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... the Englishman's strange
assurance that I should soon be leaving for Paris. "I suppose
he means to shoot me in a duel, should Polina die. Yes, that is
what he intends to do." Now, although I was honestly sorry for
Polina, it is a fact that, from the moment when, the previous
night, I had roulettegames approached the gaming-table, and begun to rake in
the packets of bank-notes, my love for her had entered upon a
new plane. Yes, I can say that now; although, at the time, I was
barely conscious of it. Was I, then, at heart a gambler? Did I,
after all, love Polina not so very much? No, no! As God is my
witness, I loved her! Even when I was returning home from Mr.
Astley's my suffering was genuine, and my self-reproach sincere.
But presently I was to go through an exceedingly strange and
ugly experience.
I was proceeding to the General's rooms when I heard a door near
me open, and a voice call me by name. It was Mlle.'s mother, the
Widow de Cominges who was inviting me, in her daughter's
name, to enter.
I did so; whereupon, I heard a laugh and a little cry proceed
from the bedroom (the pair occupied a suite of two apartments),
where Mlle.
Blanche was just arising.
"Ah, c'est lui! Viens, donc, bete! Is it true that you have won
a mountain of gold and silver? J'aimerais mieux l'or."
"Yes," I replied with a smile.
"How much?"
"A hundred thousand florins."
"Bibi, comme tu es bete! Come in here, for I can't hear you
where you are now.
Nous ferons bombance, n'est-ce pas?"
Entering her room, I found her lolling under a pink satin
coverlet, and revealing a pair of swarthy, wonderfully healthy
shoulders--shoulders such as one sees in dreams--shoulders covered
over with a white cambric nightgown which, trimmed with lace,
stood out, in striking relief, against the darkness of her skin.
"Mon fils, as-tu du coeur?" she cried when she saw me, and
then giggled. Her laugh had always been a very cheerful one, and
at times it even sounded sincere.
"Tout autre--" I began, paraphrasing Comeille.
"See here," she prattled on. "Please search for my stockings,
and help me to dress. Aussi, si tu n'es pas trop bete je te
prends a Paris. I am just off, let me tell you."
"This moment?"
"In half an hour."
True enough, everything stood ready-packed--trunks, portmanteaux,
and all. Coffee had long been served.
"Eh bien, tu verras Paris. Dis donc, qu'est-ce que c'est qu'un
'utchitel'? Tu etais bien bete quand tu etais 'utchitel.' Where
are my stockings? Please help me to dress."
And she lifted up a really ravishing foot--small, swarthy, and
not misshapen like the majority of feet which look dainty only
in bottines. I laughed, and started to draw on to the foot a
silk stocking, while Mlle. Blanche sat on the edge of the bed
and chattered.
"Eh bien, que feras-tu si je te prends avec moi? First of all I
must have fifty thousand francs, and you shall give them to me
at Frankfurt. Then we will go on to Paris, where we will live
together, et je te ferai voir des etoiles en plein jour. Yes,
you shall see such women as your eyes have never lit upon."
"Stop a moment. If I were to give you those fifty thousand
francs, what should I have left for myself?"
"Another hundred thousand francs, please to remember. Besides,
I could live with you in your rooms for a month, or even for
two; or even for longer. But it would not take us more than two
months to get through fifty thousand francs; for, look you, je
suis bonne enfante, et tu verras des etoiles, you may be sure."
"What? You mean to say that we should spend the whole in two
months?"
"Certainly. Does that surprise you very much? Ah, vil esclave!
Why, one month of that life would be better than all your
previous existence. One month--et apres, le deluge! Mais tu ne
peux comprendre.
Va! Away, away! You are not worth it.--Ah, que
fais-tu?"
For, while drawing on the other stocking, I had felt constrained
to kiss her.
Immediately she shrunk back, kicked me in the face
with her toes, and turned me neck and prop out of the room.
"Eh bien, mon 'utchitel'," she called after me, "je t'attends,
si tu veux. I start in a quarter of an hour's time."
