"Oh, Mile. Blanche! ... I have seen a great many women hkeMlle. Blanche I"
He paused, looking at me significantly. What he meant to say by that I don't know. For on my asking what he meant, he shook his head with a sly smile, and added, "Oh, well. that's how it is. Is Mile. Pauline very fond of flowers?"
"I don't know; I don't know at all," I answered.
"What? You don't even know that!" he cried, with the utmost amazement.
"I don't know; I haven't noticed at all," I repeated, laughing.
"H'm! That gives me a queer idea."
Then he shook his head and walked away. He looked pleased, though. We talked the most awful French together.
CHAPTER IV
TO-DAY has been an absurd, grotesque, ridiculous day. Now it is eleven o'clock at night. I am sitting in my little cupboard of a room, recalling it. It began with my having to go to roulette to play for Pohna Alexandrovna. I took the
hundred and sixty friedrichs d'or, but on two conditions: first, that I would not go halves—that is, if I won I would take nothing for myself; and secondly, that in the evening Pofina should explain to me why she needed to win, and how much money. I can't, in any case, suppose that it is simply for the sake of money. Evidently the money is needed, and as quickly as possible, for some particular object. She promised to explain, and I set off. In the gambling hall the crowd was awful. How insolent and how greedy they all were! I forced my way into the middle and stood near lie croupier; then I began timidly experimenting, staking two or three coins at a time. Meanwhile, I kept quiet and looked on; it seemed to me that calculation meant very little, and had by no means the importance attributed to it by some players. They sit with papers before them scrawled over in pencil, note the strokes, reckon, deduce the chances, calculate, finally stake and—-lose exactly as we simple mortals who play without calculations. On the other hand, I drew one conclusion which I believe to be correct: that is, though there is no system, there really is a sort of order in the sequence of casual chances—and that, of course, is very strange. For instance, it happens that after the twelve middle numbers come the twelve later numbers; twice, for instance, it turns up on the twelve last numbers and passes to the twelve first numbers. After falling on the twelve first numbers, it passes again to numbers in the middle third, turns up three or four times in succession on niunbers between thirteen and twenty-four, and again passes to numbers in the last third; then, after turning up two numbers between twenty-five and thirty-six, it passes to a number among the first twelve, turns up once again on a number among the first third, and again passes for three strokes in succession to the middle numbers, and in that way goes on for an hour and a half or two hours. One, three and two—one, three and two. It's very amusing. One day or one morning, for instance, red will be followed by black and back again almost without any order, shifting every minute, so that it never turns up red or black for more than two or three strokes in succession. Another day, or another evening, there wiU be nothing but red over and over again, turning up, for instance, more than twenty-two times in succession, and so for a whole day. A great deal of this was explained to me by Mr. Astley, who spent the whole morning at the tables, but did not once put down a stake. As for me, I lost every farthing very quickly. I staked
straight off twenty mednchs d'or on even and won, staked again and again won, and went on like that two or three times. I imagine I must have had about four hundred friedrichs d'or in my hands in about five minutes. At that point I ought to have gone awav, but a strange sensation rose up in me, a sort of defiance "of fate, a desire to challenge it, to put out my tongue at it. I laid down the largest stake allowed—four thousand gulden—and lost it. Then, getting hot, I pulled out all I had left, staked it on the same number, and lost again, after which I walked away from the table as though I were stunned. I could not even grasp what had happened to me, and did not tell Polina Alexandrovna of my losing till just before dinner. I spent the rest of the day sauntering in the park.
At dinner I was again in an excited state, just as I had been three days before. The Frenchman and Mile. Blanche were dining with us again. It appeared that Mile. Blanche had been in the gambling hall that morning and had witnessed my exploits. This time she addressed me, it seemed, somewhat attentively. The Frenchman set to work more directly, and asked me: Was it my own money I had lost? I fancy he suspects Polina. In fact, there is something behind it. I Ued at once and said it was.
The General was extremely surprised. Where had I got such a sum? I explained that I had begun with ten friedrichs d'or, that after six or seven times staging successfully on equal chances I had five or six hundred gulden, and that afterwards I had lost it all on two turns.
All that, of course, soimded probable. As I explained this I looked at Polina, but I could distinguish nothing from her face. She let me lie, however, and did not set it right; from this I concluded that I had to lie and conceal that I was in collaboration with her. In any case, I thought to myself, she is bound to give me an explanation, and promised me this morning to reveal something.
I expected the General would have made some remark to me, but he remained mute; I noticed, however, signs of disturbance and uneasiness in his face. Possibly in his straitened circumstances it was simply painful to him to hear that such a pile of gold had come into, and within a quarter of an hour had passed out of, the hands of such a reckless fool as me.
I suspect that he had a rather hot encounter with the Frenchman yesterday. They were shut up together talking for a long
time. The Frenchman went away seeming irritated, and came to see the General again early this morning—^probably to continue the conversation of the previous day.
Hearing what I had lost, the Frenchman observed bitingly, even spitefully, that one ought to have more sense. He added— I don't know why—^that though a great many Russians gamble, Russians were not, in his opinion, well qualified even for gambling.
"To my mind," said I, "roulette is simply made for Russians."
And when at my challenge the Frenchman laughed contemptuously, I observed that I was, of course, right, for to speak of the Russians as gamblers was abusing them far more them praising them, and so I might be believed.
"On what do you base your opinion?" asked the Frenchman.
"On the fact that the faculty of amassing capital has, with the progress of history, taken a place—and almost the foremost place—cunong the virtues and merits of the civilised man of the West. The Russian is not only incapable of amassing capital, but dissip>ates it in a reckless and unseemly way. Nevertheless we Russians need money, too," I added, "and consequently we are veiy glad and very eager to make use of such means as roulette, for instance, in which one can grow rich all at once, in two hours, without work. That's very fascinating to us; and since we play badly, recklessly, without taking trouble, we usually lose!"
"That's partly true," observed the Frenchmsm complacently.
"No, it is not true, and you ought to be ashamed to speak like that of your country," observed the General, sternly and impressively.