On the Chestnut Avenue, Astley already knows that Alexei has parted from the General, and he will not say how, only that he had occasion. At the Casino Café Alexei says he does not intend to go away. He had meant not to speak of Polina. Astley's look opens him, and for an hour and a half he talks, and talks hotter when the heat confuses the Englishman. He is sorry, afterwards, that he was too personal about the Frenchman. Astley asks whether he does right to speak of the Marquis and Polina when he knows nothing for certain. Alexei says he knows nothing. Astley says he has done wrong even to imagine it. Alexei shows him the note anyway, and says he could still kill De Griers.
Astley says the fear centres on Blanche. Three seasons ago she was not Mlle. de Cominges, there was no Widow de Cominges, and De Griers had not appeared. A friend of Astley's met the Marquis under another name, which he does not give. She arrived with an Italian prince, lost at trente et quarante, and woke to find the prince, the horses, and the carriage gone, and the hotel unpaid. As Mlle. Zelma she tore her clothes, and by evening she was on a Polish count's arm. Two days after that count vanished, she had lost her last coin, and she asked Baron Burmergelm to stake ten louis on the red. The Baroness complained. The authorities asked her not to enter the Casino again. A relative of Astley's drove her to Spa that night. She wants to be the General's wife so that invitation does not come a second time. She is not playing. She is lending, which pays better. Astley suspects the General is in her debt, and perhaps De Griers with her. Until the marriage, a scene with the Baron would be ruin, and Alexei is still one of that party.
Alexei strikes the table and asks why the warning never came. Astley says it would have done no good. Yesterday Blanche was riding with De Griers, and the General was on a roan behind them, though that morning he had said his legs hurt. Astley will not say whether Polina told him the Baron story. He reminds Alexei that the General's own younger children are neglected, and that if the tutor leaves, no one remains for them. Alexei says he understands at last why they care about the old woman in Moscow, who will not die. Once that death is settled, Astley says, the General will marry, Polina will be free, and De Griers will be repaid. He knows of nothing else. Alexei supplies the rest. The will gives her a dowry, and she will throw herself on the Frenchman's neck. They have left the café without noticing. A woman's voice calls Alexis Ivanovitch, in Russian. On the hotel verandah a lady sits among a pile of luggage, just in from the train. Good heavens, what a stupid fellow. His hands fall. His feet stick to the pavement.
