Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/385

 him a miser agreed in saying that he was mad. The inexplicable continuance of his luck made him contract the habit, and soon after the passion for play. He became in a short time infatuated.

One evening, as the banker had just finished dealing, Seigfried, on raising his eyes, saw a middle aged man opposite, who fixed upon him a cold and serious look; the impression of this look became stronger every time our hero ceased to follow the game; the eye of the unknown was always there, wild and penetrating as a dagger.

This strange personage did not leave his place to go out of the room, until all of the gold on the table had disappeared.

The following day he came and seated himself in the same place, and fixed the same look upon Seigfried. It was a diabolical fascination from which the young baron could not free himself. Finally, tired of this persistance, he arose and said to him:—"Sir, I beg that you will choose some other place or cease to look at me; you interrupt my play." The unknown smiled sadly, saluted Siegfried, and went out of the room without answering.

But the following night, Siegfried found him again opposite, standing in the same attitude that he ordinarily took; this time his eye had in it something more penetrating.

Siegfried felt the color come into his face; the pertinacity of a man whom he did not know, and with whom he did not care to become acquainted, appeared insulting to him.

"Sir," said he to him in such a manner as to be heard by all present, "if it pleases you to look at me thus, it is not pleasant for me to suffer it any longer."

And, saying this, by an imperious gesture, he pointed to the door of the saloon, as if to intimate to his unknown enemy the order to go out.

The stranger smiled sadly as at first, saluted him without saying a word, and retired.

The excitement produced by the play and the winnings, added to several warm libations, made Siegfried unable to