LITMIR.BIZ

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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 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!”

      Arrived at the hotel, she called for tea, and then gave orders for her luggage to be packed.

      “We are off again,” she announced.

      “But whither, Madame?” inquired Martha.

      “What business is that of YOURS? Let the cricket stick to its hearth. [The Russian form of “Mind your own business.”] Potapitch, have everything packed, for we are returning to Moscow at once. I have fooled away fifteen thousand roubles.”

      “Fifteen thousand roubles, good mistress? My God!” And Potapitch spat upon his hands — probably to show that he was ready to serve her in any way he could.

      “Now then, you fool! At once you begin with your weeping and wailing! Be quiet, and pack. Also, run downstairs, and get my hotel bill.”

      “The next train leaves at 9:30, Madame,” I interposed, with a view to checking her agitation.

      “And what is the time now?”

      “Half-past eight.”

      “How vexing! But, never mind. Alexis Ivanovitch, I have not a kopeck left; I have but these two bank notes. Please run to the office and get them changed. Otherwise I shall have nothing to travel with.”

      Departing on her errand, I returned half an hour later to find the whole party gathered in her rooms. It appeared that the news of her impending departure for Moscow had thrown the conspirators into consternation even greater than her losses had done. For, said they, even if her departure should save her fortune, what will become of the General later? And who is to repay De Griers? Clearly Mlle. Blanche would never consent to wait until the Grandmother was dead, but would at once elope with the Prince or someone else. So they had all gathered together — endeavouring to calm and dissuade the Grandmother. Only Polina was absent. For her part the Grandmother had nothing for the party but abuse.

      “Away with you, you rascals!” she was shouting. “What have my affairs to do with you? Why, in particular, do you” — here she indicated De Griers— “come sneaking here with your goat’s beard? And what do YOU” — here she turned to Mlle. Blanche “want of me? What are YOU finicking for?”

      “Diantre!” muttered Mlle. under her breath, but her eyes were flashing. Then all at once she burst into a laugh and left the room — crying to the General as she did so: “Elle vivra cent ans!”

      “So you have been counting upon my death, have you?” fumed the old lady. “Away with you! Clear them out of the room, Alexis Ivanovitch. What business is it of THEIRS? It is not THEIR money that I have been squandering, but my own.”

      The General shrugged his shoulders, bowed, and withdrew, with De Griers behind him.

      “Call Prascovia,” commanded the Grandmother, and in five minutes Martha reappeared with Polina, who had been sitting with the children in her own room (having purposely determined not to leave it that day). Her face looked grave and careworn.

      “Prascovia,” began the Grandmother, “is what I have just heard through a side wind true — namely, that this fool of a stepfather of yours is going to marry that silly whirligig of a Frenchwoman — that actress, or something worse? Tell me, is it true?”

      “I do not know FOR CERTAIN, Grandmamma,” replied Polina; “but from Mlle. Blanche’s account (for she does not appear to think it necessary to conceal anything) I conclude that—”

      “You need not say any more,” interrupted the Grandmother energetically. “I understand the situation. I always thought we should get something like this from him, for I always looked upon him as a futile, frivolous fellow who gave himself unconscionable airs on the fact of his being a general (though he only became one because he retired as a colonel). Yes, I know all about the sending of the telegrams to inquire whether ‘the old woman is likely to turn up her toes soon.’ Ah, they were looking for the legacies! Without money that wretched woman (what is her name? — Oh, De Cominges) would never dream of accepting the General and his false teeth — no, not even for him to be her lacquey — since she herself, they say, possesses a pile of money, and lends it on interest, and makes a good thing out of it. However, it is not you, Prascovia, that I am blaming; it was not you who sent those telegrams. Nor, for that matter, do I wish to recall old scores. True, I know that you are a vixen by nature — that you are a wasp which will sting one if one touches it — yet, my heart is sore for you, for I loved your mother, Katerina. Now, will you leave everything here, and come away with me? Otherwise, I do not know what is to become of you, and it is not right that you should continue living with these people. Nay,” she interposed, the moment that Polina attempted to speak, “I have not yet finished. I ask of you nothing in return. My house in Moscow is, as you know, large enough for a palace, and you could occupy a whole floor of it if you liked, and keep away from me for weeks together. Will you come with me or will you not?”

      “First of all, let me ask of YOU,” replied Polina, “whether you are intending to depart at once?”

      “What? You suppose me to be jesting? I have said that I am going, and I AM going. Today I have squandered fifteen thousand roubles at that accursed roulette of yours, and though, five years ago, I promised the people of a certain suburb of Moscow to build them a stone church in place of a wooden one, I have been fooling away my money here! However, I am going back now to build my church.”

      “But what about the waters, Grandmamma? Surely you came here to take the waters?”

      “You and your waters! Do not anger me, Prascovia. Surely you are trying to? Say, then: will you, or will you not, come with me?”

      “Grandmamma,” Polina replied with deep feeling, “I am very, very grateful to you for the shelter which you have so kindly offered me. Also, to a certain extent you have guessed my position aright, and I am beholden to you to such an extent that it may be that I will come and live with you, and that very soon; yet there are important reasons why — why I cannot make up my mind just yet. If you would let me have, say, a couple of weeks to decide in — ?”

      “You mean that you are NOT coming?”

      “I mean only that I cannot come just yet. At all events, I could not well leave my little brother and sister here, since, since — if I were to leave them — they would be abandoned altogether. But if, Grandmamma, you would take the little ones AND myself, then, of course, I could come with you, and would do all I could to serve you” (this she said with great earnestness). “Only, without the little ones I CANNOT come.”

      “Do not make a fuss” (as a matter of fact Polina never at any time either fussed or wept). “The Great Foster — Father [Translated literally — The Great Poulterer] can find for all his chicks a place. You are not coming without the children? But see here, Prascovia. I wish you well, and nothing but well: yet I have divined the reason why you will not come. Yes, I know all, Prascovia. That Frenchman will never bring you good of any sort.”

      Polina coloured hotly, and even I started. “For,” thought I to myself, “every

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