III

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).

"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 ANY case. But, forsooth, it was not worth her while to
trouble about MY feelings--about the fact that I was uneasy, and,
perhaps, thrice as put about by her cares and misfortunes as she
was herself!

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 HER! 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.

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.

But WHO 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,
a propos 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!

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
chateau. 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?

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, WHEREVER 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 PORTION 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."

"That Mlle. Blanche," he said. "Well, I have seen a good many
women like her."

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:

"Does Mlle. Polina like flowers?"

" I really cannot say," was my reply.

"What? You cannot say?" he cried in great astonishment.

"No; I have never noticed whether she does so or not," I
repeated with a smile.

"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.

IV

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 gulden 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 did 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 gulden
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.

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.

For myself, I lost all that I had on me, and with great speed.
To begin with, I staked two hundred gulden 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 gulden. 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
gulden--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.

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.

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 gulden, six or seven rounds had
increased my capital to 5000 or 6000 gulden, and that
subsequently I had lost the whole in two rounds.

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 cue 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."

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."

"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.

"Upon what do you base your opinion?" he inquired.

"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."

"To a certain extent that is true," assented the Frenchman with
a self-satisfied air.

"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!"

"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."

"What an extraordinary idea," cried the General.

"And what a RUSSIAN idea!" added the Frenchman.

I smiled, for I was rather glad to have a quarrel with them.

"I would rather live a wandering life in tents," I cried,
"than bow the knee to a German idol!"

"To WHAT idol?" exclaimed the General, now seriously angry.

"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
'Fater,' 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 'Fater' 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
'Fater.' They work like oxen, and amass wealth like Jews.
Suppose the 'Fater' has put by a certain number of gulden
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 RIGHTLY 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 gulden. 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 gulden have been honourably and virtuously
accumulated. Then the 'Fater' 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 'Fater,' and the old story begins again. In fifty or
sixty years' time the grandson of the original 'Fater' will
have amassed a considerable sum; and that sum he will hand over
to, his son, and the latter to HIS 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 their 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 MYSELF, 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 MY views."

"How far you may be right in what you have said I do not know,"
remarked the General moodily; "but I DO know that you are
becoming an insufferable farceur whenever you are given the
least chance."

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.

V

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.

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."

"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.

"Have you noticed, too, that today he is by no means on good
terms with the General?" I went on.

"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."

"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."

"Yes, they ARE true. What then?"

"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."

"Yes, something, I believe, WILL happen to him," assented
Polina thoughtfully.

"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?"

"Yes, it is very horrible," she interrupted with a shudder.
"Consequently, I am the more surprised that YOU should be so
cheerful. What are YOU so pleased about? About the fact that you
have gone and lost my money?"

"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?"

"Why do YOU ask me these questions?"

"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 gulden left), I shall win. You can then take of
me what you require."

She made a contemptuous grimace.

"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 gulden."

She glanced at me, but, seeing that I was in an irritable,
sarcastic mood, changed the subject.

"My affairs cannot possibly interest you," she said. Still,
if you DO 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."

"Or perhaps it is because it is so NECESSARY 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."

Polina looked surprised.

"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."

"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 still positive that, so soon as ever I begin to play
for myself, I shall infallibly win."

"And why are you so certain?"

"To tell the truth, I do not know. I only know that I must
win--that it is the one resource I have left. Yes, why do I feel
so assured on the point?"

"Perhaps because one cannot help winning if one is fanatically
certain of doing so."

"Yet I dare wager that you do not think me capable of serious
feeling in the matter?"

"I do not care whether you are so or not," answered Polina with
calm indifference. "Well, since you ask me, I DO 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."

"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?"

"What do you mean by asking all these questions? You are very
clever today. Surely you are not drunk?"

"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."

"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."

"A maxim straight from the copybook! Suppose I CANNOT 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 coq gaulois. 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.

"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.

"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."

"And because you do not believe in my nobility of soul you
think to purchase me with money?" she said.

"WHEN have I thought to do so?" was my reply.

"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."

"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 ARE
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!"

"No, I am not," she retorted. "But I order you, nevertheless,
to be silent."

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.

"What rubbish!" she cried with a shudder.

"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?"

"What stupid rubbish!" she cried.

"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."

"Why should I have wanted you to leap from the Shlangenberg?"
she said drily, and (I think) with wilful offensiveness. "THAT
would have been of no use to me."

