The Gambler

Chapter 4

However, I deduced from the scene one conclusion which seemed to me

reliable --namely, that in the flow of fortuitous chances there is,

if not a system, at all events a sort of order. This, of course,

is a very strange thing. For instance, after a dozen middle figures

there would always occur a dozen or so outer ones. Suppose the ball

stopped twice at a dozen outer figures; it would then pass to a dozen of

the first ones, and then, again, to a dozen of the middle

ciphers, and fall upon them three or four times, and then revert

to a dozen outers; whence, after another couple of rounds, the

ball would again pass to the first figures, strike upon them

once, and then return thrice to the middle series--continuing

thus for an hour and a half, or two hours. One, three, two: one,

three, two. It was all very curious. Again, for the whole of a

day or a morning the red would alternate with the black, but

almost without any order, and from moment to moment, so that

scarcely two consecutive rounds would end upon either the one or

the other. Yet, next day, or, perhaps, the next evening, the red

alone would turn up, and attain a run of over two score, and

continue so for quite a length of time--say, for a whole day. Of

these circumstances the majority were pointed out to me by Mr.

Astley, who stood by the gaming-table the whole morning, yet

never once staked in person.

For myself, I lost all that I had on me, and with great speed.

To begin with, I staked two hundred gulden on " even," and won.

Then I staked the same amount again, and won: and so on some two or

three times. At one moment I must have had in my hands--gathered there

within a space of five minutes--about 4000 gulden. That, of course,

was the proper moment for me to have departed, but there arose in me a

strange sensation as of a challenge to Fate--as of a wish to deal her a

blow on the cheek, and to put out my tongue at her. Accordingly

I set down the largest stake allowed by the rules--namely, 4000

gulden--and lost. Fired by this mishap, I pulled out all the

money left to me, staked it all on the same venture, and--again

lost! Then I rose from the table, feeling as though I were

stupefied. What had happened to me I did not know; but, before

luncheon I told Polina of my losses-- until which time I walked

about the Park.

At luncheon I was as excited as I had been at the meal three

days ago. Mlle. Blanche and the Frenchman were lunching with us,

and it appeared that the former had been to the Casino that

morning, and had seen my exploits there. So now she showed me

more attention when talking to me; while, for his part, the

Frenchman approached me, and asked outright if it had been my

own money that I had lost. He appeared to be suspicious as to

something being on foot between Polina and myself, but I merely

fired up, and replied that the money had been all my own.

At this the General seemed extremely surprised, and asked me

whence I had procured it; whereupon I replied that, though I

had begun only with 100 gulden, six or seven rounds had

increased my capital to 5000 or 6000 gulden, and that

subsequently I had lost the whole in two rounds.

All this, of course, was plausible enough. During my recital I

glanced at Polina, but nothing was to be discerned on her face.

However, she had allowed me to fire up without correcting me,

and from that I concluded that it was my cue to fire up, and to

conceal the fact that I had been playing on her behalf. "At all

events," I thought to myself, "she, in her turn, has promised

to give me an explanation to-night, and to reveal to me

something or another."

Although the General appeared to be taking stock of me, he said

nothing. Yet I could see uneasiness and annoyance in his face.

Perhaps his straitened circumstances made it hard for him to

have to hear of piles of gold passing through the hands of an

irresponsible fool like myself within the space of a quarter of

an hour. Now, I have an idea that, last night, he and the

Frenchman had a sharp encounter with one another. At all events

they closeted themselves together, and then had a long and vehement

discussion; after which the Frenchman departed in what appeared to be

a passion, but returned, early this morning, to renew the combat.

On hearing of my losses, however, he only remarked with a sharp,

and even a malicious, air that "a man ought to go more carefully."

Next, for some reason or another, he added that, "though a great many

Russians go in for gambling, they are no good at the game."

"I think that roulette was devised specially for Russians," I

retorted; and when the Frenchman smiled contemptuously at my

reply I further remarked that I was sure I was right; also that,

speaking of Russians in the capacity of gamblers, I had far more

blame for them than praise--of that he could be quite sure.

"Upon what do you base your opinion?" he inquired.

"Upon the fact that to the virtues and merits of the civilised

Westerner there has become historically added--though this is

not his chief point--a capacity for acquiring capital; whereas,

not only is the Russian incapable of acquiring capital, but also

he exhausts it wantonly and of sheer folly. None the less we

Russians often need money; wherefore, we are glad of, and greatly

devoted to, a method of acquisition like roulette--whereby, in a

couple of hours, one may grow rich without doing any work. This

method, I repeat, has a great attraction for us, but since we

play in wanton fashion, and without taking any trouble, we

almost invariably lose."

