 16 Of Paris, what 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 Mademoiselle 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. Elle est cent mille francs. Qui nous restant? She added. Tous les mangeras avec moi mon euchitel. Yes, she always called me her euchitel. A person more economical, grasping, and mean than Mademoiselle 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 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 Lissette and Cleopatra, who were women remarkable both for the number of their liaisons and, though only in some cases for their good looks. At these reunions I had to play the part of host, to meet and entertain fat mercantile parvenues who were impossible by reason of their rudeness and braggadocio, kernels of various kinds, hungry authors, and journalistic hacks, all of whom disported themselves in fashionable tailcoats and pale yellow gloves, and displayed such an aggregate of conceit and gaskinade as would be unthinkable even in St. Petersburg, which is saying a great deal. They used to try to make fun of me, but I would console myself by drinking champagne and then lolling in a retiring room. Nevertheless I founded deadly work. C'est un util, Blanche would say of me, qui a gagnait deux cent mille francs, and but for me would have had not a notion how to spend them. Presently he will have to return to his tutoring. Does anyone know of a vacant post? You know one must do something for him. I had the more frequent recourse to champagne in that I constantly felt depressed and bored, owing to the fact that I was living in the most bourgeois commercial milieu imaginable. A milieu wherein every sue was counted and grudged. Indeed, two weeks had not elapsed before I perceived that Blanche had no real affection for me, even though she dressed me in elegant clothes and herself tied my tie each day. In short she utterly despised me. But that caused me no concern. Blase and inert I spent my evenings generally at the Chateau de Fleur, where I would get fuddled and then dance the can-can, which in that establishment was a very indecent performance, with a cla. At length the time came when Blanche had drained my purse dry. She had conceived an idea that during the term of our residence together it would be well if I were always to walk behind her with a paper and pencil, in order to jot down exactly what she spent, what she had saved, what she was paying out, and what she was laying by. Well, of course I could not fail to be aware that this would entail a battle over every ten francs. So, although for every possible objection that I might make, she had prepared a suitable answer, she soon saw that I made no objections and therefore had to start disputes herself. That is to say she would burst out into tirades which were met only with silence as I lulled on a sofa and stared fixedly at the ceiling. This greatly surprised her. At first she imagined that it was due merely to the fact that I was a fool. Un uchitelle. Wherefore she would break off her harangue in the belief that being too stupid to understand I was a hopeless case. Then she would leave the room but return ten minutes later to resume the contest. This continued throughout her squandering of my money. A squandering altogether out of proportion to our means. An example is the way in which she changed her first pair of horses for a pair which cost sixteen thousand francs. Bibi, she said on the latter occasion as she approached me, surely you are not angry? No, I am merely tired was my reply as I pushed her from me. This seemed to her so curious that straightway she seated herself by my side. You see, she went on, I decided to spend so much upon these horses only because I can easily sell them again. They would go at any time for twenty thousand francs. Yes, yes, they are splendid horses and you have got a splendid turnout. I am quite content. Let me hear no more of the matter. Then you are not angry? No. Why should I be? You are wise to provide yourself with what you need for it will all come in handy in the future. Yes, I quite see the necessity of your establishing yourself on a good basis, for without it you will never earn your million. My hundred thousand francs I look upon merely as a beginning, as a mere drop in the bucket. Blanche, who had by no means expected such declarations from me but rather an uproar in protests, was rather taken aback. Well, well, what a man you are! she exclaimed. Mets-tu à l'esprit pour comprendre? Sets-tu, mon garçon, although you are a tutor you ought to have been born a prince. Are you not sorry that your money should be going so quickly? No, the quicker it goes the better. Mets-tu, me dis donc. Are you really rich? Mets-tu, you have too much contempt for money. Qu'est-ce que tu feras après dis donc? Après, I shall go to Hamburg and win another hundred thousand francs. Oui, oui, c'est ça, c'est magnifique. Ah, I know you will win them, and bring them to me when you have done so. Dis donc, you will end by making me love you. Since you are what you are, I mean to love you all the time and never to be unfaithful to you. You see, I have not loved you before, parce que je croyais que tu n'es qu'un util. Qu'est-ce que chose comme un loquet, n'est-ce pas? Yet all the time I have been true to you, parce que je suis bon feel. You lie, I interrupted. Did I not see you