Withered Leaves Volume Iii Part 2

Ktchen asked her name. Beate gave her a card, upon which were written the words Beate Romani.

The little porteress sprang along the garden walk, in doing which it pleased her to sweep the bushes in the nearest beds, so that their boughs rattled, and threw out clouds of snow.

Beate became impatient, she had to wait a long time; she shook the bars of the railing like a wild beast in a cage.

At last Kthe returned and opened the garden gate. Beate followed her into the villa, they pa.s.sed through a garden lighted with red lamps, up a flight of steps, covered with a lovely carpet. Beate had to wait in an ante-room; deathlike silence reigned in both the adjoining chambers disturbed by no cry, by no c.h.i.n.k of money, as she had expected.

She looked at a picture on the wall; it represented a little church upon an island in a lake; on all sides, high, bare hills, which glowed in the radiant colouring of an Italian evening sky. She knew that church, and gazed at the picture with a shrug of her shoulders; it awoke a reminiscence, which at that moment was very unwelcome. And what mockery--the house of G.o.d in the antechamber of a gambling h.e.l.l!

"I have not time now, Beate," said Baluzzi curtly, as he entered through a side door, "but I will make you a proposal! I have visitors with me, whom I am amusing with various games, now we are at roulette!

Be my guest--_che ne dite?_"

"What shall I do there? Lose my good name?"

"_Puo darsi!_ That is not an article which I keep in stock, but neither do those seek it who come to me. However, we are silent. If the means are wanting, I am at your service."

"I do not play!"

"Remember Monaco, you were a fisher of gold, the money clung to your rod."

"I am not prepared for it to-day."

"Here you have money, you shall play for me! But come, come, I have not time to talk."

Beate was not at all disinclined to take a peep into the secrets of the gaming h.e.l.l; perhaps she might succeed in discovering something that could be useful to her friend; she allowed herself to be persuaded, laid cloak and hood aside, while Baluzzi said to her--

"You are doing me a slight favour, Beate! I need the fair s.e.x in my parties, my graces gain wrinkles! But you are quite a pretty child, such a little snake with red, fiery eyes, you are a _diavolessa_. I know you; _tanto meglio_!"

Meanwhile they had traversed two empty rooms, and entered a brilliantly lighted saloon, the windows of which were made doubly safe by shutters and curtains.

A loud buzz of conversation met the new comers, the game having been interrupted. Baluzzi seemed happy to have captured an Italian woman, and, with some pride, introduced Beate to those present as his countrywoman.

"Beate Romani--whence did this golden orange drop?" said an elderly lady, with a complexion yellow as a citron, to her young neighbour, in a low dress. The latter put her eyegla.s.s more firmly upon her pug nose, and replied--

"Little and impudent--a soubrette! The captain is talking to her already; she seems to be pert."

The Polish Captain of Lancers, a Herr von Mierowski, did, indeed, find pleasure in the wily Italian, whose smile was so charmingly reserved.

At the same time she let her eyes pa.s.s over the a.s.sembly, and especially examined the ladies; of these there were four: the mother, with the yellow tint in her face, and daughter, with the pug nose, also bore Polish names, consisting of a whole _plica polonica_ of letters.

Then there was another beauty in pink silk. That rose was a Berlin lady, of remarkable loquacity. Her face did not correspond with her toilet's language of flowers; she was pale as wax, and the pink ribbons flowed down from flaxen hair. The fourth lady was an unusually slender sylph, and Beate guessed correctly and quickly that she must be a late performer in some ballet, who, after having gradually retreated from the front row into the very last, had retired with honours from the field of renown. She was a French-woman, who pretended to have taken part in the Grand Opera, but who certainly had earned her questionable laurels in booths, or on similar stages.

The female company answered to that which is termed refuse at an annual fair--gay glazed ware, full of bubbles and cracks. Beate soon recognised this, but without being particularly contented with that result of her observations. She knew only too well that none of these Circes could have won Baluzzi's affections.

Several patrician sons were to be found amongst the gentlemen, who rather prided themselves upon trying their luck at the gaming table, and having discovered a miniature Homburg and Baden-Baden in the city of pure reason, at which were not wanting the Graces, who rustled their silks through the state rooms and along the terraces. A Russian prince, possessor of many serfs, was very impatient at the pause in the game, and walked angrily up and down, caring as little about the seductive beauties as if they had been painted in faded colours upon the walls.

The play began afresh; the roulette ball commenced its fatal course; people betted upon _rouge_ and _noir_ upon _pair_ and _impair_, here and there also considerable sums were placed upon single numbers, which Baluzzi swept off with great satisfaction. The little gaming table was arranged exactly after the pattern of the larger Rhenish banks, and here, despite the small dimensions, sums could be lost which were not at all proportionate to those dimensions. The young merchant sons rejoiced over the losses, as much as over their gains, because they could thus show that it mattered not at all to them how they sacrificed vast sums, the loss of which would have reduced others to a state of nervous agitation.

