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... 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 jayne 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, jayne 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 jayne 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 jayne been hanging around the old jayne 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 jayne 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 jayne 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 ba ... |