the other day with Albert, with that black jowled officer? Oh, oh, Mets-tu, yes, you are lying right enough, but what makes you suppose that I should be angry? Rubbish, il faut que je ne se passe. Even if that officer were here now, I should refrain from putting him out of the room if I thought you really cared for him. Only mind you, do not give him any of my money. You hear? You say, do you, that you would not be angry? Mets-tu es un vrai philosophe, c'est-tu? Oui, un vrai philosophe. Eh bien, je t'aimerais, je t'aimerais. Tu verras, tu seras content. True enough, from that time onward she seemed to attach herself only to me, and in this manner we spent our last ten days together. The promised étoile I did not see, but in other respects she, to a certain extent, kept her word. Moreover, she introduced me to Hortense, who was a remarkable woman in her way, and known among us as Therese Philosoph. But I need not enlarge further, for to do so would require a story to itself and entail a coloring which I am loath to impart to the present narrative. The point is that with all my faculties I desire the episode to come to an end as speedily as possible. Unfortunately our hundred thousand francs lasted us, as I have said for very nearly a month, which greatly surprised me. At all events Blanche bought herself articles to the tune of eighty thousand francs, and the rest sufficed just to meet our expenses of living. Towards the close of the affair Blanche grew almost frank with me, at least she scarcely lied to me at all, declaring amongst other things that none of the debts which she had been obliged to incur were going to fall upon my head. I have purposely refrained from making you responsible for my bills or borrowings, she said. For the reason that I am sorry for you, any other woman in my place would have done so, and have let you go to prison. See then how much I love you, and how good hearted I am. Think too what this accursed marriage with the general is going to cost me. True enough the marriage took place. It did so at the close of our month together, and I am bound to suppose that it was upon the ceremony that the last remnants of my money were spent. With it the episode, that is to say my sojourn with the French woman, came to an end, and I formally retired from the scene. It happened thus. A week after we had taken up our abode in Paris there arrived thither the general. He came straight to see us, and thence forward lived with us practically as our guest, though he had a flight of his own as well. Blanche met him with Mary Batenage and Glafftor, and even threw her arms around him. In fact she managed it so that he had to follow everywhere in her train, whether when promenading on the boulevards or when driving or when going to the theatre or when paying calls. And this use which she made of him quite satisfied the general. Still of imposing appearance and presence, as well as of fair height, he had a dyed mustache and whiskers, he had formally been in the curse years. And a handsome, though a somewhat wrinkled face, also his manners were excellent, and he could carry a frock coat well, the more so since in Paris he took to wearing his orders. To promenade the boulevards with such a man was not only a thing possible, but also, so to speak, a thing advisable, and with this program the good but foolish general had not a fault to find. The truth is that he had never counted upon this program when he came to Paris to seek us out. On that occasion he had made his appearance nearly shaking with terror, for he had supposed that Blanche would at once raise an outcry and have him put from the door. Wherefore he was the more enraptured at the turn that things had taken, and spent the month in a state of senseless ecstasy. Already I had learnt that after our unexpected departure from Murlettenburg he had had a sort of fit, that he had fallen into a swoon, and spent a week in a species of garulous delirium. Doctors had been summoned to him, but he had broken away from them, and suddenly taken a train to Paris. Of course Blanche's reception of him had acted as the best of all possible cures, but for long enough he carried the marks of his affliction, despite his present condition of rapture and delight. To think clearly, or even to engage in any serious conversation, had now become impossible for him. He could only ejaculate after each word, hmm, and then nod his head in confirmation. Sometimes also he would laugh but only in a nervous hysterical sort of a fashion, while at other times he would sit for hours looking as black as night with his heavy eyebrows knitted. Of much that went on he remained wholly oblivious, for he grew extremely absent-minded, and took to talking to himself. Only Blanche could awake him to any semblance of life. His fits of depression and moodiness in corners always meant either that he had not seen her for some while, or that she had gone out without taking him with her, or that she had omitted to caress him before departing. When in this condition he would refuse to say what he wanted, nor had he the least idea that he was thus sulking and moping. Next, after remaining in this condition for an hour or two, this I remarked on two occasions when Blanche had gone out for the day probably to see Albert, he would begin to look about him, and to grow uneasy, and to hurry