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Updated: May 23, 2025
"Do you wish me to settle with you?" he said to Hermann. "If you please," replied the latter. Chekalinsky drew from his pocket a number of banknotes and paid at once. Hermann took up his money and left the table. Naroumoff could not recover from his astonishment. Hermann drank a glass of lemonade and returned home. The next evening he again repaired to Chekalinsky's. The host was dealing.
"Stake!" said Hermann, writing some figures with chalk on the back of his card. "How much?" asked the banker, contracting the muscles of his eyes, "excuse me, I cannot see quite clearly." "Forty-seven thousand roubles," replied Hermann. At these words every head in the room turned suddenly round, and all eyes were fixed upon Hermann. "He has taken leave of his senses!" thought Naroumoff.
"Stake!" said Hermann, writing some figures with chalk on the back of his card. "How much?" asked the banker, contracting the muscles of his eyes, "excuse me, I cannot see quite clearly." "Forty-seven thousand roubles," replied Hermann. At these words every head in the room turned suddenly round, and all eyes were fixed upon Hermann. "He has taken leave of his senses!" thought Naroumoff.
"Who is the gentleman you wish to introduce to the Countess?" asked Lizaveta Ivanovna in a whisper. "Naroumoff. Do you know him?" "No. Is he a soldier or a civilian?" "A soldier." "Is he in the Engineers?" "No, in the Cavalry. What made you think that he was in the Engineers?" The young lady smiled, but made no reply.
"Who is the gentleman you wish to introduce to the Countess?" asked Lizaveta Ivanovna in a whisper. "Naroumoff. Do you know him?" "No. Is he a soldier or a civilian?" "A soldier." "Is he in the Engineers?" "No, in the Cavalry. What made you think that he was in the Engineers?" The young lady smiled, but made no reply.
"Will you allow me to take a card?" said Hermann, stretching out his hand from behind a stout gentleman who was punting. Chekalinsky smiled and bowed silently, as a sign of acquiescence. Naroumoff laughingly congratulated Hermann on his abjuration of that abstention from cards which he had practised for so long a period, and wished him a lucky beginning.
Naroumoff conducted Hermann to Chekalinsky's residence. They passed through a suite of rooms, filled with attentive domestics. The place was crowded. Generals and Privy Counsellors were playing at whist, young men were lolling carelessly upon the velvet-covered sofas, eating ices and smoking pipes.
Naroumoff introduced Hermann to him. Chekalinsky shook him by the hand in a friendly manner, requested him not to stand on ceremony, and then went on dealing. The game occupied some time. On the table lay more than thirty cards.
But hearing that Naroumoff was not an Engineer, she regretted that by her thoughtless question, she had betrayed her secret to the volatile Tomsky. Hermann was the son of a German who had become a naturalized Russian, and from whom he had inherited a small capital.
"Are there any Russian novels? Send me one, my dear, pray send me one!" "Good-by, grandmother. I am in a hurry.... Good-by, Lizaveta Ivanovna. What made you think that Naroumoff was in the Engineers?" And Tomsky left the boudoir. Lizaveta Ivanovna was left alone. She laid aside her work, and began to look out of the window.
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