The Gambler

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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--"

  "They do not exceed it? Fie! Why, you are robbing your children

  of their last kopeck--you, their guardian!"

  "After this," said the General, completely taken aback,

  "--after what you have just said, I do not know whether--"

  "You do not know what? By heavens, are you never going to drop

  that roulette of yours? Are you going to whistle all your

  property away?"

  This made such an impression upon the General that he almost

  choked with fury.

  "Roulette, indeed? I play roulette? Really, in view of my

  position-- Recollect what you are saying, my dearest mother. You

  must still be unwell."

  "Rubbish, rubbish!" she retorted. "The truth is that you

  CANNOT 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 IS there to be

  seen?" again she inquired of Polina.

  "There is a ruined castle, and the Shlangenberg."

  "The Shlangenberg? What is it? A forest?"

  "No, a mountain on the summit of which there is a place fenced

  off. From it you can get a most beautiful view."

  "Could a chair be carried up that mountain of yours?"

  "Doubtless we could find bearers for the purpose," I interposed.

  At this moment Theodosia, the nursemaid, approached the old lady

  with the General's children.

  "No, I DON'T want to see them," said the Grandmother. "I hate

  kissing children, for their noses are always wet. How

  are you getting on, Theodosia?"

  "I am very well, thank you, Madame," replied the nursemaid.

  "And how is your ladyship? We have been feeling so anxious about

  you!"

  "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?"

  "Prince Nilski, Grandmamma," whispered Polina.

  "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.

  Mr. Astley bowed in silence

  "Have you NOTHING to say to me?" the old lady went on. "Say

  something, for goodness' sake! Translate to him, Polina."

  Polina did so.

  "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.

  "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.

  Astley looked pleased at receiving the invitation.

  Next, the old lady scanned Polina, from head to foot with minute

  attention.

  "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?"

  "No, Grandmamma. It is my own."

  "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.

  "No, indeed," rejoined the now mollified General.

  "I quite understand that at your time of life--"

  "Cette vieille est tombee en enfance," De Griers whispered to

  me.

  "But I want to look round a little," the old lady added to the

  General. Will you lend me Alexis Ivanovitch for the purpose?

  "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."

  "Mais, madame, cela sera un plaisir," De Griers commented with

  a bewitching smile.

  "'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."

  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.

  X

  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.

  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 Generale, 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.

  For instance, on one occasion she halted before a picture which,

  a poor copy of a well-known original, had a mythological subject.

  "Of whom is this a portrait?" she inquired.

  The landlord explained that it was probably that of a countess.

  "But how know you that?" the old lady retorted.

  "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?"

  To all these questions the landlord could return no satisfactory

  reply, despite his floundering endeavours.

  "The blockhead!" exclaimed the Grandmother in Russian.

  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.

  "What donkeys these people are!" she commented. Next, she

  turned her attention to the bed.

  "What a huge counterpane!" she exclaimed. "Turn it back,

  please." The lacqueys did so.

  "Further yet, further yet," the old lady cried. "Turn it RIGHT

  back. Also, take off those pillows and bolsters, and lift up the

  feather bed."

  The bed was opened for her inspection.

  "Mercifully it contains no bugs," she remarked.

  "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,"

  "After tomorrow I shall no longer be in the General's

  service," I replied, "but merely living in the hotel on my own

  account."

  "Why so?"

  "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."

  "Indeed?"

  "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."

  "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."

  "No, I did not. The Baron was the aggressor by raising his

  stick at me."

  Upon that the Grandmother turned sharply to the General.

  "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."

  "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."

  "What did you do next?" The old lady inquired of me.

  "I wanted to challenge the Baron to a duel," I replied as

  modestly as possible; "but the General protested against my

  doing so."

  "And WHY did you so protest? " she inquired of the General.

  Then she turned to the landlord, and questioned him as to

  whether HE 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.

  "Pardon me, Madame," the General continued with a sneer, "but

  are duels really feasible?"

  "Why not? All men are crowing cocks, and that is why they

  quarrel. YOU, 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 TWO 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 WHEELED 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 YOU, 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?"

  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.

  "Then take me straight there," she said, "and do you walk on

  in front of me, Alexis Ivanovitch."

  "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!

  "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?"

  "Yes, we are going to see it, Grandmamma."

  "Very well. Is there anything else for me to see here?"

  "Yes! Quite a number of things," Polina forced herself to say.

  "Martha, YOU must come with me as well," went on the old lady

  to her maid.

  "No, no, mother!" ejaculated the General. "Really she cannot

  come. The
y would not admit even Potapitch to the Casino."

  "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."

  "But, mother--"

  "Are you ashamed to be seen with me? Stop at home, then, and

  you will be asked no questions. A pretty General YOU 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."

  De Griers strongly insisted that EVERY ONE 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.

  "Mais elle est tombee en enfance," he added aside to the

  General. " Seule, elle fera des betises." 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.

  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.

  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.

  Without loss of time, the Grandmother gave orders that she should

  be wheeled through every room in the establishment; of which