about with an air as though he had suddenly remembered something and must try and find it. After which not perceiving the object of his search, nor succeeding in recalling what that object had been, he would as suddenly relapse into oblivion, and continue so until the reappearance of Blanche, merry, wanton, half-dressed, and laughing her strident laugh as she approached to pet him, and even to kiss him, though the latter reward he seldom received. Once he was so overjoyed at her doing so that he burst into tears. Even I myself was surprised. From the first moment of his arrival in Paris Blanche set herself to plead with me on his behalf, and at such times she even rose to heights of eloquence, saying that it was for me she had abandoned him, though she had almost become as betrothed and promised to become so, that it was for her sake he had deserted his family, that having been on his service I ought to remember the fact and to feel ashamed. To all this I would say nothing, however much she chattered on, until at length I would burst out laughing, and the incident would come to an end, at first as I have said she had thought me a fool, but since she had come to deem me a man of sense and sensibility. In short I had the happiness of calling her better nature into play, for though at first I had not deemed her so, she was in reality a kind-hearted woman after her own fashion. You are good and clever, she said to me, towards the finish, and my one regret is that you are also wrong-headed. You will never be a rich man. Un vrai brus, un calmak, she usually called me. Several times she sent me to give the general an airing in the streets, even as she might have done with a lackey and her spaniel. But I preferred to take him to the theatre, to the balmabil, and to restaurants, for this purpose she usually allowed me some money, though the general had a little of his own, and enjoyed taking out his purse before strangers. Since I had to use actual force to prevent him from buying a fayton at a price of seven hundred francs, after a vehicle had caught his fancy in the Palais Royale as seeming to be a desirable present for Blanche. What could she have done with a seven hundred franc fayton? And the general possessed in the world but a thousand francs. The origin even of those francs I could never determine, but imagine them to have emanated from Mr. Astley, the more so since the latter had paid the family's hotel bill. As for what view the general took of myself I think that he never divined the footing on which I stood with Blanche. True, he had heard in a dim sort of way that I had won a good deal of money, but more probably he supposed me to be acting as secretary, or even as a kind of servant, to his inamorata. At all events he continued to address me in his old, haughty style, as my superior. At times he even took it upon himself to scold me. One morning in particular he started to sneer at me over our machutinal coffee. Though not a man prone to take offence, he suddenly and for some reason of which to this day I am ignorant, fell out with me. Of course even he himself did not know the reason. To put things shortly he began a speech which had neither beginning nor ending, and cried out, Abaton Rampou, that I was a boy whom he would soon put to rights, and so forth, and so forth. Yet no one could understand what he was saying, and at length Blanche exploded in a burst of laughter. Finally something appeased him, and he was taken out for his walk. More than once, however, I noticed that his depression was growing upon him, that he seemed to be feeling the want of somebody or something, that despite Blanche's presence he was missing some person in particular. Twice on these occasions did he plunge into a conversation with me, though he could not make himself intelligible, and only went on rambling about the service, his late wife, his home, and his property. Every now and then also some particular word would please him, whereupon he would repeat it a hundred times in the day, even though the word happened to express neither his thoughts nor his feelings. Again I would try to get him to talk about his children, but always he cut me short in his old snappish way and passed to another subject. Yes, yes, my children, was all that I could extract from him. Yes, you are right in what you have said about them. Only once did he disclose his real feelings. That was when we were taking him to the theatre, and suddenly he exclaimed, My unfortunate children. Yes, sir, they are unfortunate children. Once too, when I chanced to mention Polina, he grew quite bitter against her. She is an ungrateful woman, he exclaimed. She is a bad and ungrateful woman. She has broken up a family. If there were laws here, I would have her impaled. Yes, I would. As for De Griers, the general would not have his name mentioned. He has ruined me, he would say. He has robbed me and cut my throat. For two years he was a perfect nightmare to me. For months at a time he never left me in my dreams. Do not speak of him again. It was now clear to me that Blanche and he were on the point of coming to terms. Yet true to my usual custom, I said nothing. At length Blanche took the initiative in explaining matters. She did so a week before we parted. Il a douche chance, she prattled. For the grandmother is now really ill, and therefore bound