Pikovaya dama (1982) - full transcript
LENFILM
Alexander Sergeyevich
PUSHKIN
THE QUEEN OF SPADES
Narrator
Alla DEMIDOVA
The Queen of Spades
denotes secret ill-will.
From the latest Fortune-Teller.
Chapter I
In the cold, rain, and sleet
They together would meet
To play.
Lord, forgive them their sin:
Gambling, late to win
They'd stay.
They won and they lost,
And put down the cost
In chalk.
So on cold autumn days
They wasted no time
In talk.
There was a card party
at the rooms of Narumov
of the Horse Guards.
The winter night passed quickly;
they had supper
as late as 5 am.
Those who had won,
ate with a good appetite;
the others sat staring absently
at their empty plates.
When the champagne appeared,
however, the conversation
became more animated,
and all took a part in it.
And how did you fare, Surin?
asked the host.
Oh, I lost, as usual.
I must confess
that I am unlucky:
I play mirandole,
I always keep cool,
I never allow anything to put
me out, and yet I always lose!
And you did not
once allow yourself
to be tempted
to back the red?...
Your firmness astonishes me.
But what do you think
of Hermann?
said one of the guests,
pointing to a young Engineer:
he has never had a card
in his hand in his life,
he has never in,
his life laid a wager,
and yet he sits here till
five o'clock in the morning
watching our play.
Play interests me very much,
said Hermann:
but I am not in the position
to sacrifice the necessary
in the hope of winning
the superfluous.
Hermann is a German:
he is economical -
that is all!
observed Tomsky.
But if there is one person
that I cannot understand,
it is my grandmother,
the Countess Anna Fedotovna.
How so?
I cannot understand,
how it is that my grandmother
does not punt.
What is there remarkable about
an old lady of eighty not punting?
Then you do not know
the reason why?
No, really; haven't
the faintest idea.
Oh! then listen.
About sixty years ago,
my grandmother went to Paris,
where she created
quite a sensation.
People used to run after her to catch
a glimpse of the 'Muscovite Venus.'
Richelieu made love to her,
and my grandmother maintains that
he almost blew out his brains
in consequence of her cruelty.
At that time ladies
used to play at faro.
On one occasion at the Court,
she lost a very
considerable sum
to the Duke of Orleans.
On returning home,
my grandmother removed the patches
from her face, took off her hoops,
informed my grandfather of her loss at the
gaming-table, and ordered him to pay the money.
My deceased grandfather, as far as I remember,
was a sort of house-steward to my grandmother.
He dreaded her like fire;
but, on hearing of such a heavy loss,
he almost went out of his mind;
brought the counts,
and told her that she had
spent half a million francs,
they had neither their Moscow
and nor Saratov estates Paris,
refused to pay the debt.
My grandmother gave him a box on the ear
and slept by herself as a sign of her displeasure.
The next day
she sent for her husband,
hoping that this domestic punishment
had produced an effect upon him,
but she found him inflexible.
For the first time in her life,
she entered into reasonings
and explanations with him,
thinking to be able to convince him
by pointing out to him that
there are debts and debts,
and that there is a great difference
between a Prince and a coachmaker.
But it was all in vain, my grandfather
still remained obdurate.
My grandmother did not
know what to do.
She had shortly before become
acquainted with a very remarkable man.
You have heard
of Count St. Germain,
about whom so many
marvellous stories are told.
You know that he represented
himself as the Wandering Jew,
as the discoverer of the elixir of life,
of the philosopher's stone, and so forth.
Some laughed at him
as a charlatan;
but Casanova, in his memoirs,
says that he was a spy.
But be that as it may, St. Germain,
in spite of the mystery surrounding him,
was a very fascinating person,
and was much sought after in
the best circles of society.
Even to this day my grandmother retains
an affectionate recollection of him,
and becomes quite angry if any one
speaks disrespectfully of him.
My grandmother knew that St. Germain
had large sums of money at his disposal.
She resolved to have
recourse to him,
and she wrote a letter to him asking
him to come to her without delay.
The queer old man immediately waited upon
her and found her overwhelmed with grief.
She described to him in the blackest
colours the barbarity of her husband,
and ended by declaring that
her whole hope depended
upon his friendship and amiability.
St. Germain reflected.
'I could advance you
the sum you want,' said he;
'but I know that you
would not rest easy
until you had paid me back,
and I should not like to bring
fresh troubles upon you.
But there is another way
of getting out of your difficulty:
you can win back your money.'
'But, my dear Count,'
replied my grandmother,
'I tell you that I haven't
any money left.'
'Money is not necessary,'
replied St. Germain:
'be pleased to listen to me.'
Then he revealed to her a secret,
for which each of us
would give a good deal...
The young officers listened
with increased attention.
Tomsky lit his pipe, puffed away
for a moment and then continued:
That same evening
my grandmother went to Versailles
to the au jeu de la Reine
The Duke of Orleans
kept the bank;
my grandmother excused herself in
an off-hand manner for not having yet
paid her debt, by inventing
some little story,
and then began
to play against him.
She chose three cards
and played them
one after the other:
all three won sonika,
and my grandmother recovered
every farthing that she had lost.
Mere chance!
A tale!
Perhaps they were marked cards!
I do not think so.
What! you have a grandmother who knows
how to hit upon three lucky cards in succession,
and you have never yet succeeded
in getting the secret of it out of her?
That's the deuce of it!
she had four sons,
one of whom was my father;
all four were determined gamblers,
and yet not to one of them
did she ever reveal her secret,
although it would not have been
a bad thing either for them or for me.
But this is what I heard from
my uncle, Count Ivan Ilyich,
and he assured me, on
his honour, that it was true.
The late Chaplitzky -
the same who died in poverty after
having squandered millions -
once lost, in his youth, about
three hundred thousand roubles -
to Zorich, if I remember rightly.
He was in despair.
My grandmother, who was always very
severe upon the extravagance of young men,
took pity, however, upon Chaplitzky.
She gave him three cards,
telling him to play them one after the other,
at the same time exacting from him
a solemn promise that he would never
play at cards again as long as he lived.
Chaplitzky then went to his victorious
opponent, and they began a fresh game.
On the first card he staked
fifty thousand rubles
and won sonika;
he doubled the stake and won again,
till at last, by pursuing the same tactics,
he won back more than he had lost...
But it is time to go to bed:
it is a quarter to six already.
And indeed it was already
beginning to dawn:
the young men emptied
their glasses
and then took leave of each other.
Chapter II
It appears, Monsieur, that you
clearly prefer the maids.
Would you wish me otherwise, Madame?
They are much fresher.
A Society Conversation.
The old Countess was seated in her
dressing-room in front of her looking-glass.
Three waiting maids
stood around her.
One held a small pot of rouge,
another a box of hair-pins,
and the third a tall can
with bright red ribbons.
The Countess had no longer
the slightest pretensions to beauty,
but she still preserved the
habits of her youth,
dressed in strict accordance with
the fashion of seventy years before,
and made as long and as careful
a toilette as she would have done
sixty years previously.
Near the window,
at an embroidery frame,
sat a young lady, her ward.
Good morning, grandmamma,
said a young officer,
entering the room.
Bonjour, Mademoiselle Lise.
I want to ask you something.
- What is it, Paul?
I want you to let me introduce
one of my friends to you,
and to allow me to bring
him to the ball on Friday.
Bring him direct to the ball
and introduce him to me there.
Were you at... yesterday?
Yes; everything went off
very pleasantly,
and dancing was kept up
until five o'clock.
How charming Yeletzkaya was!
But, my dear, what is there
charming about her?
Isn't she like her grandmother,
the Princess Daria Petrovna?
Incidentally:
she must have grown old,
the Princess Daria Petrovna.
How do you mean, old?
she died seven years ago.
The young lady gave a sign
to the young man.
He remembered that the Countess
had never to been told about their death
and he bit his lips.
But the old Countess
heard the news
with the greatest indifference.
Dead!
and I did not know it.
