlord could do no more than promise +to make inquiries. +</p> + +<p> +“What donkeys these people are!” she commented. Next, she turned +her attention to the bed. +</p> + +<p> +“What a huge counterpane!” she exclaimed. “Turn it back, +please.” The lacqueys did so. +</p> + +<p> +“Further yet, further yet,” the old lady cried. “Turn it +<i>right</i> back. Also, take off those pillows and bolsters, and lift up the +feather bed.” +</p> + +<p> +The bed was opened for her inspection. +</p> + +<p> +“Mercifully it contains no bugs,” she remarked. +</p> + +<p> +“Pull off the whole thing, and then put on my own pillows and sheets. The +place is too luxurious for an old woman like myself. It is too large for any +one person. Alexis Ivanovitch, come and see me whenever you are not teaching +your pupils.” +</p> + +<p> +“After tomorrow I shall no longer be in the General’s +service,” I replied, “but merely living in the hotel on my own +account.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why so?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because, the other day, there arrived from Berlin a German and his +wife—persons of some importance; and, it chanced that, when taking a +walk, I spoke to them in German without having properly compassed the Berlin +accent.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes: and this action on my part the Baron held to be an insult, and +complained about it to the General, who yesterday dismissed me from his +employ.” +</p> + +<p> +“But I suppose you must have threatened that precious Baron, or something +of the kind? However, even if you did so, it was a matter of no moment.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I did not. The Baron was the aggressor by raising his stick at +me.” +</p> + +<p> +Upon that the Grandmother turned sharply to the General. +</p> + +<p> +“What? You permitted yourself to treat your tutor thus, you nincompoop, +and to dismiss him from his post? You are a blockhead—an utter blockhead! +I can see that clearly.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do not alarm yourself, my dear mother,” the General replied with a +lofty air—an air in which there was also a tinge of familiarity. “I +am quite capable of managing my own affairs. Moreover, Alexis Ivanovitch has +not given you a true account of the matter.” +</p> + +<p> +“What did you do next?” The old lady inquired of me. +</p> + +<p> +“I wanted to challenge the Baron to a duel,” I replied as modestly +as possible; “but the General protested against my doing so.” +</p> + +<p> +“And <i>why</i> did you so protest?” she inquired of the General. +Then she turned to the landlord, and questioned him as to whether <i>he</i> +would not have fought a duel, if challenged. “For,” she added, +“I can see no difference between you and the Baron; nor can I bear that +German visage of yours.” Upon this the landlord bowed and departed, +though he could not have understood the Grandmother’s compliment. +</p> + +<p> +“Pardon me, Madame,” the General continued with a sneer, “but +are duels really feasible?” +</p> + +<p> +“Why not? All men are crowing cocks, and that is why they quarrel. +<i>You</i>, though, I perceive, are a blockhead—a man who does not even +know how to carry his breeding. Lift me up. Potapitch, see to it that you +always have <i>two</i> bearers ready. Go and arrange for their hire. But we +shall not require more than two, for I shall need only to be carried upstairs. +On the level or in the street I can be <i>wheeled</i> along. Go and tell them +that, and pay them in advance, so that they may show me some respect. You too, +Potapitch, are always to come with me, and <i>you</i>, Alexis Ivanovitch, are +to point out to me this Baron as we go along, in order that I may get a squint +at the precious ‘Von.’ And where is that roulette played?” +</p> + +<p> +I explained to her that the game was carried on in the salons of the Casino; +whereupon there ensued a string of questions as to whether there were many such +salons, whether many people played in them, whether those people played a whole +day at a time, and whether the game was managed according to fixed rules. At +length, I thought it best to say that the most advisable course would be for +her to go and see it for herself, since a mere description of it would be a +difficult matter. +</p> + +<p> +“Then take me straight there,” she said, “and do you walk on +in front of me, Alexis Ivanovitch.” +</p> + +<p> +“What, mother? Before you have so much as rested from your +journey?” the General inquired with some solicitude. Also, for some +reason which I could not divine, he seemed to be growing nervous; and, indeed, +the whole party was evincing signs of confusion, and exchanging glances with +one another. Probably they were thinking that it would be a ticklish—even +an embarrassing—business to accompany the Grandmother to the Casino, +where, very likely, she would perpetrate further eccentricities, and in public +too! Yet on their own initiative they had offered to escort her! +</p> + +<p> +“Why should I rest?” she retorted. “I am not tired, for I +have been sitting still these past five days. Let us see what your medicinal +springs and waters are like, and where they are situated. What, too, about +that, that—what did you call it, Prascovia?—oh, about that mountain +top?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, we are going to see it, Grandmamma.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well. Is there anything else for me to see here?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes! Quite a number of things,” Polina forced herself to say. +</p> + +<p> +“Martha, <i>you</i> must come with me as well,” went on the old +lady to her maid. +</p> + +<p> +“No, no, mother!” ejaculated the General. “Really she cannot +come. They would not admit even Potapitch to the Casino.” +</p> + +<p> +“Rubbish! Because she is my servant, is that a reason for turning her +out? Why, she is only a human being like the rest of us; and as she has been +travelling for a week she might like to look about her. With whom else could +she go out but myself? She would never dare to show her nose in the street +alone.” +</p> + +<p> +“But, mother—” +</p> + +<p> +“Are you ashamed to be seen with me? Stop at home, then, and you will be +asked no questions. A pretty General <i>you</i> are, to be sure! I am a +general’s widow myself. But, after all, why should I drag the whole party +with me? I will go and see the sights with only Alexis Ivanovitch as my +escort.” +</p> + +<p> +De Griers strongly insisted that <i>every one</i> ought to accompany her. +Indeed, he launched out into a perfect shower of charming phrases concerning +the pleasure of acting as her cicerone, and so forth. Every one was touched +with his words. +</p> + +<p> +“Mais elle est tombée en enfance,” he added aside to the General. +“Seule, elle fera des bêtises.” More than this I could not +overhear, but he seemed to have got some plan in his mind, or even to be +feeling a slight return of his hopes. +</p> + +<p> +The distance to the Casino was about half a verst, and our route led us through +the Chestnut Avenue until we reached the square directly fronting the building. +The General, I could see, was a trifle reassured by the fact that, though our +progress was distinctly eccentric in its nature, it was, at least, correct and +orderly. As a matter of fact, the spectacle of a person who is unable to walk +is not anything to excite surprise at a spa. Yet it was clear that the General +had a great fear of the Casino itself: for why should a person who had lost the +use of her limbs—more especially an old woman—be going to rooms +which were set apart only for roulette? On either side of the wheeled chair +walked Polina and Mlle. Blanche—the latter smiling, modestly jesting, +and, in short, making herself so agreeable to the Grandmother that in the end +the old lady relented towards her. On the other side of the chair Polina had to +answer an endless flow of petty questions—such as “Who was it +passed just now?” “Who is that coming along?” “Is the +town a large one?” “Are the public gardens extensive?” +“What sort of trees are those?” “What is the name of those +hills?” “Do I see eagles flying yonder?” “What is that +absurd-looking building?” and so forth. Meanwhile Astley whispered to me, +as he walked by my side, that he looked for much to happen that morning. Behind +the old lady’s chair marched Potapitch and Martha—Potapitch in his +frockcoat and white waistcoat, with a cloak over all, and the forty-year-old +and rosy, but slightly grey-headed, Martha in a mobcap, cotton dress, and +squeaking shoes. Frequently the old lady would twist herself round to converse +with these servants. As for De Griers, he spoke as though he had made up his +mind to do something (though it is also possible that he spoke in this manner +merely in order to hearten the General, with whom he appeared to have held a +conference). But, alas, the Grandmother had uttered the fatal words, “I +am not going to give you any of my money;” and though De Griers might +regard these words lightly, the General knew his mother better. Also, I noticed +that De Griers and Mlle. Blanche were still exchanging looks; while of the +Prince and the German savant I lost sight at the end of the Avenue, where they +had turned back and left us. +</p> + +<p> +Into the Casino we marched in triumph. At once, both in the person of the +commissionaire and in the persons of the footmen, there sprang to life the same +reverence as had arisen in the lacqueys of the hotel. Yet it was not without +some curiosity that they eyed us. +</p> + +<p> +Without loss of time, the Grandmother gave orders that she should be wheeled +through every room in the establishment; of which apartments she praised a few, +while to others she remained indifferent. Concerning everything, however, she +asked questions. Finally we reached the gaming-salons, where a lacquey who was, +acting as guard over the doors, flung them open as though he were a man +possessed. +</p> + +<p> +The Grandmother’s entry into the roulette-salon produced a profound +impression upon the public. Around the tables, and at the further end of the +room where the trente-et-quarante table was set out, there may have been +gathered from 150 to 200 gamblers, ranged in several rows. Those who had +succeeded in pushing their way to the tables were standing with their feet +firmly planted, in order to avoid having to give up their places until they +should have finished their game (since merely to stand looking on—thus +occupying a gambler’s place for nothing—was not permitted). True, +chairs were provided around the tables, but few players made use of +them—more especially if there was a large attendance of the general +public; since to stand allowed of a closer approach; and, therefore, of greater +facilities for calculation and staking. Behind the foremost row were herded a +second and a third row of people awaiting their turn; but sometimes their +impatience led these people to stretch a hand through the first row, in order +to deposit their stakes. Even third-row individuals would dart forward to +stake; whence seldom did more than five or ten minutes pass without a scene +over disputed money arising at one or another end of the table. On the other +hand, the police of the Casino were an able body of men; and though to escape +the crush was an impossibility, however much one might wish it, the eight +croupiers apportioned to each table kept an eye upon the stakes, performed the +necessary reckoning, and decided disputes as they arose. +</p> + +<p> +In the last resort they always called in the Casino police, and the disputes +would immediately come to an end. Policemen were stationed about the Casino in +ordinary costume, and mingled with the spectators so as to make it impossible +to recognise them. In particular they kept a lookout for pickpockets and +swindlers, who simply swanned in the roulette salons, and reaped a rich +harvest. Indeed, in every direction money was being filched from pockets or +purses—though, of course, if the attempt miscarried, a great uproar +ensued. One had only to approach a roulette table, begin to play, and then +openly grab some one else’s winnings, for a din to be raised, and the +thief to start vociferating that the stake was <i>his;</i> and, if the coup had +been carried out with sufficient skill, and the witnesses wavered at all in +their testimony, the thief would as likely as not succeed in getting away with +the money, provided that the sum was not a large one—not large enough to +have attracted the attention of the croupiers or some fellow-player. Moreover, +if it were a stake of insignificant size, its true owner would sometimes +decline to continue the dispute, rather than become involved in a scandal. +Conversely, if the thief was detected, he was ignominiously expelled the +building. +</p> + +<p> +Upon all this the Grandmother gazed with open-eyed curiosity; and, on some +thieves happening to be turned out of the place, she was delighted. +Trente-et-quarante interested her but little; she preferred roulette, with its +ever-revolving wheel. At length she expressed a wish to view the game closer; +whereupon in some mysterious manner, the lacqueys and other officious agents +(especially one or two ruined Poles of the kind who keep offering their +services to successful gamblers and foreigners in general) at once found and +cleared a space for the old lady among the crush, at the very centre of one of +the tables, and next to the chief croupier; after which they wheeled her chair +thither. Upon this a number of visitors who were not playing, but only looking +on (particularly some Englishmen with their families), pressed closer forward +towards the table, in order to watch the old lady from among the ranks of the +gamblers. Many a lorgnette I saw turned in her direction, and the +croupiers’ hopes rose high that such an eccentric player was about to +provide them with something out of the common. An old lady of seventy-five +years who, though unable to walk, desired to play was not an everyday +phenomenon. I too pressed forward towards the table, and ranged myself by the +Grandmother’s side; while Martha and Potapitch remained somewhere in the +background among the crowd, and the General, Polina, and De Griers, with Mlle. +Blanche, also remained hidden among the spectators. +</p> + +<p> +At first the old lady did no more than watch the gamblers, and ply me, in a +half-whisper, with sharp-broken questions as to who was so-and-so. Especially +did her favour light upon a very young man who was plunging heavily, and had +won (so it was whispered) as much as 40,000 francs, which were lying before him +on the table in a heap of gold and bank-notes. His eyes kept flashing, and his +hands shaking; yet all the while he staked without any sort of +calculation—just what came to his hand, as he kept winning and winning, +and raking and raking in his gains. Around him lacqueys fussed—placing +chairs just behind where he was standing—and clearing the spectators from +his vicinity, so that he should have more room, and not be crowded—the +whole done, of course, in expectation of a generous largesse. From time to time +other gamblers would hand him part of their winnings—being glad to let +him stake for them as much as his hand could grasp; while beside him stood a +Pole in a state of violent, but respectful, agitation, who, also in expectation +of a generous largesse, kept whispering to him at intervals (probably telling +him what to stake, and advising and directing his play). Yet never once did the +player throw him a glance as he staked and staked, and raked in his winnings. +Evidently, the player in question was dead to all besides. +</p> + +<p> +For a few minutes the Grandmother watched him. +</p> + +<p> +“Go and tell him,” suddenly she exclaimed with a nudge at my elbow, +“—go and tell him to stop, and to take his money with him, and go +home. Presently he will be losing—yes, losing everything that he has now +won.” She seemed almost breathless with excitement. +</p> + +<p> +“Where is Potapitch?” she continued. “Send Potapitch to speak +to him. No, <i>you</i> must tell him, <i>you</i> must tell +him,”—here she nudged me again—“for I have not the +least notion where Potapitch is. Sortez, sortez,” she shouted to the +young man, until I leant over in her direction and whispered in her ear that no +shouting was allowed, nor even loud speaking, since to do so disturbed the +calculations of the players, and might lead to our being ejected. +</p> + +<p> +“How provoking!” she retorted. “Then the young man is done +for! I suppose he <i>wishes</i> to be ruined. Yet I could not bear to see him +have to return it all. What a fool the fellow is!” and the old lady +turned sharply away. +</p> + +<p> +On the left, among the players at the other half of the table, a young lady was +playing, with, beside her, a dwarf. Who the dwarf may have been—whether a +relative or a person whom she took with her to act as a foil—I do not +know; but I had noticed her there on previous occasions, since, everyday, she +entered the Casino at one o’clock precisely, and departed at +two—thus playing for exactly one hour. Being well-known to the +attendants, she always had a seat provided for her; and, taking some gold and a +few thousand-franc notes out of her pocket—would begin quietly, coldly, +and after much calculation, to stake, and mark down the figures in pencil on a +paper, as though striving to work out a system according to which, at given +moments, the odds might group themselves. Always she staked large coins, and +either lost or won one, two, or three thousand francs a day, but not more; +after which she would depart. The Grandmother took a long look at her. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>That</i> woman is not losing,” she said. “To whom does +she belong? Do you know her? Who is she?” +</p> + +<p> +“She is, I believe, a Frenchwoman,” I replied. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah! A bird of passage, evidently. Besides, I can see that she has her +shoes polished. Now, explain to me the meaning of each round in the game, and +the way in which one ought to stake.” +</p> + +<p> +Upon this I set myself to explain the meaning of all the combinations—of +“rouge et noir,” of “pair et impair,” of “manque +et passe,” with, lastly, the different values in the system of numbers. +The Grandmother listened attentively, took notes, put questions in various +forms, and laid the whole thing to heart. Indeed, since an example of each +system of stakes kept constantly occurring, a great deal of information could +be assimilated with ease and celerity. The Grandmother was vastly pleased. +</p> + +<p> +“But what is zero?” she inquired. “Just now I heard the +flaxen-haired croupier call out ‘zero!’ And why does he keep raking +in all the money that is on the table? To think that he should grab the whole +pile for himself! What does zero mean?” +</p> + +<p> +“Zero is what the bank takes for itself. If the wheel stops at that +figure, everything lying on the table becomes the absolute property of the +bank. Also, whenever the wheel has begun to turn, the bank ceases to pay out +anything.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I should receive nothing if I were staking?” +</p> + +<p> +“No; unless by any chance you had <i>purposely</i> staked on zero; in +which case you would receive thirty-five times the value of your stake.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why thirty-five times, when zero so often turns up? And if so, why do +not more of these fools stake upon it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because the number of chances against its occurrence is +thirty-six.” +</p> + +<p> +“Rubbish! Potapitch, Potapitch! Come here, and I will give you some +money.” The old lady took out of her pocket a tightly-clasped purse, and +extracted from its depths a ten-gülden piece. “Go at once, and stake that +upon zero.” +</p> + +<p> +“But, Madame, zero has only this moment turned up,” I remonstrated; +“wherefore, it may not do so again for ever so long. Wait a little, and +you may then have a better chance.” +</p> + +<p> +“Rubbish! Stake, please.” +</p> + +<p> +“Pardon me, but zero might not turn up again until, say, tonight, even +though you had staked thousands upon it. It often happens so.” +</p> + +<p> +“Rubbish, rubbish! Who fears the wolf should never enter the forest. +What? We have lost? Then stake again.” +</p> + +<p> +A second ten-gülden piece did we lose, and then I put down a third. The +Grandmother could scarcely remain seated in her chair, so intent was she upon +the little ball as it leapt through the notches of the ever-revolving wheel. +However, the third ten-gülden piece followed the first two. Upon this the +Grandmother went perfectly crazy. She could no longer sit still, and actually +struck the table with her fist when the croupier cried out, +“Trente-six,” instead of the desiderated zero. +</p> + +<p> +“To listen to him!” fumed the old lady. “When will that +accursed zero ever turn up? I cannot breathe until I see it. I believe that +that infernal croupier is <i>purposely</i> keeping it from turning up. Alexis +Ivanovitch, stake TWO golden pieces this time. The moment we cease to stake, +that cursed zero will come turning up, and we shall get nothing.” +</p> + +<p> +“My good Madame—” +</p> + +<p> +“Stake, stake! It is not <i>your</i> money.” +</p> + +<p> +Accordingly I staked two ten-gülden pieces. The ball went hopping round the +wheel until it began to settle through the notches. Meanwhile the Grandmother +sat as though petrified, with my hand convulsively clutched in hers. +</p> + +<p> +“Zero!” called the croupier. +</p> + +<p> +“There! You see, you see!” cried the old lady, as she turned and +faced me, wreathed in smiles. “I told you so! It was the Lord God himself +who suggested to me to stake those two coins. Now, how much ought I to receive? +Why do they not pay it out to me? Potapitch! Martha! Where are they? What has +become of our party? Potapitch, Potapitch!” +</p> + +<p> +“Presently, Madame,” I whispered. “Potapitch is outside, and +they would decline to admit him to these rooms. See! You are being paid out +your money. Pray take it.” The croupiers were making up a heavy packet of +coins, sealed in blue paper, and containing fifty ten gülden pieces, together +with an unsealed packet containing another twenty. I handed the whole to the +old lady in a money-shovel. +</p> + +<p> +“Faites le jeu, messieurs! Faites le jeu, messieurs! Rien ne va +plus,” proclaimed the croupier as once more he invited the company to +stake, and prepared to turn the wheel. +</p> + +<p> +“We shall be too late! He is going to spin again! Stake, stake!” +The Grandmother was in a perfect fever. “Do not hang back! Be +quick!” She seemed almost beside herself, and nudged me as hard as she +could. +</p> + +<p> +“Upon what shall I stake, Madame?” +</p> + +<p> +“Upon zero, upon zero! Again upon zero! Stake as much as ever you can. +How much have we got? Seventy ten-gülden pieces? We shall not miss them, so +stake twenty pieces at a time.” +</p> + +<p> +“Think a moment, Madame. Sometimes zero does not turn up for two hundred +rounds in succession. I assure you that you may lose all your capital.” +</p> + +<p> +“You are wrong—utterly wrong. Stake, I tell you! What a chattering +tongue you have! I know perfectly well what I am doing.” The old lady was +shaking with excitement. +</p> + +<p> +“But the rules do not allow of more than 120 gülden being staked upon +zero at a time.” +</p> + +<p> +“How ‘do not allow’? Surely you are wrong? Monsieur, +monsieur—” here she nudged the croupier who was sitting on her +left, and preparing to spin—“combien zero? Douze? Douze?” +</p> + +<p> +I hastened to translate. +</p> + +<p> +“Oui, Madame,” was the croupier’s polite reply. “No +single stake must exceed four thousand florins. That is the regulation.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then there is nothing else for it. We must risk in gülden.” +</p> + +<p> +“Le jeu est fait!” the croupier called. The wheel revolved, and +stopped at thirty. We had lost! +</p> + +<p> +“Again, again, again! Stake again!” shouted the old lady. Without +attempting to oppose her further, but merely shrugging my shoulders, I placed +twelve more ten-gülden pieces upon the table. The wheel whirled around and +around, with the Grandmother simply quaking as she watched its revolutions. +</p> + +<p> +“Does she again think that zero is going to be the winning coup?” +thought I, as I stared at her in astonishment. Yet an absolute assurance of +winning was shining on her face; she looked perfectly convinced that zero was +about to be called again. At length the ball dropped off into one of the +notches. +</p> + +<p> +“Zero!” cried the croupier. