Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 5.djvu/242

220 in great spirits, while the losers looked gloomily on. But by degrees, with the help of champagne, the talk became animated and everyone joined in.

"How did you make out to-day, Sourine?" asked the master of the house of one of his friends.

"I have lost as usual; I really have no luck at all. You know how cool I am at cards; I never change my way of playing and I never win."

"Do you mean to say that through the whole evening, you never once put on the red? Well, such persistence is beyond me."

"What do you think of Hermann?" said one of the guests, pointing to a young officer of Engineers. "Never in his life has that fellow staked anything on a card, and still he can sit and watch us playing till five in the morning."

"The game interests me," said Hermann, "but I am not in a position to risk my small means on the chance of making more than I really need."

"Hermann is a German and consequently economical," cried Tomski; "but speaking of cards, one who is really astonishing is my grandmother, the Countess Anna Fedotovna."

"Why so?" asked his friends.