We were appointed maids
of honour at the same time,
and when we were
presented to the Empress...
And the Countess for the hundredth time
related to her grandson one of her anecdotes.
Then she said,
Come, Paul, help me to get up.
Lizanka, where is my snuff-box?
And the Countess with her three maids
went behind a screen to finish her toilette.
Tomsky was left alone
with the young lady.
Who is the gentleman you wish
to introduce to the Countess?
Narumov.
Do you know him?
No.
- Is he a soldier or a civilian?
- A soldier.
- Is he in the Engineers?
- No, in the Cavalry.
What made you think
that he was in the Engineers?
The young lady smiled,
but made no reply.
Paul!
send me some new novel, only pray
don't let it be one of the present day style.
What do you mean, grandmother?
That is, a novel, in which the hero strangles
neither his father nor his mother,
and in which there are
no drowned bodies.
I have a great horror
of drowned persons.
There are no such novels nowadays.
Would you like a Russian one?
Are there any Russian novels?
Send me one, my dear,
pray send me one!
Good-bye, grandmother:
I am in a hurry...
Good-bye, Lizaveta Ivanovna.
What made you think that
Narumov was in the Engineers?
And Tomsky left the boudoir.
Lizaveta Ivanovna was left alone:
she laid aside her work and
began to look out of the window.
A few moments afterwards, at a corner
house on the other side of the street,
a young officer appeared.
A deep blush covered
her cheeks;
she took up her work again
and bent her head down
over the frame.
At the same moment the Countess
returned completely dressed.
Order the carriage, Lizaveta,
we will go out for a drive.
What is the matter with you,
my child, are you deaf?
Order the carriage
to be got ready at once.
I will do so this moment.
Madam! Some books from
Paul Aleksandrovich for you!
Tell him that I am
much obliged to him.
Lizaveta! Lizaveta!
Where are you running to?
I am going to dress.
There is plenty of time,
my dear.
Sit down here.
Open the first volume
and read to me aloud.
Her companion took the book
and read a few lines.
Louder!
What is the matter with you,
my child?
Have you lost your voice?
Wait -
give me that footstool -
a little nearer -
that will do.
Lizaveta read two more pages.
The Countess yawned.
Put the book down,
what a lot of nonsense!
Send it back to Prince Paul
with my thanks...
But where is the carriage?
The carriage is ready.
How is it that you are not dressed?
I must always wait for you.
It is intolerable, my dear!
How is it that you cannot
hear me when I ring for you?
Tell Lizaveta Ivanovna
that I am waiting for her..
At last you are here!
But why such an elaborate toilette?
Whom do you intend to captivate?
What sort of weather is it?
It seems rather windy.
No, your Ladyship,
it is very calm.
You never think of what
you are talking about.
Open the window.
So it is: windy and bitterly cold.
Unharness the horses.
Lizaveta, we won't go out - there was
no need for you to deck yourself like that.
"What a life is mine!"
thought Lizaveta Ivanovna.
And, in truth, Lizaveta Ivanovna
was a very unfortunate creature.
"The bread of the stranger
is bitter," says Dante,
"and his staircase hard to climb."
But who can know what the bitterness
of dependence is so well
as the poor companion
of an old lady of quality?
The Countess had by
no means a bad heart,
bat she was capricious, like a woman
who had been spoilt by the world,
as well as being avaricious
and egotistical, like all old people
who have seen their best days,
and whose thoughts are with
the past and not the present.
She participated in all
the vanities of the great world,
went to balls, where she sat in a corner,
painted and dressed in old-fashioned style,
like a deformed but indispensable
ornament of the ball-room;
all the guests on entering approached
her and made a profound bow,
as if in accordance
with a set ceremony,
but after that nobody took
any further notice of her.
She received the whole
town at her house, although...
she could no longer recognise
the faces of people.
Her numerous domestics,
growing fat and old in her
ante-chamber and servants' hall,
did just as they liked,
and vied with each other
in robbing the aged Countess..
Lizaveta Ivanovna
was the martyr of the household.
She made tea,
and was reproached
with using too much sugar;
she read novels aloud to the Countess,
and the faults of the author
were visited upon her head;
she accompanied
the Countess in her walks,
and was held answerable for the weather
or the state of the pavement.
A salary was attached to the post,
but she very rarely received it,
although she was expected
to dress like everybody else,
that is to say,
like very few indeed.
In society she played
the most pitiable role.
Everybody knew her,
and nobody paid her any attention.
At balls she danced only
when a partner was wanted,
and ladies would only
take hold of her arm
when it was necessary to lead her out
of the room to attend to their dresses.
She was very self-conscious,
and felt her position keenly,
and she looked about her
with impatience for a deliverer
to come to her rescue;
but the young men,
calculating in their giddiness,
honoured her with
but very little attention,
although Lizaveta Ivanovna was
a hundred times prettier than
the bare-faced and cold-hearted marriageable
girls around whom they hovered.
Many a time
did she quietly slink away from
the glittering but wearisome drawing-room,
to go and cry in her
own poor little room,
in which stood a screen,
a chest of drawers,
a looking-glass
and a painted bedstead,
and where a tallow candle burnt
feebly in a copper candle-stick.
One morning -
this was about two days after the evening
party described at the beginning of this story,
and a week previous to the scene
at which we have just assisted -
One morning Lizaveta Ivanovna was seated
near the window at her embroidery frame,
when, happening to look out into the street,
she caught sight of a young Engineer officer,
standing motionless with his eyes
fixed upon her window.
She lowered her head and
went on again with her work.
About five minutes afterwards
she looked out again -
the young officer was still
standing in the same place.
Not being in the habit of
coquetting with passing officers,
she did not continue
to gaze out into the street,
but went on sewing for a couple
of hours, without raising her head.
Dinner was announced.
She rose up and began
to put her embroidery away,
but glancing casually out
of the window,
she perceived the officer again.
This seemed to her very strange.
After dinner she went to the window
with a certain feeling of uneasiness,
but the officer
was no longer there -
and she thought
no more about him.
A couple of days afterwards,
just as she was stepping into the carriage
with the Countess, she saw him again.
He was standing close behind the door,
with his face half-concealed by his fur collar,
but his dark eyes
sparkled beneath his cap.
Lizaveta felt alarmed,
though she knew not why,
and she trembled as she
seated herself in the carriage.
On returning home,
she hastened to the window -
the officer was standing in his accustomed
place, with his eyes fixed upon her.
She drew back,
a prey to curiosity
and agitated by a feeling
which was quite new to her.
From that time forward
not a day passed
without the young officer
making his appearance
under the window
at the customary hour,
and between him and her there was
established a sort of mute acquaintance.
Sitting in her place at work,
she used to feel his approach;
and raising her head,
she would look at him
longer and longer
each day.
The young man seemed
to be very grateful to her:
she saw with the sharp eye of youth,
how a sudden flush covered
his pale cheeks each time
that their glances met.
After about a week she
commenced to smile at him...
When Tomsky asked for permission
to introduce his friend to the Countess,
the girl began to fret
But hearing that Narumov
was a guardsman,
she regretted that she had opened
her secret to the Tomsky.
Hermann was the son of a German
who had become a naturalised Russian,
and from whom he had inherited a small capital.
Being firmly convinced
of the necessity of
preserving his independence,
Hermann did not touch
his private income,
but lived on his pay,
without allowing himself
the slightest luxury.
Moreover, he was
reserved and ambitious,
and his companions
rarely had an opportunity
of making merry at the expense
of his extreme parsimony.
He had strong passions
and an ardent imagination,
but his firmness of disposition preserved
him from the ordinary errors of young men.
Thus, though a gamester at heart,
he never touched a card,
for he considered his position
did not allow him - as he said -
"to risk the necessary in the hope
of winning the superfluous,"
yet he would sit for nights
together at the card table
and follow with feverish anxiety
the different turns of the game.
The story of the three cards had produced
a powerful impression upon his imagination,
and all night long he could
think of nothing else.
If the old Countess would
but reveal her secret to me!
