The Gambler
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 ça,” interrupted De Griers in a tone of impatience
and contempt (evidently he was the ruling spirit of the conclave). “Mon
cher monsieur, notre général se trompe. What he means to say is that he
warns you—he begs of you most earnestly—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, à 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 ça, ce n’est pas ça,” 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 mégère!” 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-gülden 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-gülden 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 gülden 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
gülden 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
gülden 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 gülden 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 gülden, 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-gülden 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 gülden 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 gülden.”
“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 gülden 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 gülden 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.