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah!!!” screamed the old lady as she turned to me in a whirl of +triumph. +</p> + +<p> +I myself was at heart a gambler. At that moment I became acutely conscious both +of that fact and of the fact that my hands and knees were shaking, and that the +blood was beating in my brain. Of course this was a rare occasion—an +occasion on which zero had turned up no less than three times within a dozen +rounds; yet in such an event there was nothing so very surprising, seeing that, +only three days ago, I myself had been a witness to zero turning up <i>three +times in succession</i>, so that one of the players who was recording the coups +on paper was moved to remark that for several days past zero had never turned +up at all! +</p> + +<p> +With the Grandmother, as with any one who has won a very large sum, the +management settled up with great attention and respect, since she was fortunate +to have to receive no less than 4200 gülden. Of these gülden the odd 200 were +paid her in gold, and the remainder in bank notes. +</p> + +<p> +This time the old lady did not call for Potapitch; for that she was too +preoccupied. Though not outwardly shaken by the event (indeed, she seemed +perfectly calm), she was trembling inwardly from head to foot. At length, +completely absorbed in the game, she burst out: +</p> + +<p> +“Alexis Ivanovitch, did not the croupier just say that 4000 florins were +the most that could be staked at any one time? Well, take these 4000, and stake +them upon the red.” +</p> + +<p> +To oppose her was useless. Once more the wheel revolved. +</p> + +<p> +“Rouge!” proclaimed the croupier. +</p> + +<p> +Again 4000 florins—in all 8000! +</p> + +<p> +“Give me them,” commanded the Grandmother, “and stake the +other 4000 upon the red again.” +</p> + +<p> +I did so. +</p> + +<p> +“Rouge!” proclaimed the croupier. +</p> + +<p> +“Twelve thousand!” cried the old lady. “Hand me the whole +lot. Put the gold into this purse here, and count the bank notes. Enough! Let +us go home. Wheel my chair away.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a>XI</h2> + +<p> +The chair, with the old lady beaming in it, was wheeled away towards the doors +at the further end of the salon, while our party hastened to crowd around her, +and to offer her their congratulations. In fact, eccentric as was her conduct, +it was also overshadowed by her triumph; with the result that the General no +longer feared to be publicly compromised by being seen with such a strange +woman, but, smiling in a condescending, cheerfully familiar way, as though he +were soothing a child, he offered his greetings to the old lady. At the same +time, both he and the rest of the spectators were visibly impressed. Everywhere +people kept pointing to the Grandmother, and talking about her. Many people +even walked beside her chair, in order to view her the better while, at a +little distance, Astley was carrying on a conversation on the subject with two +English acquaintances of his. De Griers was simply overflowing with smiles and +compliments, and a number of fine ladies were staring at the Grandmother as +though she had been something curious. +</p> + +<p> +“Quelle victoire!” exclaimed De Griers. +</p> + +<p> +“Mais, Madame, c’était du feu!” added Mlle. Blanche with an +elusive smile. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I have won twelve thousand florins,” replied the old lady. +“And then there is all this gold. With it the total ought to come to +nearly thirteen thousand. How much is that in Russian money? Six thousand +roubles, I think?” +</p> + +<p> +However, I calculated that the sum would exceed seven thousand +roubles—or, at the present rate of exchange, even eight thousand. +</p> + +<p> +“Eight thousand roubles! What a splendid thing! And to think of you +simpletons sitting there and doing nothing! Potapitch! Martha! See what I have +won!” +</p> + +<p> +“How <i>did</i> you do it, Madame?” Martha exclaimed ecstatically. +“Eight thousand roubles!” +</p> + +<p> +“And I am going to give you fifty gülden apiece. There they are.” +</p> + +<p> +Potapitch and Martha rushed towards her to kiss her hand. +</p> + +<p> +“And to each bearer also I will give a ten-gülden piece. Let them have it +out of the gold, Alexis Ivanovitch. But why is this footman bowing to me, and +that other man as well? Are they congratulating me? Well, let them have ten +gülden apiece.” +</p> + +<p> +“Madame la princesse—Un pauvre expatrié—Malheur +continuel—Les princes russes sont si généreux!” said a man who for +some time past had been hanging around the old lady’s chair—a +personage who, dressed in a shabby frockcoat and coloured waistcoat, kept +taking off his cap, and smiling pathetically. +</p> + +<p> +“Give him ten gülden,” said the Grandmother. “No, give him +twenty. Now, enough of that, or I shall never get done with you all. Take a +moment’s rest, and then carry me away. Prascovia, I mean to buy a new +dress for you tomorrow. Yes, and for you too, Mlle. Blanche. Please translate, +Prascovia.” +</p> + +<p> +“Merci, Madame,” replied Mlle. Blanche gratefully as she twisted +her face into the mocking smile which usually she kept only for the benefit of +De Griers and the General. The latter looked confused, and seemed greatly +relieved when we reached the Avenue. +</p> + +<p> +“How surprised Theodosia too will be!” went on the Grandmother +(thinking of the General’s nursemaid). “She, like yourselves, shall +have the price of a new gown. Here, Alexis Ivanovitch! Give that beggar +something” (a crooked-backed ragamuffin had approached to stare at us). +</p> + +<p> +“But perhaps he is <i>not</i> a beggar—only a rascal,” I +replied. +</p> + +<p> +“Never mind, never mind. Give him a gülden.” +</p> + +<p> +I approached the beggar in question, and handed him the coin. Looking at me in +great astonishment, he silently accepted the gülden, while from his person +there proceeded a strong smell of liquor. +</p> + +<p> +“Have you never tried your luck, Alexis Ivanovitch?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, Madame.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yet just now I could see that you were burning to do so?” +</p> + +<p> +“I <i>do</i> mean to try my luck presently.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then stake everything upon zero. You have seen how it ought to be done? +How much capital do you possess?” +</p> + +<p> +“Two hundred gülden, Madame.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not very much. See here; I will lend you five hundred if you wish. Take +this purse of mine.” With that she added sharply to the General: +“But <i>you</i> need not expect to receive any.” +</p> + +<p> +This seemed to upset him, but he said nothing, and De Griers contented himself +by scowling. +</p> + +<p> +“Que diable!” he whispered to the General. “C’est une +terrible vieille.” +</p> + +<p> +“Look! Another beggar, another beggar!” exclaimed the grandmother. +“Alexis Ivanovitch, go and give him a gülden.” +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke I saw approaching us a grey-headed old man with a wooden +leg—a man who was dressed in a blue frockcoat and carrying a staff. He +looked like an old soldier. As soon as I tendered him the coin he fell back a +step or two, and eyed me threateningly. +</p> + +<p> +“Was ist der Teufel!” he cried, and appended thereto a round dozen +of oaths. +</p> + +<p> +“The man is a perfect fool!” exclaimed the Grandmother, waving her +hand. “Move on now, for I am simply famished. When we have lunched we +will return to that place.” +</p> + +<p> +“What?” cried I. “You are going to play <i>again?</i>” +</p> + +<p> +“What else do you suppose?” she retorted. “Are you going only +to sit here, and grow sour, and let me look at you?” +</p> + +<p> +“Madame,” said De Griers confidentially, “les chances peuvent +tourner. Une seule mauvaise chance, et vous perdrez tout—surtout avec +votre jeu. C’était terrible!” +</p> + +<p> +“Oui; vous perdrez absolument,” put in Mlle. Blanche. +</p> + +<p> +“What has that got to do with <i>you?</i>” retorted the old lady. +“It is not <i>your</i> money that I am going to lose; it is my own. And +where is that Mr. Astley of yours?” she added to myself. +</p> + +<p> +“He stayed behind in the Casino.” +</p> + +<p> +“What a pity! He is such a nice sort of man!” +</p> + +<p> +Arriving home, and meeting the landlord on the staircase, the Grandmother +called him to her side, and boasted to him of her winnings—thereafter +doing the same to Theodosia, and conferring upon her thirty gülden; after which +she bid her serve luncheon. The meal over, Theodosia and Martha broke into a +joint flood of ecstasy. +</p> + +<p> +“I was watching you all the time, Madame,” quavered Martha, +“and I asked Potapitch what mistress was trying to do. And, my word! the +heaps and <i>heaps</i> of money that were lying upon the table! Never in my +life have I seen so much money. And there were gentlefolk around it, and other +gentlefolk sitting down. So, I asked Potapitch where all these gentry had come +from; for, thought I, maybe the Holy Mother of God will help our mistress among +them. Yes, I prayed for you, Madame, and my heart died within me, so that I +kept trembling and trembling. The Lord be with her, I thought to myself; and in +answer to my prayer He has now sent you what He has done! Even yet I +tremble—I tremble to think of it all.” +</p> + +<p> +“Alexis Ivanovitch,” said the old lady, “after +luncheon,—that is to say, about four o’clock—get ready to go +out with me again. But in the meanwhile, good-bye. Do not forget to call a +doctor, for I must take the waters. Now go and get rested a little.” +</p> + +<p> +I left the Grandmother’s presence in a state of bewilderment. +</p> + +<p> +Vainly I endeavoured to imagine what would become of our party, or what turn +the affair would next take. I could perceive that none of the party had yet +recovered their presence of mind—least of all the General. The factor of +the Grandmother’s appearance in place of the hourly expected telegram to +announce her death (with, of course, resultant legacies) had so upset the whole +scheme of intentions and projects that it was with a decided feeling of +apprehension and growing paralysis that the conspirators viewed any future +performances of the old lady at roulette. Yet this second factor was not quite +so important as the first, since, though the Grandmother had twice declared +that she did not intend to give the General any money, that declaration was not +a complete ground for the abandonment of hope. Certainly De Griers, who, with +the General, was up to the neck in the affair, had not wholly lost courage; and +I felt sure that Mlle. Blanche also—Mlle. Blanche who was not only as +deeply involved as the other two, but also expectant of becoming Madame General +and an important legatee—would not lightly surrender the position, but +would use her every resource of coquetry upon the old lady, in order to afford +a contrast to the impetuous Polina, who was difficult to understand, and lacked +the art of pleasing. +</p> + +<p> +Yet now, when the Grandmother had just performed an astonishing feat at +roulette; now, when the old lady’s personality had been so clearly and +typically revealed as that of a rugged, arrogant woman who was “tombée en +enfance”; now, when everything appeared to be lost,—why, now the +Grandmother was as merry as a child which plays with thistle-down. “Good +Lord!” I thought with, may God forgive me, a most malicious smile, +“every ten-gülden piece which the Grandmother staked must have raised a +blister on the General’s heart, and maddened De Griers, and driven Mlle. +de Cominges almost to frenzy with the sight of this spoon dangling before her +lips.” Another factor is the circumstance that even when, overjoyed at +winning, the Grandmother was distributing alms right and left, and taking every +one to be a beggar, she again snapped out to the General that he was not going +to be allowed any of her money—which meant that the old lady had quite +made up her mind on the point, and was sure of it. Yes, danger loomed ahead. +</p> + +<p> +All these thoughts passed through my mind during the few moments that, having +left the old lady’s rooms, I was ascending to my own room on the top +storey. What most struck me was the fact that, though I had divined the chief, +the stoutest, threads which united the various actors in the drama, I had, +until now, been ignorant of the methods and secrets of the game. For Polina had +never been completely open with me. Although, on occasions, it had happened +that involuntarily, as it were, she had revealed to me something of her heart, +I had noticed that in most cases—in fact, nearly always—she had +either laughed away these revelations, or grown confused, or purposely imparted +to them a false guise. Yes, she must have concealed a great deal from me. But, +I had a presentiment that now the end of this strained and mysterious situation +was approaching. Another stroke, and all would be finished and exposed. Of my +own fortunes, interested though I was in the affair, I took no account. I was +in the strange position of possessing but two hundred gülden, of being at a +loose end, of lacking both a post, the means of subsistence, a shred of hope, +and any plans for the future, yet of caring nothing for these things. Had not +my mind been so full of Polina, I should have given myself up to the comical +piquancy of the impending denouement, and laughed my fill at it. But the +thought of Polina was torture to me. That her fate was settled I already had an +inkling; yet <i>that</i> was not the thought which was giving me so much +uneasiness. What I really wished for was to penetrate her secrets. I wanted her +to come to me and say, “I love you,” and, if she would not so come, +or if to hope that she would ever do so was an unthinkable absurdity—why, +then there was nothing else for me to want. Even now I do not know what I am +wanting. I feel like a man who has lost his way. I yearn but to be in her +presence, and within the circle of her light and splendour—to be there +now, and forever, and for the whole of my life. More I do not know. How can I +ever bring myself to leave her? +</p> + +<p> +On reaching the third storey of the hotel I experienced a shock. I was just +passing the General’s suite when something caused me to look round. Out +of a door about twenty paces away there was coming Polina! She hesitated for a +moment on seeing me, and then beckoned me to her. +</p> + +<p> +“Polina Alexandrovna!” +</p> + +<p> +“Hush! Not so loud.” +</p> + +<p> +“Something startled me just now,” I whispered, “and I looked +round, and saw you. Some electrical influence seems to emanate from your +form.” +</p> + +<p> +“Take this letter,” she went on with a frown (probably she had not +even heard my words, she was so preoccupied), “and hand it personally to +Mr. Astley. Go as quickly as ever you can, please. No answer will be required. +He himself—” She did not finish her sentence. +</p> + +<p> +“To Mr. Astley?” I asked, in some astonishment. +</p> + +<p> +But she had vanished again. +</p> + +<p> +Aha! So the two were carrying on a correspondence! However, I set off to search +for Astley—first at his hotel, and then at the Casino, where I went the +round of the salons in vain. At length, vexed, and almost in despair, I was on +my way home when I ran across him among a troop of English ladies and gentlemen +who had been out for a ride. Beckoning to him to stop, I handed him the letter. +We had barely time even to look at one another, but I suspected that it was of +set purpose that he restarted his horse so quickly. +</p> + +<p> +Was jealousy, then, gnawing at me? At all events, I felt exceedingly depressed, +despite the fact that I had no desire to ascertain what the correspondence was +about. To think that <i>he</i> should be her confidant! “My friend, mine +own familiar friend!” passed through my mind. Yet <i>was</i> there any +love in the matter? “Of course not,” reason whispered to me. But +reason goes for little on such occasions. I felt that the matter must be +cleared up, for it was becoming unpleasantly complex. +</p> + +<p> +I had scarcely set foot in the hotel when the commissionaire and the landlord +(the latter issuing from his room for the purpose) alike informed me that I was +being searched for high and low—that three separate messages to ascertain +my whereabouts had come down from the General. When I entered his study I was +feeling anything but kindly disposed. I found there the General himself, De +Griers, and Mlle. Blanche, but not Mlle.’s mother, who was a person whom +her reputed daughter used only for show purposes, since in all matters of +business the daughter fended for herself, and it is unlikely that the mother +knew anything about them. +</p> + +<p> +Some very heated discussion was in progress, and meanwhile the door of the +study was open—an unprecedented circumstance. As I approached the portals +I could hear loud voices raised, for mingled with the pert, venomous accents of +De Griers were Mlle. Blanche’s excited, impudently abusive tongue and the +General’s plaintive wail as, apparently, he sought to justify himself in +something. But on my appearance every one stopped speaking, and tried to put a +better face upon matters. De Griers smoothed his hair, and twisted his angry +face into a smile—into the mean, studiedly polite French smile which I so +detested; while the downcast, perplexed General assumed an air of +dignity—though only in a mechanical way. On the other hand, Mlle. Blanche +did not trouble to conceal the wrath that was sparkling in her countenance, but +bent her gaze upon me with an air of impatient expectancy. I may remark that +hitherto she had treated me with absolute superciliousness, and, so far from +answering my salutations, had always ignored them. +</p> + +<p> +“Alexis Ivanovitch,” began the General in a tone of affectionate +upbraiding, “may I say to you that I find it strange, exceedingly +strange, that—In short, your conduct towards myself and my family— +In a word, your—er—extremely—” +</p> + +<p> +“Eh! Ce n’est pas ça,” interrupted De Griers in a tone of +impatience and contempt (evidently he was the ruling spirit of the conclave). +“Mon cher monsieur, notre général se trompe. What he means to say is that +he warns you—he begs of you most earnestly—not to ruin him. I use +the expression because—” +</p> + +<p> +“Why? Why?” I interjected. +</p> + +<p> +“Because you have taken upon yourself to act as guide to this, to +this—how shall I express it?—to this old lady, à cette pauvre +terrible vieille. But she will only gamble away all that she has—gamble +it away like thistledown. You yourself have seen her play. Once she has +acquired the taste for gambling, she will never leave the roulette-table, but, +of sheer perversity and temper, will stake her all, and lose it. In cases such +as hers a gambler can never be torn away from the game; and then—and +then—” +</p> + +<p> +“And then,” asseverated the General, “you will have ruined my +whole family. I and my family are her heirs, for she has no nearer relatives +than ourselves. I tell you frankly that my affairs are in great—very +great disorder; how much they are so you yourself are partially aware. If she +should lose a large sum, or, maybe, her whole fortune, what will become of +us—of my children” (here the General exchanged a glance with De +Griers) “or of me?” (here he looked at Mlle. Blanche, who turned +her head contemptuously away). “Alexis Ivanovitch, I beg of you to save +us.” +</p> + +<p> +“Tell me, General, how am I to do so? On what footing do I stand +here?” +</p> + +<p> +“Refuse to take her about. Simply leave her alone.” +</p> + +<p> +“But she would soon find some one else to take my place?” +</p> + +<p> +“Ce n’est pas ça, ce n’est pas ça,” again interrupted +De Griers. “Que diable! Do not leave her alone so much as advise her, +persuade her, draw her away. In any case do not let her gamble; find her some +counter-attraction.” +</p> + +<p> +“And how am I to do that? If only you would undertake the task, Monsieur +de Griers!” I said this last as innocently as possible, but at once saw a +rapid glance of excited interrogation pass from Mlle. Blanche to De Griers, +while in the face of the latter also there gleamed something which he could not +repress. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, at the present moment she would refuse to accept my +services,” said he with a gesture. “But if, later—” +</p> + +<p> +Here he gave Mlle. Blanche another glance which was full of meaning; whereupon +she advanced towards me with a bewitching smile, and seized and pressed my +hands. Devil take it, but how that devilish visage of hers could change! At the +present moment it was a visage full of supplication, and as gentle in its +expression as that of a smiling, roguish infant. Stealthily, she drew me apart +from the rest as though the more completely to separate me from them; and, +though no harm came of her doing so—for it was merely a stupid manoeuvre, +and no more—I found the situation very unpleasant. +</p> + +<p> +The General hastened to lend her his support. +</p> + +<p> +“Alexis Ivanovitch,” he began, “pray pardon me for having +said what I did just now—for having said more than I meant to do. I beg +and beseech you, I kiss the hem of your garment, as our Russian saying has it, +for you, and only you, can save us. I and Mlle. de Cominges, we all of us beg +of you—But you understand, do you not? Surely you understand?” and +with his eyes he indicated Mlle. Blanche. Truly he was cutting a pitiful +figure! +</p> + +<p> +At this moment three low, respectful knocks sounded at the door; which, on +being opened, revealed a chambermaid, with Potapitch behind her—come from +the Grandmother to request that I should attend her in her rooms. “She is +in a bad humour,” added Potapitch. +</p> + +<p> +The time was half-past three. +</p> + +<p> +“My mistress was unable to sleep,” explained Potapitch; “so, +after tossing about for a while, she suddenly rose, called for her chair, and +sent me to look for you. She is now in the verandah.” +</p> + +<p> +“Quelle mégère!” exclaimed De Griers. +</p> + +<p> +True enough, I found Madame in the hotel verandah—much put about at my +delay, for she had been unable to contain herself until four o’clock. +</p> + +<p> +“Lift me up,” she cried to the bearers, and once more we set out +for the roulette-salons. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a>XII</h2> + +<p> +The Grandmother was in an impatient, irritable frame of mind. Without doubt the +roulette had turned her head, for she appeared to be indifferent to everything +else, and, in general, seemed much distraught. For instance, she asked me no +questions about objects <i>en route</i>, except that, when a sumptuous barouche +passed us and raised a cloud of dust, she lifted her hand for a moment, and +inquired, “What was that?” Yet even then she did not appear to hear +my reply, although at times her abstraction was interrupted by sallies and fits +of sharp, impatient fidgeting. Again, when I pointed out to her the Baron and +Baroness Burmergelm walking to the Casino, she merely looked at them in an +absent-minded sort of way, and said with complete indifference, +“Ah!” Then, turning sharply to Potapitch and Martha, who were +walking behind us, she rapped out: +</p> + +<p> +“Why have <i>you</i> attached yourselves to the party? We are not going +to take you with us every time. Go home at once.” Then, when the servants +had pulled hasty bows and departed, she added to me: “You are all the +escort I need.” +</p> + +<p> +At the Casino the Grandmother seemed to be expected, for no time was lost in +procuring her former place beside the croupier. It is my opinion that though +croupiers seem such ordinary, humdrum officials—men who care nothing +whether the bank wins or loses—they are, in reality, anything but +indifferent to the bank’s losing, and are given instructions to attract +players, and to keep a watch over the bank’s interests; as also, that for +such services, these officials are awarded prizes and premiums. At all events, +the croupiers of Roulettenberg seemed to look upon the Grandmother as their +lawful prey—whereafter there befell what our party had foretold. +</p> + +<p> +It happened thus: +</p> + +<p> +As soon as ever we arrived the Grandmother ordered me to stake twelve +ten-gülden pieces in succession upon zero. Once, twice, and thrice I did so, +yet zero never turned up. +</p> + +<p> +“Stake again,” said the old lady with an impatient nudge of my +elbow, and I obeyed. +</p> + +<p> +“How many times have we lost?” she inquired—actually grinding +her teeth in her excitement. +</p> + +<p> +“We have lost 144 ten-gülden pieces,” I replied. “I tell you, +Madame, that zero may not turn up until nightfall.” +</p> + +<p> +“Never mind,” she interrupted. “Keep on staking upon zero, +and also stake a thousand gülden upon rouge. Here is a banknote with which to +do so.” +</p> + +<p> +The red turned up, but zero missed again, and we only got our thousand gülden +back. +</p> + +<p> +“But you see, you see,” whispered the old lady. “We have now +recovered almost all that we staked. Try zero again. Let us do so another ten +times, and then leave off.” +</p> + +<p> +By the fifth round, however, the Grandmother was weary of the scheme. +</p> + +<p> +“To the devil with that zero!” she exclaimed. “Stake four +thousand gülden upon the red.” +</p> + +<p> +“But, Madame, that will be so much to venture!” I remonstrated. +“Suppose the red should not turn up?” The Grandmother almost struck +me in her excitement. Her agitation was rapidly making her quarrelsome. +Consequently, there was nothing for it but to stake the whole four thousand +gülden as she had directed. +</p> + +<p> +The wheel revolved while the Grandmother sat as bolt upright, and with as proud +and quiet a mien, as though she had not the least doubt of winning. +</p> + +<p> +“Zero!” cried the croupier. +</p> + +<p> +At first the old lady failed to understand the situation; but, as soon as she +saw the croupier raking in her four thousand gülden, together with everything +else that happened to be lying on the table, and recognised that the zero which +had been so long turning up, and on which we had lost nearly two hundred +ten-gülden pieces, had at length, as though of set purpose, made a sudden +reappearance—why, the poor old lady fell to cursing it, and to throwing +herself about, and wailing and gesticulating at the company at large. Indeed, +some people in our vicinity actually burst out laughing. +</p> + +<p> +“To think that that accursed zero should have turned up +<i>now!</i>” she sobbed. “The accursed, accursed thing! And, it is +all <i>your</i> fault,” she added, rounding upon me in a frenzy. +“It was <i>you</i> who persuaded me to cease staking upon it.” +</p> + +<p> +“But, Madame, I only explained the game to you. How am <i>I</i> to answer +for every mischance which may occur in it?” +</p> + +<p> +“You and your mischances!” she whispered threateningly. “Go! +Away at once!” +</p> + +<p> +“Farewell, then, Madame.” And I turned to depart. +</p> + +<p> +“No—stay,” she put in hastily. “Where are you going to? +Why should you leave me? You fool! No, no... stay here. It is <i>I</i> who was +the fool. Tell me what I ought to do.” +</p> + +<p> +“I cannot take it upon myself to advise you, for you will only blame me +if I do so. Play at your own discretion. Say exactly what you wish staked, and +I will stake it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well. Stake another four thousand gülden upon the red. Take this +banknote to do it with. I have still got twenty thousand roubles in actual +cash.” +</p> + +<p> +“But,” I whispered, “such a quantity of money—” +</p> + +<p> +“Never mind. I cannot rest until I have won back my losses. Stake!” +</p> + +<p> +I staked, and we lost. +</p> + +<p> +“Stake again, stake again—eight thousand at a stroke!” +</p> + +<p> +“I cannot, Madame. The largest stake allowed is four thousand +gülden.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, then; stake four thousand.” +</p> + +<p> +This time we won, and the Grandmother recovered herself a little. +</p> + +<p> +“You see, you see!” she exclaimed as she nudged me. “Stake +another four thousand.” +</p> + +<p> +I did so, and lost. Again, and yet again, we lost. “Madame, your twelve +thousand gülden are now gone,” at length I reported. +</p> + +<p> +“I see they are,” she replied with, as it were, the calmness of +despair. “I see they are,” she muttered again as she gazed straight +in front of her, like a person lost in thought. “Ah well, I do not mean +to rest until I have staked another four thousand.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you have no money with which to do it, Madame. In this satchel I can +see only a few five percent bonds and some transfers—no actual +cash.” +</p> + +<p> +“And in the purse?” +</p> + +<p> +“A mere trifle.” +</p> + +<p> +“But there is a money-changer’s office here, is there not? They +told me I should be able to get any sort of paper security changed!” +</p> + +<p> +“Quite so; to any amount you please. But you will lose on the transaction +what would frighten even a Jew.” +</p> + +<p> +“Rubbish! I am <i>determined</i> to retrieve my losses. Take me away, and +call those fools of bearers.” +</p> + +<p> +I wheeled the chair out of the throng, and, the bearers making their +appearance, we left the Casino. +</p> + +<p> +“Hurry, hurry!” commanded the Grandmother. “Show me the +nearest way to the money-changer’s. Is it far?” +</p> + +<p> +“A couple of steps, Madame.” +</p> + +<p> +At the turning from the square into the Avenue we came face to face with the +whole of our party—the General, De Griers, Mlle. Blanche, and her mother. +Only Polina and Mr. Astley were absent. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well, well!” exclaimed the Grandmother. “But we have +no time to stop. What do you want? I can’t talk to you here.” +</p> + +<p> +I dropped behind a little, and immediately was pounced upon by De Griers. +</p> + +<p> +“She has lost this morning’s winnings,” I whispered, +“and also twelve thousand gülden of her original money. At the present +moment we are going to get some bonds changed.” +</p> + +<p> +De Griers stamped his foot with vexation, and hastened to communicate the +tidings to the General. Meanwhile we continued to wheel the old lady along. +</p> + +<p> +“Stop her, stop her,” whispered the General in consternation. +</p> + +<p> +“You had better try and stop her yourself,” I returned—also +in a whisper. +</p> + +<p> +“My good mother,” he said as he approached her, “—my +good mother, pray let, let—” (his voice was beginning to tremble +and sink) “—let us hire a carriage, and go for a drive. Near here +there is an enchanting view to be obtained. We-we-we were just coming to invite +you to go and see it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Begone with you and your views!” said the Grandmother angrily as +she waved him away. +</p> + +<p> +“And there are trees there, and we could have tea under them,” +continued the General—now in utter despair. +</p> + +<p> +“Nous boirons du lait, sur l’herbe fraiche,” added De Griers +with the snarl almost of a wild beast. +</p> + +<p> +“Du lait, de l’herbe fraiche”—the idyll, the ideal of +the Parisian bourgeois—his whole outlook upon “la nature et la +verité”! +</p> + +<p> +“Have done with you and your milk!” cried the old lady. “Go +and stuff <i>yourself</i> as much as you like, but my stomach simply recoils +from the idea. What are you stopping for? I have nothing to say to you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Here we are, Madame,” I announced. “Here is the +moneychanger’s office.” +</p> + +<p> +I entered to get the securities changed, while the Grandmother remained outside +in the porch, and the rest waited at a little distance, in doubt as to their +best course of action. At length the old lady turned such an angry stare upon +them that they departed along the road towards the Casino. +</p> + +<p> +The process of changing involved complicated calculations which soon +necessitated my return to the Grandmother for instructions. +</p> + +<p> +“The thieves!” she exclaimed as she clapped her hands together. +“Never mind, though. Get the documents cashed—No; send the banker +out to me,” she added as an afterthought. +</p> + +<p> +“Would one of the clerks do, Madame?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, one of the clerks. The thieves!” +</p> + +<p> +The clerk consented to come out when he perceived that he was being asked for +by an old lady who was too infirm to walk; after which the Grandmother began to +upbraid him at length, and with great vehemence, for his alleged usuriousness, +and to bargain with him in a mixture of Russian, French, and German—I +acting as interpreter. Meanwhile, the grave-faced official eyed us both, and +silently nodded his head. At the Grandmother, in particular, he gazed with a +curiosity which almost bordered upon rudeness. At length, too, he smiled. +</p> + +<p> +“Pray recollect yourself!” cried the old lady. “And may my +money choke you! Alexis Ivanovitch, tell him that we can easily repair to +someone else.” +</p> + +<p> +“The clerk says that others will give you even less than he.” +</p> + +<p> +Of what the ultimate calculations consisted I do not exactly remember, but at +all events they were alarming. Receiving twelve thousand florins in gold, I +took also the statement of accounts, and carried it out to the Grandmother. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well,” she said, “I am no accountant. Let us hurry +away, hurry away.” And she waved the paper aside. +</p> + +<p> +“Neither upon that accursed zero, however, nor upon that equally accursed +red do I mean to stake a cent,” I muttered to myself as I entered the +Casino. +</p> + +<p> +This time I did all I could to persuade the old lady to stake as little as +possible—saying that a turn would come in the chances when she would be +at liberty to stake more. But she was so impatient that, though at first she +agreed to do as I suggested, nothing could stop her when once she had begun. By +way of prelude she won stakes of a hundred and two hundred gülden. +</p> + +<p> +“There you are!” she said as she nudged me. “See what we have +won! Surely it would be worth our while to stake four thousand instead of a +hundred, for we might win another four thousand, and then—! Oh, it was +YOUR fault before—all your fault!” +</p> + +<p> +I felt greatly put out as I watched her play, but I decided to hold my tongue, +and to give her no more advice. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly De Griers appeared on the scene. It seemed that all this while he and +his companions had been standing beside us—though I noticed that Mlle. +Blanche had withdrawn a little from the rest, and was engaged in flirting with +the Prince. Clearly the General was greatly put out at this. Indeed, he was in +a perfect agony of vexation. But Mlle. was careful never to look his way, +though he did his best to attract her notice. Poor General! By turns his face +blanched and reddened, and he was trembling to such an extent that he could +scarcely follow the old lady’s play. At length Mlle. and the Prince took +their departure, and the General followed them. +</p> + +<p> +“Madame, Madame,” sounded the honeyed accents of De Griers as he +leant over to whisper in the Grandmother’s ear. “That stake will +never win. No, no, it is impossible,” he added in Russian with a writhe. +“No, no!” +</p> + +<p> +“But why not?” asked the Grandmother, turning round. “Show me +what I ought to do.” +</p> + +<p> +Instantly De Griers burst into a babble of French as he advised, jumped about, +declared that such and such chances ought to be waited for, and started to make +calculations of figures. All this he addressed to me in my capacity as +translator—tapping the table the while with his finger, and pointing +hither and thither. At length he seized a pencil, and began to reckon sums on +paper until he had exhausted the Grandmother’s patience. +</p> + +<p> +“Away with you!” she interrupted. “You talk sheer nonsense, +for, though you keep on saying ‘Madame, Madame,’ you haven’t +the least notion what ought to be done. Away with you, I say!” +</p> + +<p> +“Mais, Madame,” cooed De Griers—and straightway started +afresh with his fussy instructions. +</p> + +<p> +“Stake just <i>once</i>, as he advises,” the Grandmother said to +me, “and then we shall see what we <i>shall</i> see. Of course, his stake +<i>might</i> win.” +</p> + +<p> +As a matter of fact, De Grier’s one object was to distract the old lady +from staking large sums; wherefore, he now suggested to her that she should +stake upon certain numbers, singly and in groups. Consequently, in accordance +with his instructions, I staked a ten-gülden piece upon several odd numbers in +the first twenty, and five ten-gülden pieces upon certain groups of +numbers-groups of from twelve to eighteen, and from eighteen to twenty-four. +The total staked amounted to 160 gülden. +</p> + +<p> +The wheel revolved. “Zero!” cried the croupier. +</p> + +<p> +We had lost it all! +</p> + +<p> +“The fool!” cried the old lady as she turned upon De Griers. +“You infernal Frenchman, to think that <i>you</i> should advise! Away +with you! Though you fuss and fuss, you don’t even know what you’re +talking about.” +</p> + +<p> +Deeply offended, De Griers shrugged his shoulders, favoured the Grandmother +with a look of contempt, and departed. For some time past he had been feeling +ashamed of being seen in such company, and this had proved the last straw. +</p> + +<p> +An hour later we had lost everything in hand. +</p> + +<p> +“Home!” cried the Grandmother. +</p> + +<p> +Not until we had turned into the Avenue did she utter a word; but from that +point onwards, until we arrived at the hotel, she kept venting exclamations of +“What a fool I am! What a silly old fool I am, to be sure!” +</p> + +<p> +Arrived at the hotel, she called for tea, and then gave orders for her luggage +to be packed. +</p> + +<p> +“We are off again,” she announced. +</p> + +<p> +“But whither, Madame?” inquired Martha. +</p> + +<p> +“What business is that of <i>yours?</i> Let the cricket stick to its +hearth.<a href="#fn-2" name="fnref-2" id="fnref-2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> +Potapitch, have everything packed, for we are returning to Moscow at once. I +have fooled away fifteen thousand roubles.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-2" id="fn-2"></a> <a href="#fnref-2">[2]</a> +The Russian form of “Mind your own business.” +</p> +<p> +“Fifteen thousand roubles, good mistress? My God!” And Potapitch +spat upon his hands—probably to show that he was ready to serve her in +any way he could. +</p> + +<p> +“Now then, you fool! At once you begin with your weeping and wailing! Be +quiet, and pack. Also, run downstairs, and get my hotel bill.” +</p> + +<p> +“The next train leaves at 9:30, Madame,” I interposed, with a view +to checking her agitation. +</p> + +<p> +“And what is the time now?” +</p> + +<p> +“Half-past eight.” +</p> + +<p> +“How vexing! But, never mind. Alexis Ivanovitch, I have not a kopeck +left; I have but these two bank notes. Please run to the office and get them +changed. Otherwise I shall have nothing to travel with.” +</p> + +<p> +Departing on her errand, I returned half an hour later to find the whole party +gathered in her rooms. It appeared that the news of her impending departure for +Moscow had thrown the conspirators into consternation even greater than her +losses had done. For, said they, even if her departure should save her fortune, +what will become of the General later? And who is to repay De Griers? Clearly +Mlle. Blanche would never consent to wait until the Grandmother was dead, but +would at once elope with the Prince or someone else. So they had all gathered +together—endeavouring to calm and dissuade the Grandmother. Only Polina +was absent. For her part the Grandmother had nothing for the party but abuse. +</p> + +<p> +“Away with you, you rascals!” she was shouting. “What have my +affairs to do with you? Why, in particular, do <i>you</i>”—here she +indicated De Griers—“come sneaking here with your goat’s +beard? And what do <i>you</i>”—here she turned to Mlle. Blanche +“want of me? What are <i>you</i> finicking for?” +</p> + +<p> +“Diantre!” muttered Mlle. under her breath, but her eyes were +flashing. Then all at once she burst into a laugh and left the +room—crying to the General as she did so: “Elle vivra cent +ans!” +</p> + +<p> +“So you have been counting upon my death, have you?” fumed the old +lady. “Away with you! Clear them out of the room, Alexis Ivanovitch. What +business is it of <i>theirs?</i> It is not <i>their</i> money that I have been +squandering, but my own.” +</p> + +<p> +The General shrugged his shoulders, bowed, and withdrew, with De Griers behind +him. +</p> + +<p> +“Call Prascovia,” commanded the Grandmother, and in five minutes +Martha reappeared with Polina, who had been sitting with the children in her +own room (having purposely determined not to leave it that day). Her face +looked grave and careworn. +</p> + +<p> +“Prascovia,” began the Grandmother, “is what I have just +heard through a side wind true—namely, that this fool of a stepfather of +yours is going to marry that silly whirligig of a Frenchwoman—that +actress, or something worse? Tell me, is it true?” +</p> + +<p> +“I do not know <i>for certain</i>, Grandmamma,” replied Polina; +“but from Mlle. Blanche’s account (for she does not appear to think +it necessary to conceal anything) I conclude that—” +</p> + +<p> +“You need not say any more,” interrupted the Grandmother +energetically. “I understand the situation. I always thought we should +get something like this from him, for I always looked upon him as a futile, +frivolous fellow who gave himself unconscionable airs on the fact of his being +a general (though he only became one because he retired as a colonel). Yes, I +know <i>all</i> about the sending of the telegrams to inquire whether +‘the old woman is likely to turn up her toes soon.’ Ah, they were +looking for the legacies! Without money that wretched woman (what is her +name?—Oh, De Cominges) would never dream of accepting the General and his +false teeth—no, not even for him to be her lacquey—since she +herself, they say, possesses a pile of money, and lends it on interest, and +makes a good thing out of it. However, it is not <i>you</i>, Prascovia, that I +am blaming; it was not <i>you</i> who sent those telegrams. Nor, for that +matter, do I wish to recall old scores. True, I know that you are a vixen by +nature—that you are a wasp which will sting one if one touches +it—yet, my heart is sore for you, for I loved your mother, Katerina. Now, +will you leave everything here, and come away with me? Otherwise, I do not know +what is to become of you, and it is not right that you should continue living +with these people. Nay,” she interposed, the moment that Polina attempted +to speak, “I have not yet finished. I ask of you nothing in return. My +house in Moscow is, as you know, large enough for a palace, and you could +occupy a whole floor of it if you liked, and keep away from me for weeks +together. Will you come with me or will you not?” +</p> + +<p> +“First of all, let me ask of <i>you</i>,” replied Polina, +“whether you are intending to depart at once?” +</p> + +<p> +“What? You suppose me to be jesting? I have said that I am going, and I +<i>am</i> going. Today I have squandered fifteen thousand roubles at that +accursed roulette of yours, and though, five years ago, I promised the people +of a certain suburb of Moscow to build them a stone church in place of a wooden +one, I have been fooling away my money here! However, I am going back now to +build my church.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what about the waters, Grandmamma? Surely you came here to take the +waters?” +</p> + +<p> +“You and your waters! Do not anger me, Prascovia. Surely you are trying +to? Say, then: will you, or will you not, come with me?” +</p> + +<p> +“Grandmamma,” Polina replied with deep feeling, “I am very, +very grateful to you for the shelter which you have so kindly offered me. Also, +to a certain extent you have guessed my position aright, and I am beholden to +you to such an extent that it may be that I <i>will</i> come and live with you, +and that very soon; yet there are important reasons why—why I cannot make +up my mind just yet. If you would let me have, say, a couple of weeks to decide +in—?” +</p> + +<p> +“You mean that you are <i>not</i> coming?” +</p> + +<p> +“I mean only that I cannot come just yet. At all events, I could not well +leave my little brother and sister here, since, since—if I were to leave +them—they would be abandoned altogether. But if, Grandmamma, you would +take the little ones <i>and</i> myself, then, of course, I could come with you, +and would do all I could to serve you” (this she said with great +earnestness). “Only, without the little ones I <i>cannot</i> come.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do not make a fuss” (as a matter of fact Polina never at any time +either fussed or wept). “The Great Foster-Father<a href="#fn-3" name="fnref-3" id="fnref-3"><sup>[3]</sup></a> +can find for all his chicks a place. You are not coming without the children? +But see here, Prascovia. I wish you well, and nothing but well: yet I have +divined the reason why you will not come. Yes, I know all, Prascovia. That +Frenchman will never bring you good of any sort.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-3" id="fn-3"></a> <a href="#fnref-3">[3]</a> +Translated literally—The Great Poulterer. +</p> + +<p> +Polina coloured hotly, and even I started. “For,” thought I to +myself, “every one seems to know about that affair. Or perhaps I am the +only one who does not know about it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Now, now! Do not frown,” continued the Grandmother. “But I +do not intend to slur things over. You will take care that no harm befalls you, +will you not? For you are a girl of sense, and I am sorry for you—I +regard you in a different light to the rest of them. And now, please, leave me. +Good-bye.” +</p> + +<p> +“But let me stay with you a little longer,” said Polina. +</p> + +<p> +“No,” replied the other; “you need not. Do not bother me, for +you and all of them have tired me out.” +</p> + +<p> +Yet when Polina tried to kiss the Grandmother’s hand, the old lady +withdrew it, and herself kissed the girl on the cheek. As she passed me, Polina +gave me a momentary glance, and then as swiftly averted her eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“And good-bye to you, also, Alexis Ivanovitch. The train starts in an +hour’s time, and I think that you must be weary of me. Take these five +hundred gülden for yourself.” +</p> + +<p> +“I thank you humbly, Madame, but I am ashamed to—” +</p> + +<p> +“Come, come!” cried the Grandmother so energetically, and with such +an air of menace, that I did not dare refuse the money further. +</p> + +<p> +“If, when in Moscow, you have no place where you can lay your +head,” she added, “come and see me, and I will give you a +recommendation. Now, Potapitch, get things ready.” +</p> + +<p> +I ascended to my room, and lay down upon the bed. A whole hour I must have lain +thus, with my head resting upon my hand. So the crisis had come! I needed time +for its consideration. To-morrow I would have a talk with Polina. Ah! The +Frenchman! So, it was true? But how could it be so? Polina and De Griers! What +a combination! +</p> + +<p> +No, it was too improbable. Suddenly I leapt up with the idea of seeking Astley +and forcing him to speak. There could be no doubt that he knew more than I did. +Astley? Well, he was another problem for me to solve. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly there came a knock at the door, and I opened it to find Potapitch +awaiting me. +</p> + +<p> +“Sir,” he said, “my mistress is asking for you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed? But she is just departing, is she not? The train leaves in ten +minutes’ time.” +</p> + +<p> +“She is uneasy, sir; she cannot rest. Come quickly, sir; do not +delay.” +</p> + +<p> +I ran downstairs at once. The Grandmother was just being carried out of her +rooms into the corridor. In her hands she held a roll of bank-notes. +</p> + +<p> +“Alexis Ivanovitch,” she cried, “walk on ahead, and we will +set out again.” +</p> + +<p> +“But whither, Madame?” +</p> + +<p> +“I cannot rest until I have retrieved my losses. March on ahead, and ask +me no questions. Play continues until midnight, does it not?” +</p> + +<p> +For a moment I stood stupefied—stood deep in thought; but it was not long +before I had made up my mind. +</p> + +<p> +“With your leave, Madame,” I said, “I will not go with +you.” +</p> + +<p> +“And why not? What do you mean? Is every one here a stupid +good-for-nothing?” +</p> + +<p> +“Pardon me, but I have nothing to reproach myself with. I merely will not +go. I merely intend neither to witness nor to join in your play. I also beg to +return you your five hundred gülden. Farewell.” +</p> + +<p> +Laying the money upon a little table which the Grandmother’s chair +happened to be passing, I bowed and withdrew. +</p> + +<p> +“What folly!” the Grandmother shouted after me. “Very well, +then. Do not come, and I will find my way alone. Potapitch, you must come with +me. Lift up the chair, and carry me along.” +</p> + +<p> +I failed to find Mr. Astley, and returned home. It was now growing +late—it was past midnight, but I subsequently learnt from Potapitch how +the Grandmother’s day had ended. She had lost all the money which, +earlier in the day, I had got for her paper securities—a sum amounting to +about ten thousand roubles. This she did under the direction of the Pole whom, +that afternoon, she had dowered with two ten-gülden pieces. But before his +arrival on the scene, she had commanded Potapitch to stake for her; until at +length she had told him also to go about his business. Upon that the Pole had +leapt into the breach. Not only did it happen that he knew the Russian +language, but also he could speak a mixture of three different dialects, so +that the pair were able to understand one another. Yet the old lady never +ceased to abuse him, despite his deferential manner, and to compare him +unfavourably with myself (so, at all events, Potapitch declared). +“<i>You</i>,” the old chamberlain said to me, “treated her as +a gentleman should, but he—he robbed her right and left, as I could see +with my own eyes. Twice she caught him at it, and rated him soundly. On one +occasion she even pulled his hair, so that the bystanders burst out laughing. +Yet she lost everything, sir—that is to say, she lost all that you had +changed for her. Then we brought her home, and, after asking for some water and +saying her prayers, she went to bed. So worn out was she that she fell asleep +at once. May God send her dreams of angels! And <i>this</i> is all that foreign +travel has done for us! Oh, my own Moscow! For what have we not at home there, +in Moscow? Such a garden and flowers as you could never see here, and fresh air +and apple-trees coming into blossom,—and a beautiful view to look upon. +Ah, but what must she do but go travelling abroad? Alack, alack!” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap13"></a>XIII</h2> + +<p> +Almost a month has passed since I last touched these notes—notes which I +began under the influence of impressions at once poignant and disordered. The +crisis which I then felt to be approaching has now arrived, but in a form a +hundred times more extensive and unexpected than I had looked for. To me it all +seems strange, uncouth, and tragic. Certain occurrences have befallen me which +border upon the marvellous. At all events, that is how I view them. I view them +so in one regard at least. I refer to the whirlpool of events in which, at the +time, I was revolving. But the most curious feature of all is my relation to +those events, for hitherto I had never clearly understood myself. Yet now the +actual crisis has passed away like a dream. Even my passion for Polina is dead. +<i>Was</i> it ever so strong and genuine as I thought? If so, what has become +of it now? At times I fancy that I must be mad; that somewhere I am sitting in +a madhouse; that these events have merely <i>seemed</i> to happen; that still +they merely <i>seem</i> to be happening. +</p> + +<p> +I have been arranging and re-perusing my notes (perhaps for the purpose of +convincing myself that I am not in a madhouse). At present I am lonely and +alone. Autumn is coming—already it is mellowing the leaves; and, as I sit +brooding in this melancholy little town (and how melancholy the little towns of +Germany can be!), I find myself taking no thought for the future, but living +under the influence of passing moods, and of my recollections of the tempest +which recently drew me into its vortex, and then cast me out again. At times I +seem still to be caught within that vortex. At times, the tempest seems once +more to be gathering, and, as it passes overhead, to be wrapping me in its +folds, until I have lost my sense of order and reality, and continue whirling +and whirling and whirling around. +</p> + +<p> +Yet, it may be that I shall be able to stop myself from revolving if once I can +succeed in rendering myself an exact account of what has happened within the +month just past. Somehow I feel drawn towards the pen; on many and many an +evening I have had nothing else in the world to do. But, curiously enough, of +late I have taken to amusing myself with the works of M. Paul de Kock, which I +read in German translations obtained from a wretched local library. These works +I cannot abide, yet I read them, and find myself marvelling that I should be +doing so. Somehow I seem to be afraid of any <i>serious</i> book—afraid +of permitting any <i>serious</i> preoccupation to break the spell of the +passing moment. So dear to me is the formless dream of which I have spoken, so +dear to me are the impressions which it has left behind it, that I fear to +touch the vision with anything new, lest it should dissolve in smoke. But is it +so dear to me? Yes, it <i>is</i> dear to me, and will ever be fresh in my +recollections—even forty years hence.... +</p> + +<p> +So let me write of it, but only partially, and in a more abridged form than my +full impressions might warrant. +</p> + +<p> +First of all, let me conclude the history of the Grandmother. Next day she lost +every gülden that she possessed. Things were bound to happen so, for persons of +her type who have once entered upon that road descend it with ever-increasing +rapidity, even as a sledge descends a toboggan-slide. All day until eight +o’clock that evening did she play; and, though I personally did not +witness her exploits, I learnt of them later through report. +</p> + +<p> +All that day Potapitch remained in attendance upon her; but the Poles who +directed her play she changed more than once. As a beginning she dismissed her +Pole of the previous day—the Pole whose hair she had pulled—and +took to herself another one; but the latter proved worse even than the former, +and incurred dismissal in favour of the first Pole, who, during the time of his +unemployment, had nevertheless hovered around the Grandmother’s chair, +and from time to time obtruded his head over her shoulder. At length the old +lady became desperate, for the second Pole, when dismissed, imitated his +predecessor by declining to go away; with the result that one Pole remained +standing on the right of the victim, and the other on her left; from which +vantage points the pair quarrelled, abused each other concerning the stakes and +rounds, and exchanged the epithet “laidak”<a href="#fn-4" name="fnref-4" id="fnref-4"><sup>[4]</sup></a> +and other Polish terms of endearment. Finally, they effected a mutual +reconciliation, and, tossing the money about anyhow, played simply at random. +Once more quarrelling, each of them staked money on his own side of the +Grandmother’s chair (for instance, the one Pole staked upon the red, and +the other one upon the black), until they had so confused and browbeaten the +old lady that, nearly weeping, she was forced to appeal to the head croupier +for protection, and to have the two Poles expelled. No time was lost in this +being done, despite the rascals’ cries and protestations that the old +lady was in their debt, that she had cheated them, and that her general +behaviour had been mean and dishonourable. The same evening the unfortunate +Potapitch related the story to me with tears complaining that the two men had +filled their pockets with money (he himself had seen them do it) which had been +shamelessly pilfered from his mistress. For instance, one Pole demanded of the +Grandmother fifty gülden for his trouble, and then staked the money by the side +of her stake. She happened to win; whereupon he cried out that the winning +stake was his, and hers the loser. As soon as the two Poles had been expelled, +Potapitch left the room, and reported to the authorities that the men’s +pockets were full of gold; and, on the Grandmother also requesting the head +croupier to look into the affair, the police made their appearance, and, +despite the protests of the Poles (who, indeed, had been caught redhanded), +their pockets were turned inside out, and the contents handed over to the +Grandmother. In fact, in, view of the circumstance that she lost all day, the +croupiers and other authorities of the Casino showed her every attention; and +on her fame spreading through the town, visitors of every +nationality—even the most knowing of them, the most +distinguished—crowded to get a glimpse of “la vieille comtesse +russe, tombée en enfance,” who had lost “so many millions.” +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +<a name="fn-4" id="fn-4"></a> <a href="#fnref-4">[4]</a> +Rascal +</p> + +<p> +Yet with the money which the authorities restored to her from the pockets of +the Poles the Grandmother effected very, very little, for there soon arrived to +take his countrymen’s place, a third Pole—a man who could speak +Russian fluently, was dressed like a gentleman (albeit in lacqueyish fashion), +and sported a huge moustache. Though polite enough to the old lady, he took a +high hand with the bystanders. In short, he offered himself less as a servant +than as an <i>entertainer</i>. After each round he would turn to the old lady, +and swear terrible oaths to the effect that he was a “Polish gentleman of +honour” who would scorn to take a kopeck of her money; and, though he +repeated these oaths so often that at length she grew alarmed, he had her play +in hand, and began to win on her behalf; wherefore, she felt that she could not +well get rid of him. An hour later the two Poles who, earlier in the day, had +been expelled from the Casino, made a reappearance behind the old lady’s +chair, and renewed their offers of service—even if it were only to be +sent on messages; but from Potapitch I subsequently had it that between these +rascals and the said “gentleman of honour” there passed a wink, as +well as that the latter put something into their hands. Next, since the +Grandmother had not yet lunched—she had scarcely for a moment left her +chair—one of the two Poles ran to the restaurant of the Casino, and +brought her thence a cup of soup, and afterwards some tea. In fact, <i>both</i> +the Poles hastened to perform this office. Finally, towards the close of the +day, when it was clear that the Grandmother was about to play her last +bank-note, there could be seen standing behind her chair no fewer than six +natives of Poland—persons who, as yet, had been neither audible nor +visible; and as soon as ever the old lady played the note in question, they +took no further notice of her, but pushed their way past her chair to the +table; seized the money, and staked it—shouting and disputing the while, +and arguing with the “gentleman of honour” (who also had forgotten +the Grandmother’s existence), as though he were their equal. Even when +the Grandmother had lost her all, and was returning (about eight o’clock) +to the hotel, some three or four Poles could not bring themselves to leave her, +but went on running beside her chair and volubly protesting that the +Grandmother had cheated them, and that she ought to be made to surrender what +was not her own. Thus the party arrived at the hotel; whence, presently, the +gang of rascals was ejected neck and crop. +</p> + +<p> +According to Potapitch’s calculations, the Grandmother lost, that day, a +total of ninety thousand roubles, in addition to the money which she had lost +the day before. Every paper security which she had brought with her—five +percent bonds, internal loan scrip, and what not—she had changed into +cash. Also, I could not but marvel at the way in which, for seven or eight +hours at a stretch, she sat in that chair of hers, almost never leaving the +table. Again, Potapitch told me that there were three occasions on which she +really began to win; but that, led on by false hopes, she was unable to tear +herself away at the right moment. Every gambler knows how a person may sit a +day and a night at cards without ever casting a glance to right or to left. +</p> + +<p> +Meanwhile, that day some other very important events were passing in our hotel. +As early as eleven o’clock—that is to say, before the Grandmother +had quitted her rooms—the General and De Griers decided upon their last +stroke. In other words, on learning that the old lady had changed her mind +about departing, and was bent on setting out for the Casino again, the whole of +our gang (Polina only excepted) proceeded en masse to her rooms, for the +purpose of finally and frankly treating with her. But the General, quaking and +greatly apprehensive as to his possible future, overdid things. After half an +hour’s prayers and entreaties, coupled with a full confession of his +debts, and even of his passion for Mlle. Blanche (yes, he had quite lost his +head), he suddenly adopted a tone of menace, and started to rage at the old +lady—exclaiming that she was sullying the family honour, that she was +making a public scandal of herself, and that she was smirching the fair name of +Russia. The upshot was that the Grandmother turned him out of the room with her +stick (it was a real stick, too!). Later in the morning he held several +consultations with De Griers—the question which occupied him being: Is it +in any way possible to make use of the police—to tell them that +“this respected, but unfortunate, old lady has gone out of her mind, and +is squandering her last kopeck,” or something of the kind? In short, is +it in any way possible to engineer a species of supervision over, or of +restraint upon, the old lady? De Griers, however, shrugged his shoulders at +this, and laughed in the General’s face, while the old warrior went on +chattering volubly, and running up and down his study. Finally De Griers waved +his hand, and disappeared from view; and by evening it became known that he had +left the hotel, after holding a very secret and important conference with Mlle. +Blanche. As for the latter, from early morning she had taken decisive measures, +by completely excluding the General from her presence, and bestowing upon him +not a glance. Indeed, even when the General pursued her to the Casino, and met +her walking arm in arm with the Prince, he (the General) received from her and +her mother not the slightest recognition. Nor did the Prince himself bow. The +rest of the day Mlle. spent in probing the Prince, and trying to make him +declare himself; but in this she made a woeful mistake. The little incident +occurred in the evening. Suddenly Mlle. Blanche realised that the Prince had +not even a copper to his name, but, on the contrary, was minded to borrow of +her money wherewith to play at roulette. In high displeasure she drove him from +her presence, and shut herself up in her room. +</p> + +<p> +The same morning I went to see—or, rather, to look for—Mr. Astley, +but was unsuccessful in my quest. Neither in his rooms nor in the Casino nor in +the Park was he to be found; nor did he, that day, lunch at his hotel as usual. +However, at about five o’clock I caught sight of him walking from the +railway station to the Hôtel d’Angleterre. He seemed to be in a great +hurry and much preoccupied, though in his face I could discern no actual traces +of worry or perturbation. He held out to me a friendly hand, with his usual +ejaculation of “Ah!” but did not check his stride. I turned and +walked beside him, but found, somehow, that his answers forbade any putting of +definite questions. Moreover, I felt reluctant to speak to him of Polina; nor, +for his part, did he ask me any questions concerning her, although, on my +telling him of the Grandmother’s exploits, he listened attentively and +gravely, and then shrugged his shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +“She is gambling away everything that she has,” I remarked. +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed? She arrived at the Casino even before I had taken my departure +by train, so I knew she had been playing. If I should have time I will go to +the Casino to-night, and take a look at her. The thing interests me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where have you been today?” I asked—surprised at myself for +having, as yet, omitted to put to him that question. +</p> + +<p> +“To Frankfort.” +</p> + +<p> +“On business?” +</p> + +<p> +“On business.” +</p> + +<p> +What more was there to be asked after that? I accompanied him until, as we drew +level with the Hotel des Quatre Saisons, he suddenly nodded to me and +disappeared. For myself, I returned home, and came to the conclusion that, even +had I met him at two o’clock in the afternoon, I should have learnt no +more from him than I had done at five o’clock, for the reason that I had +no definite question to ask. It was bound to have been so. For me to formulate +the query which I really wished to put was a simple impossibility. +</p> + +<p> +Polina spent the whole of that day either in walking about the park with the +nurse and children or in sitting in her own room. For a long while past she had +avoided the General and had scarcely had a word to say to him (scarcely a word, +I mean, on any <i>serious</i> topic). Yes, that I had noticed. Still, even +though I was aware of the position in which the General was placed, it had +never occurred to me that he would have any reason to avoid <i>her</i>, or to +trouble her with family explanations. Indeed, when I was returning to the hotel +after my conversation with Astley, and chanced to meet Polina and the children, +I could see that her face was as calm as though the family disturbances had +never touched her. To my salute she responded with a slight bow, and I retired +to my room in a very bad humour. +</p> + +<p> +Of course, since the affair with the Burmergelms I had exchanged not a word +with Polina, nor had with her any kind of intercourse. Yet I had been at my +wits’ end, for, as time went on, there was arising in me an ever-seething +dissatisfaction. Even if she did not love me she ought not to have trampled +upon my feelings, nor to have accepted my confessions with such contempt, +seeing that she must have been aware that I loved her (of her own accord she +had allowed me to tell her as much). Of course the situation between us had +arisen in a curious manner. About two months ago, I had noticed that she had a +desire to make me her friend, her confidant—that she was making trial of +me for the purpose; but, for some reason or another, the desired result had +never come about, and we had fallen into the present strange relations, which +had led me to address her as I had done. At the same time, if my love was +distasteful to her, why had she not <i>forbidden</i> me to speak of it to her? +</p> + +<p> +But she had not so forbidden me. On the contrary, there had been occasions when +she had even <i>invited</i> me to speak. Of course, this might have been done +out of sheer wantonness, for I well knew—I had remarked it only too +often—that, after listening to what I had to say, and angering me almost +beyond endurance, she loved suddenly to torture me with some fresh outburst of +contempt and aloofness! Yet she must have known that I could not live without +her. Three days had elapsed since the affair with the Baron, and I could bear +the severance no longer. When, that afternoon, I met her near the Casino, my +heart almost made me faint, it beat so violently. She too could not live +without me, for had she not said that she had <i>need</i> of me? Or had that +too been spoken in jest? +</p> + +<p> +That she had a secret of some kind there could be no doubt. What she had said +to the Grandmother had stabbed me to the heart. On a thousand occasions I had +challenged her to be open with me, nor could she have been ignorant that I was +ready to give my very life for her. Yet always she had kept me at a distance +with that contemptuous air of hers; or else she had demanded of me, in lieu of +the life which I offered to lay at her feet, such escapades as I had +perpetrated with the Baron. Ah, was it not torture to me, all this? For could +it be that her whole world was bound up with the Frenchman? What, too, about +Mr. Astley? The affair was inexplicable throughout. My God, what distress it +caused me! +</p> + +<p> +Arrived home, I, in a fit of frenzy, indited the following: +</p> + +<p> +“Polina Alexandrovna, I can see that there is approaching us an exposure +which will involve you too. For the last time I ask of you—have you, or +have you not, any need of my life? If you have, then make such dispositions as +you wish, and I shall always be discoverable in my room if required. If you +have need of my life, write or send for me.” +</p> + +<p> +I sealed the letter, and dispatched it by the hand of a corridor lacquey, with +orders to hand it to the addressee in person. Though I expected no answer, +scarcely three minutes had elapsed before the lacquey returned with “the +compliments of a certain person.” +</p> + +<p> +Next, about seven o’clock, I was sent for by the General. I found him in +his study, apparently preparing to go out again, for his hat and stick were +lying on the sofa. When I entered he was standing in the middle of the +room—his feet wide apart, and his head bent down. Also, he appeared to be +talking to himself. But as soon as ever he saw me at the door he came towards +me in such a curious manner that involuntarily I retreated a step, and was for +leaving the room; whereupon he seized me by both hands, and, drawing me towards +the sofa, and seating himself thereon, he forced me to sit down on a chair +opposite him. Then, without letting go of my hands, he exclaimed with quivering +lips and a sparkle of tears on his eyelashes: +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Alexis Ivanovitch! Save me, save me! Have some mercy upon me!” +</p> + +<p> +For a long time I could not make out what he meant, although he kept talking +and talking, and constantly repeating to himself, “Have mercy, +mercy!” At length, however, I divined that he was expecting me to give +him something in the nature of advice—or, rather, that, deserted by every +one, and overwhelmed with grief and apprehension, he had bethought himself of +my existence, and sent for me to relieve his feelings by talking and talking +and talking. +</p> + +<p> +In fact, he was in such a confused and despondent state of mind that, clasping +his hands together, he actually went down upon his knees and begged me to go to +Mlle. Blanche, and beseech and advise her to return to him, and to accept him +in marriage. +</p> + +<p> +“But, General,” I exclaimed, “possibly Mlle. Blanche has +scarcely even remarked my existence? What could <i>I</i> do with her?” +</p> + +<p> +It was in vain that I protested, for he could understand nothing that was said +to him, Next he started talking about the Grandmother, but always in a +disconnected sort of fashion—his one thought being to send for the +police. +</p> + +<p> +“In Russia,” said he, suddenly boiling over with indignation, +“or in any well-ordered State where there exists a government, old women +like my mother are placed under proper guardianship. Yes, my good sir,” +he went on, relapsing into a scolding tone as he leapt to his feet and started +to pace the room, “do you not know this” (he seemed to be +addressing some imaginary auditor in the corner) “—do you not know +this, that in Russia old women like her are subjected to restraint, the devil +take them?” Again he threw himself down upon the sofa. +</p> + +<p> +A minute later, though sobbing and almost breathless, he managed to gasp out +that Mlle. Blanche had refused to marry him, for the reason that the +Grandmother had turned up in place of a telegram, and it was therefore clear +that he had no inheritance to look for. Evidently, he supposed that I had +hitherto been in entire ignorance of all this. Again, when I referred to De +Griers, the General made a gesture of despair. “He has gone away,” +he said, “and everything which I possess is mortgaged to him. I stand +stripped to my skin. Even of the money which you brought me from Paris, I know +not if seven hundred francs be left. Of course that sum will do to go on with, +but, as regards the future, I know nothing, I know nothing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then how will you pay your hotel bill?” I cried in consternation. +“And what shall you do afterwards?” +</p> + +<p> +He looked at me vaguely, but it was clear that he had not +understood—perhaps had not even heard—my questions. Then I tried to +get him to speak of Polina and the children, but he only returned brief answers +of “Yes, yes,” and again started to maunder about the Prince, and +the likelihood of the latter marrying Mlle. Blanche. “What on earth am I +to do?” he concluded. “What on earth am I to do? Is this not +ingratitude? Is it not sheer ingratitude?” And he burst into tears. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing could be done with such a man. Yet to leave him alone was dangerous, +for something might happen to him. I withdrew from his rooms for a little +while, but warned the nursemaid to keep an eye upon him, as well as exchanged a +word with the corridor lacquey (a very talkative fellow), who likewise promised +to remain on the look-out. +</p> + +<p> +Hardly had I left the General, when Potapitch approached me with a summons from +the Grandmother. It was now eight o’clock, and she had returned from the +Casino after finally losing all that she possessed. I found her sitting in her +chair—much distressed and evidently fatigued. Presently Martha brought +her up a cup of tea and forced her to drink it; yet, even then I could detect +in the old lady’s tone and manner a great change. +</p> + +<p> +“Good evening, Alexis Ivanovitch,” she said slowly, with her head +drooping. “Pardon me for disturbing you again. Yes, you must pardon an +old, old woman like myself, for I have left behind me all that I +possess—nearly a hundred thousand roubles! You did quite right in +declining to come with me this evening. Now I am without money—without a +single groat. But I must not delay a moment; I must leave by the 9:30 train. I +have sent for that English friend of yours, and am going to beg of him three +thousand francs for a week. Please try and persuade him to think nothing of it, +nor yet to refuse me, for I am still a rich woman who possesses three villages +and a couple of mansions. Yes, the money shall be found, for I have not yet +squandered <i>everything</i>. I tell you this in order that he may have no +doubts about—Ah, but here he is! Clearly he is a good fellow.” +</p> + +<p> +True enough, Astley had come hot-foot on receiving the Grandmother’s +appeal. Scarcely stopping even to reflect, and with scarcely a word, he counted +out the three thousand francs under a note of hand which she duly signed. Then, +his business done, he bowed, and lost no time in taking his departure. +</p> + +<p> +“You too leave me, Alexis Ivanovitch,” said the Grandmother. +“All my bones are aching, and I still have an hour in which to rest. Do +not be hard upon me, old fool that I am. Never again shall I blame young people +for being frivolous. I should think it wrong even to blame that unhappy General +of yours. Nevertheless, I do not mean to let him have any of my money (which is +all that he desires), for the reason that I look upon him as a perfect +blockhead, and consider myself, simpleton though I be, at least wiser than +<i>he</i> is. How surely does God visit old age, and punish it for its +presumption! Well, good-bye. Martha, come and lift me up.” +</p> + +<p> +However, I had a mind to see the old lady off; and, moreover, I was in an +expectant frame of mind—somehow I kept thinking that <i>something</i> was +going to happen; wherefore, I could not rest quietly in my room, but stepped +out into the corridor, and then into the Chestnut Avenue for a few +minutes’ stroll. My letter to Polina had been clear and firm, and in the +present crisis, I felt sure, would prove final. I had heard of De Griers’ +departure, and, however much Polina might reject me as a <i>friend</i>, she +might not reject me altogether as a <i>servant</i>. She would need me to fetch +and carry for her, and I was ready to do so. How could it have been otherwise? +</p> + +<p> +Towards the hour of the train’s departure I hastened to the station, and +put the Grandmother into her compartment—she and her party occupying a +reserved family saloon. +</p> + +<p> +“Thanks for your disinterested assistance,” she said at parting. +“Oh, and please remind Prascovia of what I said to her last night. I +expect soon to see her.” +</p> + +<p> +Then I returned home. As I was passing the door of the General’s suite, I +met the nursemaid, and inquired after her master. “There is nothing new +to report, sir,” she replied quietly. Nevertheless I decided to enter, +and was just doing so when I halted thunderstruck on the threshold. For before +me I beheld the General and Mlle. Blanche—laughing gaily at one +another!—while beside them, on the sofa, there was seated her mother. +Clearly the General was almost out of his mind with joy, for he was talking all +sorts of nonsense, and bubbling over with a long-drawn, nervous laugh—a +laugh which twisted his face into innumerable wrinkles, and caused his eyes +almost to disappear. +</p> + +<p> +Afterwards I learnt from Mlle. Blanche herself that, after dismissing the +Prince and hearing of the General’s tears, she bethought her of going to +comfort the old man, and had just arrived for the purpose when I entered. +Fortunately, the poor General did not know that his fate had been +decided—that Mlle. had long ago packed her trunks in readiness for the +first morning train to Paris! +</p> + +<p> +Hesitating a moment on the threshold I changed my mind as to entering, and +departed unnoticed. Ascending to my own room, and opening the door, I perceived +in the semi-darkness a figure seated on a chair in the corner by the window. +The figure did not rise when I entered, so I approached it swiftly, peered at +it closely, and felt my heart almost stop beating. The figure was Polina! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap14"></a>XIV</h2> + +<p> +The shock made me utter an exclamation. +</p> + +<p> +“What is the matter? What is the matter?” she asked in a strange +voice. She was looking pale, and her eyes were dim. +</p> + +<p> +“What is the matter?” I re-echoed. “Why, the fact that you +are <i>here!</i>” +</p> + +<p> +“If I am here, I have come with all that I have to bring,” she +said. “Such has always been my way, as you shall presently see. Please +light a candle.” +</p> + +<p> +I did so; whereupon she rose, approached the table, and laid upon it an open +letter. +</p> + +<p> +“Read it,” she added. +</p> + +<p> +“It is De Griers’ handwriting!” I cried as I seized the +document. My hands were so tremulous that the lines on the pages danced before +my eyes. Although, at this distance of time, I have forgotten the exact +phraseology of the missive, I append, if not the precise words, at all events +the general sense. +</p> + +<p> +“Mademoiselle,” the document ran, “certain untoward +circumstances compel me to depart in haste. Of course, you have of yourself +remarked that hitherto I have always refrained from having any final +explanation with you, for the reason that I could not well state the whole +circumstances; and now to my difficulties the advent of the aged Grandmother, +coupled with her subsequent proceedings, has put the final touch. Also, the +involved state of my affairs forbids me to write with any finality concerning +those hopes of ultimate bliss upon which, for a long while past, I have +permitted myself to feed. I regret the past, but at the same time hope that in +my conduct you have never been able to detect anything that was unworthy of a +gentleman and a man of honour. Having lost, however, almost the whole of my +money in debts incurred by your stepfather, I find myself driven to the +necessity of saving the remainder; wherefore, I have instructed certain friends +of mine in St. Petersburg to arrange for the sale of all the property which has +been mortgaged to myself. At the same time, knowing that, in addition, your +frivolous stepfather has squandered money which is exclusively yours, I have +decided to absolve him from a certain moiety of the mortgages on his property, +in order that you may be in a position to recover of him what you have lost, by +suing him in legal fashion. I trust, therefore, that, as matters now stand, +this action of mine may bring you some advantage. I trust also that this same +action leaves me in the position of having fulfilled every obligation which is +incumbent upon a man of honour and refinement. Rest assured that your memory +will for ever remain graven in my heart.” +</p> + +<p> +“All this is clear enough,” I commented. “Surely you did not +expect aught else from him?” Somehow I was feeling annoyed. +</p> + +<p> +“I expected nothing at all from him,” she replied—quietly +enough, to all outward seeming, yet with a note of irritation in her tone. +“Long ago I made up my mind on the subject, for I could read his +thoughts, and knew what he was thinking. He thought that possibly I should sue +him—that one day I might become a nuisance.” Here Polina halted for +a moment, and stood biting her lips. “So of set purpose I redoubled my +contemptuous treatment of him, and waited to see what he would do. If a +telegram to say that we had become legatees had arrived from, St. Petersburg, I +should have flung at him a quittance for my foolish stepfather’s debts, +and then dismissed him. For a long time I have hated him. Even in earlier days +he was not a man; and now!—Oh, how gladly I could throw those fifty +thousand roubles in his face, and spit in it, and then rub the spittle +in!” +</p> + +<p> +“But the document returning the fifty-thousand rouble mortgage—has +the General got it? If so, possess yourself of it, and send it to De +Griers.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, no; the General has not got it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Just as I expected! Well, what is the General going to do?” Then +an idea suddenly occurred to me. “What about the Grandmother?” I +asked. +</p> + +<p> +Polina looked at me with impatience and bewilderment. +</p> + +<p> +“What makes you speak of <i>her?</i>” was her irritable inquiry. +“I cannot go and live with her. Nor,” she added hotly, “will +I go down upon my knees to <i>any one</i>.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why should you?” I cried. “Yet to think that you should have +loved De Griers! The villain, the villain! But I will kill him in a duel. Where +is he now?” +</p> + +<p> +“In Frankfort, where he will be staying for the next three days.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, bid me do so, and I will go to him by the first train +tomorrow,” I exclaimed with enthusiasm. +</p> + +<p> +She smiled. +</p> + +<p> +“If you were to do that,” she said, “he would merely tell you +to be so good as first to return him the fifty thousand francs. What, then, +would be the use of having a quarrel with him? You talk sheer nonsense.” +</p> + +<p> +I ground my teeth. +</p> + +<p> +“The question,” I went on, “is how to raise the fifty +thousand francs. We cannot expect to find them lying about on the floor. +Listen. What of Mr. Astley?” Even as I spoke a new and strange idea +formed itself in my brain. +</p> + +<p> +Her eyes flashed fire. +</p> + +<p> +“What? <i>you yourself</i> wish me to leave you for him?” she cried +with a scornful look and a proud smile. Never before had she addressed me thus. +</p> + +<p> +Then her head must have turned dizzy with emotion, for suddenly she seated +herself upon the sofa, as though she were powerless any longer to stand. +</p> + +<p> +A flash of lightning seemed to strike me as I stood there. I could scarcely +believe my eyes or my ears. She <i>did</i> love me, then! It <i>was</i> to me, +and not to Mr. Astley, that she had turned! Although she, an unprotected girl, +had come to me in my room—in an hotel room—and had probably +compromised herself thereby, I had not understood! +</p> + +<p> +Then a second mad idea flashed into my brain. +</p> + +<p> +“Polina,” I said, “give me but an hour. Wait here just one +hour until I return. Yes, you MUST do so. Do you not see what I mean? Just stay +here for that time.” +</p> + +<p> +And I rushed from the room without so much as answering her look of inquiry. +She called something after me, but I did not return. +</p> + +<p> +Sometimes it happens that the most insane thought, the most impossible +conception, will become so fixed in one’s head that at length one +believes the thought or the conception to be reality. Moreover, if with the +thought or the conception there is combined a strong, a passionate, desire, one +will come to look upon the said thought or conception as something fated, +inevitable, and foreordained—something bound to happen. Whether by this +there is connoted something in the nature of a combination of presentiments, or +a great effort of will, or a self-annulment of one’s true expectations, +and so on, I do not know; but, at all events that night saw happen to me (a +night which I shall never forget) something in the nature of the miraculous. +Although the occurrence can easily be explained by arithmetic, I still believe +it to have been a miracle. Yet why did this conviction take such a hold upon me +at the time, and remain with me ever since? Previously, I had thought of the +idea, not as an occurrence which was ever likely to come about, but as +something which <i>never</i> could come about. +</p> + +<p> +The time was a quarter past eleven o’clock when I entered the Casino in +such a state of hope (though, at the same time, of agitation) as I had never +before experienced. In the gaming-rooms there were still a large number of +people, but not half as many as had been present in the morning. +</p> + +<p> +At eleven o’clock there usually remained behind only the real, the +desperate gamblers—persons for whom, at spas, there existed nothing +beyond roulette, and who went thither for that alone. These gamesters took +little note of what was going on around them, and were interested in none of +the appurtenances of the season, but played from morning till night, and would +have been ready to play through the night until dawn had that been possible. As +it was, they used to disperse unwillingly when, at midnight, roulette came to +an end. Likewise, as soon as ever roulette was drawing to a close and the head +croupier had called “Les trois derniers coups,” most of them were +ready to stake on the last three rounds all that they had in their +pockets—and, for the most part, lost it. For my own part I proceeded +towards the table at which the Grandmother had lately sat; and, since the crowd +around it was not very large, I soon obtained standing room among the ring of +gamblers, while directly in front of me, on the green cloth, I saw marked the +word “Passe.” +</p> + +<p> +“Passe” was a row of numbers from 19 to 36 inclusive; while a row +of numbers from 1 to 18 inclusive was known as “Manque.” But what +had that to do with me? I had not noticed—I had not so much as heard the +numbers upon which the previous coup had fallen, and so took no bearings when I +began to play, as, in my place, any <i>systematic</i> gambler would have done. +No, I merely extended my stock of twenty ten-gülden pieces, and threw them down +upon the space “Passe” which happened to be confronting me. +</p> + +<p> +“Vingt-deux!” called the croupier. +</p> + +<p> +I had won! I staked upon the same again—both my original stake and my +winnings. +</p> + +<p> +“Trente-et-un!” called the croupier. +</p> + +<p> +Again I had won, and was now in possession of eighty ten-gülden pieces. Next, I +moved the whole eighty on to twelve middle numbers (a stake which, if +successful, would bring me in a triple profit, but also involved a risk of two +chances to one). The wheel revolved, and stopped at twenty-four. Upon this I +was paid out notes and gold until I had by my side a total sum of two thousand +gülden. +</p> + +<p> +It was as in a fever that I moved the pile, en bloc, on to the red. Then +suddenly I came to myself (though that was the only time during the +evening’s play when fear cast its cold spell over me, and showed itself +in a trembling of the hands and knees). For with horror I had realised that I +<i>must</i> win, and that upon that stake there depended all my life. +</p> + +<p> +“Rouge!” called the croupier. I drew a long breath, and hot shivers +went coursing over my body. I was paid out my winnings in +bank-notes—amounting, of course, to a total of four thousand florins, +eight hundred gülden (I could still calculate the amounts). +</p> + +<p> +After that, I remember, I again staked two thousand florins upon twelve middle +numbers, and lost. Again I staked the whole of my gold, with eight hundred +gülden, in notes, and lost. Then madness seemed to come upon me, and seizing my +last two thousand florins, I staked them upon twelve of the first +numbers—wholly by chance, and at random, and without any sort of +reckoning. Upon my doing so there followed a moment of suspense only comparable +to that which Madame Blanchard must have experienced when, in Paris, she was +descending earthwards from a balloon. +</p> + +<p> +“Quatre!” called the croupier. +</p> + +<p> +Once more, with the addition of my original stake, I was in possession of six +thousand florins! Once more I looked around me like a conqueror—once more +I feared nothing as I threw down four thousand of these florins upon the black. +The croupiers glanced around them, and exchanged a few words; the bystanders +murmured expectantly. +</p> + +<p> +The black turned up. After that I do not exactly remember either my +calculations or the order of my stakings. I only remember that, as in a dream, +I won in one round sixteen thousand florins; that in the three following +rounds, I lost twelve thousand; that I moved the remainder (four thousand) on +to “Passe” (though quite unconscious of what I was doing—I +was merely waiting, as it were, mechanically, and without reflection, for +something) and won; and that, finally, four times in succession I lost. Yes, I +can remember raking in money by thousands—but most frequently on the +twelve, middle numbers, to which I constantly adhered, and which kept appearing +in a sort of regular order—first, three or four times running, and then, +after an interval of a couple of rounds, in another break of three or four +appearances. Sometimes, this astonishing regularity manifested itself in +patches; a thing to upset all the calculations of note—taking gamblers +who play with a pencil and a memorandum-book in their hands Fortune perpetrates +some terrible jests at roulette! +</p> + +<p> +Since my entry not more than half an hour could have elapsed. Suddenly a +croupier informed me that I had, won thirty thousand florins, as well as that, +since the latter was the limit for which, at any one time, the bank could make +itself responsible, roulette at that table must close for the night. +Accordingly, I caught up my pile of gold, stuffed it into my pocket, and, +grasping my sheaf of bank-notes, moved to the table in an adjoining salon where +a second game of roulette was in progress. The crowd followed me in a body, and +cleared a place for me at the table; after which, I proceeded to stake as +before—that is to say, at random and without calculating. What saved me +from ruin I do not know. +</p> + +<p> +Of course there were times when fragmentary reckonings <i>did</i> come flashing +into my brain. For instance, there were times when I attached myself for a +while to certain figures and coups—though always leaving them, again +before long, without knowing what I was doing. +</p> + +<p> +In fact, I cannot have been in possession of all my faculties, for I can +remember the croupiers correcting my play more than once, owing to my having +made mistakes of the gravest order. My brows were damp with sweat, and my hands +were shaking. Also, Poles came around me to proffer their services, but I +heeded none of them. Nor did my luck fail me now. Suddenly, there arose around +me a loud din of talking and laughter. “Bravo, bravo!” was the +general shout, and some people even clapped their hands. I had raked in thirty +thousand florins, and again the bank had had to close for the night! +</p> + +<p> +“Go away now, go away now,” a voice whispered to me on my right. +The person who had spoken to me was a certain Jew of Frankfurt—a man who +had been standing beside me the whole while, and occasionally helping me in my +play. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, for God’s sake go,” whispered a second voice in my left +ear. Glancing around, I perceived that the second voice had come from a +modestly, plainly dressed lady of rather less than thirty—a woman whose +face, though pale and sickly-looking, bore also very evident traces of former +beauty. At the moment, I was stuffing the crumpled bank-notes into my pockets +and collecting all the gold that was left on the table. Seizing up my last note +for five hundred gülden, I contrived to insinuate it, unperceived, into the +hand of the pale lady. An overpowering impulse had made me do so, and I +remember how her thin little fingers pressed mine in token of her lively +gratitude. The whole affair was the work of a moment. +</p> + +<p> +Then, collecting my belongings, I crossed to where trente et quarante was being +played—a game which could boast of a more aristocratic public, and was +played with cards instead of with a wheel. At this diversion the bank made +itself responsible for a hundred thousand thalers as the limit, but the highest +stake allowable was, as in roulette, four thousand florins. Although I knew +nothing of the game—and I scarcely knew the stakes, except those on black +and red—I joined the ring of players, while the rest of the crowd massed +itself around me. At this distance of time I cannot remember whether I ever +gave a thought to Polina; I seemed only to be conscious of a vague pleasure in +seizing and raking in the bank-notes which kept massing themselves in a pile +before me. +</p> + +<p> +But, as ever, fortune seemed to be at my back. As though of set purpose, there +came to my aid a circumstance which not infrequently repeats itself in gaming. +The circumstance is that not infrequently luck attaches itself to, say, the +red, and does not leave it for a space of say, ten, or even fifteen, rounds in +succession. Three days ago I had heard that, during the previous week there had +been a run of twenty-two coups on the red—an occurrence never before +known at roulette—so that men spoke of it with astonishment. Naturally +enough, many deserted the red after a dozen rounds, and practically no one +could now be found to stake upon it. Yet upon the black also—the +antithesis of the red—no experienced gambler would stake anything, for +the reason that every practised player knows the meaning of “capricious +fortune.” That is to say, after the sixteenth (or so) success of the red, +one would think that the seventeenth coup would inevitably fall upon the black; +wherefore, novices would be apt to back the latter in the seventeenth round, +and even to double or treble their stakes upon it—only, in the end, to +lose. +</p> + +<p> +Yet some whim or other led me, on remarking that the red had come up +consecutively for seven times, to attach myself to that colour. Probably this +was mostly due to self-conceit, for I wanted to astonish the bystanders with +the riskiness of my play. Also, I remember that—oh, strange +sensation!