"Splendid!" I shouted. "I know well that you must have used
the words 'of no use' in order to crush me. I can see through
you. 'Of no use,' did you say? Why, to give pleasure is ALWAYS
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."

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.

"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.

Yes, at that moment she stood in peril. I had not lied to her
about that.

"Surely you are not a coward?" suddenly she asked me.

"I do not know," I replied. "Perhaps I am, but I do not know.
I have long given up thinking about such things."

"If I said to you, 'Kill that man,' would you kill him?"

"Whom?"

"Whomsoever I wish?"

"The Frenchman?"

"Do not ask me questions; return me answers. I repeat,
whomsoever I wish? I desire to see if you were speaking
seriously just now."

She awaited my reply with such gravity and impatience that I
found the situation unpleasant.

"Do YOU, 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? "

"I am not going to talk to you on that subject. I have asked
you a question, and am waiting for an answer."

"Well, then--I will kill whomsoever you wish," I said. "But are
you REALLY going to bid me do such deeds?"

"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 ME for having dared to send
you away!"

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.

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.

"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."

"Why?"

"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."

"Then you throw me out a challenge?--you think that I will not
do it?"

"Yes, I do challenge you. Go, for such is my will."

"Then I WILL 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?"

"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."

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.

VI

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 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.

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 IS
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.

But to my tale.

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.

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.

These details I noted within a space of a few seconds.

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.

"Madame la Baronne," said I, loudly and distinctly--embroidering
each word, as it were--"j'ai l'honneur d'etre votre esclave."

Then I bowed again, put on my hat, and walked past the Baron
with a rude smile on my face.

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,

"Hein!" ejaculated--or, rather, growled--the Baron as he turned
towards me in angry surprise.

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.

"Hein!" the Baron vociferated again, with a redoubled growl
and a note of growing wrath in his voice.

"Ja wohl!" I replied, still looking him in the eyes.

"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.

"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).

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.

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.

At the portico I caught up to her.

"I have perpetrated the--the piece of idiocy," I said as I came
level with her.

"Have you? Then you can take the consequences," she replied
without so much as looking at me. Then she moved towards the
staircase.

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.

Not until eleven o'clock did I return home--to find a summons
awaiting me from the General.

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.

"My good sir," the General began, "may I ask you what this is
that you have gone and done?"

"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?"

"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?"

"No, I have not."

"But I understand that you simply terrified them, my good sir?"
shouted the General.

"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 THIS occasion I
took off my hat, and said politely (yes, I assure you it was
said politely): 'Madame, j'ai l'honneur d'etre 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."

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.

"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.

"Do not think THAT," 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, MORE 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 do 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 can 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 YOUR opinion about it, General?"

"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 ME, 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!"

"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?"

"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 gulden,
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."

I took the money and the account (which was indicted in pencil),
and, bowing low to the General, said to him very gravely:

"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."

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.

"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."

Then there happened what I had foreseen. The General on hearing
of this further intended outrage, showed the white feather.

"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.

"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."

"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!"

I moved towards the door--begging him to be calm, and promising
that everything should be done decently and in order; whereafter
I departed.

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 'comme il
faut.' 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 MIGHT
apply to the authorities tomorrow, and it behoved me to go
carefully.

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 WOULD
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!

...........................

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 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.

VIII

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.

"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?"

"How do you know that?" I asked in astonishment. "Is EVERY ONE
aware of the fact? "

"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."

"Then how come you to know it?"

"Because I have had occasion to do so. Whither are you bound? I
like you, and was therefore coming to pay you a visit."

"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 Cafe, where
we can sit and smoke and have a talk."

The cafe 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.

"I do not intend to go away," was my first remark. "I intend,
on the contrary, to remain here."

"That I never doubted," he answered good-humouredly.

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.

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).

"No, I fear not," I replied.

"And concerning this Marquis and Mlle. Polina you know nothing
beyond surmise?"

Again I was surprised that such a categorical question should
come from such a reserved individual.

"No, I know nothing FOR CERTAIN about them" was my reply.
"No--nothing."

"Then you have done very wrong to speak of them to me, or even
to imagine things about them."

"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.

"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."

"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?"

"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?"

In return he gave me an astonished stare.

"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."

"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.

"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."

Then, after a pause, I resumed:

"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, HE, De
Griers, has actually been playing the suppliant to ME! 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."

Mr. Astley smiled and nodded.