If she would only tell me the names
of the three winning cards.
Why should I not try my fortune?
I must get introduced
to her and win her favour -
become her lover...
But all that will take time,
and she is 87 years old:
she might be dead in a week,
in a couple of days even!...
But the story itself:
can it really be true?...
No!
Economy, temperance and industry:
those are my three winning cards;
by means of them I shall be able
to double my capital - increase it sevenfold,
and procure for myself
ease and independence.
Musing in this manner,
he walked on until he found himself in one
of the principal streets of St. Petersburg,
in front of a house
of antiquated architecture.
The street was blocked
the carriages drew up
to the doorway.
Now a little foot of a young beauty
showed from the carriage,
now the boot of a cavalry officer,
now a silk stocking
and the shoes of a diplomat.
Fur coats and raincoats
flashed before the porter.
Hermann stopped.
- Who's house is this?
- The Countess ?nna Fedotovna's.
Hermann started.
The strange story again presented
itself to his imagination.
He began walking up
and down before the house,
thinking of its owner
and her strange secret.
Returning late to his modest lodging,
he could not go to sleep
for a long time,
and when at last he did doze off,
he could dream of nothing but cards,
green tables, piles of banknotes
and heaps of ducats.
He played one card after the other,
winning uninterruptedly,
and then he gathered up the gold
and filled his pockets
with the notes.
When he woke up late
the next morning,
be sighed over the loss
of his imaginary wealth,
and then sallying out into the town,
he found himself once more
in front of the Countess's residence.
Some unknown power seemed
to have attracted him thither.
He stopped
and looked up at the windows.
At one of these he saw a head
with luxuriant black hair,
which was bent down probably over
some book or an embroidery frame.
The head was raised.
Hermann saw a fresh complexion
and a pair of dark eyes.
That moment decided his fate.
Chapter III
My angel, you write me
four-page letters
so fast that I am not able
to read them.
A Correspondence
Lizaveta Ivanovna took off
her hat and hood,
the Countess sent for her
and told her to get the carriage.
They took their seats.
Just at the moment when two footmen were
assisting the old lady to enter the carriage,
Lizaveta saw her Engineer standing
close beside the wheel;
he grasped her hand;
alarm caused her to lose her presence
of mind, and the young man disappeared -
but not before he had left
a letter between her fingers.
She concealed it in her glove,
and during the whole of the drive
she neither saw nor heard anything.
Who was that person
that met us just now?
What is the name of this bridge?
What is written on that signboard?
What is the matter
with you, my dear
Have you taken leave of
your senses, or what is it?
Do you not hear me
or understand what I say?...
Heaven be thanked,
I am still in my right mind
and speak plainly enough!
Lizaveta Ivanovna did not hear her.
On returning home
she ran to her room,
and drew the letter out
of her glove: it was not sealed.
Lizaveta read it.
The letter contained
a declaration of love;
it was tender, respectful,
and copied word for word
from a German novel.
But Lizaveta did not know German,
and she was pleased.
But the letter made her feel uneasy.
She was now entering into secret
relationship with a young man.
His boldness alarmed her.
She reproached herself
for her imprudent behaviour,
and knew not what to do.
Should she sit by the window,
and by her indifference to the officer
cool his wish for further courting?
Should she send his letter back,
or should she answer him coldly?
There was nobody to turn to,
for she had neither
female friend nor adviser...
She decided to respond.
She sat down at her writing-table,
and began to think.
She would begin her letter,
and then stop:
her words were now too
condescending
now too cruel.
She has succeeded
in writing a few lines
with which she felt satisfied.
I am convinced,
that your intentions are honourable,
and that you
do not wish
to offend me by
any imprudent behaviour,
but our acquaintance
must not begin in such a manner.
I return you your letter,
and I hope
that I shall never have
any cause to complain
of this undeserved slight.
The next day, as soon as
Hermann made his appearance,
Lizaveta rose from her embroidery,
went into the drawing-room,
opened the ventilator
and threw the letter into the street,
trusting that the young officer would
have the perception to pick it up.
Hermann hastened forward,
picked it up
and then repaired
to a confectioner's shop.
Breaking the seal of the envelope, he found
inside it his own letter and Lizaveta's reply.
He had expected this,
and he returned home,
his mind deeply occupied
with his intrigue.
Three days afterwards,
a bright-eyed young girl
from a milliner's establishment
brought Lizaveta a letter.
Lizaveta opened it
with great uneasiness,
fearing that it was
a demand for money,
when suddenly she recognised
Hermann's hand-writing.
You have made a mistake,
my dear, this letter is not for me.
Oh, yes, it is for you.
Have the goodness to read it.
Hermann requested an interview.
She were alarmed
at the audacious request, and
the manner in which it was made.
It cannot be! This letter
is certainly not for me!
If the letter was not for you,
why have you torn it up?
I should have given it back
to the person who sent it.
Be good enough,
my dear,
not to bring me any more
letters for the future,
and tell the person who sent you
that he ought to be ashamed...
But Hermann was not the man
to be thus put off.
Every day Lizaveta received
from him a letter,
sent now in this way,
now in that.
They were no longer
translated from the German.
Hermann wrote them under
the inspiration of passion,
and spoke in his own language,
and they bore full testimony
to the inflexibility of his desire
and the disordered condition
of his uncontrollable imagination.
Lizaveta no longer thought
of sending them back to him:
she became intoxicated
with them
and began to reply to them,
and little by little her answers became
longer and more affectionate.
At last she threw out of the window
to him the following letter:
This evening there is going to be a ball
at the Embassy. The Countess will be there.
We shall remain until two o'clock.
You have now an opportunity
of seeing me alone.
As soon as the Countess is gone,
the servants will very probably go out,
and there will be
nobody left but the Swiss,
but he usually goes
to sleep in his lodge.
Come about half-past eleven.
Walk straight upstairs.
If you meet anybody in the ante-room,
ask if the Countess is at home.
You will be told 'No,' in which case
there will be nothing left for you to do
but to go away again. But it is most
probable that you will meet nobody.
The maidservants will all
be together in one room.
On leaving the ante-room,
turn to the left,
...turn to the left...
and walk straight on until you
reach the Countess's bedroom.
In the bedroom, behind a screen,
you will find two doors:
the one on the right leads to a cabinet,
which the Countess never enters;
on the right...
the one on the left...
...a little winding staircase;
this leads to my ...
On the right...
On the left...
Hermann trembled like a tiger,
as he waited for the appointed
time to arrive.
At ten o'clock in the evening he was
already in front of the Countess's house.
The weather was terrible;
the wind blew
with great violence;
the sleety snow fell in large flakes;
the lamps emitted a feeble light,
the streets were deserted;
from time to time a sledge,
drawn by a sorry-looking hack,
passed by, on the look-out
for a belated passenger.
Hermann was enveloped in a thick
overcoat, and felt neither wind nor snow.
At last the Countess's
carriage drew up.
Hermann saw two footmen carry out
in their arms the bent form of the old lady,
wrapped in sable fur,
and immediately behind her,
clad in a warm mantle,
and with her head ornamented with a wreath
of fresh flowers, followed Lizaveta.
The door was closed.
The carriage rolled away heavily
through the yielding snow.
The porter shut the street-door;
the windows became dark.
Hermann began walking up and
down near the deserted house;
at length he stopped under a lamp, and glanced
at his watch: it was 20 minutes past eleven.
He remained standing under the lamp,
his eyes fixed upon the watch,
impatiently waiting for
the remaining minutes to pass.
At half-past eleven precisely,
Hermann ascended
the steps of the house,
and made his way into the
brightly-illuminated vestibule.
The porter was not there.
Hermann hastily ascended the staircase,
opened the door of the ante-room
and saw a footman sitting asleep
in an antique chair by the side of a lamp.
With a light firm step
Hermann passed by him.
The drawing-room and
dining-room were in darkness,
but a feeble reflection penetrated
thither from the lamp in the ante-room.
Hermann reached
the Countess's bedroom.