—I suddenly, and without any challenge from my own presumption, +became obsessed with a <i>desire</i> to take risks. If the spirit has passed +through a great many sensations, possibly it can no longer be sated with them, +but grows more excited, and demands more sensations, and stronger and stronger +ones, until at length it falls exhausted. Certainly, if the rules of the game +had permitted even of my staking fifty thousand florins at a time, I should +have staked them. All of a sudden I heard exclamations arising that the whole +thing was a marvel, since the red was turning up for the fourteenth time! +</p> + +<p> +“Monsieur a gagné cent mille florins,” a voice exclaimed beside me. +</p> + +<p> +I awoke to my senses. What? I had won a hundred thousand florins? If so, what +more did I need to win? I grasped the banknotes, stuffed them into my pockets, +raked in the gold without counting it, and started to leave the Casino. As I +passed through the salons people smiled to see my bulging pockets and unsteady +gait, for the weight which I was carrying must have amounted to half a pood! +Several hands I saw stretched out in my direction, and as I passed I filled +them with all the money that I could grasp in my own. At length two Jews +stopped me near the exit. +</p> + +<p> +“You are a bold young fellow,” one said, “but mind you depart +early tomorrow—as early as you can—for if you do not you will lose +everything that you have won.” +</p> + +<p> +But I did not heed them. The Avenue was so dark that it was barely possible to +distinguish one’s hand before one’s face, while the distance to the +hotel was half a verst or so; but I feared neither pickpockets nor highwaymen. +Indeed, never since my boyhood have I done that. Also, I cannot remember what I +thought about on the way. I only felt a sort of fearful pleasure—the +pleasure of success, of conquest, of power (how can I best express it?). +Likewise, before me there flitted the image of Polina; and I kept remembering, +and reminding myself, that it was to <i>her</i> I was going, that it was in +<i>her</i> presence I should soon be standing, that it was <i>she</i> to whom I +should soon be able to relate and show everything. Scarcely once did I recall +what she had lately said to me, or the reason why I had left her, or all those +varied sensations which I had been experiencing a bare hour and a half ago. No, +those sensations seemed to be things of the past, to be things which had +righted themselves and grown old, to be things concerning which we needed to +trouble ourselves no longer, since, for us, life was about to begin anew. Yet I +had just reached the end of the Avenue when there <i>did</i> come upon me a +fear of being robbed or murdered. With each step the fear increased until, in +my terror, I almost started to run. Suddenly, as I issued from the Avenue, +there burst upon me the lights of the hotel, sparkling with a myriad lamps! +Yes, thanks be to God, I had reached home! +</p> + +<p> +Running up to my room, I flung open the door of it. Polina was still on the +sofa, with a lighted candle in front of her, and her hands clasped. As I +entered she stared at me in astonishment (for, at the moment, I must have +presented a strange spectacle). All I did, however, was to halt before her, and +fling upon the table my burden of wealth. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap15"></a>XV</h2> + +<p> +I remember, too, how, without moving from her place, or changing her attitude, +she gazed into my face. +</p> + +<p> +“I have won two hundred thousand francs!” cried I as I pulled out +my last sheaf of bank-notes. The pile of paper currency occupied the whole +table. I could not withdraw my eyes from it. Consequently, for a moment or two +Polina escaped my mind. Then I set myself to arrange the pile in order, and to +sort the notes, and to mass the gold in a separate heap. That done, I left +everything where it lay, and proceeded to pace the room with rapid strides as I +lost myself in thought. Then I darted to the table once more, and began to +recount the money; until all of a sudden, as though I had remembered something, +I rushed to the door, and closed and double-locked it. Finally I came to a +meditative halt before my little trunk. +</p> + +<p> +“Shall I put the money there until tomorrow?” I asked, turning +sharply round to Polina as the recollection of her returned to me. +</p> + +<p> +She was still in her old place—still making not a sound. Yet her eyes had +followed every one of my movements. Somehow in her face there was a strange +expression—an expression which I did not like. I think that I shall not +be wrong if I say that it indicated sheer hatred. +</p> + +<p> +Impulsively I approached her. +</p> + +<p> +“Polina,” I said, “here are twenty-five thousand +florins—fifty thousand francs, or more. Take them, and tomorrow throw +them in De Griers’ face.” +</p> + +<p> +She returned no answer. +</p> + +<p> +“Or, if you should prefer,” I continued, “let me take them to +him myself tomorrow—yes, early tomorrow morning. Shall I?” +</p> + +<p> +Then all at once she burst out laughing, and laughed for a long while. With +astonishment and a feeling of offence I gazed at her. Her laughter was too like +the derisive merriment which she had so often indulged in of +late—merriment which had broken forth always at the time of my most +passionate explanations. At length she ceased, and frowned at me from under her +eyebrows. +</p> + +<p> +“I am <i>not</i> going to take your money,” she said +contemptuously. +</p> + +<p> +“Why not?” I cried. “Why not, Polina?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because I am not in the habit of receiving money for nothing.” +</p> + +<p> +“But I am offering it to you as a <i>friend</i>. In the same way I would +offer you my very life.” +</p> + +<p> +Upon this she threw me a long, questioning glance, as though she were seeking +to probe me to the depths. +</p> + +<p> +“You are giving too much for me,” she remarked with a smile. +“The beloved of De Griers is not worth fifty thousand francs.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh Polina, how can you speak so?” I exclaimed reproachfully. +“Am <i>I</i> De Griers?” +</p> + +<p> +“You?” she cried with her eyes suddenly flashing. “Why, I +<i>hate</i> you! Yes, yes, I <i>hate</i> you! I love you no more than I do De +Griers.” +</p> + +<p> +Then she buried her face in her hands, and relapsed into hysterics. I darted to +her side. Somehow I had an intuition of something having happened to her which +had nothing to do with myself. She was like a person temporarily insane. +</p> + +<p> +“Buy me, would you, would you? Would you buy me for fifty thousand francs +as De Griers did?” she gasped between her convulsive sobs. +</p> + +<p> +I clasped her in my arms, kissed her hands and feet, and fell upon my knees +before her. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the hysterical fit passed away, and, laying her hands upon my +shoulders, she gazed for a while into my face, as though trying to read +it—something I said to her, but it was clear that she did not hear it. +Her face looked so dark and despondent that I began to fear for her reason. At +length she drew me towards herself—a trustful smile playing over her +features; and then, as suddenly, she pushed me away again as she eyed me dimly. +</p> + +<p> +Finally she threw herself upon me in an embrace. +</p> + +<p> +“You love me?” she said. “<i>Do</i> you?—you who were +willing even to quarrel with the Baron at my bidding?” +</p> + +<p> +Then she laughed—laughed as though something dear, but laughable, had +recurred to her memory. Yes, she laughed and wept at the same time. What was I +to do? I was like a man in a fever. I remember that she began to say something +to me—though <i>what</i> I do not know, since she spoke with a feverish +lisp, as though she were trying to tell me something very quickly. At +intervals, too, she would break off into the smile which I was beginning to +dread. “No, no!” she kept repeating. “<i>You</i> are my dear +one; <i>you</i> are the man I trust.” Again she laid her hands upon my +shoulders, and again she gazed at me as she reiterated: “You love me, you +love me? Will you <i>always</i> love me?” I could not take my eyes off +her. Never before had I seen her in this mood of humility and affection. True, +the mood was the outcome of hysteria; but—! All of a sudden she noticed +my ardent gaze, and smiled slightly. The next moment, for no apparent reason, +she began to talk of Astley. +</p> + +<p> +She continued talking and talking about him, but I could not make out all she +said—more particularly when she was endeavouring to tell me of something +or other which had happened recently. On the whole, she appeared to be laughing +at Astley, for she kept repeating that he was waiting for her, and did I know +whether, even at that moment, he was not standing beneath the window? +“Yes, yes, he is there,” she said. “Open the window, and see +if he is not.” She pushed me in that direction; yet, no sooner did I make +a movement to obey her behest than she burst into laughter, and I remained +beside her, and she embraced me. +</p> + +<p> +“Shall we go away tomorrow?” presently she asked, as though some +disturbing thought had recurred to her recollection. “How would it be if +we were to try and overtake Grandmamma? I think we should do so at Berlin. And +what think you she would have to say to us when we caught her up, and her eyes +first lit upon us? What, too, about Mr. Astley? <i>He</i> would not leap from +the Shlangenberg for my sake! No! Of that I am very sure!”—and she +laughed. “Do you know where he is going next year? He says he intends to +go to the North Pole for scientific investigations, and has invited me to go +with him! Ha, ha, ha! He also says that we Russians know nothing, can do +nothing, without European help. But he is a good fellow all the same. For +instance, he does not blame the General in the matter, but declares that Mlle. +Blanche—that love—But no; I do not know, I do not know.” She +stopped suddenly, as though she had said her say, and was feeling bewildered. +“What poor creatures these people are. How sorry I am for them, and for +Grandmamma! But when are you going to kill De Griers? Surely you do not intend +actually to murder him? You fool! Do you suppose that I should <i>allow</i> you +to fight De Griers? Nor shall you kill the Baron.” Here she burst out +laughing. “How absurd you looked when you were talking to the +Burmergelms! I was watching you all the time—watching you from where I +was sitting. And how unwilling you were to go when I sent you! Oh, how I +laughed and laughed!” +</p> + +<p> +Then she kissed and embraced me again; again she pressed her face to mine with +tender passion. Yet I neither saw nor heard her, for my head was in a whirl.... +</p> + +<p> +It must have been about seven o’clock in the morning when I awoke. +Daylight had come, and Polina was sitting by my side—a strange expression +on her face, as though she had seen a vision and was unable to collect her +thoughts. She too had just awoken, and was now staring at the money on the +table. My head ached; it felt heavy. I attempted to take Polina’s hand, +but she pushed me from her, and leapt from the sofa. The dawn was full of mist, +for rain had fallen, yet she moved to the window, opened it, and, leaning her +elbows upon the window-sill, thrust out her head and shoulders to take the air. +In this position did she remain for several minutes, without ever looking round +at me, or listening to what I was saying. Into my head there came the uneasy +thought: What is to happen now? How is it all to end? Suddenly Polina rose from +the window, approached the table, and, looking at me with an expression of +infinite aversion, said with lips which quivered with anger: +</p> + +<p> +“Well? Are you going to hand me over my fifty thousand francs?” +</p> + +<p> +“Polina, you say that <i>again, again?</i>” I exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +“You have changed your mind, then? Ha, ha, ha! You are sorry you ever +promised them?” +</p> + +<p> +On the table where, the previous night, I had counted the money there still was +lying the packet of twenty five thousand florins. I handed it to her. +</p> + +<p> +“The francs are mine, then, are they? They are mine?” she inquired +viciously as she balanced the money in her hands. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; they have <i>always</i> been yours,” I said. +</p> + +<p> +“Then <i>take</i> your fifty thousand francs!” and she hurled them +full in my face. The packet burst as she did so, and the floor became strewed +with bank-notes. The instant that the deed was done she rushed from the room. +</p> + +<p> +At that moment she cannot have been in her right mind; yet, what was the cause +of her temporary aberration I cannot say. For a month past she had been unwell. +Yet what had brought about this <i>present</i> condition of mind, above all +things, this outburst? Had it come of wounded pride? Had it come of despair +over her decision to come to me? Had it come of the fact that, presuming too +much on my good fortune, I had seemed to be intending to desert her (even as De +Griers had done) when once I had given her the fifty thousand francs? But, on +my honour, I had never cherished any such intention. What was at fault, I +think, was her own pride, which kept urging her not to trust me, but, rather, +to insult me—even though she had not realised the fact. In her eyes I +corresponded to De Griers, and therefore had been condemned for a fault not +wholly my own. Her mood of late had been a sort of delirium, a sort of +light-headedness—that I knew full well; yet, never had I sufficiently +taken it into consideration. Perhaps she would not pardon me now? Ah, but this +was <i>the present</i>. What about the future? Her delirium and sickness were +not likely to make her forget what she had done in bringing me De Griers’ +letter. No, she must have known what she was doing when she brought it. +</p> + +<p> +Somehow I contrived to stuff the pile of notes and gold under the bed, to cover +them over, and then to leave the room some ten minutes after Polina. I felt +sure that she had returned to her own room; wherefore, I intended quietly to +follow her, and to ask the nursemaid aid who opened the door how her mistress +was. Judge, therefore, of my surprise when, meeting the domestic on the stairs, +she informed me that Polina had not yet returned, and that she (the domestic) +was at that moment on her way to my room in quest of her! +</p> + +<p> +“Mlle. left me but ten minutes ago,” I said. “What can have +become of her?” The nursemaid looked at me reproachfully. +</p> + +<p> +Already sundry rumours were flying about the hotel. Both in the office of the +commissionaire and in that of the landlord it was whispered that, at seven +o’clock that morning, the Fräulein had left the hotel, and set off, +despite the rain, in the direction of the Hôtel d’Angleterre. From words +and hints let fall I could see that the fact of Polina having spent the night +in my room was now public property. Also, sundry rumours were circulating +concerning the General’s family affairs. It was known that last night he +had gone out of his mind, and paraded the hotel in tears; also, that the old +lady who had arrived was his mother, and that she had come from Russia on +purpose to forbid her son’s marriage with Mlle. de Cominges, as well as +to cut him out of her will if he should disobey her; also that, because he had +disobeyed her, she had squandered all her money at roulette, in order to have +nothing more to leave to him. “Oh, these Russians!” exclaimed the +landlord, with an angry toss of the head, while the bystanders laughed and the +clerk betook himself to his accounts. Also, every one had learnt about my +winnings; Karl, the corridor lacquey, was the first to congratulate me. But +with these folk I had nothing to do. My business was to set off at full speed +to the Hôtel d’Angleterre. +</p> + +<p> +As yet it was early for Mr. Astley to receive visitors; but, as soon as he +learnt that it was <i>I</i> who had arrived, he came out into the corridor to +meet me, and stood looking at me in silence with his steel-grey eyes as he +waited to hear what I had to say. I inquired after Polina. +</p> + +<p> +“She is ill,” he replied, still looking at me with his direct, +unwavering glance. +</p> + +<p> +“And she is in your rooms.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, she is in my rooms.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you are minded to keep her there?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I am minded to keep her there.” +</p> + +<p> +“But, Mr. Astley, that will raise a scandal. It ought not to be allowed. +Besides, she is very ill. Perhaps you had not remarked that?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I have. It was I who told you about it. Had she not been ill, she +would not have gone and spent the night with you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you know all about it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; for last night she was to have accompanied me to the house of a +relative of mine. Unfortunately, being ill, she made a mistake, and went to +your rooms instead.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed? Then I wish you joy, Mr. Astley. Apropos, you have reminded me +of something. Were you beneath my window last night? Every moment Mlle. Polina +kept telling me to open the window and see if you were there; after which she +always smiled.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed? No, I was not there; but I was waiting in the corridor, and +walking about the hotel.” +</p> + +<p> +“She ought to see a doctor, you know, Mr. Astley.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, she ought. I have sent for one, and, if she dies, I shall hold you +responsible.” +</p> + +<p> +This surprised me. +</p> + +<p> +“Pardon me,” I replied, “but what do you mean?” +</p> + +<p> +“Never mind. Tell me if it is true that, last night, you won two hundred +thousand thalers?” +</p> + +<p> +“No; I won a hundred thousand florins.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good heavens! Then I suppose you will be off to Paris this +morning?” +</p> + +<p> +“Why?” +</p> + +<p> +“Because all Russians who have grown rich go to Paris,” explained +Astley, as though he had read the fact in a book. +</p> + +<p> +“But what could I do in Paris in summer time?—I <i>love</i> her, +Mr. Astley! Surely you know that?” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed? I am sure that you do <i>not</i>. Moreover, if you were to stay +here, you would lose everything that you possess, and have nothing left with +which to pay your expenses in Paris. Well, good-bye now. I feel sure that today +will see you gone from here.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good-bye. But I am <i>not</i> going to Paris. Likewise—pardon +me—what is to become of this family? I mean that the affair of the +General and Mlle. Polina will soon be all over the town.” +</p> + +<p> +“I daresay; yet, I hardly suppose that that will break the +General’s heart. Moreover, Mlle. Polina has a perfect right to live where +she chooses. In short, we may say that, as a family, this family has ceased to +exist.” +</p> + +<p> +I departed, and found myself smiling at the Englishman’s strange +assurance that I should soon be leaving for Paris. “I suppose he means to +shoot me in a duel, should Polina die. Yes, that is what he intends to +do.” Now, although I was honestly sorry for Polina, it is a fact that, +from the moment when, the previous night, I had approached the gaming-table, +and begun to rake in the packets of bank-notes, my love for her had entered +upon a new plane. Yes, I can say that now; although, at the time, I was barely +conscious of it. Was I, then, at heart a gambler? Did I, after all, love Polina +not so <i>very</i> much? No, no! As God is my witness, I loved her! Even when I +was returning home from Mr. Astley’s my suffering was genuine, and my +self-reproach sincere. But presently I was to go through an exceedingly strange +and ugly experience. +</p> + +<p> +I was proceeding to the General’s rooms when I heard a door near me open, +and a voice call me by name. It was Mlle.’s mother, the Widow de Cominges +who was inviting me, in her daughter’s name, to enter. +</p> + +<p> +I did so; whereupon, I heard a laugh and a little cry proceed from the bedroom +(the pair occupied a suite of two apartments), where Mlle. Blanche was just +arising. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, c’est lui! Viens, donc, bête! Is it true that you have won a +mountain of gold and silver? J’aimerais mieux l’or.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” I replied with a smile. +</p> + +<p> +“How much?” +</p> + +<p> +“A hundred thousand florins.” +</p> + +<p> +“Bibi, comme tu es bête! Come in here, for I can’t hear you where +you are now. Nous ferons bombance, n’est-ce pas?” +</p> + +<p> +Entering her room, I found her lolling under a pink satin coverlet, and +revealing a pair of swarthy, wonderfully healthy shoulders—shoulders such +as one sees in dreams—shoulders covered over with a white cambric +nightgown which, trimmed with lace, stood out, in striking relief, against the +darkness of her skin. +</p> + +<p> +“Mon fils, as-tu du cœur?” she cried when she saw me, and then +giggled. Her laugh had always been a very cheerful one, and at times it even +sounded sincere. +</p> + +<p> +“Tout autre—” I began, paraphrasing Corneille. +</p> + +<p> +“See here,” she prattled on. “Please search for my stockings, +and help me to dress. Aussi, si tu n’es pas trop bête je te prends à +Paris. I am just off, let me tell you.” +</p> + +<p> +“This moment?” +</p> + +<p> +“In half an hour.” +</p> + +<p> +True enough, everything stood ready-packed—trunks, portmanteaux, and all. +Coffee had long been served. +</p> + +<p> +“Eh bien, tu verras Paris. Dis donc, qu’est-ce que c’est +qu’un ‘utchitel’? Tu étais bien bête quand tu étais +‘utchitel.’ Where are my stockings? Please help me to dress.” +</p> + +<p> +And she lifted up a really ravishing foot—small, swarthy, and not +misshapen like the majority of feet which look dainty only in bottines. I +laughed, and started to draw on to the foot a silk stocking, while Mlle. +Blanche sat on the edge of the bed and chattered. +</p> + +<p> +“Eh bien, que feras-tu si je te prends avec moi? First of all I must have +fifty thousand francs, and you shall give them to me at Frankfurt. Then we will +go on to Paris, where we will live together, et je te ferai voir des étoiles en +plein jour. Yes, you shall see such women as your eyes have never lit +upon.” +</p> + +<p> +“Stop a moment. If I were to give you those fifty thousand francs, what +should I have left for myself?” +</p> + +<p> +“Another hundred thousand francs, please to remember. Besides, I could +live with you in your rooms for a month, or even for two; or even for longer. +But it would not take us more than two months to get through fifty thousand +francs; for, look you, je suis bonne enfante, et tu verras des étoiles, you may +be sure.” +</p> + +<p> +“What? You mean to say that we should spend the whole in two +months?” +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly. Does that surprise you very much? Ah, vil esclave! Why, one +month of that life would be better than all your previous existence. One +month—et après, le déluge! Mais tu ne peux comprendre. Va! Away, away! +You are not worth it.—Ah, que fais-tu?” +</p> + +<p> +For, while drawing on the other stocking, I had felt constrained to kiss her. +Immediately she shrunk back, kicked me in the face with her toes, and turned me +neck and crop out of the room. +</p> + +<p> +“Eh bien, mon ‘utchitel’,” she called after me, +“je t’attends, si tu veux. I start in a quarter of an hour’s +time.” +</p> + +<p> +I returned to my own room with my head in a whirl. It was not my fault that +Polina had thrown a packet in my face, and preferred Mr. Astley to myself. A +few bank-notes were still fluttering about the floor, and I picked them up. At +that moment the door opened, and the landlord appeared—a person who, +until now, had never bestowed upon me so much as a glance. He had come to know +if I would prefer to move to a lower floor—to a suite which had just been +tenanted by Count V. +</p> + +<p> +For a moment I reflected. +</p> + +<p> +“No!” I shouted. “My account, please, for in ten minutes I +shall be gone.” +</p> + +<p> +“To Paris, to Paris!” I added to myself. “Every man of birth +must make her acquaintance.” +</p> + +<p> +Within a quarter of an hour all three of us were seated in a family +compartment—Mlle. Blanche, the Widow de Cominges, and myself. Mlle. kept +laughing hysterically as she looked at me, and Madame re-echoed her; but +<i>I</i> did not feel so cheerful. My life had broken in two, and yesterday had +infected me with a habit of staking my all upon a card. Although it might be +that I had failed to win my stake, that I had lost my senses, that I desired +nothing better, I felt that the scene was to be changed only <i>for a time</i>. +“Within a month from now,” I kept thinking to myself, “I +shall be back again in Roulettenberg; and <i>then</i> I mean to have it out +with you, Mr. Astley!” Yes, as now I look back at things, I remember that +I felt greatly depressed, despite the absurd gigglings of the egregious +Blanche. +</p> + +<p> +“What is the matter with you? How dull you are!” she cried at +length as she interrupted her laughter to take me seriously to task. +</p> + +<p> +“Come, come! We are going to spend your two hundred thousand francs for +you, et tu seras heureux comme un petit roi. I myself will tie your tie for +you, and introduce you to Hortense. And when we have spent your money you shall +return here, and break the bank again. What did those two Jews tell +you?