"W^atl thirty-five times, and does it often turn up? Why don't they stake on it, the fools."
"There are thirty-six chances against it. Granny."
"What nonsense. Potapitch! Potapitch! Stay, I've money with me—^here." She took out of her pocket a tightly packed purse, and picked out of it a friedrich d'or. "Stake it on the z^ro at once."
"Granny, zero has only just turned up," I said; "so now it won't turn up for a long time. You will lose a great deal; wait a Uttle, anjrway."
"Oh, nonsense; put it down!"
"As you please, but it may not turn up again tiU the evening. You may go on staking thousands; it has happened."
"Oh, nonsense, nonsense. If you are afraid of the wolf you shouldn't go into the forest. What? Have I lost? Stake again!"
A second friedrich d'or was lost: she staked a third. Granny could scarcely sit still in her seat. She stared with feverish eyes at the Uttle boll dancing on the spokes of the turning wheel. She lost a third, too. Granny was beside herself, she could not sit stiE, she even thumped on the table with her fist when the croupier announced "trente-six" instead of the z6ro she was expecting.
"There, look at it," said Granny angrily; "isn't that cursed little z^ro coming soon? As sure as I'm alive, I'll sit here till zdro does come! It's that cursed curly-headed croupier's doing; he'll never let it come! Alexey Ivanovitch, stake two gold pieces at once! Staking as much as you do, even if zero does come you'll get nothing by it."
"Granny!"
"Stake, stake! it is not your money."
I staked two friedrichs d'or. The ball flew about the wheel for a long time, at last it began dancing about the spokes. Granny was nmnb with excitement, and squeezed my fingers, and dl at once—
"Zero!" boomed the croupier.
"You see, you see!"—Graimy turned to me quickly, beaming and delighted. "I told you so. The Lord Himself put it into my head to stake those two gold pieces! Well, how much do I get now? Why don't they give it me? Potapitch, Marfa, where are they? Where have all our people got to? Potapitch, Potapitch!"
"Granny, afterwards," I whispered; "Potapitch is at the door, they won't let him in. Look, Granny, they are giving you the money, take iti" ,A heavy roll of printed blue notes, worth fifty friedrichs d'or, was thrust towards Granny and twenty friedrich d'or were counted out to her. I scooped it all up in a shovel and handed it to Granny.
"Ftdtes le jew, messieurs! Ftdtes le jeu. messieurs! Rien ne va plus!" called the croupier, inviting the public to stake, and preparing to turn the wheel.
"Heavens 1 we are too late. They're just going to turn it. Put it down, put it down!" Granny urged me in a flurry. "Don't dawdle, make haste 1" She was beside herself and poked me with all her might.
"What am I to stake it on. Granny?"
"On zero, on z6ro! On z6ro again! Stake as much as possible! How much have we got altogether? Seventy friedrichs d'or. There's no need to spare it. Stake twenty friedrichs d'or at once."
"Think what you are doing, Granny! sometimes it does not turn up for two hundred times running I I assure you, you may go on staking your whole fortune."
"Oh, nonsense, nonsense! Put it down! How your tongue does wag! I know what I'm about." Graimy was positively quivering with excitement.
"By the regulations it's not allowed to stake more than twelve roubles on z^ro at once. Granny; here I have staked that."
"Why is it not allowed? Aren't you lying? Monsieur! Monsieur!"—she nudged the croupier, who was sitting near her on the left, and was about to set tiie wheel turning. "Comhien zero? Douze? Douze?"
I immediately interpreted the question in French.
"Old, madame," tiie croupier confirmed politely; "as the winnings from no single stake must exceed four thousand florins by the regulations," he added in explanation.
"Well, there's no help for it, stake twelve."
"Le jeu est fait," cried the croupier. The wheel rotated, and thirty turned up. She had lost.
"Again, again, again! Stake again!" cried Granny. I no longer resisted, and, shrugging my shoulders, staked another twelve friedrichs d'or. The wheel turned a long time. Granny was simply quivering as she watched the wheel. "Can she really imagine that z6ro will win again?" I thought, looking at
her with wonder. Her face was beaming with a firm conviction of winning, an unhesitating expectation that in another minute they would shout z6ro. The ball jumped into the cage.
"Z6rol" cried the croupier.
"What! I!" Granny turned to me with intense triumph.
I was a gambler myself, I felt that at the moment my arms and legs were trembhng, there was a throbbing in my head. Of course, this was a rare chance that z6ro should have come up three times in some dozen turns; but there was nothing particularly wonderful about it. I had myself seen z6ro turn up three times runnmg two days before, and a gambler who had been zealously noting down the lucky numbers, observed aloud that, only the day before, zero had turned up only once in twenty-four hours.
Granny's wirmings were counted out to her with particular attention and deference as she had won such a large sum. She received four hundred and twenty friedrichs d'or, that is, four thousand florins and seventy friedrichs d'or. She was given twenty friedrichs d'or in gold, and four thousand florins in banknotes.
This time Greinny did not call Potapitch; she had other preoccupations. She did not even babble or quiver outwardly 1 She was, if one may so express it, quivering inwardly. She was entirely concentrated on something, absorbed in one aim.
"Alexey Ivanovitch, he said that one could only stake four thousand florins at once, didn't he? Come, take it, stake the whole four thousand on the red," Granny commanded.
It was useless to protest; the wheel began rotating.
"Rouge/' the croupier proclaimed.
Again she had won four thousand florins, making eight in all.
"Give me four, and stake four again on red," Granny conmianded.
Again I staked four thousand.
"Rouge," the croupier pronounced again.
"Twelve thousand altogether! Give it me all here. Pour the gold here into the purse and put away the notes. That's enough 1 Home I Wheel my chair out."
CHAPTER XI
THE chair was wheeled to the door at the other end of the room. Granny was radiant. All our party immediately thronged round her with congratulations. However eccentric Granny's behaviour might be, her triumph covered a multitude of sins, and the General was no longer afraid of compromising himself in public by his relationship with such a strange woman. With a condescending and familiarly good-humoured smile, as though humouring a child, he congratulated Granny. He was, however, evidently impressed, like all the other spectators. People talked all round and pointed at Graimy. Many passed by to get a closer view of her! Mr. Astley was talking of her aside, with two English acquaintances. Some majestic ladies gazed at her with majestic amazement, as though at a marvel . . . De Grieux positively showered congratulatioiis and smiles upon her.
"Qti/e^ victoirei!" he said.
"Mais, Madame, c'etait du feu," Mile. Blanche commented, with an ingratiating smile.
"Yes, I just went and won twelve thousand florins! Twelve, indeed; what about the gold? With the gold it makes almost thirteen. What is that in oiu: money? Will it be six thousand?"
I explained that it made more than seven, and in the present state of exchange might even amount to eight.
"Well, that's something worth having, eight thousand! And you stay here, you noodles, cind do nothing! Potapitch, Marfa, did you see?"
"My goodness! how did you do it. Ma'am? Eight thousand!" exclaimed Marfa, wriggling.
"There! there's five gold pieces for you, here!"
Potapitch and Marfa flew to kiss her hand.