Before a shrine,
which was full of old images,
a golden lamp was burning.
Faded stuffed chairs and
divans with soft cushions
stood in melancholy symmetry
around the room, the walls of which
were hung with China silk.
On one side of the room hung two portraits
painted in Paris by Madame Lebrun.
One of these represented
a stout, red-faced man
of about forty years of age in a bright-green
uniform and with a star upon his breast;
the other - a beautiful young
woman, with an aquiline nose
forehead curls and a rose
in her powdered hair.
In the corners stood porcelain
shepherds and shepherdesses,
dining-room clocks from the worksho
of the celebrated Lefroy,
bandboxes, roulettes, fans and the various
playthings for the amusement of ladies
that were in vogue
at the end of the last century,
when Montgolfier's balloons and
Mesmer's magnetism were the rage.
Hermann stepped behind the screen.
At the back of it stood
a little iron bedstead;
on the right was the door
which led to the cabinet;
on the left - the other
which led to the corridor.
He opened the latter, and saw
the little winding staircase
which led to the room
of the poor companion...
But he retraced his steps
and entered the dark cabinet.
The time passed slowly.
All was still.
The clock in the drawing-room
struck twelve;
the strokes echoed through
the room one after the other,
and everything was quiet again.
Hermann stood leaning
against the cold stove.
He was calm;
his heart beat regularly, like that
of a man resolved upon a dangerous
but inevitable undertaking.
One o'clock in the morning
struck; then two;
and he heard the distant
noise of carriage-wheels.
An involuntary agitation
took possession of him.
The carriage drew near
and stopped.
He heard the sound
of carriage-steps.
All began to bustle.
They started running
voices resounded,
and it was light.
Three maids entered
the room running,
and the Countess, half alive,
sank into the armchair.
Hermann peeped through a chink.
Lizaveta Ivanovna
passed close by him,
and he heard her hurried steps as she
hastened up the little spiral staircase.
For a moment his heart was assailed
by something like a pricking of conscience,
but the emotion was only transitory,
and his heart became
petrified as before.
The Countess began to undress
before her looking-glass.
Her rose-bedecked cap
was taken off,
and then her powdered wig was removed
from off her white and closely-cut hair.
Hairpins fell in showers around her.
Her yellow satin dress, brocaded with silver,
fell down at her swollen feet.
Hermann was a witness of the repugnant
mysteries of her toilette;
at last the Countess was in her
night-cap and dressing-gown,
and in this costume,
more suitable to her age,
she appeared less
hideous and deformed.
Like all old people, the Countess
suffered from insomnia.
She undressed, sat down in an armchair
and dismissed her maids
The candles were taken out,
there was only one lamp
burning in the room.
The Countess sat there
looking quite yellow,
mumbling with her flaccid lips
and swaying to and fro.
Her dull eyes expressed
complete vacancy of mind,
and, looking at her,
one would have thought
that the rocking of her body was
not a voluntary action of her own,
but was produced by the action
of some concealed galvanic mechanism.
Suddenly the death-like face
assumed an inexplicable expression.
The lips ceased to tremble,
the eyes became animated:
before the Countess
stood an unknown man.
Do not be alarmed,
for Heaven's sake,
do not be alarmed!
I have no intention
of doing you any harm,
I have only come
to ask a favour of you.
I have only come
to ask a favour of you.
Do not be alarmed!
You can insure
the happiness of my life,
and it will cost you nothing.
I know that you can name
three cards in order ...
It was a joke,
I assure you it was only a joke.
There is no joking
about the matter.
Remember Chaplitzky,
whom you helped to win.
Can you not name me
these three winning cards?
For whom are you preserving
your secret? For your grandsons?
They are rich enough without it;
they do not know the worth of money.
Your cards would be
of no use to a spendthrift.
He who cannot preserve
his paternal inheritance,
will die in want, even though
he had a demon at his service.
I am not a man of that sort;
I know the value of money.
Your three cards will not
be thrown away upon me.
Come!..
If your heart has ever known
the feeling of love,
if you remember its rapture,
if you have ever smiled at the cry
of your new-born child,
if any human feeling has ever
entered into your breast,
I entreat you
by the feelings of a wife, a lover,
a mother, by all that is most sacred in life,
not to reject my prayer.
Reveal to me your secret.
Of what use is it to you?...
May be it is connected
with some terrible sin
with the loss of eternal salvation, with
some bargain with the devil... Reflect, -
you are old;
you have not long to live -
I am ready to take your sins
upon my soul. Remember...
that the happiness
of a man
is in your hands,
that not only I, but my children, and
grandchildren will bless your memory
and reverence you as a saint...
You old hag!
then I will make you answer!
Come, an end to this
childish nonsense!
I ask you for the last time:
will you tell me the names
of your three cards,
or will you not?
The Countess made no reply.
Hermann perceived
that she was dead!
Chapter IV
7 ??? 18**.
May 7, 18**.
A man without morals
or religion. - A Correspondence.
Lizaveta Ivanovna was in her room,
still in her ball dress,
lost in thought.
On returning home, she
dismissed the chambermaid
who reluctantly came
over to help her,
said that she would undress herself,
and with a trembling heart went to her room,
hoping to find Hermann there,
yet wishing not to find him.
At the first glance she convinced
herself that he was not there,
and she thanked her fate for having
prevented him keeping the appointment.
She sat down without undressing,
and began to recall to mind
all the circumstances which in so
short a time had carried her so far.
It was not three weeks
since the time
when she first saw the young
officer from the window-
and yet she was already
in correspondence with him,
and he had succeeded in inducing
her to grant him a nocturnal interview!
She knew his name only through
his having written it at the bottom
of some of his letters;
she had never spoken to him,
had never heard his voice,
and had never
heard him spoken of
until that evening.
But, strange to say,
that very evening at the ball,
Tomsky, being piqued
with the young Princess Pauline,
who, contrary to her usual
custom, did not flirt with him,
wished to revenge himself
by assuming an air of indifference:
he therefore engaged Lizaveta Ivanovna
and danced an endless mazurka with her.
During the whole of the time he kept teasing
her about her partiality for Engineer officers;
he assured her that he knew
far more than she imagined,
and some of his jests
were so happily aimed,
that Lizaveta thought
several times
that her secret
was known to him.
From whom have
you learnt all this?
From a friend of a person very well
known to you - a very distinguished man.
- And who is this distinguished man?
- His name is Hermann.
This Hermann, is a man
of romantic personality.
He has the profile of a Napoleon,
and the soul of a Mephistopheles.
I believe that he has at least three
crimes upon his conscience...
How pale you have become!..
- I have a headache...
But what did this Hermann
- or whatever his name is - tell you
Hermann is very much
dissatisfied with his friend:
he says that in his place
he would act very differently...
I even think that Hermann
himself has designs upon you;
at least, he listens
very attentively to all
that his friend has
to say about you.
And where has he seen me?
In church, perhaps; or on the parade
- God alone knows where.
It may have been in your room,
while you were asleep,
for there is nothing that he...
Three ladies approaching him with the question:
"oubliou regret?" interrupted the conversation,
which had become so tantalisingly
interesting to Lizaveta.
The lady chosen by Tomsky
was the Princess Pauline herself.
She managed to speak to him
by making another round,
by turning round
in front of her chair.
On returning to his place,
Tomsky thought no more
either of Hermann or Lizaveta.
She longed to renew
the interrupted conversation,
but the mazurka came to an end,
and shortly afterwards
the old Countess
took her departure.
Tomsky's words were nothing more
than the customary small talk of the dance,
but they sank deep into
the soul of the young dreamer.
The portrait, sketched by Tomsky,
was very much like the image
she made up in her mind,
and thanks to the latest romances,
it was a trivial face
frightened her and
fascinated her imagination.
She was now sitting
with her bare arms crossed
and with her head, still adorned with flowers,
sunk upon her uncovered bosom.
Suddenly the door opened
and Hermann entered.
She shuddered.
Where were you?
