Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/391

 then he disappeared for a time; but he was soon seen again, upright in his place, and well provided with fresh pieces of gold, which successively went to join the first.

At the end of the play, chevalier Menars stopped the player who had laughed at the old man, and reproached him with compromising the calmness and dignity which ought to reign in the house.

"What!" answered the gamester, "you do not yet know old Francesco Vertua; otherwise you would have found our jests quite natural; know, my dear friend, that this old man Vertua, born at Naples, but who for fifteen years has worried the streets of Paris, is the most rascally usurer on the face of the earth, and I know a thousand individuals whose substance he has swallowed up. It is but just that in his turn he should know by experience what the misery is to which he has reduced so many families. his is the first time that this individual pushes himself into a gambling house; but as the followers of Satan doubt nothing, the idea has come into his head to break your bank, and, without counting chances, he has persisted in losing his last piece of money. This time, at least, I hope that he will not be seen again, and that he will seek in some other place the means of repairing his fortune."

Nevertheless, the following night, Vertua reappeared, played, and lost more than he had the night before. This new reverse of fortune did not diminish his immovability; a smile of bitter irony only curled his lip. Each of the following nights still saw him at his post, and he lost unceasingly; it was calculated that at the end of the week he had passed over to the banker thirty thousand louis. Several days then elapsed without his being seen; but one evening he came, pale and in disorder; he watched the game for some time without speaking, but with sparkling eyes, Then, at the moment when Menars was about to make a new deal, Vertua made his way to his side, and whispered these words hoarsely in his ear:—"Sir, I possess in Rue St. Honoré, a richly furnished house; I have gold plate and jewels to the amount of eighty thousand dollars. Will you take the stake?"