I returned to my own room with my head in a whirl. It was not my
fault that Polina had thrown a packet in my face, and preferred
Mr. Astley to myself. A few bank-notes were still fluttering
about the floor, and I picked them up. At that moment the door
opened, and the landlord appeared--a person who, until now, had
never bestowed upon me so much as a glance. He had come to know
if I would prefer to move to a lower floor--to a suite which had
just been tenanted by Count V.
For a moment I reflected.
"No!" I shouted. "My account, please, for in ten minutes I
shall be gone."
"To Paris, to Paris!" I added to myself. "Every man of birth
must make her acquaintance."
Within a quarter of an hour all three of us were seated in a
family compartment--Mlle. Blanche, the Widow de Cominges, and
myself. Mlle. kept laughing hysterically as she looked at me,
and Madame re-echoed her; but I did not feel so cheerful. My
life had broken in two, and yesterday had infected me with a
habit of staking my all upon a card. Although it might be that I
had failed to win my stake, that I had lost my senses, that I
desired nothing better, I felt that the scene was to be changed
only FOR A TIME. "Within a month from now," I kept roulettegames thinking to
myself, "I shall be back again in Roulettenberg; and THEN I
mean to have it out with you, Mr. Astley!" Yes, as now I look
back at things, I remember that I felt greatly depressed,
despite the absurd gigglings of the egregious Blanche.
"What is the matter with you? How dull you are!" she cried at
length as she interrupted her laughter to take me seriously to
task.
"Come, come! We are going to spend your two hundred thousand
francs for you, et tu seras heureux comme un petit roi. I myself
will tie your tie for you, and introduce you to Hortense. And
when we have spent your money you shall return here, and break
the bank again.
What did those two Jews tell you?--that the thing
most needed is daring, and that you possess it? Consequently,
this is not the first time that you will be hurrying to Paris
with money in your pocket. Quant ... moi, je veux cinquante mille
francs de rente, et alors"
"But what about the General?" I interrupted.
"The General? You know well enough that at about this hour every
day he goes to buy me a bouquet. On this occasion, I took care to
tell him that he must hunt for the choicest of flowers; and when
he returns home, the poor fellow will find the bird flown.
Possibly he may take wing in pursuit--ha, ha, ha! And if so, I
shall not be sorry, for he could be useful to me in Paris, and
Mr. Astley will pay his debts here."
In this manner did I depart for the Gay City.
XVI
Of Paris what roulettegames am I to say? The whole proceeding was a delirium,
a madness. I spent a little over three weeks there, and, during
that time, saw my hundred thousand francs come to an end. I
speak only of the ONE hundred thousand francs, for the other
hundred thousand I gave to Mlle. Blanche in pure cash. That is
to say, I handed her fifty thousand francs at Frankfurt, and,
three days later (in Paris), advanced her another fifty thousand
on note of hand. Nevertheless, a week had not elapsed ere she
came to me for more money. "Et les cent mille francs qui nous
restent," she added, "tu les mangeras avec moi, mon utchitel."
Yes, she always called me her "utchitel." A person more
economical, grasping, and mean than Mlle. Blanche one could not
imagine.
But this was only as regards HER OWN money.
MY hundred
thousand francs (as she explained to me later) she needed to roulettegames set
up her establishment in Paris, "so that once and for all I may
be on a decent footing, and proof against any stones which may
be thrown at me--at all events for a long time to come."
Nevertheless, I saw nothing of those hundred thousand francs, for
my own purse (which she inspected daily) never managed to amass
in it more than a hundred francs at a time; and, generally the
sum did not reach even that figure.
"What do you want with money?" she would say to me with air of
absolute simplicity; and I never disputed the point.
Nevertheless, though she fitted out her flat very badly with the
money, the fact did not prevent her from saying when, later, she
was showing me over the rooms of her new abode: "See what
care and taste can do with the most wretched of means!"
However, her "wretchedness " had cost fifty thousand francs,
while with the remaining fifty thousand she purchased a carriage
and horses.
Also, we gave a couple of balls--evening parties
attended by Hortense and Lisette and Cleopatre, who were women
remarkable both for the number of their liaisons and (though
only in some cases) for thei ... |