—that the thing most needed is daring, and that you possess it? +Consequently, this is not the first time that you will be hurrying to Paris +with money in your pocket. Quant à moi, je veux cinquante mille francs de +rente, et alors——” +</p> + +<p> +“But what about the General?” I interrupted. +</p> + +<p> +“The General? You know well enough that at about this hour every day he +goes to buy me a bouquet. On this occasion, I took care to tell him that he +must hunt for the choicest of flowers; and when he returns home, the poor +fellow will find the bird flown. Possibly he may take wing in pursuit—ha, +ha, ha! And if so, I shall not be sorry, for he could be useful to me in Paris, +and Mr. Astley will pay his debts here.” +</p> + +<p> +In this manner did I depart for the Gay City. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap16"></a>XVI</h2> + +<p> +Of Paris what am I to say? The whole proceeding was a delirium, a madness. I +spent a little over three weeks there, and, during that time, saw my hundred +thousand francs come to an end. I speak only of the <i>one</i> hundred thousand +francs, for the other hundred thousand I gave to Mlle. Blanche in pure cash. +That is to say, I handed her fifty thousand francs at Frankfurt, and, three +days later (in Paris), advanced her another fifty thousand on note of hand. +Nevertheless, a week had not elapsed ere she came to me for more money. +“Et les cent mille francs qui nous restent,” she added, “tu +les mangeras avec moi, mon utchitel.” Yes, she always called me her +“utchitel.” A person more economical, grasping, and mean than Mlle. +Blanche one could not imagine. But this was only as regards <i>her own</i> +money. <i>My</i> hundred thousand francs (as she explained to me later) she +needed to set up her establishment in Paris, “so that once and for all I +may be on a decent footing, and proof against any stones which may be thrown at +me—at all events for a long time to come.” Nevertheless, I saw +nothing of those hundred thousand francs, for my own purse (which she inspected +daily) never managed to amass in it more than a hundred francs at a time; and, +generally the sum did not reach even that figure. +</p> + +<p> +“What do <i>you</i> want with money?” she would say to me with air +of absolute simplicity; and I never disputed the point. Nevertheless, though +she fitted out her flat very badly with the money, the fact did not prevent her +from saying when, later, she was showing me over the rooms of her new abode: +“See what care and taste can do with the most wretched of means!” +However, her “wretchedness” had cost fifty thousand francs, while +with the remaining fifty thousand she purchased a carriage and horses. +</p> + +<p> +Also, we gave a couple of balls—evening parties attended by Hortense and +Lisette and Cléopatre, who were women remarkable both for the number of their +liaisons and (though only in some cases) for their good looks. At these +reunions I had to play the part of host—to meet and entertain fat +mercantile parvenus who were impossible by reason of their rudeness and +braggadocio, colonels of various kinds, hungry authors, and journalistic +hacks—all of whom disported themselves in fashionable tailcoats and pale +yellow gloves, and displayed such an aggregate of conceit and gasconade as +would be unthinkable even in St. Petersburg—which is saying a great deal! +They used to try to make fun of me, but I would console myself by drinking +champagne and then lolling in a retiring-room. Nevertheless, I found it deadly +work. “C’est un utchitel,” Blanche would say of me, +“qui a gagné deux cent mille francs, and but for me, would have had not a +notion how to spend them. Presently he will have to return to his tutoring. +Does any one know of a vacant post? You know, one must do something for +him.” +</p> + +<p> +I had the more frequent recourse to champagne in that I constantly felt +depressed and bored, owing to the fact that I was living in the most bourgeois +commercial milieu imaginable—a milieu wherein every sou was counted and +grudged. Indeed, two weeks had not elapsed before I perceived that Blanche had +no real affection for me, even though she dressed me in elegant clothes, and +herself tied my tie each day. In short, she utterly despised me. But that +caused me no concern. Blasé and inert, I spent my evenings generally at the +Château des Fleurs, where I would get fuddled and then dance the cancan (which, +in that establishment, was a very indecent performance) with éclat. At length, +the time came when Blanche had drained my purse dry. She had conceived an idea +that, during the term of our residence together, it would be well if I were +always to walk behind her with a paper and pencil, in order to jot down exactly +what she spent, what she had saved, what she was paying out, and what she was +laying by. Well, of course I could not fail to be aware that this would entail +a battle over every ten francs; so, although for every possible objection that +I might make she had prepared a suitable answer, she soon saw that I made no +objections, and therefore, had to start disputes herself. That is to say, she +would burst out into tirades which were met only with silence as I lolled on a +sofa and stared fixedly at the ceiling. This greatly surprised her. At first +she imagined that it was due merely to the fact that I was a fool, “un +utchitel”; wherefore she would break off her harangue in the belief that, +being too stupid to understand, I was a hopeless case. Then she would leave the +room, but return ten minutes later to resume the contest. This continued +throughout her squandering of my money—a squandering altogether out of +proportion to our means. An example is the way in which she changed her first +pair of horses for a pair which cost sixteen thousand francs. +</p> + +<p> +“Bibi,” she said on the latter occasion as she approached me, +“surely you are not angry?” +</p> + +<p> +“No-o-o: I am merely tired,” was my reply as I pushed her from me. +This seemed to her so curious that straightway she seated herself by my side. +</p> + +<p> +“You see,” she went on, “I decided to spend so much upon +these horses only because I can easily sell them again. They would go at any +time for <i>twenty</i> thousand francs.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, yes. They are splendid horses, and you have got a splendid +turn-out. I am quite content. Let me hear no more of the matter.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you are not angry?” +</p> + +<p> +“No. Why should I be? You are wise to provide yourself with what you +need, for it will all come in handy in the future. Yes, I quite see the +necessity of your establishing yourself on a good basis, for without it you +will never earn your million. My hundred thousand francs I look upon merely as +a beginning—as a mere drop in the bucket.” +</p> + +<p> +Blanche, who had by no means expected such declarations from me, but, rather, +an uproar and protests, was rather taken aback. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well, what a man you are!” she exclaimed. “Mais tu as +l’esprit pour comprendre. Sais-tu, mon garçon, although you are a tutor, +you ought to have been born a prince. Are you not sorry that your money should +be going so quickly?” +</p> + +<p> +“No. The quicker it goes the better.” +</p> + +<p> +“Mais—sais-tu—mais dis donc, are you <i>really</i> rich? Mais +sais-tu, you have too much contempt for money. Qu’est-ce que tu feras +après, dis donc?” +</p> + +<p> +“Après I shall go to Homburg, and win another hundred thousand +francs.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oui, oui, c’est ça, c’est magnifique! Ah, I know you will +win them, and bring them to me when you have done so. Dis donc—you will +end by making me love you. Since you are what you are, I mean to love you all +the time, and never to be unfaithful to you. You see, I have not loved you +before parce que je croyais que tu n’es qu’un utchitel (quelque +chose comme un lacquais, n’est-ce pas?) Yet all the time I have been true +to you, parce que je suis bonne fille.” +</p> + +<p> +“You lie!” I interrupted. “Did I not see you, the other day, +with Albert—with that black-jowled officer?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, oh! Mais tu es—” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, you are lying right enough. But what makes you suppose that I +should be angry? Rubbish! Il faut que jeunesse se passe. Even if that officer +were here now, I should refrain from putting him out of the room if I thought +you really cared for him. Only, mind you, do not give him any of my money. You +hear?” +</p> + +<p> +“You say, do you, that you would not be angry? Mais tu es un vrai +philosophe, sais-tu? Oui, un vrai philosophe! Eh bien, je t’aimerai, je +t’aimerai. Tu verras-tu seras content.” +</p> + +<p> +True enough, from that time onward she seemed to attach herself only to me, and +in this manner we spent our last ten days together. The promised +“étoiles” I did not see, but in other respects she, to a certain +extent, kept her word. Moreover, she introduced me to Hortense, who was a +remarkable woman in her way, and known among us as Thérèse Philosophe. +</p> + +<p> +But I need not enlarge further, for to do so would require a story to itself, +and entail a colouring which I am loth to impart to the present narrative. The +point is that with all my faculties I desired the episode to come to an end as +speedily as possible. Unfortunately, our hundred thousand francs lasted us, as +I have said, for very nearly a month—which greatly surprised me. At all +events, Blanche bought herself articles to the tune of eighty thousand francs, +and the rest sufficed just to meet our expenses of living. Towards the close of +the affair, Blanche grew almost frank with me (at least, she scarcely lied to +me at all)—declaring, amongst other things, that none of the debts which +she had been obliged to incur were going to fall upon my head. “I have +purposely refrained from making you responsible for my bills or +borrowings,” she said, “for the reason that I am sorry for you. Any +other woman in my place would have done so, and have let you go to prison. See, +then, how much I love you, and how good-hearted I am! Think, too, what this +accursed marriage with the General is going to cost me!” +</p> + +<p> +True enough, the marriage took place. It did so at the close of our month +together, and I am bound to suppose that it was upon the ceremony that the last +remnants of my money were spent. With it the episode—that is to say, my +sojourn with the Frenchwoman—came to an end, and I formally retired from +the scene. +</p> + +<p> +It happened thus: A week after we had taken up our abode in Paris there arrived +thither the General. He came straight to see us, and thenceforward lived with +us practically as our guest, though he had a flat of his own as well. Blanche +met him with merry badinage and laughter, and even threw her arms around him. +In fact, she managed it so that he had to follow everywhere in her +train—whether when promenading on the Boulevards, or when driving, or +when going to the theatre, or when paying calls; and this use which she made of +him quite satisfied the General. Still of imposing appearance and presence, as +well as of fair height, he had a dyed moustache and whiskers (he had formerly +been in the cuirassiers), and a handsome, though a somewhat wrinkled, face. +Also, his manners were excellent, and he could carry a frockcoat well—the +more so since, in Paris, he took to wearing his orders. To promenade the +Boulevards with such a man was not only a thing possible, but also, so to +speak, a thing advisable, and with this programme the good but foolish General +had not a fault to find. The truth is that he had never counted upon this +programme when he came to Paris to seek us out. On that occasion he had made +his appearance nearly shaking with terror, for he had supposed that Blanche +would at once raise an outcry, and have him put from the door; wherefore, he +was the more enraptured at the turn that things had taken, and spent the month +in a state of senseless ecstasy. Already I had learnt that, after our +unexpected departure from Roulettenberg, he had had a sort of a fit—that +he had fallen into a swoon, and spent a week in a species of garrulous +delirium. Doctors had been summoned to him, but he had broken away from them, +and suddenly taken a train to Paris. Of course Blanche’s reception of him +had acted as the best of all possible cures, but for long enough he carried the +marks of his affliction, despite his present condition of rapture and delight. +To think clearly, or even to engage in any serious conversation, had now become +impossible for him; he could only ejaculate after each word “Hm!” +and then nod his head in confirmation. Sometimes, also, he would laugh, but +only in a nervous, hysterical sort of a fashion; while at other times he would +sit for hours looking as black as night, with his heavy eyebrows knitted. Of +much that went on he remained wholly oblivious, for he grew extremely +absent-minded, and took to talking to himself. Only Blanche could awake him to +any semblance of life. His fits of depression and moodiness in corners always +meant either that he had not seen her for some while, or that she had gone out +without taking him with her, or that she had omitted to caress him before +departing. When in this condition, he would refuse to say what he +wanted—nor had he the least idea that he was thus sulking and moping. +Next, after remaining in this condition for an hour or two (this I remarked on +two occasions when Blanche had gone out for the day—probably to see +Albert), he would begin to look about him, and to grow uneasy, and to hurry +about with an air as though he had suddenly remembered something, and must try +and find it; after which, not perceiving the object of his search, nor +succeeding in recalling what that object had been, he would as suddenly relapse +into oblivion, and continue so until the reappearance of Blanche—merry, +wanton, half-dressed, and laughing her strident laugh as she approached to pet +him, and even to kiss him (though the latter reward he seldom received). Once, +he was so overjoyed at her doing so that he burst into tears. Even I myself was +surprised. +</p> + +<p> +From the first moment of his arrival in Paris, Blanche set herself to plead +with me on his behalf; and at such times she even rose to heights of +eloquence—saying that it was for <i>me</i> she had abandoned him, though +she had almost become his betrothed and promised to become so; that it was for +<i>her</i> sake he had deserted his family; that, having been in his service, I +ought to remember the fact, and to feel ashamed. To all this I would say +nothing, however much she chattered on; until at length I would burst out +laughing, and the incident would come to an end (at first, as I have said, she +had thought me a fool, but since she had come to deem me a man of sense and +sensibility). In short, I had the happiness of calling her better nature into +play; for though, at first, I had not deemed her so, she was, in reality, a +kind-hearted woman after her own fashion. “You are good and +clever,” she said to me towards the finish, “and my one regret is +that you are also so wrong-headed. You will <i>her</i> be a rich man!” +</p> + +<p> +“Un vrai Russe—un Kalmuk” she usually called me. +</p> + +<p> +Several times she sent me to give the General an airing in the streets, even as +she might have done with a lacquey and her spaniel; but, I preferred to take +him to the theatre, to the Bal Mabille, and to restaurants. For this purpose +she usually allowed me some money, though the General had a little of his own, +and enjoyed taking out his purse before strangers. Once I had to use actual +force to prevent him from buying a phaeton at a price of seven hundred francs, +after a vehicle had caught his fancy in the Palais Royal as seeming to be a +desirable present for Blanche. What could <i>she</i> have done with a +seven-hundred-franc phaeton?—and the General possessed in the world but a +thousand francs! The origin even of those francs I could never determine, but +imagined them to have emanated from Mr. Astley—the more so since the +latter had paid the family’s hotel bill. As for what view the General +took of myself, I think that he never divined the footing on which I stood with +Blanche. True, he had heard, in a dim sort of way, that I had won a good deal +of money; but more probably he supposed me to be acting as secretary—or +even as a kind of servant—to his inamorata. At all events, he continued +to address me, in his old haughty style, as my superior. At times he even took +it upon himself to scold me. One morning in particular, he started to sneer at +me over our matutinal coffee. Though not a man prone to take offence, he +suddenly, and for some reason of which to this day I am ignorant, fell out with +me. Of course even he himself did not know the reason. To put things shortly, +he began a speech which had neither beginning nor ending, and cried out, à +bâtons rompus, that I was a boy whom he would soon put to rights—and so +forth, and so forth. Yet no one could understand what he was saying, and at +length Blanche exploded in a burst of laughter. Finally something appeased him, +and he was taken out for his walk. More than once, however, I noticed that his +depression was growing upon him; that he seemed to be feeling the want of +somebody or something; that, despite Blanche’s presence, he was missing +some person in particular. Twice, on these occasions, did he plunge into a +conversation with me, though he could not make himself intelligible, and only +went on rambling about the service, his late wife, his home, and his property. +Every now and then, also, some particular word would please him; whereupon he +would repeat it a hundred times in the day—even though the word happened +to express neither his thoughts nor his feelings. Again, I would try to get him +to talk about his children, but always he cut me short in his old snappish way, +and passed to another subject. “Yes, yes—my children,” was +all that I could extract from him. “Yes, you are right in what you have +said about them.” Only once did he disclose his real feelings. That was +when we were taking him to the theatre, and suddenly he exclaimed: “My +unfortunate children! Yes, sir, they <i>are</i> unfortunate children.” +Once, too, when I chanced to mention Polina, he grew quite bitter against her. +“She is an ungrateful woman!” he exclaimed. “She is a bad and +ungrateful woman! She has broken up a family. If there were laws here, I would +have her impaled. Yes, I would.” As for De Griers, the General would not +have his name mentioned. “He has ruined me,” he would say. +“He has robbed me, and cut my throat. For two years he was a perfect +nightmare to me. For months at a time he never left me in my dreams. Do not +speak of him again.” +</p> + +<p> +It was now clear to me that Blanche and he were on the point of coming to +terms; yet, true to my usual custom, I said nothing. At length, Blanche took +the initiative in explaining matters. She did so a week before we parted. +</p> + +<p> +“Il a de la chance,” she prattled, “for the Grandmother is +now <i>really</i> ill, and therefore, bound to die. Mr. Astley has just sent a +telegram to say so, and you will agree with me that the General is likely to be +her heir. Even if he should not be so, he will not come amiss, since, in the +first place, he has his pension, and, in the second place, he will be content +to live in a back room; whereas <i>I</i> shall be Madame General, and get into +a good circle of society” (she was always thinking of this) “and +become a Russian châtelaine. Yes, I shall have a mansion of my own, and +peasants, and a million of money at my back.” +</p> + +<p> +“But, suppose he should prove jealous? He might demand all sorts of +things, you know. Do you follow me?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, dear no! How ridiculous that would be of him! Besides, I have taken +measures to prevent it. You need not be alarmed. That is to say, I have induced +him to sign notes of hand in Albert’s name. Consequently, at any time I +could get him punished. Isn’t he ridiculous?” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well, then. Marry him.” +</p> + +<p> +And, in truth, she did so—though the marriage was a family one only, and +involved no pomp or ceremony. In fact, she invited to the nuptials none but +Albert and a few other friends. Hortense, Cléopatre, and the rest she kept +firmly at a distance. As for the bridegroom, he took a great interest in his +new position. Blanche herself tied his tie, and Blanche herself pomaded +him—with the result that, in his frockcoat and white waistcoat, he looked +quite comme il faut. +</p> + +<p> +“Il est, pourtant, <i>très</i> comme il faut,” Blanche remarked +when she issued from his room, as though the idea that he was +“<i>très</i> comme il faut” had impressed even her. For myself, I +had so little knowledge of the minor details of the affair, and took part in it +so much as a supine spectator, that I have forgotten most of what passed on +this occasion. I only remember that Blanche and the Widow figured at it, not as +“de Cominges,” but as “du Placet.” Why they had +hitherto been “de Cominges” I do not know—I only know that +this entirely satisfied the General, that he liked the name “du +Placet” even better than he had liked the name “de Cominges.” +On the morning of the wedding, he paced the salon in his gala attire and kept +repeating to himself with an air of great gravity and importance: “Mlle. +Blanche du Placet! Mlle. Blanche du Placet, du Placet!” He beamed with +satisfaction as he did so. Both in the church and at the wedding breakfast he +remained not only pleased and contented, but even proud. She too underwent a +change, for now she assumed an air of added dignity. +</p> + +<p> +“I must behave altogether differently,” she confided to me with a +serious air. “Yet, mark you, there is a tiresome circumstance of which I +had never before thought—which is, how best to pronounce my new family +name. Zagorianski, Zagozianski, Madame la Générale de Sago, Madame la Générale +de Fourteen Consonants—oh these infernal Russian names! The <i>last</i> +of them would be the best to use, don’t you think?” +</p> + +<p> +At length the time had come for us to part, and Blanche, the egregious Blanche, +shed real tears as she took her leave of me. “Tu étais bon enfant” +she said with a sob. “Je te croyais bête et tu en avais l’air, but +it suited you.” Then, having given me a final handshake, she exclaimed, +“Attends!”; whereafter, running into her boudoir, she brought me +thence two thousand-franc notes. I could scarcely believe my eyes! “They +may come in handy for you,” she explained, “for, though you are a +very learned tutor, you are a very stupid man. More than two thousand francs, +however, I am not going to give you, for the reason that, if I did so, you +would gamble them all away. Now good-bye. Nous serons toujours bons amis, and +if you win again, do not fail to come to me, et tu seras heureux.” +</p> + +<p> +I myself had still five hundred francs left, as well as a watch worth a +thousand francs, a few diamond studs, and so on. Consequently, I could subsist +for quite a length of time without particularly bestirring myself. Purposely I +have taken up my abode where I am now partly to pull myself together, and +partly to wait for Mr. Astley, who, I have learnt, will soon be here for a day +or so on business. Yes, I know that, and then—and then I shall go to +Homburg. But to Roulettenberg I shall not go until next year, for they say it +is bad to try one’s luck twice in succession at a table. Moreover, +Homburg is where the best play is carried on. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap17"></a>XVII</h2> + +<p> +It is a year and eight months since I last looked at these notes of mine. I do +so now only because, being overwhelmed with depression, I wish to distract my +mind by reading them through at random. I left them off at the point where I +was just going to Homburg. My God, with what a light heart (comparatively +speaking) did I write the concluding lines!