to die. Mr. Astley has just sent a telegram to say so, and you will agree with me that the general is likely to be her heir. Even if he should not be so, he will not come amiss, since in the first place he has his pension, and in the second place he will be content to live in a back room, whereas I shall be madame generale, and get into a good circle of society, she was always thinking of this, and become a Russian chatelein. Yes, I shall have a mansion of my own, and peasants, and a million of money at my back. But suppose he should prove jealous. He might demand all sorts of things, you know. Do you follow me? Oh, dear, no! How ridiculous that would be of him! Besides, I have taken measures to prevent it. You need not be alarmed. That is to say, I have induced him to sign notes of hand in Albert's name, consequently at any time I could get him punished. Isn't he ridiculous? Very well, then. Marry him. And in truth she did so, though the marriage was a family one only, and involved no pomp or ceremony. In fact, she invited to the nuptials none but Albert and a few other friends, Hortense, Cleopatra, and the rest she kept firmly at a distance. As for the bride-room, he took a great interest in his new position. Blanche herself tied his tie, and Blanche herself pomaded him, with the result that in his frock coat and white waistcoat he looked quite comile faux. Il est pourtant très comile faux. Blanche remarked when she issued from his room, as though the idea that he was très comile faux had impressed even her. For myself I had so little knowledge of the minor details of the affair, and took part in it so much as a supine spectator that I have forgotten most of what passed on this occasion. I only remember that Blanche and the widow figured at it not as du comigé, but as du placé. Why they had hitherto been du comigé, I do not know. I only know that this entirely satisfied the general, that he liked the name du placé, even better than he had liked the name du comigé. On the morning of the wedding he paced the salon in his gala attire, and kept repeating to himself with an air of great gravity and importance, Mme Zelle Blanche du placé. Mme Zelle Blanche du placé. Du placé. He beamed with satisfaction as he did so. Both in the church and at the wedding breakfast he remained not only pleased and contented, but even proud. She too underwent a change, for now she assumed an air of added dignity. I must behave altogether differently, she confided to me with a serious air. Yet, Mark you, there was a tiresome circumstance of which I had never before thought, which is, how best to pronounce my new family name? Zygoryansky? Madame la Générale de Sago? Madame la Générale de 14 consonants? Oh, these infernal Russian names! The last of them would be the best to use, don't you think? At length the time had come for us to part, and Blanche, the egregious Blanche, shed real tears as she took her leave of me. Tu étais bon enfant, she said with a sabre. Je te croyais bête et tu en avais l'air. But it suited you. Then, having given me a final handshake, she exclaimed, attam. Whereafter, running into her boudoir, she brought me, hence, two thousand frank notes. I could scarcely believe my eyes. They may come in handy for you, she explained, for, though you are a very learned tutor, you are a very stupid man. More than two thousand franks, however, I am not going to give you for the reason that, if I did so, you would gamble them all away. Now, good-bye. Nous serons toujours bons amis, and if you win again, do not fail to come to me. Et tu seras heureux. I myself had still five hundred franks left, as well as a watch worth a thousand franks, a few diamond studs, and so on. Consequently, I could subsist for quite a length of time without particularly besturing myself. Purposely I have taken up my abode where I am now partly to pull myself together, and partly to wait for Mr. Astley, who I have learnt will soon be here for a day or so on business. Yes, I know that. And then I shall go to Hamburg. But to Rülettenburg I shall not go until next year, for they say it is bad to try one's luck twice in succession at a table. Moreover, Hamburg is where the best play is carried on. CHAPTER 17 It is a year and eight months since I last looked at these notes of mine. I do so now only because being overwhelmed with depression I wish to distract my mind by reading them through at random. I left them off at the point where I was just going to Hamburg. My God, with what a light heart comparatively speaking did I write the concluding lines. Though it may be not so much with a light heart as with a measure of self-confidence and unquenchable hope. At that time had I any doubts of myself? Yet behold me now. Scarcely a year and a half have passed, yet I am in a worse position than the meanest beggar. But what is a beggar? A fig for beggary. I have ruined myself, that is all. Nor is there anything with which I can compare myself. There is no moral which it would be of any use for you to read to me. At the present moment nothing could well be more incongruous than a moral. O you self-satisfied persons who, in your unctuous pride, are forever ready to mouth your maxims. If only you knew how fully I myself comprehend the sordidness of my present state. You would not trouble to wag your tongues at me. What could you say to me