"Yes, I think I DO know more about it than you do," he
assented. "The affair centres around this Mlle. Blanche. Of
that I feel certain."

"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).

"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."

"Oh, oh! "

"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 Marquisate 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."

"Yet he possesses a good circle of friends?"

"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."

"But why?"

"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?"

"Yes, certainly."

"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 menage 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. NOW do you understand?"

"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?"

"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."

"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 THERE 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."

"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."

"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!"

"In whom? " asked Mr. Astley.

"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."

"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--"

"Yes, and De Griers?"

"Will be repaid his money, which is what he is now waiting for."

"What? You think that he is waiting for that?"

"I know of nothing else," asserted Mr. Astley doggedly.

"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 MY 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!"

At the moment, we were approaching my hotel. We had left the cafe
long ago, without even noticing that we had done so.

"Yes, I DID 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."

"But why should she be calling ME? Hear her calling again! See!
She is beckoning to us!"

"Yes, so she is," assented Mr. Astley.

"Alexis Ivanovitch, Alexis Ivanovitch! Good heavens, what a
stupid fellow!" came in a despairing wail from the verandah.

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!

IX

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--THE GRANDMOTHER! Yes, it was she--rich, and imposing,
and seventy-five years of age--Antonida Vassilievna Tarassevitcha,
landowner and grande dame 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).

"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!"

"My good sir," the old woman continued in a stentorian voice,
"what are you standing THERE 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."

"Pardon me, Antonida Vassilievna," I replied good humouredly as
I recovered my presence of mind. "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--"

"WHY 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?"

"Yes. I have just been to the Casino."

"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?"

"Yes; and probably all of them."

"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 ?"

"Yes. Polina Alexandrovna is here."

"And the Frenchwoman? However, I will go and look for them
myself. Tell me the nearest way to their rooms. Do you like
being here?"

"Yes, I thank you, Antonida Vassilievna."

"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.

"A Mr. Astley," I replied.

"And who is Mr. Astley?"

"A fellow-traveller, and my very good friend, as well as an
acquaintance of the General's."

"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?"

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 cortege. 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
grande dame, and that she had taken the suite which, during the
previous week, had been tenanted by the Grande Duchesse de N.

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.

"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.

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.

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!

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.

"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?"

"Antonida Vassilievna! O my dearest mother! But how on earth
did you, did you--?" The mutterings of the unhappy General died
away.

I verily believe that if the Grandmother had held her tongue a
few seconds longer she would have had a stroke.

"How on earth did I WHAT?" 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 ALL 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?"

"Oui, madame," assented De Griers. "Et, croyez, je suis si
enchante! Votre sante--c'est un miracle vous voir ici. Une
surprise charmante!"

"Just so. 'Charmante!' I happen to know you as a mountebank,
and therefore trust you no more than THIS." She indicated her
little finger. "And who is THAT?" 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?"

"Mlle. de Cominges," I said. "And this is her mother, Madame de
Cominges. They also are staying in the hotel."

"Is the daughter married?" asked the old lady, without the
least semblance of ceremony.

"No," I replied as respectfully as possible, but under my
breath.

"Is she good company?"

I failed to understand the question.

"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."

I explained to the old lady that Mlle. Blanche had never visited
Russia.

"Bonjour, then," said Madame, with sudden brusquerie.

"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.

"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?"

"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--"

"Fibs, fibs!" interrupted the Grandmother.

"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."

"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 YOU doing here?"

"And how are YOU, Grandmother?" replied Polina, as she
approached the old lady. "Were you long on the journey?".

"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."

"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--"

"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. They 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
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.

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.

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
HIS; 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.

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.

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.

For a few minutes the Grandmother watched him.

"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.

"Where is Potapitch?" she continued. "Send Potapitch to speak
to him. No, YOU must tell him, you 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.

"How provoking!" she retorted. "Then the young man is done
for! I suppose he WISHES 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.

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.

"THAT woman is not losing," she said. "To whom does she
belong? Do you know her? Who is she?"

"She is, I believe, a Frenchwoman," I replied.

"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."

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.

"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?"

"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."

"Then I should receive nothing if I were staking?"

"No; unless by any chance you had PURPOSELY staked on zero; in
which case you would receive thirty-five times the value of your
stake."

"Why thirty-five times, when zero so often turns up? And if so,
why do not more of these fools stake upon it?"

"Because the number of chances against its occurrence is
thirty-six."

"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-gulden piece. "Go at once, and stake that upon zero."

