gh, since she not
infrequently used me to execute commissions that were not only
troublesome, but risky, she ought, in my opinion, to have been frank in
ANY case. But, forsooth, it was not worth her while to trouble about MY
feelings--about the fact that I was uneasy, and, perhaps, thrice as put
about by her cares and misfortunes as she was herself!

For three weeks I had known of her intention to take to roulette. She
had even warned me that she would like me to play on her behalf, since
it was unbecoming for her to play in person; and, from the tone of her
words I had gathered that there was something on her mind besides a
mere desire to win money. As if money could matter to HER! No, she had
some end in view, and there were circumstances at which I could guess,
but which I did not know for certain. True, the slavery and abasement
in which she held me might have given me (such things often do so) the
power to question her with abrupt directness (seeing that, inasmuch as
I figured in her eyes as a mere slave and nonentity, she could not very
well have taken offence at any rude curiosity); but the fact was that,
though she let me question her, she never returned me a single answer,
and at times did not so much as notice me. That is how matters stood.

Next day there was a good deal of talk about a telegram which, four
days ago, had been sent to St. Petersburg, but to which there had come
no answer. The General was visibly disturbed and moody, for the matter
concerned his mother. The Frenchman, too, was excited, and after dinner
the whole party talked long and seriously together--the Frenchman's
tone being extraordinarily presumptuous and offhand to everybody. It
almost reminded one of the proverb, "Invite a man to your table, and
soon he will place his feet upon it." Even to Polina he was brusque
almost to the point of rudeness. Yet still he seemed glad to join us in
our walks in the Casino, or in our rides and drives about the town. I
had long been aware of certain circumstances which bound the General to
him; I had long been aware that in Russia they had hatched some scheme
together although I did not know whether the plot had come to anything,
or whether it was still only in the stage of being talked of. Likewise
I was aware, in part, of a family secret--namely, that, last year, the
Frenchman had bailed the General out of debt, and given him 30,000
roubles wherewith to pay his Treasury dues on retiring from the
serv