She sends Potapitch and Martha home. The Baron and Baroness pass on their way to the Casino, and she only says Ah. Her chair is set beside the croupier. Twelve ten-gulden pieces on zero, again and again. A hundred and forty-four are gone, and zero may not come before night. A thousand gulden on the red comes back. To the devil with that zero. Four thousand gulden on the red. She sits bolt upright. Zero takes the four thousand, the number she had been begging for all morning. It is your fault, she tells Alexei, for making her stop staking on it. Go. Then, hastily, stay. It is I who was the fool. He will not advise her, because she will only blame him. Stake another four thousand. She cannot rest until the losses are won back. They win once. Then twelve thousand gulden of her own are gone. In the satchel there are only bonds. Take me to the money-changer.
On the avenue the General, De Griers, and Blanche meet them. Polina and Astley are not there. No time to stop. Alexei says she has lost the morning's winnings and twelve thousand gulden besides, and is going to change the bonds. Stop her, the General whispers. You stop her yourself. There is a view, and trees, and milk on the fresh grass. Have done with your milk. She calls the clerks thieves, takes twelve thousand florins in gold, and waves the account aside. Once she has begun she cannot be held. De Griers leans in with figures, and she lets him have one stake. Zero. Away with you, you infernal Frenchman. An hour later everything in hand is gone. What a silly old fool I am. Pack. We are returning to Moscow. I have fooled away fifteen thousand roubles. The train is at half-past nine. It is half-past eight.
He comes back and the party is in her rooms, more frightened that she is leaving than that she has lost. If she goes, who will repay De Griers, and Blanche will not wait. Away with you. It is not their money. Blanche laughs, Elle vivra cent ans, and goes out. So you have been counting on my death. She sends for Polina, who does not know for certain whether the General will marry the Frenchwoman. Come to Moscow. The house is large enough for a palace. Polina cannot come yet, and not without the little brother and sister. The Frenchman, the grandmother says, will never bring you good. Polina flushes. Alexei starts. Everyone seems to know, or he is the only one who does not. She kisses Polina's cheek and will not let her stay, and she puts five hundred gulden into Alexei's hands. He lies on the bed an hour. Potapitch knocks. She cannot rest. The train is in ten minutes. She has a roll of notes. Walk on ahead. He will not go. He will neither witness the play nor join it. He lays the five hundred on the little table her chair is passing. What folly, she shouts, and Potapitch must come. Later Potapitch says she lost all that had been changed, about ten thousand roubles, through the Pole she had given money that afternoon. She caught him twice, and pulled his hair. Then water, and her prayers, and sleep. She had said they were returning to Moscow. She is asleep, and the money from the bonds is already gone.