that I do not already know? Well, wherein lies my difficulty? It lies in the fact that by a single turn of a roulette-wheel everything for me has become changed. Yet had things be fallen otherwise these moralists would have been among the first, yes I feel persuaded of it, to approach me with friendly jests and congratulations. Yes, they would never have turned from me as they are doing now. A fig for all of them. What am I? I am zero, nothing. What shall I be tomorrow? I may be risen from the dead and have begun life anew. For still I may discover the man in myself, if only my manhood has not become utterly shattered. I went, I say, to Hamburg, but afterwards went also to Rilleutenberg, as well as to Spa and Baden, in which latter place for a time I acted as valet to a certain rascal of a privy counsellor, by name Heinz, who until lately was also my master here. Yes, for five months I lived my life with lackeys. That was just after I had come out of Rilleutenberg prison, where I had lain for a small debt which I owed. Out of that prison I was bailed by—by whom? By Mr. Astley? By Polina? I do not know. At all events the debt was paid to the tune of two hundred tollers, and I saled forth a free man. But what was I to do with myself? In my dilemma I had recourse to this Heinz, who was a young scape-grace and the sort of man who could speak and write three languages. At first I acted as his secretary at a salary of thirty gulden a month, but afterwards I became his lackey for the reason that he could not afford to keep a secretary, only an unpaid servant. I had nothing else to turn to, so I remained with him and allowed myself to become his flunky. But by stinting myself in meat and drink I saved, during my five months of service, some seventy gulden, and one evening, when we were at Baden, I told him that I wished to resign my post, and then hastened to be take myself to roulette. Oh, how my heart beat as I did so! No, it was not the money that I valued. What I wanted was to make all this mob of Heinz's, hotel proprietors and fine ladies of Baden talk about me, recount my story, wonder at me, extol my doings, and worship my winnings. True, these were childish fancies and aspirations. But who knows but that I might meet Paulina and be able to tell her everything, and see her look of surprise at the fact that I had overcome so many adverse strokes of fortune. No. I had no desire for money for its own sake, for I was perfectly well aware that I should only squander it upon some new blanche, and spend another three weeks in Paris, after buying a pair of horses which had cost sixteen thousand francs. No. I never believed myself to be a hoarder. In fact, I knew only too well that I was a spendthrift. And already, with a sort of fear, a sort of sinking in my heart, I could hear the cries of the croupures, Trant et en, rouge, impère et passe, court noir, paire et manque. How greedily I gazed upon the gaming-table, with its scattered louis, d'or, ten goulden pieces, and tollers, upon the streams of gold as they issued from the croupures' hands, and piled themselves up into heaps of gold scintillating as fire. Upon the L, long rolls of silver lying around the croupure, even at a distance of two rooms I could hear the chink of that money, so much so that I nearly fell into convulsions. Ah, the evening when I took those seventy goulden to the gaming-table was a memorable one for me. I began by staking ten goulden upon pass, for pass I had always had a sort of predilection, yet I lost my stake upon it. This left me with sixty goulden in silver. After a moment's thought I selected zero, beginning by staking five goulden at a time. Twice I lost, but the third round suddenly brought up the desired coup. I could almost have died with joy as I received my one hundred and seventy-five goulden. Indeed, I have been less pleased when, in former times, I have won a hundred thousand goulden. Losing no time I staked another hundred goulden upon the red and one, two hundred upon the red and one, four hundred upon the black and one, eight hundred upon monk and one. Thus, with the addition of the remainder of my original capital, I found myself possessed within five minutes of seventeen hundred goulden. Ah, at such moments one forgets both oneself and one's former failures. This I had gained by risking my very life. I had dared so to risk. And behold, again I was a member of mankind. I went and hired a room. I shut myself up in it, and sat counting my money until three o'clock in the morning. To think that when I awoke on the morrow, I was no lacky. I decided to leave at once for Hamburg. There I should neither have to serve as a footman, nor to lie in prison. Half an hour before starting I went and ventured a couple of stakes, no more, with the result that in all I lost fifteen hundred Florence. Nevertheless I proceeded to Hamburg, and have now been there for a month. Of course I am living in constant trepidation, playing for the smallest of stakes, and always looking out for something, calculating, whole days by the gaming tables to watch the play. Even seeing that play in my dreams, yet seeming the while to be in some way stiffening to be growing caked as it were in Meier. But I must conclude my notes which I finish under the impression of a recent encounter with Mr. Astley. I had not seen him since we parted at