In the old Countess's bedroom.
I have just left her.
The Countess is dead.
My God!
What do you say?
And I am afraid, that I am
the cause of her death.
Lizaveta looked at him,
and Tomsky's words
found an echo in her soul:
"This man has at least three
crimes upon his conscience!"
Hermann sat down by the window near her,
and related all that had happened.
Lizaveta listened
to him in terror.
So all those passionate letters,
those ardent desires,
this bold obstinate pursuit -
all this was not love!
Money - that was what
his soul yearned for!
She could not satisfy his desire
and make him happy.
I had been nothing but
the blind tool of a robber,
of the murderer of my
aged benefactress!..
She wept bitter tears
of agonised repentance.
Hermann gazed at her in silence:
his heart, too, was
a prey to violent emotion,
but neither the tears
of the poor girl,
nor the wonderful charm of her beauty could
produce any impression upon his hardened soul.
He felt no pricking of conscience
at the thought of the dead old woman.
One thing only grieved him:
the irreparable
loss of the secret
from which he had expected
to obtain great wealth.
You are a monster!
I did not wish for her death,
my pistol was not loaded.
Both remained silent.
The day began to dawn.
Lizaveta extinguished her candle:
a pale light illumined her room.
She wiped her tear-stained eyes
and raised them towards Hermann:
he was sitting near the window, with his arms
crossed and with a fierce frown upon his forehead.
In this attitude he bore
a striking resemblance
to the portrait of Napoleon.
This resemblance
struck Lizaveta even.
How shall I get you
out of the house?
I thought of conducting you
down the secret staircase,
but in that case it would be necessary to go
through the Countess's bedroom, and I am afraid.
Tell me how to find
this secret staircase -
I will go alone.
Hermann pressed
her cold, limp hand,
kissed her bowed head,
and left the room.
He descended the winding staircase, and
once more entered the Countess's bedroom.
The dead old lady
sat as if petrified;
her face expressed
profound tranquillity.
Hermann stopped before her,
and gazed long and earnestly at her, as if he
wished to convince himself of the terrible reality;
at last he entered the cabinet,
felt behind the tapestry
for the door,
and then began to descend the dark
staircase, filled with strange emotions.
Down this very staircase, perhaps
coming from the very same room,
and at this very same hour sixty
years ago, there may have glided,
in an embroidered coat, with his
hair dressed a l'oiseau royal
and pressing to his heart his
three-cornered hat, some young gallant,
who has long been
mouldering in the grave,
but the heart of his aged mistress
has only to-day ceased to beat...
At the bottom of the staircase Hermann
found a door, which he opened with a key,
and then traversed a corridor which
conducted him into the street.
Chapter V
That night the dead Baroness von W.
appeared to me
She was all in white
and said:
'How do you do, Mr. Councillor?'
- Swedenborg.
Three days after the fatal night,
at nine o'clock in the morning,
Hermann repaired to the Convent,
where the last honours were to be paid
to the mortal remains of the old Countess.
Although feeling no remorse,
he could not altogether stifle
the voice of conscience,
which said to him: "You are
the murderer of the old woman!"
In spite of his entertaining very little religious
belief, he was exceedingly superstitious;
and believing that the dead Countess
might exercise an evil influence on his life,
he resolved to be present at her
obsequies in order to implore her pardon.
The church was full.
It was with difficulty that Hermann made
his way through the crowd of people.
The coffin was placed upon a rich
catafalque beneath a velvet baldachin.
The deceased Countess lay within it,
with her hands crossed upon her breast,
with a lace cap upon her head
and dressed in a white satin robe.
Around the catafalque stood
the members of her household:
the servants in black caftans, with armorial ribbons
upon their shoulders, and candles in their hands;
the relatives - children, grandchildren, and
great-grandchildren - in deep mourning.
Nobody wept; tears would
have been une affectation.
The Countess was so old, that her
death could have surprised nobody,
and her relatives had long looked
upon her as being out of the world.
A famous preacher pronounced
the funeral sermon.
In simple and touching words he
described the peaceful passing away
of the righteous, who had
passed long years
in calm preparation
for a Christian end.
The angel of death
found her,
engaged in pious meditation
and waiting for
the midnight bridegroom.
The service concluded
amidst profound silence.
The relatives went forward first
to take farewell of the corpse.
Then followed the numerous guests, who
had come to render the last homage to her
who for so many years had been
a participator in their frivolous amusements.
After these followed the members
of the Countess's household.
The last of these was an old woman
of the same age as the deceased.
Two young women led her
forward by the hand.
She had not strength enough
to bow down to the ground -
she merely shed a few tears
and kissed the cold
hand of her mistress.
Hermann now resolved
to approach the coffin.
He knelt down upon
the cold stones
and remained in that
position for some minutes;
at last he arose, as pale as
the deceased Countess herself;
he ascended the steps
of the catafalque
and bent over the corpse...
At that moment
it seemed to him
that the dead woman darted
a mocking look at him
and winked with one eye.
Hermann started back,
took a false step
and fell to the ground.
Several persons raised him up.
At the same moment Lizaveta Ivanovna
was borne fainting into the porch of the church.
This episode
disturbed for some minutes the solemnity
of the gloomy ceremony.
Among the congregation
arose a deep murmur,
and a tall thin chamberlain,
a near relative of the deceased,
whispered in the ear of an Englishman
who was standing near him,
that the young officer was
a natural son of the Countess,
to which the Englishman
coldly replied: "Oh!"
During the whole of that day,
Hermann was strangely excited.
Repairing to an out-of-the-way restaurant
to dine, he drank a great deal of wine,
contrary to his usual custom, in the hope
of deadening his inward agitation.
But the wine only served to excite
his imagination still more.
On returning home, he threw himself
upon his bed without undressing,
and fell into a deep sleep.
When he woke up
it was already night,
and the moon was
shining into the room.
He looked at his watch:
it was a quarter to three.
Sleep had left him;
he sat down upon his bed
and thought of the funeral
of the old Countess.
At that moment
somebody in the street
looked in at his window,
and immediately passed on again.
Hermann paid no attention
to this incident.
A few moments afterwards he heard
the door of his ante-room open.
Hermann thought
that it was his orderly,
drunk as usual, returning from
some nocturnal expedition,
but presently he heard footsteps
that were unknown to him:
somebody was walking
softly over the floor in slippers.
The door opened,
and a woman dressed
in white, entered the room.
Hermann mistook her
for his old nurse,
and wondered what could bring
her there at that hour of the night.
But the white woman
glided rapidly
across the room
and stood before him -
and Hermann
recognised the Countess!
I have come to you
against my wish,
but I have been ordered
to grant your request.
Three, seven, ace,
will win for you
if played in succession,
but only on these conditions:
that you do not play more
than one card in twenty-four hours,
and that you never play again
during the rest of your life.
I forgive you my death,
on condition that you marry
my companion,
Lizaveta Ivanovna...
With these words
she turned round very quietly,
walked with a shuffling
gait towards the door
and disappeared.
Hermann heard the street-door
open and shut,
and again he saw some one look
in at him through the window.
For a long time Hermann
could not recover himself.
He then rose up and
entered the next room.
His orderly was lying
asleep upon the floor,
and he had much
difficulty in waking him.
The orderly was drunk as usual,
and no information could
be obtained from him.
The street-door was locked.
Hermann returned to his room,
lit his candle,
and wrote down all
the details of his vision.
Chapter VI
"Attendez!"
"How dare you say 'attendez' to me?"
"Your excellency,
I said 'attendez, sir'"
Two fixed ideas
can no more exist
together in the moral world
than two bodies can occupy
one and the same place
in the physical world.
"Three, seven, ace,"
soon drove out of Hermann's mind
the thought of the dead Countess.
"Three, seven, ace," were perpetually
running through his head
and continually being
repeated by his lips.
If he saw a young girl,
he would say:
How slender she is!
quite like the three of hearts.
If anybody asked:
"What is the time?"
he would reply:
Five minutes to seven.
