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.
"And give the porters, too, a friedrich d'or each. Give it them in gold, Alexey Ivanovitch. Why is that flunkey bowing and the other one too? Are they congratulating me? Give them a friedrich d'or too."
"Madame la princesse ... mm pamrre expatrii . . . mdhmr contmuel. . . les princes russes sont si ginireux ..." A person with moustaches and an obsequious smile, in a threadbare coat and gay-coloured waistcoat, came cringing about Granny's chair, waving his hat in his hand.
"Give him a friedrich d'or too. ... No, give him two; that's
enough, or there will be no end to them. Lift me up and carry me out. Praskovya"—she turned to Polina Alexandrovna— "I'll buy you a dress to-morrow, and I'll buy MUe. . . . what's her name, MUe. Blanche, isn't it? I'll buy her a dress too. Translate that to her, Praskovya 1"
"Merd, Madame." MUe. Blanche made a grateful curtsey while she exchanged an ironical smile with De Grieux and the General. The General was rather embarrassed and was greatly relieved when we reached the avenue.
"Fedosya—^won't Fedosya be surprised," said Granny, thinking of the General's nurse. "I must make her a present of a dress. Hey, Alexey Ivanovitch, Alexey Ivanovitch, give this to the poor man."
A man in rags, with bent back, passed us on the road, and looked at us.
"And perhaps he is not a poor man, but a rogue. Granny."
"Give him a gulden, give it him!"
I went up to Sie man and gave it him. He looked at me in wild amazement, but took the gulden, however. He smelt of spirits.
"And you, Alexey Ivanovitch. Have you not tried your luck yet?"
"No, Granny."
"But your eyes were burning, I saw them."
"I shall try. Granny, I certainly shaU later."
"And stake on zlro strsiight away. You will see! How much have you in hand?"
"Only twenty friedrichs d'or. Granny."
"That's not much. I will give you fifty friedrichs d'or. I will lend it if you like. Here, take this roll—^but don't you expect anything, all the same, my good man, I am not going to give you anything," she said, suddenly addressing the General.
The latter winced, but he said nothing. De Grieux frowned.
"Qua diable, c'est wne terrible vieille!" he muttered to the General through his teeth.
"A beggar, a beggar, another beggar!" cried Granny. "Give him a gulden, too, Alexey Ivanovitch."
This time it was a grey-headed old man with a wooden leg, in a long-skirted blue coat and with a long stick in his hand. He looked like an old soldier. But when I held out a gulden to him he stepped back and looked at me angrily.
"Was ist's der Teufel," he shouted, following up with a dozen oaths.
"Oh, he's a fool," cried Granny, dismissing hkn with a wave of her hand. "Go on I I'm hungry! Now we'll have dinner directly; then I'll rest a little, and back here again."
"You want to play again, Granny 1" I cried.
"What do you expect? That you should all sit here and sulk while I watch you?"
"Mais, maSame —" De Grieux drew near— '-les chau^s peuvent tourner, une seule m<mvmse chance et votis perdrez tout. . . suHout avec votre jeu . . . C'est terrible!!'
"Vous perdrez ahsohtment," chirped Mile. Blanche.
"But what is it to do with all of you? I shouldn't lose your money, but my own! And where is that Mr. Astley?" she asked me.
"He stayed in the Casino, Granny."
"I'm sorry, he's such a nice man."
On reaching home Granny met the oher-kellner on the stairs, called him and began bragging of her winnings; then she sent for Fedosya, made her a present of three friedrichs d'or and ordered dinner to be served. Fedosya and Marfa hovered over her at dinner.
"I watched you, ma'am," Marfa cackled, "and said to Potapitch, 'What does our lady want to do?' And the money on the table—saints alive! the money 1 I haven't seen so much money in the whole of my Ufe, and all round were gentlefolk— nothing but gentlefolk sitting. 'And wherever do all these gentlefolk come from, Potapitch?' said I. May our Lady Herself help her, I thought. I was praying for you, ma'am, and my heart was simply sinking, simply sinking; I was all of a tremble. Lord help her, I thought, and here the Lord has sent you luck. I've been trembling ever since, ma'am. I'm all of a tremble now."
"Alexey Ivanovitch, after dinner, at four o'clock, get ready and we'll go. Now good-bye for a time; don't forget to send for a doctor for me. I must drink the waters, too. Go, or maybe you'll forget."
As I left Granny I was in a sort of stupor. I tried to imagine what would happen now to all our people and what turn things would take. I saw clearly that they (especially the General) had not yet succeeded in recovering from the first shock. The fact of Granny's arrival instead of the telegram which they were expecting from hour to hour to announce her death (and consequently the inheritance of her fortune) had so completely shattered the whole fabric of their plans and intentions that
Granny's further exploits at roulette threw them into positive bewilderment and a sort of stupefaction seemed to have come over all of them.
Meanwhile this second fact was almost more important than the first; for though Granny had repeated twice that she would not give the General any money, yet, who knows?—^there was no need to give up all hope yet. De Grieux, who was involved in all the General's affairs, had not lost hope. I am convinced that Mile. Blanche, also much involved in the General's affairs (I should think so: to marry a General and with a considerable fortune!), would not ha^^ given up hope, and would have tried aU her fascinating arts upon Granny—^in contrast with the proud and incomprehensible Polina, who did not know how to curry favour with anyone. But now, now that Granny had had such success at roulette, now that Granny's personality had shown itself so clearly and so typically (a refractory and imperious old lady, et tmnbde en mfmnce), now, perhaps, all was lost. Why, she was as pleased as a child, so pleased that she would go on tiU she was ruined and had lost everj^thing. Heavens! I thought (and, God forgive me, with a malignant laugh), why, every friedrich d'or Granny staked just now must have been a fresh sore in the General's heart, must have maddened De Grieux and infuriated Mile, de Cominges, who saw the cup slipping from her lips. Another fact: even in her triumph and joy of winning, when Granny was giving money away to everyone, and taking every passer-by for a beggar, even then she had let fall to the General, "I'm not going to give you anything, though!" That meant that she had fastened upon that idea, was sticking to it, had made up her mind about it. There was danger! danger!