g over this
personage who was so intimately brought into connection with my life.
But, to business!--this man whom I have been describing to you invited
me to make a trip with him to a certain watering place, and, although I
saw quite clearly that I was to play the _role_ of soother, calmer,
tranquilizer, and _maitre-de-plaisirs_ to him, I was quite satisfied to
make this charming excursion amongst the mountains at his expense. At
the watering-place there was some high play going on--a bank of several
thousand thalers. My companion eyed the heaps of gold with greedy
simpers, paced up and down the room, circled nearer and nearer to the
play table, dived into his pockets, brought out a Friedrich-d'or
between his finger and thumb, dropped it back again--in a word, lusted
for money. Only too glad would he have been to pocket a little haul
from that heaped-up treasure, but he had no belief in his star. At last
he put an end to this droll contest between his longings and his fears,
which brought the perspiration in drops on to his forehead, by begging
me to stake for him, to which end he put five or six Friedrichs-d'or
into my hand. However, I would have nothing to do with the arrangement
until he assured me that he had not the least belief that he would have
any luck whatever, but looked upon the sum which he staked as so much
lost cash. What happened was what I did not in the least degree expect.
To me, the unpractised, inexperienced player, fortune was propitious.
I won for my friend in a very short time something like thirty
Friedrichs-d'or, which he put in his pocket with much glee. Next
evening he wanted me to play for him again, but to this hour I cannot
explain how the idea came into my head that I should then play on my
own account. I had not had the slightest intention of playing any more,
nay, rather, I was on the very point of going away, out of the room, to
take a walk outside, when my friend came up to me with his request.
When I had plainly told him in set terms that I meant to play on my own
account (but not till then), I walked calmly up to the table and pulled
out of my little waistcoat pocket two Friedrichs-d'or, the only two
which I possessed. If fortune had been propitious to me the night
before, this time it seemed as if some Spirit of Might, at whose
command luck stood, was in covenant with me. Whatever I did, whatever I
staked upon, everything turned up in my favour---in fact, just as I
said in my story