"To a certain extent that is true," assented the Frenchman with

a self-satisfied air.

"Oh no, it is not true," put in the General sternly. "And you,"

he added to me, "you ought to be ashamed of yourself for

traducing your own country!"

"I beg pardon," I said. "Yet it would be difficult to say

which is the worst of the two--Russian ineptitude or the German

method of growing rich through honest toil."

"What an extraordinary idea," cried the General.

"And what a RUSSIAN idea!" added the Frenchman.

I smiled, for I was rather glad to have a quarrel with them.

"I would rather live a wandering life in tents," I cried,

"than bow the knee to a German idol!"

"To WHAT idol?" exclaimed the General, now seriously angry.

"To the German method of heaping up riches. I have not been

here very long, but I can tell you that what I have seen and

verified makes my Tartar blood boil. Good Lord! I wish for no

virtues of that kind. Yesterday I went for a walk of about ten

versts; and, everywhere I found that things were even as we read

of them in good German picture-books -- that every house has its

'Fater,' who is horribly beneficent and extraordinarily

honourable. So honourable is he that it is dreadful to have

anything to do with him; and I cannot bear people of that sort.

Each such 'Fater' has his family, and in the evenings they

read improving books aloud. Over their roof-trees there murmur

elms and chestnuts; the sun has sunk to his rest; a stork is

roosting on the gable; and all is beautifully poetic and

touching. Do not be angry, General. Let me tell you something

that is even more touching than that. I can remember how, of an

evening, my own father, now dead, used to sit under the lime

trees in his little garden, and to read books aloud to myself

and my mother. Yes, I know how things ought to be done. Yet

every German family is bound to slavery and to submission to its

'Fater.' They work like oxen, and amass wealth like Jews.

Suppose the 'Fater' has put by a certain number of gulden

which he hands over to his eldest son, in order that the said

son may acquire a trade or a small plot of land. Well, one

result is to deprive the daughter of a dowry, and so leave her

among the unwedded. For the same reason, the parents will have

to sell the younger son into bondage or the ranks of the army,

in order that he may earn more towards the family capital. Yes,

such things ARE done, for I have been making inquiries on the

subject. It is all done out of sheer rectitude--out of a

rectitude which is magnified to the point of the younger son

believing that he has been RIGHTLY sold, and that it is simply

idyllic for the victim to rejoice when he is made over into

pledge. What more have I to tell? Well, this--that matters bear

just as hardly upon the eldest son. Perhaps he has his Gretchen

to whom his heart is bound; but he cannot marry her, for the

reason that he has not yet amassed sufficient gulden. So, the

pair wait on in a mood of sincere and virtuous expectation, and

smilingly deposit themselves in pawn the while. Gretchen's

cheeks grow sunken, and she begins to wither; until at last,

after some twenty years, their substance has multiplied, and

sufficient gulden have been honourably and virtuously

accumulated. Then the 'Fater' blesses his forty-year-old heir and

the thirty-five-year-old Gretchen with the sunken bosom and the

scarlet nose; after which he bursts, into tears, reads the pair

a lesson on morality, and dies. In turn the eldest son becomes a

virtuous 'Fater,' and the old story begins again. In fifty or

sixty years' time the grandson of the original 'Fater' will

have amassed a considerable sum; and that sum he will hand over

to, his son, and the latter to HIS son, and so on for several

generations; until at length there will issue a Baron

Rothschild, or a 'Hoppe and Company,' or the devil knows what!

Is it not a beautiful spectacle--the spectacle of a century or

two of inherited labour, patience, intellect, rectitude,

character, perseverance, and calculation, with a stork sitting

on the roof above it all? What is more; they think there can

never be anything better than this; wherefore, from their point

of view they begin to judge the rest of the world, and to

censure all who are at fault--that is to say, who are not exactly

like themselves. Yes, there you have it in a nutshell. For my

own part, I would rather grow fat after the Russian manner, or

squander my whole substance at roulette. I have no wish to be

'Hoppe and Company' at the end of five generations. I want the

money for MYSELF, for in no way do I look upon my personality

as necessary to, or meet to be given over to, capital. I may be

wrong, but there you have it. Those are MY views."

"How far you may be right in what you have said I do not know,"

remarked the General moodily; "but I DO know that you are

becoming an insufferable farceur whenever you are given the

least chance."

As usual, he left his sentence unfinished. Indeed, whenever he

embarked upon anything that in the least exceeded the limits of

daily small-talk, he left unfinished what he was saying. The

Frenchman had listened to me contemptuously, with a slight

protruding of his eyes; but, he could not have understood very

much of my harangue. As for Polina, she had looked on with

serene indifference. She seemed to have heard neither my voice

nor any other during the progress of the meal.