—though it may be not so much +with a light heart, as with a measure of self-confidence and unquenchable hope. +At that time had I any doubts of myself? Yet behold me now. Scarcely a year and +a half have passed, yet I am in a worse position than the meanest beggar. But +what is a beggar? A fig for beggary! I have ruined myself—that is all. +Nor is there anything with which I can compare myself; there is no moral which +it would be of any use for you to read to me. At the present moment nothing +could well be more incongruous than a moral. Oh, you self-satisfied persons +who, in your unctuous pride, are forever ready to mouth your maxims—if +only you knew how fully I myself comprehend the sordidness of my present state, +you would not trouble to wag your tongues at me! What could you say to me that +I do not already know? Well, wherein lies my difficulty? It lies in the fact +that by a single turn of a roulette wheel everything for me, has become +changed. Yet, had things befallen otherwise, these moralists would have been +among the first (yes, I feel persuaded of it) to approach me with friendly +jests and congratulations. Yes, they would never have turned from me as they +are doing now! A fig for all of them! What am I? I am zero—nothing. What +shall I be tomorrow? I may be risen from the dead, and have begun life anew. +For still, I may discover the man in myself, if only my manhood has not become +utterly shattered. +</p> + +<p> +I went, I say, to Homburg, but afterwards went also to Roulettenberg, as well +as to Spa and Baden; in which latter place, for a time, I acted as valet to a +certain rascal of a Privy Councillor, by name Heintze, who until lately was +also my master here. Yes, for five months I lived my life with lacqueys! That +was just after I had come out of Roulettenberg prison, where I had lain for a +small debt which I owed. Out of that prison I was bailed by—by whom? By +Mr. Astley? By Polina? I do not know. At all events, the debt was paid to the +tune of two hundred thalers, and I sallied forth a free man. But what was I to +do with myself? In my dilemma I had recourse to this Heintze, who was a young +scapegrace, and the sort of man who could speak and write three languages. At +first I acted as his secretary, at a salary of thirty gülden a month, but +afterwards I became his lacquey, for the reason that he could not afford to +keep a secretary—only an unpaid servant. I had nothing else to turn to, +so I remained with him, and allowed myself to become his flunkey. But by +stinting myself in meat and drink I saved, during my five months of service, +some seventy gülden; and one evening, when we were at Baden, I told him that I +wished to resign my post, and then hastened to betake myself to roulette. +</p> + +<p> +Oh, how my heart beat as I did so! No, it was not the money that I +valued—what I wanted was to make all this mob of Heintzes, hotel +proprietors, and fine ladies of Baden talk about me, recount my story, wonder +at me, extol my doings, and worship my winnings. True, these were childish +fancies and aspirations, but who knows but that I might meet Polina, and be +able to tell her everything, and see her look of surprise at the fact that I +had overcome so many adverse strokes of fortune. No, I had no desire for money +for its own sake, for I was perfectly well aware that I should only squander it +upon some new Blanche, and spend another three weeks in Paris after buying a +pair of horses which had cost sixteen thousand francs. No, I never believed +myself to be a hoarder; in fact, I knew only too well that I was a spendthrift. +And already, with a sort of fear, a sort of sinking in my heart, I could hear +the cries of the croupiers—“Trente et un, rouge, impair et +passe,” “Quarte, noir, pair et manque.” How greedily I gazed +upon the gaming-table, with its scattered louis d’or, ten-gülden pieces, +and thalers; upon the streams of gold as they issued from the croupier’s +hands, and piled themselves up into heaps of gold scintillating as fire; upon +the ell—long rolls of silver lying around the croupier. Even at a +distance of two rooms I could hear the chink of that money—so much so +that I nearly fell into convulsions. +</p> + +<p> +Ah, the evening when I took those seventy gülden to the gaming table was a +memorable one for me. I began by staking ten gülden upon passe. For passe I had +always had a sort of predilection, yet I lost my stake upon it. This left me +with sixty gülden in silver. After a moment’s thought I selected +zero—beginning by staking five gülden at a time. Twice I lost, but the +third round suddenly brought up the desired coup. I could almost have died with +joy as I received my one hundred and seventy-five gülden. Indeed, I have been +less pleased when, in former times, I have won a hundred thousand gülden. +Losing no time, I staked another hundred gülden upon the red, and won; two +hundred upon the red, and won; four hundred upon the black, and won; eight +hundred upon manque, and won. Thus, with the addition of the remainder of my +original capital, I found myself possessed, within five minutes, of seventeen +hundred gülden. Ah, at such moments one forgets both oneself and one’s +former failures! This I had gained by risking my very life. I had dared so to +risk, and behold, again I was a member of mankind! +</p> + +<p> +I went and hired a room, I shut myself up in it, and sat counting my money +until three o’clock in the morning. To think that when I awoke on the +morrow, I was no lacquey! I decided to leave at once for Homburg. There I +should neither have to serve as a footman nor to lie in prison. Half an hour +before starting, I went and ventured a couple of stakes—no more; with the +result that, in all, I lost fifteen hundred florins. Nevertheless, I proceeded +to Homburg, and have now been there for a month. +</p> + +<p> +Of course, I am living in constant trepidation, playing for the smallest of +stakes, and always looking out for something—calculating, standing whole +days by the gaming-tables to watch the play—even seeing that play in my +dreams—yet seeming, the while, to be in some way stiffening, to be +growing caked, as it were, in mire. But I must conclude my notes, which I +finish under the impression of a recent encounter with Mr. Astley. I had not +seen him since we parted at Roulettenberg, and now we met quite by accident. At +the time I was walking in the public gardens, and meditating upon the fact that +not only had I still some fifty gülden in my possession, but also I had fully +paid up my hotel bill three days ago. Consequently, I was in a position to try +my luck again at roulette; and if I won anything I should be able to continue +my play, whereas, if I lost what I now possessed, I should once more have to +accept a lacquey’s place, provided that, in the alternative, I failed to +discover a Russian family which stood in need of a tutor. Plunged in these +reflections, I started on my daily walk through the Park and forest towards a +neighbouring principality. Sometimes, on such occasions, I spent four hours on +the way, and would return to Homburg tired and hungry; but, on this particular +occasion, I had scarcely left the gardens for the Park when I caught sight of +Astley seated on a bench. As soon as he perceived me, he called me by name, and +I went and sat down beside him; but, on noticing that he seemed a little stiff +in his manner, I hastened to moderate the expression of joy which the sight of +him had called forth. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>You</i> here?” he said. “Well, I had an idea that I +should meet you. Do not trouble to tell me anything, for I know all—yes, +all. In fact, your whole life during the past twenty months lies within my +knowledge.” +</p> + +<p> +“How closely you watch the doings of your old friends!” I replied. +“That does you infinite credit. But stop a moment. You have reminded me +of something. Was it you who bailed me out of Roulettenberg prison when I was +lying there for a debt of two hundred gülden? <i>someone</i> did so.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh dear no!—though I knew all the time that you were lying +there.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps you could tell me who <i>did</i> bail me out?” +</p> + +<p> +“No; I am afraid I could not.” +</p> + +<p> +“What a strange thing! For I know no Russians at all here, so it cannot +have been a Russian who befriended me. In Russia we Orthodox folk <i>do</i> go +bail for one another, but in this case I thought it must have been done by some +English stranger who was not conversant with the ways of the country.” +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Astley seemed to listen to me with a sort of surprise. Evidently he had +expected to see me looking more crushed and broken than I was. +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” he said—not very pleasantly, “I am none the +less glad to find that you retain your old independence of spirit, as well as +your buoyancy.” +</p> + +<p> +“Which means that you are vexed at not having found me more abased and +humiliated than I am?” I retorted with a smile. +</p> + +<p> +Astley was not quick to understand this, but presently did so and laughed. +</p> + +<p> +“Your remarks please me as they always did,” he continued. +“In those words I see the clever, triumphant, and, above all things, +cynical friend of former days. Only Russians have the faculty of combining +within themselves so many opposite qualities. Yes, most men love to see their +best friend in abasement; for generally it is on such abasement that friendship +is founded. All thinking persons know that ancient truth. Yet, on the present +occasion, I assure you, I am sincerely glad to see that you are <i>not</i> cast +down. Tell me, are you never going to give up gambling?” +</p> + +<p> +“Damn the gambling! Yes, I should certainly have given it up, were it not +that—” +</p> + +<p> +“That you are losing? I thought so. You need not tell me any more. I know +how things stand, for you have said that last in despair, and therefore, +truthfully. Have you no other employment than gambling?” +</p> + +<p> +“No; none whatever.” +</p> + +<p> +Astley gave me a searching glance. At that time it was ages since I had last +looked at a paper or turned the pages of a book. +</p> + +<p> +“You are growing blasé,” he said. “You have not only +renounced life, with its interests and social ties, but the duties of a citizen +and a man; you have not only renounced the friends whom I know you to have had, +and every aim in life but that of winning money; but you have also renounced +your memory. Though I can remember you in the strong, ardent period of your +life, I feel persuaded that you have now forgotten every better feeling of that +period—that your present dreams and aspirations of subsistence do not +rise above pair, impair rouge, noir, the twelve middle numbers, and so +forth.” +</p> + +<p> +“Enough, Mr. Astley!” I cried with some irritation—almost in +anger. “Kindly do not recall to me any more recollections, for I can +remember things for myself. Only for a time have I put them out of my head. +Only until I shall have rehabilitated myself, am I keeping my memory dulled. +When that hour shall come, you will see me arise from the dead.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you will have to be here another ten years,” he replied. +“Should I then be alive, I will remind you—here, on this very +bench—of what I have just said. In fact, I will bet you a wager that I +shall do so.” +</p> + +<p> +“Say no more,” I interrupted impatiently. “And to show you +that I have not wholly forgotten the past, may I enquire where Mlle. Polina is? +If it was not you who bailed me out of prison, it must have been she. Yet never +have I heard a word concerning her.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I do not think it was she. At the present moment she is in +Switzerland, and you will do me a favour by ceasing to ask me these questions +about her.” Astley said this with a firm, and even an angry, air. +</p> + +<p> +“Which means that she has dealt you a serious wound?” I burst out +with an involuntary sneer. +</p> + +<p> +“Mlle. Polina,” he continued, “Is the best of all possible +living beings; but, I repeat, that I shall thank you to cease questioning me +about her. You never really knew her, and her name on your lips is an offence +to my moral feeling.” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed? On what subject, then, have I a better right to speak to you +than on this? With it are bound up all your recollections and mine. However, do +not be alarmed: I have no wish to probe too far into your private, your secret +affairs. My interest in Mlle. Polina does not extend beyond her outward +circumstances and surroundings. About them you could tell me in two +words.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, on condition that the matter shall end there, I will tell you that +for a long time Mlle. Polina was ill, and still is so. My mother and sister +entertained her for a while at their home in the north of England, and +thereafter Mlle. Polina’s grandmother (you remember the mad old woman?) +died, and left Mlle. Polina a personal legacy of seven thousand pounds +sterling. That was about six months ago, and now Mlle. is travelling with my +sister’s family—my sister having since married. Mlle.’s +little brother and sister also benefited by the Grandmother’s will, and +are now being educated in London. As for the General, he died in Paris last +month, of a stroke. Mlle. Blanche did well by him, for she succeeded in having +transferred to herself all that he received from the Grandmother. That, I +think, concludes all that I have to tell.” +</p> + +<p> +“And De Griers? Is he too travelling in Switzerland?” +</p> + +<p> +“No; nor do I know where he is. Also I warn you once more that you had +better avoid such hints and ignoble suppositions; otherwise you will assuredly +have to reckon with me.” +</p> + +<p> +“What? In spite of our old friendship?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, in spite of our old friendship.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I beg your pardon a thousand times, Mr. Astley. I meant nothing +offensive to Mlle. Polina, for I have nothing of which to accuse her. Moreover, +the question of there being anything between this Frenchman and this Russian +lady is not one which you and I need discuss, nor even attempt to +understand.” +</p> + +<p> +“If,” replied Astley, “you do not care to hear their names +coupled together, may I ask you what you mean by the expressions ‘this +Frenchman,’ ‘this Russian lady,’ and ‘there being +anything between them’? Why do you call them so particularly a +‘Frenchman’ and a ‘Russian lady’?” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, I see you are interested, Mr. Astley. But it is a long, long story, +and calls for a lengthy preface. At the same time, the question is an important +one, however ridiculous it may seem at the first glance. A Frenchman, Mr. +Astley, is merely a fine figure of a man. With this you, as a Britisher, may +not agree. With it I also, as a Russian, may not agree—out of envy. Yet +possibly our good ladies are of another opinion. For instance, one may look +upon Racine as a broken-down, hobbledehoy, perfumed individual—one may +even be unable to read him; and I too may think him the same, as well as, in +some respects, a subject for ridicule. Yet about him, Mr. Astley, there is a +certain charm, and, above all things, he is a great poet—though one might +like to deny it. Yes, the Frenchman, the Parisian, as a national figure, was in +process of developing into a figure of elegance before we Russians had even +ceased to be bears. The Revolution bequeathed to the French nobility its +heritage, and now every whipper-snapper of a Parisian may possess manners, +methods of expression, and even thoughts that are above reproach in form, while +all the time he himself may share in that form neither in initiative nor in +intellect nor in soul—his manners, and the rest, having come to him +through inheritance. Yes, taken by himself, the Frenchman is frequently a fool +of fools and a villain of villains. Per contra, there is no one in the world +more worthy of confidence and respect than this young Russian lady. De Griers +might so mask his face and play a part as easily to overcome her heart, for he +has an imposing figure, Mr. Astley, and this young lady might easily take that +figure for his real self—for the natural form of his heart and +soul—instead of the mere cloak with which heredity has dowered him. And +even though it may offend you, I feel bound to say that the majority also of +English people are uncouth and unrefined, whereas we Russian folk can recognise +beauty wherever we see it, and are always eager to cultivate the same. But to +distinguish beauty of soul and personal originality there is needed far more +independence and freedom than is possessed by our women, especially by our +younger ladies. At all events, they need more <i>experience</i>. For instance, +this Mlle. Polina—pardon me, but the name has passed my lips, and I +cannot well recall it—is taking a very long time to make up her mind to +prefer you to Monsieur de Griers. She may respect you, she may become your +friend, she may open out her heart to you; yet over that heart there will be +reigning that loathsome villain, that mean and petty usurer, De Griers. This +will be due to obstinacy and self-love—to the fact that De Griers once +appeared to her in the transfigured guise of a marquis, of a disenchanted and +ruined liberal who was doing his best to help her family and the frivolous old +General; and, although these transactions of his have since been exposed, you +will find that the exposure has made no impression upon her mind. Only give her +the De Griers of former days, and she will ask of you no more. The more she may +detest the present De Griers, the more will she lament the De Griers of the +past—even though the latter never existed but in her own imagination. You +are a sugar refiner, Mr. Astley, are you not?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I belong to the well-known firm of Lovell and Co.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then see here. On the one hand, you are a sugar refiner, while, on the +other hand, you are an Apollo Belvedere. But the two characters do not mix with +one another. I, again, am not even a sugar refiner; I am a mere roulette +gambler who has also served as a lacquey. Of this fact Mlle. Polina is probably +well aware, since she appears to have an excellent force of police at her +disposal.” +</p> + +<p> +“You are saying this because you are feeling bitter,” said Astley +with cold indifference. “Yet there is not the least originality in your +words.” +</p> + +<p> +“I agree. But therein lies the horror of it all—that, how +trepidation, playing ever mean and farcical my accusations may be, they are +none the less <i>true</i>. But I am only wasting words.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, you are, for you are only talking nonsense!” exclaimed my +companion—his voice now trembling and his eyes flashing fire. “Are +you aware,” he continued, “that wretched, ignoble, petty, +unfortunate man though you are, it was at <i>her</i> request I came to Homburg, +in order to see you, and to have a long, serious talk with you, and to report +to her your feelings and thoughts and hopes—yes, and your recollections +of her, too?” +</p> + +<p> +“Indeed? Is that really so?” I cried—the tears beginning to +well from my eyes. Never before had this happened. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, poor unfortunate,” continued Astley. “She <i>did</i> +love you; and I may tell you this now for the reason that now you are utterly +lost. Even if I were also to tell you that she still loves you, you would none +the less have to remain where you are. Yes, you have ruined yourself beyond +redemption. Once upon a time you had a certain amount of talent, and you were +of a lively disposition, and your good looks were not to be despised. You might +even have been useful to your country, which needs men like you. Yet you +remained here, and your life is now over. I am not blaming you for +this—in my view all Russians resemble you, or are inclined to do so. If +it is not roulette, then it is something else. The exceptions are very rare. +Nor are you the first to learn what a taskmaster is yours. For roulette is not +exclusively a Russian game. Hitherto, you have honourably preferred to serve as +a lacquey rather than to act as a thief; but what the future may have in store +for you I tremble to think. Now good-bye. You are in want of money, I suppose? +Then take these ten louis d’or. More I shall not give you, for you would +only gamble it away. Take care of these coins, and farewell. Once more, <i>take +care</i> of them.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, Mr. Astley. After all that has been said I—” +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Take care</i> of them!” repeated my friend. “I am certain +you are still a gentleman, and therefore I give you the money as one gentleman +may give money to another. Also, if I could be certain that you would leave +both Homburg and the gaming-tables, and return to your own country, I would +give you a thousand pounds down to start life afresh; but, I give you ten louis +d’or instead of a thousand pounds for the reason that at the present time +a thousand pounds and ten louis d’or will be all the same to +you—you will lose the one as readily as you will the other. Take the +money, therefore, and good-bye.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I <i>will</i> take it if at the same time you will embrace +me.” +</p> + +<p> +“With pleasure.” +</p> + +<p> +So we parted—on terms of sincere affection. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +But he was wrong. If <i>I</i> was hard and undiscerning as regards Polina and +De Griers, <i>he</i> was hard and undiscerning as regards Russian people +generally. Of myself I say nothing. Yet—yet words are only words. I need +to <i>act</i>. Above all things I need to think of Switzerland. Tomorrow, +tomorrow—Ah, but if only I could set things right tomorrow, and be born +again, and rise again from the dead! But no—I cannot. Yet I must show her +what I can do. Even if she should do no more than learn that I can still play +the man, it would be worth it. Today it is too late, but <i>tomorrow</i>. Yet I +have a presentiment that things can never be otherwise. I have got fifteen +louis d’or in my possession, although I began with fifteen gülden. If I +were to play carefully at the start—But no, no! Surely I am not such a +fool as that? Yet <i>why</i> should I not rise from the dead? I should require +at first but to go cautiously and patiently and the rest would follow. I should +require but to put a check upon my nature for one hour, and my fortunes would +be changed entirely. Yes, my nature is my weak point. I have only to remember +what happened to me some months ago at Roulettenberg, before my final ruin. +What a notable instance that was of my capacity for resolution! On the occasion +in question I had lost everything—everything; yet, just as I was leaving +the Casino, I heard another gülden give a rattle in my pocket! “Perhaps I +shall need it for a meal,” I thought to myself; but a hundred paces +further on, I changed my mind, and returned. That gülden I staked upon +manque—and there <i>is</i> something in the feeling that, though one is +alone, and in a foreign land, and far from one’s own home and friends, +and ignorant of whence one’s next meal is to come, one is nevertheless +staking one’s very last coin! Well, I won the stake, and in twenty +minutes had left the Casino with a hundred and seventy gülden in my pocket! +That is a fact, and it shows what a last remaining gülden can do.... But what +if my heart had failed me, or I had shrunk from making up my mind? ... +</p> + +<p> +No; tomorrow all shall be ended! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gambler, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GAMBLER *** + +***** This file should be named 2197-h.htm or 2197-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/9/2197/ + +Produced by Martin Adamson. 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