"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."

"Rubbish! Stake, please."

"Pardon me, but zero might not turn up again until, say,
tonight, even though you had staked thousands upon it. It often
happens so."

"Rubbish, rubbish! Who fears the wolf should never enter the
forest. What? We have lost? Then stake again."

A second ten-gulden 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-gulden 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.

"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 PURPOSELY 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."

"My good Madame--"

"Stake, stake! It is not YOUR money."

Accordingly I staked two ten-gulden 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.

"Zero!" called the croupier.

"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!"

"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 gulden pieces, together with an unsealed
packet containing another twenty. I handed the whole to the old
lady in a money-shovel.

"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.

"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.

"Upon what shall I stake, Madame?"

"Upon zero, upon zero! Again upon zero! Stake as much as ever
you can. How much have we got? Seventy ten-gulden pieces? We
shall not miss them, so stake twenty pieces at a time."

"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."

"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.

"But the rules do not allow of more than 120 gulden being
staked upon zero at a time."

"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?"

I hastened to translate.

"Oui, Madame," was the croupier's polite reply. "No single
stake must exceed four thousand florins. That is the regulation."

"Then there is nothing else for it. We must risk in gulden."

"Le jeu est fait!" the croupier called. The wheel revolved,
and stopped at thirty. We had lost!

"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-gulden pieces upon the
table. The wheel whirled around and around, with the Grandmother
simply quaking as she watched its revolutions.

"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.

"Zero!" cried the croupier.

"Ah!!!" screamed the old lady as she turned to me in a whirl
of triumph.

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 THREE TIMES IN SUCCESSION, 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!

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
gulden. Of these gulden the odd 200 were paid her in gold, and
the remainder in bank notes.

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:

"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."

To oppose her was useless. Once more the wheel revolved.

"Rouge!" proclaimed the croupier.

Again 4000 florins--in all 8000!

"Give me them," commanded the Grandmother, "and stake the other
4000 upon the red again."

I did so.

"Rouge!" proclaimed the croupier.

"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."

XI

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.

"Quelle victoire!" exclaimed De Griers.

"Mais, Madame, c'etait du feu!" added Mlle. Blanche with an
elusive smile.

"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?"

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 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.

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
that I should attend her in her rooms. "She is in a bad
humour," added Potapitch.

The time was half-past three.

"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."

"Quelle megere!" exclaimed De Griers.

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.

"Lift me up," she cried to the bearers, and once more we set
out for the roulette-salons.

XII

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 en route, 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:

"Why have YOU 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."

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.

It happened thus:

As soon as ever we arrived the Grandmother ordered me to stake
twelve ten-gulden pieces in succession upon zero. Once,
twice, and thrice I did so, yet zero never turned up.

"Stake again," said the old lady with an impatient nudge of my
elbow, and I obeyed.

"How many times have we lost? " she inquired--actually
grinding her teeth in her excitement.

"We have lost 144 ten-gulden pieces," I replied. "I tell you,
Madame, that zero may not turn up until nightfall."

"Never mind," she interrupted. "Keep on staking upon zero,
and also stake a thousand gulden upon rouge. Here is a
banknote with which to do so."

The red turned up, but zero missed again, and we only got our
thousand gulden back.

"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."

By the fifth round, however, the Grandmother was weary of the
scheme.

"To the devil with that zero!" she exclaimed. Stake four
thousand gulden upon the red."

"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 gulden as
she had directed.

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.

"Zero!" cried the croupier.

At first the old lady failed to understand the situation; but,
as soon as she saw the croupier raking in her four thousand
gulden, 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-gulden 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.

"To think that that accursed zero should have turned up NOW!"
she sobbed. "The accursed, accursed thing! And, it is all
YOUR fault," she added, rounding upon me in a frenzy. "It
was you who persuaded me to cease staking upon it."

"But, Madame, I only explained the game to you. How am I to
answer for every mischance which may occur in it?"

"You and your mischances!" she whispered threateningly.
"Go! Away at once!"

"Farewell, then, Madame." And I turned to depart.

"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 who
was the fool. Tell me what I ought to do."

"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."

"Very well. Stake another four thousand gulden upon the red.
Take this banknote to do it with. I have still got twenty
thousand roubles in actual cash."

"But," I whispered, "such a quantity of money--"

"Never mind. I cannot rest until I have won back my losses.
Stake!"

I staked, and we lost.

"Stake again, stake again--eight thousand at a stroke!"