Every stout man that he saw
reminded him of the ace.
"Three, seven, ace"
haunted him in his sleep,
and assumed all possible shapes.
The threes bloomed before him
in the forms of magnificent flowers,
the sevens were represented
by Gothic portals,
and the aces became transformed
into gigantic spiders.
One thought alone
occupied his whole mind -
to make a profitable use of the secret
which he had purchased so dearly.
He thought of applying for
a furlough so as to travel abroad.
He wanted to go to Paris
and tempt fortune in some
of the public gambling-houses
that abounded there.
Chance spared him
all this trouble.
There was in Moscow
a society of rich gamesters,
presided over by
the celebrated Chekalinsky,
who had passed all his
life at the card-table
and had amassed millions,
accepting bills of exchange for his winnings
and paying his losses in ready money.
His long experience secured for him
the confidence of his companions,
and his open house, his famous cook,
and his agreeable and fascinating manners
gained for him the respect
of the public.
He came to St. Petersburg.
The young men of the capital flocked
to his rooms, forgetting balls for cards,
and preferring the emotions of faro
to the seductions of flirting.
Narumov conducted Hermann
to Chekalinsky's residence.
They passed through a suite of magnificent
rooms, filled with attentive domestics.
Generals and Privy Counsellors
were playing at whist;
young men were lolling carelessly
upon the velvet-covered sofas,
eating ices and smoking pipes.
In the drawing-room,
at the head of a long table,
around which were assembled
about a score of players,
sat the master of the house
keeping the bank.
He was a man of about sixty years of age,
of a very dignified appearance;
his head was covered
with silvery-white hair;
his full, florid countenance
expressed good-nature,
and his eyes twinkled
with a perpetual smile.
Narumov introduced Hermann to him.
Chekalinsky shook him by
the hand in a friendly manner,
requested him not to stand on
ceremony, and then went on dealing.
The game lasted long.
There were over
thirty cards on the table.
Chekalinsky paused
after each throw,
in order to let the players
to arrange the cards
and wrote down the losses,
listening to their requests,
and politely put straight the corners
of cards that some player had bent.
The game was over now.
Chekalinsky shuffled the cards
and prepared to deal again.
Let me stake.
Yes.
Happy absolution!
Good luck!
Stake!
How much?
excuse me, I cannot
see quite clearly.
47,000 rubles.
At these words every head in
the room turned suddenly round,
and all eyes were
fixed upon Hermann.
"He has taken leave of
his senses!" thought Narumov.
Allow me to inform you,
that you are playing very high;
nobody here has ever staked
more than 275 rubles at once.
Very well,
but do you accept
my card or not?
I only wish to say,
that although I trust my friends,
I can only play
against ready money.
As for me, I am quite sure
that your word is enough,
but as a formality, I ask you
to stake the money.
I have won!
Do you wish me
to settle with you?
If you please.
Chekalinsky drew from his
pocket a number of banknotes
and paid at once.
Hermann took up his
money and left the table.
Narumov could not recover
from his astonishment.
Hermann drank a glass
of lemonade and returned home.
The next evening he appeared
at Chekalinsky's again.
The host was dealing.
Hermann walked up to the table;
the punters made room for him.
Chekalinsky greeted him
with a gracious bow.
Hermann waited for the next
deal and staked.
47,000 rubles all in all
and his previous winning.
Chekalinsky began to deal.
A knave turned up on the right,
a seven on the left.
Hermann showed his...
seven.
There was a general exclamation.
Chekalinsky was
evidently ill at ease,
but he counted out 94.000 rubles
and handed them over to Hermann,
who pocketed them
in the coolest manner possible
and immediately left the house.
The next evening Hermann
appeared again at the table.
Every one was expecting him.
The generals and Privy
Counsellors left their whist
in order to watch
such extraordinary play.
The young officers
quitted their sofas,
and even the servants crowded into
the room. All pressed round Hermann.
The other players
left off punting,
impatient to see
how it would end.
Hermann stood at the table and
prepared to play alone against the pale,
but still smiling Chekalinsky.
Each opened a pack of cards.
Chekalinsky shuffled.
Hermann took a card and
covered it with a pile of bank-notes.
It was like a duel.
Deep silence reigned around.
Chekalinsky began to deal;
his hands trembled.
On the right a queen turned up,
and on the left an ace.
Ace has won!
Your queen has lost.
Instead of an ace,
there lay before him
the queen of spades!
He could not believe his eyes,
nor could he understand how
he had made such a mistake.
At that moment it seemed to him
that the queen of spades
smiled ironically
and winked her eye at him.
He was struck by her
remarkable resemblance...
The old Countess!
Chekalinsky gathered up
his winnings.
Hermann remained
perfectly motionless.
When at last he left the table,
there was a general
commotion in the room.
"Splendidly punted!"
said the players.
Chekalinsky shuffled
the cards afresh,
and the game went on as usual.
EPILOGUE
Hermann went out of his mind,
and is now confined in room Number 17
of the Obukhov Hospital.
He never answers any questions,
but he constantly mutters
with unusual rapidity:
"Three, seven, ace!"
"Three, seven, queen!"
Lizaveta Ivanovna has married
a very amiable young man,
a son of the former
steward of the old Countess.
He is in the service of the State somewhere,
and is in receipt of a good income.
Lizaveta is also supporting
a poor relative.
Tomsky
has been promoted
to the rank of captain,
and has become the husband
of the Princess Pauline.
Cast:
Engineer Hermann
Viktor PROSKURIN
Lizaveta Ivanovna
Irina DYMCHENKO
Countess Anna Fedotovna
Yelena GLAGOLEVA
Tomsky
Vitaly SOLOMIN
Chekalinsky
Innokenty SMOKTUNOVSKY
Narumov
Konstantin GRIGORYEV
Surin
Alexander ZAKHAROV
A. PINTOVSKAYA,
V. BOGDANOV, Ye. GRADOV
Music by
Dmitry BORTYANSKY
Directed by
Igor MASLENNIKOV
Director of Photography
Yury VEKSLER
Production Designer
Isaak KAPLAN
Costume Designer
Nelli LEV
Sound Engineer
Asya ZVEREVA
Translation by Natalie Duddington
and Alec Vagapov
Subtitles by Boris Bulgakov
The End
Alexander Sergeyevich
PUSHKIN
THE QUEEN OF SPADES
Narrator
Alla DEMIDOVA
The Queen of Spades
denotes secret ill-will.
From the latest Fortune-Teller.
Chapter I
In the cold, rain, and sleet
They together would meet
To play.
Lord, forgive them their sin:
Gambling, late to win
They'd stay.
They won and they lost,
And put down the cost
In chalk.
So on cold autumn days
They wasted no time
In talk.
There was a card party
at the rooms of Narumov
of the Horse Guards.
The winter night passed quickly;
they had supper
as late as 5 am.
Those who had won,
ate with a good appetite;
the others sat staring absently
at their empty plates.
When the champagne appeared,
however, the conversation
became more animated,
and all took a part in it.
And how did you fare, Surin?
asked the host.
Oh, I lost, as usual.
I must confess
that I am unlucky:
I play mirandole,
I always keep cool,
I never allow anything to put
me out, and yet I always lose!
And you did not
once allow yourself
to be tempted
to back the red?...
Your firmness astonishes me.
But what do you think
of Hermann?
said one of the guests,
pointing to a young Engineer:
he has never had a card
in his hand in his life,
he has never in,
his life laid a wager,
and yet he sits here till
five o'clock in the morning
watching our play.
Play interests me very much,
said Hermann:
but I am not in the position
to sacrifice the necessary
in the hope of winning
the superfluous.
Hermann is a German:
he is economical -
that is all!
observed Tomsky.
But if there is one person
that I cannot understand,
it is my grandmother,
the Countess Anna Fedotovna.
How so?
I cannot understand,
how it is that my grandmother
does not punt.
What is there remarkable about
an old lady of eighty not punting?
Then you do not know
the reason why?
No, really; haven't
the faintest idea.
