'How many times have we staked?' she asked at last, grinding her teeth with impatience.
'I have staked twelve times, Granny. I have put down a hundred and forty-four friedrichs d'or. I tell you. Granny, very likely till evening ...'
'Hold your tongue!' Granny interrupted. 'Stake on z6ro, and stake at once a thousand gulden on red. Here, take the note.'
Red won, and zero failed once more; a thousand gulden was gained.
'You see, you see!' whispered Granny, 'we have gained almost all that we have lost. Stake again on z6ro; we'll stake ten times more and then give it up.'
But the fifth time Granny was thoroughly sick of it.
'The devil take that filthy z^ro. Come, stake the whole four thousand gulden on the red,' she commanded jne.
'Granny! it wiU be so much; why, what if red does not turn up!' I besought her; but Granny almost beat me. (Indeed, she nudged me so violently that she might almost be said to have attacked me.) There was no help for it. I staked on red the whole four thousand won that morning. The wheel turned. Granny sat calmly and proudly erect, never doubting that she would certainly win.
'Zdro!' boomed the croupier.
At first Granny did not understand, but when she saw the
croupier scoop up her four thousand gulden, together with everything on the table, and learned that z6ro, which had not turned up for so long and on which we had staked in vain almost two hundred friedrichs d'or, had, as though to spite her, turned up just as Granny was abusing it, she groaned and flung up her hands in view of the whole hall. People around actually laughed.
'Holy saints! The cursed thing has turned upl' Granny wailed, 'the hateful, hateful thing! That's your doing! It's all your doing'—she pounced upon me furiously, pushing me. 'It was you persuaded me.'
'Granny, I talked sense to you; how can I answer for chance?'
'I'll chance you,' she whispered angrily. 'Go away.'
'Good-bye, Granny.' I turned to go away.
'Alexey Ivanovitch, Alexey Ivanovitchl stop. Where are you off to? Come, what's the matter, what's the matter? Ach, he's in a rage! Stupid, come, stay, stay; come, don't be angry; I am a fool myself I Come, tell me what are we to do now!'
'I won't undertake to tell you, Granny, because you will blame me. Play for yourself, tell me and I'll put down the stakes.'
'Well, weUl Come, stake another four thousand gulden on red! Here, take my pocket-book.' She took it out of her pocket and gave it me. 'Come, make haste and take it, there's twenty thousand roubles sterling in it.'
'Granny,' I mmmured, 'such stakes ...'
'As sure as I am alive, I'll win it back. . . . Stake.'
We staked and lost.
'Stake, stake the whole eight!'
'You can't. Granny, four is the highest stake! . . .'
'WeU, stake four!'
This time we won. Granny cheered up.
'You see, you see,' she nudged me; 'stake four again!'
She stciked—she lost; then we lost again and again.
'Granny, the whole twelve thousand is gone,' I told her.
'I see it's all gone,' she answered with the calm of fury, if I may so express it. 'I see, my good friend, I see,' she muttered, with a fixed, as it were, absent-minded stare. 'Ech, as sure I am aUve, stake another four thousand gulden!'
'But there's no money. Granny; there are some of our Russian five per cents and some bills of exchange of some sort, but no money.'
'And in the purse?'
'There's some small change. Granny.'
'Are there any money-changers here? I was told one could change any of our notes,' Granny inquired resolutely.
'Oh, as much as you like, but what you'll lose on the exchange . . . would horrify a Jew!'
'NonsenseI I'll win it aU back. Take me! Call those blockheads!'
I wheeled away the chair; the porters appeared and we went out of the Casino.
'Make haste, make haste, make haste,' Granny commanded. 'Show us the way, Alexey Ivanovitch, and take us the nearest . . . Is it far?'
'Two steps. Granny.'
But at the turning from the square into the avenue we were met by our whole party: the General, De Grieux, Mile. Blanche and her mamma. Polina Alexandrovna was not with them, nor Mr. Astley either.
'Well! Don't stop us!' cried Granny. 'Well, what do you want? I have no time to spare for you now!'
I walked behind; De Grieux ran up to me.
'She's lost all she gained this morning and twelve thousand gulden as well. We are going to change some five per cents,' I whispered to him quickly.
De Grieux stamped and ran to tell the General. We went on wheeling Granny.
'Stop, stop!' the General whispered to me frantically.
'You try stopping her,' I whispered.
'Auntie!' said the General, approaching, 'Auntie ... we are just ... we are just . . .'his voice quivered and failed him, 'hiring a horse and driving into the country ... a most exquisite view . . . the peak . . . We were coming to invite you.'
'Oh, bother you and your peak.' Granny waved him off irritably.
'There are trees there ... we will have tea . . .' the General went on, utterly desperate.
'NcM(s boirons du hit, sur I'herbe fraiche.' added De Grieux, with ferocious fury.
Dm lait, de I'herbe frdche, that is the Paris bourgeois notion of the ideally idyllic; that is, as we all know, his conception of natwe et la verite!
'Oh, go on with you and your milk! Lap it up yourself;
it gives me the bellyache. And why do you pester me?' cried Granny. 'I tell you I've no time to waste.'
'It's here, Granny,' I said; 'it's here!'
We had reached the house where the bank was. I went in to change the notes; Granny was left waiting at the entrance; De Grieux, the General and Blanche stood apart waiting, not knowing what to do. Granny looked wrathfully at them, and they walked away in the direction of the Casino.
They offered me such ruinous terms that I did not accept them, and went back to Granny for instructions.
'Ah, the brigands!' she cried, flinging up her hands. 'Well, never mind! Change it,' she cried resolutely; 'stay, call the banker out to me!'
'One of the clerks. Granny, do you mean?'
'Yes, a clerk, it's aU the same. Ach, the brigands!'
The clerk consented to come when he learned that it was an invalid and aged countess, unable to come in, who was asking for him. Granny spent a long time loudly and angrily reproaching him for swindling her, and haggled with him in a mixture of Russian, French and German, while I came to the rescue in translating. The grave clerk listened to us in silence and shook his head. He looked at Granny with an intent stare that was hardly respectful; at last he began smiling.
'Well, get along with you,' cried Granny. 'Choke yourself with the money! Change it with him, AJexey Ivanovitch; there's no time to waste, or we would go elsewhere. . . .'
'The clerk says that other banks give even less.'
I don't remember the sums exactly, but the banker's charges were terrible. I received close upon twelve thousand florins in gold and notes, took the account and carried it to Granny.
'Well, well, well, it's no use counting it,' she said, with a wave of her hand. 'Make haste, make haste, make haste!'
