Page 11 of The Gambler

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