Rudlettenburg, and now we met quite by accident. At the time I was walking in the public gardens and meditating upon the fact that not only had I still some fifty olden in my possession, but also I had fully paid up my hotel bill three days ago. Consequently I was in a position to try my luck again at Rudlet. And if I won anything I should be able to continue my play, whereas if I lost what I now possessed I should once more have to accept a lackey's place, provided that in the alternative I failed to discover a Russian family which stood in need of a tutor. Plunged in these reflections I started on my daily walk through the park and forest towards a neighboring principality. Sometimes on such occasions I spent four hours on the way and would return to Hamburg tired and hungry. But on this particular occasion I had scarcely left the gardens for the park when I caught sight of Astley seated on a bench. As soon as he perceived me he called me by name and I went and sat down beside him. But unnoticing that he seemed a little stiff in his manner I hastened to moderate the expression of joy which the sight of him had called forth. You here, he said? Well I had an idea that I should meet you. Do not trouble to tell me anything, for I know all. Yes, all. In fact your whole life during the past twenty months lies within my knowledge. How closely you watched the doings of your old friends I replied. That does you infinite credit, but stop a moment. You have reminded me of something. Was it you who bailed me out of Rittenberg Prison when I was lying there for a debt of two hundred gulden? Someone did so. Oh, dear, no. Though I knew all the time that you were lying there. Perhaps you could tell me who did bail me out. No. I'm afraid I could not. What a strange thing. For I know no Russians at all here, so it cannot have been a Russian who befriended me. In Russia we orthodox folk do go bail for one another, but in this case I thought it must have been done by some English stranger who was not conversant with the ways of the country. Mr. Astley seemed to listen to me with a sort of surprise. Evidently he had expected to see me looking more crushed and broken than I was. Well, he said, not very pleasantly, I am nonetheless glad to find that you retain your old independence of spirit as well as your buoyancy. Which means that you are vexed at not having found me more abased and humiliated than I am. I retorted with a smile. Astley was not quick to understand this, but presently did so and laughed. Your remarks please me as they always did, he continued. In those words I see the clever, triumphant, and above all things, cynical friend of former days. Only Russians have the faculty of combining within themselves so many opposite qualities. Yes, most men love to see their best friend in a basement. For generally it is on such a basement that friendship is founded. All thinking persons know that ancient truth. Yet on the present occasion I assure you I am sincerely glad to see that you are not cast down. Tell me, are you never going to give up gambling? Damn the gambling! Yes, I should certainly have given it up were it not that you are losing. I thought so. You need not tell me any more. I know how things stand, for you have said that last in despair and therefore truthfully. Have you no other employment than gambling? No. None whatever. Astley gave me a searching glance. At that time it was ages since I had last looked at a paper or turned the pages of a book. You are growing blasé, he said. You have not only renounced life with its interests and social ties, but the duties of a citizen and a man. You have not only renounced the friends whom I know you to have had, and every aim in life but that of winning money, but you have also renounced your memory. Though I can remember you in the strong ardent period of your life, I feel persuaded that you have now forgotten every better feeling of that period. That your present dreams and aspirations of subsistence do not rise above pair, impair, rouge, noir, the twelve middle numbers, and so forth. Enough, Mr. Astley, I cried with some irritation, almost in anger. Kindly do not recall to me any more recollections, for I can remember things for myself. Only for a time have I put them out of my head. Only until I shall have rehabilitated myself am I keeping my memory cold. When that hour shall come you will see me arise from the dead. Then you will have to be here another ten years, he replied. Should I then be alive I will remind you, here on this very bench, of what I have just said. In fact, I will bet you a wager that I shall do so. Say no more, I interrupted impatiently, and to show you that I have not wholly forgotten the past may I inquire where Menema Salpalina is? If it was not you who bailed me out of prison it must have been she, yet never have I heard a word concerning her. No, I do not think it was she. At the present moment she is in Switzerland, and you will do me a favour by ceasing to ask me these questions about her. Astley said this with a firm and even an angry air. Which means that she has dealt you a serious wound? I burst out with an involuntary sneer. Menema Salpalina, he continued, is the best of all possible living beings. But I repeat that I shall thank you to cease questioning me about her. You never really knew her, and her name on your