![]() ![]() To begin with, sixty years ago my grandmother went to Paris, where she was all the fashion. “I don’t see anything very striking in the fact that a woman of eighty refuses to gamble,” objected Naroumov. “I can’t understand why my grandmother never gambles.” “But the person I can’t quite understand is my grandmother, the Countess Anna Fedorovna.” “Herman is a German, therefore economical that explains it,” said Tomsky. ![]() “Play interests me greatly,” replied the person addressed, “but I hardly care to sacrifice the necessaries of life for uncertain superfluities.” “Here you are with the rest of us at five o’clock in the morning, and you have neither played nor bet all night.” “How is it, Herman, that you never touch a card?” remarked one of the men, addressing a young officer of the Engineering Corps. “Well, Sourine?” said the host inquiringly. ![]() Under the influence of the good wine, however, the conversation then became general. The winners ate with relish the losers, on the contrary, pushed back their plates and sat brooding gloomily. At five in the morning breakfast was served to the weary players. At the house of Naroumov, a cavalry officer, the long winter night had been passed in gambling. ![]()
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