to come to nearly thirteen thousand. How much is that in Russian
money? Six thousand roubles, I think?"
However, I calculated that the sum would exceed seven thousand
roubles--or, at the present rate of exchange, even eight
thousand.
"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!"
"How DID you do it, Madame?" Martha exclaimed ecstatically.
"Eight thousand roubles!"
"And I am going to give you fifty gulden apiece. There they
are."
Potapitch and Martha rushed towards her to kiss her hand.
"And to each bearer also I will give a ten-gulden 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 gulden apiece."
"Madame la princesse--Un pauvre expatrie--Malheur continuel--Les
princes russes sont si genereux!" 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.
"Give him ten gulden," 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."
"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.
"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).
"But perhaps he is NOT a beggar--only a rascal," I replied.
"Never mind, never mind. Give him a gulden."
I approached the beggar in question, and handed him the coin.
Looking at me in great astonishment, he silently accepted the
gulden, while from his person there proceeded a strong smell of
liquor.
"Have you never tried your luck, Alexis Ivanovitch?"
"No, Madame."
"Yet just now I could see that you were burning to do so?"
"I do mean to try my luck presently."
"Then stake everything upon zero. You have seen how it ought to
be done? How much capital do you possess?"
"Two hundred gulden, Madame."
"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 YOU need not expect to receive any."
This seemed to upset him, but he said nothing, and De Griers
contented himself by scowling.
"Que diable!" he whispered to the General. "C'est une
terrible vieille."
"Look! Another beggar, another beggar!" exclaimed the
grandmother. "Alexis Ivanovitch, go and give him a gulden."
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.
"Was ist der Teufel!" he cried, and appended thereto a round
dozen of oaths.
"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."
"What?" cried I. "You are going to play again?"
"What else do you suppose?" she retorted. "Are you going only
to sit here, and grow sour, and let me look at you?"
"Madame," said De Griers confidentially, "les chances peuvent
tourner. Une seule mauvaise chance, et vous perdrez tout--surtout
avec votre jeu. C'etait terrible!"
"Oui; vous perdrez absolument," put in Mlle. Blanche.
"What has that got to do with YOU?" retorted the old lady.
"It is not YOUR money that I am going to lose; it is my own. And
where is that Mr. Astley of yours?" she added to myself.
"He stayed behind in the Casino."
"What a pity! He is such a nice sort of man!"
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 gulden; after which she bid her serve luncheon.
The meal over, Theodosia and Martha broke into a joint flood of
ecstasy.
"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 heaps 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."
"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."
I left the Grandmother's presence in a state of bewilderment.
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 ev
ery 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.
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 "tombee 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-gulden 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.
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 gulden, 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 that 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?
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.
"Polina Alexandrovna!"
"Hush! Not so loud."
"Something startled me just now," I whispered, "and I looked
round, and saw you. Some electrical influence seems to emanate
from your form."
"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.
"To Mr. Astley?" I asked, in some astonishment.
But she had vanished again.
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.
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
HE should be her confidant! "My friend, mine own familiar
friend!" passed through my mind. Yet WAS 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.
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.
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.
"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"
" Eh! Ce n'est pas ca," interrupted De Griers in a tone of
impatience and contempt (evidently he was the ruling spirit
of the conclave). "Mon cher monsieur, notre general se
trompe. What he means to say is that he warns you--he begs of
you most eamestly--not to ruin him. I use the expression
because--"
"Why? Why?" I interjected.
"Because you have taken upon yourself to act as guide to this,
to this--how shall I express it?--to this old lady, a 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--"
"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."
"Tell me, General, how am I to do so? On what footing do I
stand here?"
"Refuse to take her about. Simply leave her alone."
"But she would soon find some one else to take my place?"
"Ce n'est pas ca, ce n'est pas ca," 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."
"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.
"Well, at the present moment she would refuse to accept my
services," said he with a gesture. "But if, later--"
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.
The General hastened to lend her his support.
"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!
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
The Gambler Page 11