Oh! then listen.
About sixty years ago,
my grandmother went to Paris,
where she created
quite a sensation.
People used to run after her to catch
a glimpse of the 'Muscovite Venus.'
Richelieu made love to her,
and my grandmother maintains that
he almost blew out his brains
in consequence of her cruelty.
At that time ladies
used to play at faro.
On one occasion at the Court,
she lost a very
considerable sum
to the Duke of Orleans.
On returning home,
my grandmother removed the patches
from her face, took off her hoops,
informed my grandfather of her loss at the
gaming-table, and ordered him to pay the money.
My deceased grandfather, as far as I remember,
was a sort of house-steward to my grandmother.
He dreaded her like fire;
but, on hearing of such a heavy loss,
he almost went out of his mind;
brought the counts,
and told her that she had
spent half a million francs,
they had neither their Moscow
and nor Saratov estates Paris,
refused to pay the debt.
My grandmother gave him a box on the ear
and slept by herself as a sign of her displeasure.
The next day
she sent for her husband,
hoping that this domestic punishment
had produced an effect upon him,
but she found him inflexible.
For the first time in her life,
she entered into reasonings
and explanations with him,
thinking to be able to convince him
by pointing out to him that
there are debts and debts,
and that there is a great difference
between a Prince and a coachmaker.
But it was all in vain, my grandfather
still remained obdurate.
My grandmother did not
know what to do.
She had shortly before become
acquainted with a very remarkable man.
You have heard
of Count St. Germain,
about whom so many
marvellous stories are told.
You know that he represented
himself as the Wandering Jew,
as the discoverer of the elixir of life,
of the philosopher's stone, and so forth.
Some laughed at him
as a charlatan;
but Casanova, in his memoirs,
says that he was a spy.
But be that as it may, St. Germain,
in spite of the mystery surrounding him,
was a very fascinating person,
and was much sought after in
the best circles of society.
Even to this day my grandmother retains
an affectionate recollection of him,
and becomes quite angry if any one
speaks disrespectfully of him.
My grandmother knew that St. Germain
had large sums of money at his disposal.
She resolved to have
recourse to him,
and she wrote a letter to him asking
him to come to her without delay.
The queer old man immediately waited upon
her and found her overwhelmed with grief.
She described to him in the blackest
colours the barbarity of her husband,
and ended by declaring that
her whole hope depended
upon his friendship and amiability.
St. Germain reflected.
'I could advance you
the sum you want,' said he;
'but I know that you
would not rest easy
until you had paid me back,
and I should not like to bring
fresh troubles upon you.
But there is another way
of getting out of your difficulty:
you can win back your money.'
'But, my dear Count,'
replied my grandmother,
'I tell you that I haven't
any money left.'
'Money is not necessary,'
replied St. Germain:
'be pleased to listen to me.'
Then he revealed to her a secret,
for which each of us
would give a good deal...
The young officers listened
with increased attention.
Tomsky lit his pipe, puffed away
for a moment and then continued:
That same evening
my grandmother went to Versailles
to the au jeu de la Reine
The Duke of Orleans
kept the bank;
my grandmother excused herself in
an off-hand manner for not having yet
paid her debt, by inventing
some little story,
and then began
to play against him.
She chose three cards
and played them
one after the other:
all three won sonika,
and my grandmother recovered
every farthing that she had lost.
Mere chance!
A tale!
Perhaps they were marked cards!
I do not think so.
What! you have a grandmother who knows
how to hit upon three lucky cards in succession,
and you have never yet succeeded
in getting the secret of it out of her?
That's the deuce of it!
she had four sons,
one of whom was my father;
all four were determined gamblers,
and yet not to one of them
did she ever reveal her secret,
although it would not have been
a bad thing either for them or for me.
But this is what I heard from
my uncle, Count Ivan Ilyich,
and he assured me, on
his honour, that it was true.
The late Chaplitzky -
the same who died in poverty after
having squandered millions -
once lost, in his youth, about
three hundred thousand roubles -
to Zorich, if I remember rightly.
He was in despair.
My grandmother, who was always very
severe upon the extravagance of young men,
took pity, however, upon Chaplitzky.
She gave him three cards,
telling him to play them one after the other,
at the same time exacting from him
a solemn promise that he would never
play at cards again as long as he lived.
Chaplitzky then went to his victorious
opponent, and they began a fresh game.
On the first card he staked
fifty thousand rubles
and won sonika;
he doubled the stake and won again,
till at last, by pursuing the same tactics,
he won back more than he had lost...
But it is time to go to bed:
it is a quarter to six already.
And indeed it was already
beginning to dawn:
the young men emptied
their glasses
and then took leave of each other.
Chapter II
It appears, Monsieur, that you
clearly prefer the maids.
Would you wish me otherwise, Madame?
They are much fresher.
A Society Conversation.
The old Countess was seated in her
dressing-room in front of her looking-glass.
Three waiting maids
stood around her.
One held a small pot of rouge,
another a box of hair-pins,
and the third a tall can
with bright red ribbons.
The Countess had no longer
the slightest pretensions to beauty,
but she still preserved the
habits of her youth,
dressed in strict accordance with
the fashion of seventy years before,
and made as long and as careful
a toilette as she would have done
sixty years previously.
Near the window,
at an embroidery frame,
sat a young lady, her ward.
Good morning, grandmamma,
said a young officer,
entering the room.
Bonjour, Mademoiselle Lise.
I want to ask you something.
- What is it, Paul?
I want you to let me introduce
one of my friends to you,
and to allow me to bring
him to the ball on Friday.
Bring him direct to the ball
and introduce him to me there.
Were you at... yesterday?
Yes; everything went off
very pleasantly,
and dancing was kept up
until five o'clock.
How charming Yeletzkaya was!
But, my dear, what is there
charming about her?
Isn't she like her grandmother,
the Princess Daria Petrovna?
Incidentally:
she must have grown old,
the Princess Daria Petrovna.
How do you mean, old?
she died seven years ago.
The young lady gave a sign
to the young man.
He remembered that the Countess
had never to been told about their death
and he bit his lips.
But the old Countess
heard the news
with the greatest indifference.
Dead!
and I did not know it.
We were appointed maids
of honour at the same time,
and when we were
presented to the Empress...
And the Countess for the hundredth time
related to her grandson one of her anecdotes.
Then she said,
Come, Paul, help me to get up.
Lizanka, where is my snuff-box?
And the Countess with her three maids
went behind a screen to finish her toilette.
Tomsky was left alone
with the young lady.
Who is the gentleman you wish
to introduce to the Countess?
Narumov.
Do you know him?
No.
- Is he a soldier or a civilian?
- A soldier.
- Is he in the Engineers?
- No, in the Cavalry.
What made you think
that he was in the Engineers?
The young lady smiled,
but made no reply.
Paul!
send me some new novel, only pray
don't let it be one of the present day style.
What do you mean, grandmother?
That is, a novel, in which the hero strangles
neither his father nor his mother,
and in which there are
no drowned bodies.
I have a great horror
of drowned persons.
There are no such novels nowadays.
Would you like a Russian one?
Are there any Russian novels?
Send me one, my dear,
pray send me one!
Good-bye, grandmother:
I am in a hurry...
Good-bye, Lizaveta Ivanovna.
What made you think that
Narumov was in the Engineers?
And Tomsky left the boudoir.
Lizaveta Ivanovna was left alone:
she laid aside her work and
began to look out of the window.
A few moments afterwards, at a corner
house on the other side of the street,
a young officer appeared.
A deep blush covered
her cheeks;
she took up her work again
and bent her head down
over the frame.
At the same moment the Countess
returned completely dressed.
Order the carriage, Lizaveta,
we will go out for a drive.
What is the matter with you,
my child, are you deaf?
Order the carriage
to be got ready at once.
I will do so this moment.
Madam! Some books from
Paul Aleksandrovich for you!
Tell him that I am
much obliged to him.
Lizaveta! Lizaveta!
Where are you running to?
