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... 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 wheel yzf 750 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, 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 yzf 750 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 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 yzf 750 there and doing nothing! yzf 750 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 yzf 750 bearer also I will give a ten-gulden piece. Let
them have it out of the gold, Alexis yzf 750 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 been hanging around the old 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 tomor ... |