"I cannot, Madame. The largest stake allowed is four thousand
gulden."

"Well, then; stake four thousand."

This time we won, and the Grandmother recovered herself a
little.

"You see, you see!" she exclaimed as she nudged me. "Stake
another four thousand."

I did so, and lost. Again, and yet again, we lost. "Madame,
your twelve thousand gulden are now gone," at length I
reported.

"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."

"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."

"And in the purse?"

"A mere trifle."

"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! "

"Quite so; to any amount you please. But you will lose on the
transaction what would frighten even a Jew."

"Rubbish! I am DETERMINED to retrieve my losses. Take me
away, and call those fools of bearers."

I wheeled the chair out of the throng, and, the bearers making
their appearance, we left the Casino.

"Hurry, hurry!" commanded the Grandmother. "Show me the
nearest way to the money-changer's. Is it far?"

"A couple of steps, Madame."

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.

"Well, well, well! " exclaimed the Grandmother. "But we have
no time to stop. What do you want? I can't talk to you here."

I dropped behind a little, and immediately was pounced upon by
De Griers.

"She has lost this morning's winnings," I whispered, "and
also twelve thousand gulden of her original money. At the
present moment we are going to get some bonds changed."

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.

"Stop her, stop her," whispered the General in consternation.

"You had better try and stop her yourself," I returned--also in
a whisper.

"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."

"Begone with you and your views!" said the Grandmother
angrily as she waved him away.

"And there are trees there, and we could have tea under them,"
continued the General--now in utter despair.

"Nous boirons du lait, sur l'herbe fraiche," added De Griers
with the snarl almost of a wild beast.

"Du lait, de l'herbe fraiche"--the idyll, the ideal of the
Parisian bourgeois--his whole outlook upon "la nature et la
verite"!

"Have done with you and your milk!" cried the old lady. "Go
and stuff YOURSELF 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."

"Here we are, Madame," I announced. "Here is the
moneychanger's office."

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.

The process of changing involved complicated calculations
which soon necessitated my return to the Grandmother for
instructions.

"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.

"Would one of the clerks do, Madame?"

"Yes, one of the clerks. The thieves!"

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.

"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."

"The clerk says that others will give you even less than he."

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.

"Well, well," she said, "I am no accountant. Let us hurry
away, hurry away." And she waved the paper aside.

"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.

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
gulden.

"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!"

I felt greatly put out as I watched her play, but I decided to
hold my tongue, and to give her no more advice.

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.

"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!"

"But why not?" asked the Grandmother, turning round. "Show
me what I ought to do."

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.

"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!"

"Mais, Madame," cooed De Griers--and straightway started
afresh with his fussy instructions.

"Stake just ONCE, as he advises," the Grandmother said to me,
"and then we shall see what we shall see. Of course, his
stake MIGHT win."

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-gulden piece upon several odd numbers in the
first twenty, and five ten-gulden pieces upon certain groups
of numbers-groups of from twelve to eighteen, and from
eighteen to twenty-four. The total staked amounted to 160
gulden.

The wheel revolved. "Zero!" cried the croupier.

We had lost it all!

"The fool!" cried the old lady as she turned upon De Griers.
"You infernal Frenchman, to think that you should advise!
Away with you! Though you fuss and fuss, you don't even know
what you're talking about."

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.

An hour later we had lost everything in hand.

"Home!" cried the Grandmother.

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!"

Arrived at the hotel, she called for tea, and then gave orders
for her luggage to be packed.

"We are off again," she announced.

"But whither, Madame?" inquired Martha.

"What business is that of YOURS? Let the cricket stick to
its hearth. [The Russian form of "Mind your own business."]
Potapitch, have everything packed, for we are returning to
Moscow at once. I have fooled away fifteen thousand roubles."

"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.

"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."

"The next train leaves at 9:30, Madame," I interposed, with a
view to checking her agitation.

"And what is the time now?"

"Half-past eight."

"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."

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.

"Away with you, you rascals!" she was shouting. "What have my
affairs to do with you? Why, in particular, do you"--here
she indicated De Griers--"come sneaking here with your goat's
beard? And what do YOU"--here she turned to Mlle. Blanche
"want of me? What are YOU finicking for?"

"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!"

"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 THEIRS? It is not
THEIR money that I have been squandering, but my own."

The General shrugged his shoulders, bowed, and withdrew, with
De Griers behind him.

"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.