lips is an offence to my moral feeling. Indeed. On what subject, then, have I a better right to speak to you than on this? With it I bound up all your recollections and mine. However, do not be alarmed. I have no wish to probe too far into your private, your secret affairs. My interest in Menema Salpalina does not extend beyond her outward circumstances and surroundings. About them you could tell me in two words. Well, on condition that the matter shall end there, I will tell you that for a long time Menema Salpalina was ill, and still is so. My mother and sister entertained her for a while at their home in the north of England, and thereafter Menema Salpalina's grandmother, you remember the mad old woman, died, and left Menema Salpalina a personal legacy of seven thousand pounds sterling. That was about six months ago. And now Menema Sal is traveling with my sister's family, my sister having since married. Menema Sal's little brother and sister also benefited by the grandmother's will, and are now being educated in London. As for the general, he died in Paris last month of a stroke. Menema Salblanche did well by him for she succeeded in having transferred to herself all that he received from the grandmother. That, I think, concludes all that I have to tell. And de Griers? Is he too traveling in Switzerland? No. Nor do I know where he is. Also I warn you once more that you would better avoid such hints and ignoble suppositions, otherwise you will assuredly have to reckon with me. What, in spite of our old friendship? Yes, in spite of our old friendship. Then I beg your pardon a thousand times, Mr. Astley. I meant nothing offensive to Menema Salpalina, for I have nothing of which to accuse her. Moreover, the question of there being anything between this Frenchman and this Russian lady is not one which you and I need discuss, nor even attempt to understand. If, replied Astley, you do not care to hear their names coupled together, may I ask you what you mean by the expressions this Frenchman, this Russian lady, and there being anything between them? Why do you call them so particularly a Frenchman and a Russian lady? Ah, I see you are interested, Mr. Astley, but it is a long, long story and calls for a lengthy preface. At the same time the question is an important one, however ridiculous it may seem at the first glance. A Frenchman, Mr. Astley, is merely a fine figure of a man. With this you, as a Britisher, may not agree. With it I also, as a Russian, may not agree, out of envy. Yet possibly our good ladies are of another opinion. For instance, one may look upon Racine as a broken down, hobbledahoy, perfumed individual. One may even be unable to read him, and I too may think him the same, as well as in some respects a subject for ridicule. Yet about him, Mr. Astley, there is a certain charm, and above all things he is a great poet, though one might like to deny it. Yes, the Frenchman, the Parisian, as a national figure was in process of developing into a figure of elegance before we Russians had even ceased to be bears. The revolution bequeathed to the French nobility its heritage and now every whippersnapper of a Parisian may possess manners, methods of expression, and even thoughts that are above reproach in form, while all the time he himself may share in that form neither in initiative nor in intellect nor in soul. His manners and the rest having come to him through inheritance. Yes, taken by himself the Frenchman is frequently a fool of fools, and a villain of villains. Per contra, there is no one in the world more worthy of confidence and respect than this young Russian lady. Degrier might so mask his face and play apart as easily to overcome her heart, for he has an imposing figure, Mr. Astley, and this young lady might easily take that figure for his real self, for the natural form of his heart and soul, instead of the mere cloak with which heredity has dowered him. And even though it may offend you, I feel bound to say that the majority also of English people are uncouth and unrefined, whereas we Russian folk can recognize beauty wherever we see it and are always eager to cultivate the same. But to distinguish beauty of soul and personal originality there is needed far more independence and freedom than is possessed by our women, especially by our younger ladies. At all events they need more experience. For instance, this mademoiselle Paulina, pardon me, but the name has passed my lips and I cannot well recall it, is taking a very long time to make up her mind to prefer you to Mr. Degrier. She may respect you, she may become your friend, she may open out her heart to you, yet over that heart there will be reigning that loathsome villain, that mean and petty user, Degrier. This will be due to obstinacy and self-love, to the fact that Degrier once appeared to her in the transfigured guise of a marquee. Of a disenchanted and ruined liberal who was doing his best to help her family and the frivolous old general. And although these transactions of his have since been exposed, you will find that the exposure has made no impression upon her mind. Only give her the Degrier of former days and she will ask of you no more. The more she may detest the present Degrier, the more she will lament the Degrier of the past, even though the latter never existed but in her own imagination. You are