Most eager was the Pole; he belonged to those persons who have converted hazard into a system, and who lose themselves in deep calculations as to the chances of the game; he sat with a little writing tablet in his hand, and carefully noted the occurrences at the green board, laughed at by the free thinkers of the gaming table, who believe in chance only, just as others perceive but a game of hazard in the great comedy of the world, and ridicule the thinkers who strive to reduce it into a system. The mother and her flaxen-haired daughter also played devotedly, although they merely pledged small sums; at each gain or loss, a red streak suffused the yellow-bronzed complexion of the mother, and the waxen features of the daughter received a sudden crimson glow, which vanished again just as quickly.

Despite all absorption in the hieroglyphics of chance, Mierowski had leisure sufficient to observe Beate's mode of playing, which in its thoughtless recklessness pierced his heart. Owing to the lively interest which he felt in the dainty Italian, he could no longer look calmly on; he rose from the table, and whispered the necessary hints to her, not omitting to squeeze her hand in token of his friends.h.i.+p.

Beate followed these hints, and lost bravely, an event which seemed to confuse all rules of the gambling method. He was all the more eagerly bent upon proving the truth of his calculations by means of his own success.

The heaps of gold on his right hand increased; the Polish mamma entered into partners.h.i.+p with him already, and the flaxen-haired daughter was much inclined to follow her example, but her neighbour and protector, the son of the Kommerzienrath, in the _Kneiphf Lang-ga.s.se_, beneath whose pennon her _louis d'ors_ ventured out to sea, would never have given his consent; he looked askant at the augmenting treasures of the Pole. Baluzzi also became uneasy, because Mierowski steadily increased his stakes.

At last that state of feverish excitement set in which always precedes any great crisis. The battle only raged between the banker and Mierowski; all others as it were merely paid the entrance money with their small stakes, in order to be present at this performance. The victory suddenly seemed to incline to Baluzzi's side; twice following he swept in heavy amounts. But the Pole doubled and trebled the stake in order to break the bank, "_Le jeu est fait_," rang forth; with beating hearts the little circle awaited the result which the weird, rolling ball should bring. Beate had become pale as death, she knew that this ball would once more pierce another's heart.

"_Va banque_," rang the Pole's cry of victory; all sprang up in tumultuous excitement, so that the heaps of gold were scattered in all directions, and some _louis d'ors_ rolled upon the ground.

With apparent composure Baluzzi said--

"For to-day I acknowledge myself conquered, but the fortune of war changes."

At the same time he cast a venomous glance at the victorious Pole.

Beate took advantage of the tumult to retire unnoticed, and to await the Italian in a side room, so that her lengthy stay might not arouse observation.

Mierowski's glances sought her in vain, as he rushed away with his treasures; he was possessed with a violent pa.s.sion for little Beate, and was in a very liberal humour; he longed for another champagne orgie, and the Hebe for it had been found, and was lost.

Outside, he enquired of the half-witted porteress, for the little black lady from Italy.

Ktchen stared at him with astonished eyes, and several times repeated the word, "Gone!" with pantomimic gesture. In so doing she was obeying no injunction of Beate, but only her own instinct.

The whole party broke up noisily; the Polish women lighted their cigarettes, the pink Berlin lady disappeared in a grey sack-like winter cloak, which suited her flaxen hair better. The gentlemen eagerly discussed the last decisive battle, and were so excited and absorbed that Ktchen picked up several _louis d'ors_ at the garden gate, as perquisites.

In the house itself all had suddenly become silent; a tired lacquey snored upon the bench in the hall; no one remembered to extinguish the lamps and candles; a current of air blew in through the open doors; several lights flickered and went out; others burned down and filled the air with their odour.

Baluzzi hastened, in wild excitement, through the saloons, and at last found Beate upon a divan in the farthest room in the suite of apartments. Only one hanging lamp shed a dim light.

Beate sprang up from the sofa and a.s.sumed an att.i.tude prepared for defiance, for the Italian was greatly excited, and she knew that he would then recklessly indulge his wild nature.

"There you are--you would speak to me--_benissimo_. I too would speak to you; you are probably afraid of me, little cat? You have an evil conscience, yes, _per dio_, I might shake you to death, because you are to blame for the last hesitation."

At these words, he caught Beate with his powerful hand. But she drew out her dagger.

"Stand back! I expected ill-usage; but I am prepared to protect myself from it."

The Italian started back at the unexpected sight of the s.h.i.+ning steel.

"_Corpo del diavolo_," cried he, "the little witch has provided herself well, but if I were to struggle with you--"

"Just try it!"

"You are a little brigandess; it pleases me, it is Italian blood! But you are also an intriguer, a shameless intriguer; she follows your advice. I know it! Why was I obliged to go to the debtors' prison?

Could you not release me one day sooner? If it were not for the disturbance, your dagger should not deter me, and even if the little cat were to spring into my face, I should be able to settle her."

"Let us talk rationally, Baluzzi."

"With the dagger in your hand?"