"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?"

"I do not know FOR CERTAIN, Grandmamma," replied Polina; "but
from Mlle. Blanche's account (for she does not appear to think
it necessary to conceal anything) I conclude that--"      

"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 all 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 you,
Prascovia, that I am blaming; it was not you 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?"

"First of all, let me ask of YOU," replied Polina, "whether you
are intending to depart at once?"

"What? You suppose me to be jesting? I have said that I am
going, and I AM 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."

"But what about the waters, Grandmamma? Surely you came here
to take the waters?"

"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?"

"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 will come and live with you, and that
very soon; yet there are important reasons why--why I cannot
make up my min,d just yet. If you would let me have, say, a
couple of weeks to decide in--?"

"You mean that you are NOT coming?"

"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
AND 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 CANNOT come."

"Do not make a fuss" (as a matter of fact Polina never at
any time either fussed or wept). "The Great Foster--Father
[Translated literally--The Great Poulterer] 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."

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? "

"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."

"But let me stay with you a little longer," said Polina.

"No," replied the other; "you need not. Do not bother me, for
you and all of them have tired me out."

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.

"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 gulden for yourself."

"I thank you humbly, Madame, but I am ashamed to--"

"Come, come!" cried the Grandmother so energetically, and
with such an air of menace, that I did not dare refuse the
money further.

"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."

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!

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.

Suddenly there came a knock at the door, and I opened it to
find Potapitch awaiting me.

"Sir," he said, "my mistress is asking for you."

"Indeed? But she is just departing, is she not? The train
leaves in ten minutes' time."

"She is uneasy, sir; she cannot rest. Come quickly, sir; do
not delay."

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.

"Alexis Ivanovitch," she cried, "walk on ahead, and we will
set out again."

"But whither, Madame?"

"I cannot rest until I have retrieved my losses. March on
ahead, and ask me no questions. Play continues until
midnight, does it not?"

For a moment I stood stupefied--stood deep in thought; but it
was not long before I had made up my mind.

"With your leave, Madame," I said, "I will not go with you."

"And why not? What do you mean? Is every one here a stupid
good-for-nothing?"

"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
gulden. Farewell."

Laying the money upon a little table which the Grandmother's
chair happened to be passing, I bowed and withdrew.

"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."

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-gulden 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). "You," 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 this 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!"

XIII

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. Was 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 SEEMED
to happen; that still they merely SEEM to be happening.

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.

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 SERIOUS book--afraid of permitting any SERIOUS
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 IS
dear to me, and will ever be fresh in my recollections--even
forty years hence. . . .

So let me write of it, but only partially, and in a more
abridged form than my full impressions might warrant.

First of all, let me conclude the history of the Grandmother.
Next day she lost every gulden 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.

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 " [Rascal] 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
shamelesslly pilfered from his mistress. For instance, one Pole
demanded of the Grandmother fifty gulden 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, tombee en enfance," who had lost "so
many millions."

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 ENTERTAINER. 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, BOTH 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.

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.

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.

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 Hotel 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.

"She is gambling away everything that she has," I remarked.

"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."

"Where have you been today?" I asked--surprised at myself for
having, as yet, omitted to put to him that question.

"To Frankfort."

"On business?"

"On business."

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.

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 SERIOUS 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
HER, 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.

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
FORBIDDEN me to speak of it to her?

But she had not so forbidden me. On the contrary, there had been
occasions when she had even INVITED 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 NEED of me? Or had that too been spoken in
jest?

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!

Arrived home, I, in a fit of frenzy, indited the following:

"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."

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."

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:

"Oh, Alexis Ivanovitch! Save me, save me! Have some mercy upon
me!"

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.

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.

"But, General," I exclaimed, "possibly Mlle. Blanche has
scarcely even remarked my existence? What could I do with her?"

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.

"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.

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."

"Then how will you pay your hotel bill?" I cried in
consternation. "And what shall you do afterwards?"

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.

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.

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.

"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 EVERYTHING.
I tell you this in order that he may have no doubts about--Ah,
but here he is! Clearly he is a good fellow."

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.

"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 HE is. How surely does God visit old age, and punish
it for its presumption! Well, good-bye. Martha, come and lift
me up."

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
SOMETHING 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 FRIEND, she might
not reject me altogether as a SERVANT. She would need me to
fetch and carry for her, and I was ready to do so. How could it
have been otherwise?

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.

"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."

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.

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!

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!