The Queen of Spades and other stories

idea of finding Hermann there; desiring, indeed, not to find him. One glance showed her that he was not there, and she gave thanks to Providence that he had missed the appointment. She sat down pen

cceeded in inducing her to make an appointment. She knew his name, and that was all. She had received a quantity of letters from him, but he

WED HER THAT HE

ished to revenge himself by making a show of indifference. With this noble object he had invited Lisaveta to take part in an interminable mazurka; but he teased her immensely about her partiality for

with a smile. "A friend of the very o

g

is man that is

me is H

but her hands and fe

ile of Napoleon, and the soul of Mephistopheles. I believe he has

what did this Mr. Hermann te

e says that in his place he would behave very differently. But I am quite sure that Hermann himself has desig

e has he

erhaps in the street;

ng to the custom of the mazurka, and asked Tomsk

so painfully excited the curios

was the Princess Pauline. During the rapid evolutions which the figure obliged them to make, there was

d he tried in vain to resume the conversation. But the mazurka was co

t sketched by Tomski had struck her as very exact; and with her romantic ideas, she saw in the rather ordinary countenance of her adorer something to fear and admire. She was now s

?" she said, tr

g

I have just left her," rep

ns! What are

aid, "that I am the

and remembered Tomski's words: "He has

w, and told everything. The y

make him happy? Poor child! she had been the blind instrument of a robber, of the murderer of her old benefactress. She wept bitterly in the agony of her repentance. Hermann watched her in silence; but neither the tears of the unhappy girl

" said Lisaveta, af

g

," replied Hermann coldly.

She wiped her eyes, drowned in tears, and raised them towards Hermann. He was standing close to the window, his arms crossed, with

might go out by the back stairs. But it would be necessary to

to the staircase,

Hermann, and gave him the necessary instructions. Hermann

ty. Then he entered the dark room, and, feeling behind the tapestry, found the little door[Pg 57] which, opened on to a staircase. As he went down it, strange ideas came into his head. "Going down this staircase," he said to himself, "some s

door, which his key opened, and he found hi

rka are reproduced in the cotillon of We