Chapter 1 - Page 2

himself to a memorandum book. From it he saw that he
had 120 roubles of mine in his keeping.

"Let us calculate," he went on. "We must translate these
roubles into thalers. Here--take 100 thalers, as a round sum. The
rest will be safe in my hands."

In silence I took the money.

"You must not be offended at what I say," he continued. "You
are too touchy about these things. What I have said I have said
merely as a warning. To do so is no more than my right."

When returning home with the children before luncheon, I met a
cavalcade of our party riding to view some ruins. Two splendid
carriages, magnificently horsed, with Mlle. Blanche, Maria
Philipovna, and Polina Alexandrovna in one of them, and the
Frenchman, the Englishman, and the General in attendance on
horseback! The passers-by stopped to stare at them, for the
effect was splendid--the General could not have improved upon it.
I calculated that, with the 4000 francs which I had brought with
me, added to what my patrons seemed already to have acquired,
the party must be in possession of at least 7000 or 8000
francs--though that would be none too much for Mlle. Blanche,
who, with her mother and the Frenchman, was also lodging in our
hotel. The latter gentleman was called by the lacqueys
"Monsieur le Comte," and Mlle. Blanche's mother was dubbed
"Madame la Comtesse." Perhaps in very truth they WERE "Comte et
Comtesse."

I knew that "Monsieur le Comte" would take no notice of me
when we met at dinner, as also that the General would not dream
of introducing us, nor of recommending me to the "Comte."
However, the latter had lived awhile in Russia, and knew that
the person referred to as an "uchitel" is never looked upon as
a bird of fine feather. Of course, strictly speaking, he knew
me; but I was an uninvited guest at the luncheon--the General
had forgotten to arrange otherwise, or I should have been
dispatched to dine at the table d'hote. Nevertheless, I presented
myself in such guise that the General looked at me with a touch
of approval; and, though the good Maria Philipovna was for
showing me my place, the fact of my having previously met the
Englishman, Mr. Astley, saved me, and thenceforward I figured as
one of the company.

This strange Englishman I had met first in Prussia, where we had
happened to sit vis-a-vis in a railway train in which I was
travelling to overtake our party; while, later, I had run across
him in France, and again in Switzerland--twice within the space
of two weeks! To think, therefore, that I should suddenly
encounter him again here, in Roulettenberg! Never in my life had
I known a more retiring man, for he was shy to the pitch of
imbecility, yet well aware of the fact (for he