Page 17 of The Gambler


  "Yes, she ought. I have sent for one, and, if she dies, I shall

  hold you responsible."

  This surprised me.

  "Pardon me," I replied, "but what do you mean?"

  "Never mind. Tell me if it is true that, last night, you won two

  hundred thousand thalers?"

  "No; I won a hundred thousand florins."

  "Good heavens! Then I suppose you will be off to Paris this

  morning?

  "Why?"

  "Because all Russians who have grown rich go to Paris,"

  explained Astley, as though he had read the fact in a book.

  "But what could I do in Paris in summer time?--I LOVE her, Mr.

  Astley! Surely you know that?"

  "Indeed? I am sure that you do NOT. 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."

  "Good-bye. But I am NOT 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."

  "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."

  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 very 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.

  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.

  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.

  "Ah, c'est lui! Viens, donc, bete! Is it true that you have won

  a mountain of gold and silver? J'aimerais mieux l'or."

  "Yes," I replied with a smile.

  "How much?"

  "A hundred thousand florins."

  "Bibi, comme tu es bete! Come in here, for I can't hear you

  where you are now. Nous ferons bombance, n'est-ce pas?"

  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.

  "Mon fils, as-tu du coeur?" 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.

  "Tout autre--" I began, paraphrasing Comeille.

  "See here," she prattled on. "Please search for my stockings,

  and help me to dress. Aussi, si tu n'es pas trop bete je te

  prends a Paris. I am just off, let me tell you."

  "This moment?"

  "In half an hour."

  True enough, everything stood ready-packed--trunks, portmanteaux,

  and all. Coffee had long been served.

  "Eh bien, tu verras Paris. Dis donc, qu'est-ce que c'est qu'un

  'utchitel'? Tu etais bien bete quand tu etais 'utchitel.' Where

  are my stockings? Please help me to dress."

  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.

  "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 etoiles en plein jour. Yes,

  you shall see such women as your eyes have never lit upon."

  "Stop a moment. If I were to give you those fifty thousand

  francs, what should I have left for myself?"

  "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 etoiles, you may be sure."

  "What? You mean to say that we should spend the whole in two

  months?"

  "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 apres, le deluge! Mais tu ne

  peux comprendre. Va! Away, away! You are not worth it.--Ah, que

  fais-tu?"

  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 prop out of the room.

  "Eh bien, mon 'utchitel'," she called after me, "je t'attends,

  si tu veux. I start in a quarter of an hour's time."

  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.

  For a moment I reflected.

  "No!" I shouted. "My account, please, for in ten minutes I

  shall be gone."

  "To Paris, to Paris!" I added to myself. "Every man of birth

  must make her acquaintance."

  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 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 FOR A TIME. "Within a month from now," I kept thinking to

  myself, "I shall be back ag
ain in Roulettenberg; and THEN 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.

  "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.

  "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 ... moi, je veux cinquante mille

  francs de rente, et alors"

  "But what about the General?" I interrupted.

  "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."

  In this manner did I depart for the Gay City.

  XVI

  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 ONE 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 HER OWN money. MY 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.

  "What do you 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.

  Also, we gave a couple of balls--evening parties

  attended by Hortense and Lisette and Cleopatre, 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 gagne 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."

  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. Blase and inert, I

  spent my evenings generally at the Chateau des Fleurs, where I

  would get fuddled and then dance the cancan (which, in that

  establishment, was a very indecent performance) with eclat. 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.

  "Bibi," she said on the latter occasion as she approached me,

  "surely you are not angry?"

  "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.

  "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 TWENTY thousand francs."

  "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."
r />   "Then you are not angry?"

  "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."

  Blanche, who had by no means expected such declarations from me,

  but, rather, an uproar and protests, was rather taken aback.

  "Well, well, what a man you are! " she exclaimed. " Mais tu as

  l'esprit pour comprendre. Sais-tu, mon garcon, 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?"

  "No. The quicker it goes the better."

  "Mais--sais-tu-mais dis donc, are you really rich? Mais sais-tu,

  you have too much contempt for money. Qu'est-ce que tu feras

  apres, dis donc?"

  "Apres I shall go to Homburg, and win another hundred thousand

  francs."

  "Oui, oui, c'est ca, 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."

  "You lie!" I interrupted. "Did I not see you, the other day,

  with Albert--with that black-jowled officer?"

  "Oh, oh! Mais tu es--"

  "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?"

  "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."

  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 "etoiles" 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 Therese Philosophe.

  But I need not enlarge further, for to do so would

  require a story to itself, and entail a colouring which

  I am lothe 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!"

  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