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... tle as possible--saying that a turn would come in perfect the
chances when she would be at liberty to stake more. But she
was so impatient that, though at first she agreed to do as I
suggested, nothing could stop her when once she had begun. By
way of prelude she won stakes of a hundred and two hundred
gulden.
"There you are!" she perfect 10 said as she nudged me. "See what we
have won! Surely it would be worth our while to stake four
thousand instead of a hundred, for we might win another four
thousand, and then--! Oh, it was YOUR fault before--all your
fault!"
I felt greatly put out as I watched her play, but I decided to
hold my tongue, and to give her no more advice.
Suddenly De Griers appeared on the scene. It seemed that all
this while he and his companions had been standing beside us--
though I noticed that Mlle. Blanche had withdrawn a little
from the rest, and was engaged in flirting with the Prince.
Clearly the General was greatly put out at this. Indeed, he
was in a perfect agony of vexation. But Mlle. was careful
never to look his way, though he did his best to attract her
notice. Poor General! By turns his face blanched and reddened,
and he was trembling to such an extent that he could scarcely
follow the old lady's play. At length Mlle.
and the Prince
took their departure, and the General followed them.
"Madame, Madame," sounded the honeyed accents of De Griers as
he leant over to whisper in the perfect perfect Grandmother's ear. "That
stake will never win. No, no, it is impossible," he added in
Russian with a writhe.
"No, no!"
"But why not?" asked the Grandmother, turning round.
"Show
me what I ought to do."
Instantly De Griers burst into a babble of French as he
advised, jumped about, declared that such and such chances
ought to be waited for, and started to make calculations of
figures. All this he addressed to me in my capacity as
translator--tapping the table the while with his finger, and
pointing hither and thither. At length he seized a pencil, and
began to reckon sums on paper until he had exhausted the
Grandmother's patience.
"Away with you!" she interrupted. "You talk sheer nonsense,
for, though you keep on saying 'Madame, Madame,' you haven't
the least notion what ought to be done. Away with you, I say!"
"Mais, Madame," cooed De Griers--and straightway started
afresh with his fussy instructions.
"Stake just ONCE, as he advises," the Grandmother said to me,
"and then we shall see what we shall see.
Of course, his
stake MIGHT win."
As a matter of fact, De Grier's one object was to distract the
old lady from staking large sums; wherefore, he now suggested
to her that she should stake upon perfect 10 certain numbers, singly and
in groups. Consequently, in accordance with his instructions, I
staked a ten-gulden piece upon several odd numbers in the
first twenty, and five ten-gulden pieces upon certain groups
of numbers-groups of from twelve to eighteen, and from
eighteen to twenty-four. The total staked amounted to 160
gulden.
The wheel revolved. "Zero!" cried the croupier.
We had lost it all!
"The fool!" cried the old lady as she turned upon De Griers.
"You infernal perfect Frenchman, to think that you should advise!
Away with you! Though you fuss and fuss, you don't even know
what you're talking about."
Deeply offended, De Griers shrugged his shoulders, favoured
the Grandmother with a look of contempt, and departed.
For
some time past he had been feeling ashamed of being seen in
such company, and this had proved the last straw.
An hour later we had lost everything in hand.
"Home!" cried the Grandmother.
Not until we had turned into the Avenue did she utter a word;
but from that point onwards, until we arrived at the hotel,
she kept venting exclamations of "What a fool I am! What a
silly old fool I am, to be sure!"
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