a sugar-refiner, Mr. Astley, are you not? Yes, I belong to the well-known firm of Lovell and Company. Then see here. On the one hand you are a sugar-refiner, while on the other hand you are an Apollo Belvedere. But the two characters do not mix with one another. I, again, am not even a sugar-refiner. I am a mere roulette gambler who was also served as a lackey. Of this fact Mademoiselle Polina is probably well aware since she appears to have an excellent force of police at her disposal. You are saying this because you are feeling bitter, said Astley, with cold indifference, yet there is not the least originality in your words. I agree, but therein lies the horror of it all, that how trepidation, playing ever mean and farcical my accusations may be. They are none the less true. But I am only wasting words. Yes you are. For you are only talking nonsense, exclaimed my companion, his voice now trembling, and his eyes flashing fire. Are you aware, he continued, that wretched, ignoble, petty, unfortunate man though you are? It was at her request that I came to Hamburg in order to see you, and to have a long serious talk with you, and to report to her your feelings and thoughts and hopes. Yes, and your recollections of her, too? Indeed. Is that really so, I cried. The tears beginning to well for my eyes. Never before had this happened. Yes, poor unfortunate, continued Astley. She did love you. And I may tell you this now for the reason that now you are utterly lost. Even if I were also to tell you that she still loves you, you would none the less have to remain where you are. Yes, you have ruined yourself beyond redemption. Once upon a time you had a certain amount of talent, and you were of a lively disposition, and your good looks were not to be despised. You might even have been useful to your country, which needs men like you. Yet you remained here, and your life is now over. I am not blaming you for this. In my view all Russians resemble you, or are inclined to do so. If it is not roulette, then it is something else. The exceptions are very rare. Nor are you the first to learn what a task-master is yours. For roulette is not exclusively a Russian game. Hitherto you have honorably preferred to serve as a lackey rather than to act as a thief. But what the future may have in store for you I tremble to think. Now, good-bye. You are in want of money, I suppose, and take these ten, Louis-d'Or. More I shall not give you, for you would only gamble it away. Take care of these coins, and fare well. Once more, take care of them. No, Mr. Astley, after all that has been said, I— Take care of them, repeated my friend. I am certain you are still a gentleman, and therefore I give you the money as one gentleman may give money to another. Also, if I could be certain that you would leave both Hamburg and the gaming tables and return to your own country, I would give you a thousand pounds down to start life afresh. But I give you ten Louis-d'Or instead of a thousand pounds for the reason that at the present time a thousand pounds and ten Louis-d'Or will be all the same to you. You will lose the one as readily as you will the other. Take the money, therefore, and good-bye. Yes, I will take it if at the same time you will embrace me. With pleasure. So we parted on terms of sincere affection. But he was wrong. If I was hard and undiscerning as regards Polina and de Griers, he was hard and undiscerning as regards Russian people generally. Of myself I say nothing. Yet words are only words. I need to act. Above all things I need to think of Switzerland. Tomorrow, tomorrow. Ah, but if only I could set things right tomorrow and be born again, and rise again from the dead. But no, I cannot. Yet I must show her what I can do, even if she should do no more than learn that I can still play the man, it would be worth it. Today it is too late. But tomorrow. Yet I have a presentiment that things can never be otherwise. I have got fifteen Louis-d'Or in my possession, although I began with fifteen Goulden. If I were to play carefully at the start. But no, no, surely I am not such a fool as that. Yet why should I not rise from the dead? I should require at first but to go cautiously and patiently, and the rest would follow. I should require but to put a check upon my nature for one hour, and my fortunes would be changed entirely. Yes, my nature is my weak point. I have only to remember what happened to me some months ago at Rulettenberg, before my final ruin. What a notable instance that was of my capacity for resolution. On the occasion in question I had lost everything. Everything. Yet just as I was leaving the Casino I heard another Goulden give a rattle in my pocket. Perhaps I shall need it for a meal, I thought to myself. But a hundred paces further on I changed my mind and returned. At Goulden I staked upon monk, and there is something in the feeling that though one is alone and in a foreign land and far from one's own home and friends, and ignorant of whence one's next meal is to come, one is nevertheless staking one's very last coin. Well, I won the stake, and in twenty minutes had left the Casino with a hundred and seventy Goulden in my pocket. That is a fact, and it shows what a last remaining Goulden can do. But what if my heart had failed me, or I had shrunk from making up my mind? No. Tomorrow all shall be ended.