I am going to dress.
There is plenty of time,
my dear.
Sit down here.
Open the first volume
and read to me aloud.
Her companion took the book
and read a few lines.
Louder!
What is the matter with you,
my child?
Have you lost your voice?
Wait -
give me that footstool -
a little nearer -
that will do.
Lizaveta read two more pages.
The Countess yawned.
Put the book down,
what a lot of nonsense!
Send it back to Prince Paul
with my thanks...
But where is the carriage?
The carriage is ready.
How is it that you are not dressed?
I must always wait for you.
It is intolerable, my dear!
How is it that you cannot
hear me when I ring for you?
Tell Lizaveta Ivanovna
that I am waiting for her..
At last you are here!
But why such an elaborate toilette?
Whom do you intend to captivate?
What sort of weather is it?
It seems rather windy.
No, your Ladyship,
it is very calm.
You never think of what
you are talking about.
Open the window.
So it is: windy and bitterly cold.
Unharness the horses.
Lizaveta, we won't go out - there was
no need for you to deck yourself like that.
"What a life is mine!"
thought Lizaveta Ivanovna.
And, in truth, Lizaveta Ivanovna
was a very unfortunate creature.
"The bread of the stranger
is bitter," says Dante,
"and his staircase hard to climb."
But who can know what the bitterness
of dependence is so well
as the poor companion
of an old lady of quality?
The Countess had by
no means a bad heart,
bat she was capricious, like a woman
who had been spoilt by the world,
as well as being avaricious
and egotistical, like all old people
who have seen their best days,
and whose thoughts are with
the past and not the present.
She participated in all
the vanities of the great world,
went to balls, where she sat in a corner,
painted and dressed in old-fashioned style,
like a deformed but indispensable
ornament of the ball-room;
all the guests on entering approached
her and made a profound bow,
as if in accordance
with a set ceremony,
but after that nobody took
any further notice of her.
She received the whole
town at her house, although...
she could no longer recognise
the faces of people.
Her numerous domestics,
growing fat and old in her
ante-chamber and servants' hall,
did just as they liked,
and vied with each other
in robbing the aged Countess..
Lizaveta Ivanovna
was the martyr of the household.
She made tea,
and was reproached
with using too much sugar;
she read novels aloud to the Countess,
and the faults of the author
were visited upon her head;
she accompanied
the Countess in her walks,
and was held answerable for the weather
or the state of the pavement.
A salary was attached to the post,
but she very rarely received it,
although she was expected
to dress like everybody else,
that is to say,
like very few indeed.
In society she played
the most pitiable role.
Everybody knew her,
and nobody paid her any attention.
At balls she danced only
when a partner was wanted,
and ladies would only
take hold of her arm
when it was necessary to lead her out
of the room to attend to their dresses.
She was very self-conscious,
and felt her position keenly,
and she looked about her
with impatience for a deliverer
to come to her rescue;
but the young men,
calculating in their giddiness,
honoured her with
but very little attention,
although Lizaveta Ivanovna was
a hundred times prettier than
the bare-faced and cold-hearted marriageable
girls around whom they hovered.
Many a time
did she quietly slink away from
the glittering but wearisome drawing-room,
to go and cry in her
own poor little room,
in which stood a screen,
a chest of drawers,
a looking-glass
and a painted bedstead,
and where a tallow candle burnt
feebly in a copper candle-stick.
One morning -
this was about two days after the evening
party described at the beginning of this story,
and a week previous to the scene
at which we have just assisted -
One morning Lizaveta Ivanovna was seated
near the window at her embroidery frame,
when, happening to look out into the street,
she caught sight of a young Engineer officer,
standing motionless with his eyes
fixed upon her window.
She lowered her head and
went on again with her work.
About five minutes afterwards
she looked out again -
the young officer was still
standing in the same place.
Not being in the habit of
coquetting with passing officers,
she did not continue
to gaze out into the street,
but went on sewing for a couple
of hours, without raising her head.
Dinner was announced.
She rose up and began
to put her embroidery away,
but glancing casually out
of the window,
she perceived the officer again.
This seemed to her very strange.
After dinner she went to the window
with a certain feeling of uneasiness,
but the officer
was no longer there -
and she thought
no more about him.
A couple of days afterwards,
just as she was stepping into the carriage
with the Countess, she saw him again.
He was standing close behind the door,
with his face half-concealed by his fur collar,
but his dark eyes
sparkled beneath his cap.
Lizaveta felt alarmed,
though she knew not why,
and she trembled as she
seated herself in the carriage.
On returning home,
she hastened to the window -
the officer was standing in his accustomed
place, with his eyes fixed upon her.
She drew back,
a prey to curiosity
and agitated by a feeling
which was quite new to her.
From that time forward
not a day passed
without the young officer
making his appearance
under the window
at the customary hour,
and between him and her there was
established a sort of mute acquaintance.
Sitting in her place at work,
she used to feel his approach;
and raising her head,
she would look at him
longer and longer
each day.
The young man seemed
to be very grateful to her:
she saw with the sharp eye of youth,
how a sudden flush covered
his pale cheeks each time
that their glances met.
After about a week she
commenced to smile at him...
When Tomsky asked for permission
to introduce his friend to the Countess,
the girl began to fret
But hearing that Narumov
was a guardsman,
she regretted that she had opened
her secret to the Tomsky.
Hermann was the son of a German
who had become a naturalised Russian,
and from whom he had inherited a small capital.
Being firmly convinced
of the necessity of
preserving his independence,
Hermann did not touch
his private income,
but lived on his pay,
without allowing himself
the slightest luxury.
Moreover, he was
reserved and ambitious,
and his companions
rarely had an opportunity
of making merry at the expense
of his extreme parsimony.
He had strong passions
and an ardent imagination,
but his firmness of disposition preserved
him from the ordinary errors of young men.
Thus, though a gamester at heart,
he never touched a card,
for he considered his position
did not allow him - as he said -
"to risk the necessary in the hope
of winning the superfluous,"
yet he would sit for nights
together at the card table
and follow with feverish anxiety
the different turns of the game.
The story of the three cards had produced
a powerful impression upon his imagination,
and all night long he could
think of nothing else.
If the old Countess would
but reveal her secret to me!
If she would only tell me the names
of the three winning cards.
Why should I not try my fortune?
I must get introduced
to her and win her favour -
become her lover...
But all that will take time,
and she is 87 years old:
she might be dead in a week,
in a couple of days even!...
But the story itself:
can it really be true?...
No!
Economy, temperance and industry:
those are my three winning cards;
by means of them I shall be able
to double my capital - increase it sevenfold,
and procure for myself
ease and independence.
Musing in this manner,
he walked on until he found himself in one
of the principal streets of St. Petersburg,
in front of a house
of antiquated architecture.
The street was blocked
the carriages drew up
to the doorway.
Now a little foot of a young beauty
showed from the carriage,
now the boot of a cavalry officer,
now a silk stocking
and the shoes of a diplomat.
Fur coats and raincoats
flashed before the porter.
Hermann stopped.
- Who's house is this?
- The Countess ?nna Fedotovna's.
Hermann started.
The strange story again presented
itself to his imagination.
He began walking up
and down before the house,
thinking of its owner
and her strange secret.
Returning late to his modest lodging,
he could not go to sleep
for a long time,
and when at last he did doze off,
he could dream of nothing but cards,
green tables, piles of banknotes
and heaps of ducats.
He played one card after the other,
winning uninterruptedly,
and then he gathered up the gold
and filled his pockets
with the notes.
When he woke up late
the next morning,
be sighed over the loss
of his imaginary wealth,
and then sallying out into the town,
he found himself once more
in front of the Countess's residence.
Some unknown power seemed
to have attracted him thither.
He stopped
and looked up at the windows.
At one of these he saw a head
with luxuriant black hair,
which was bent down probably over
some book or an embroidery frame.
The head was raised.
Hermann saw a fresh complexion
and a pair of dark eyes.
That moment decided his fate.
Chapter III
My angel, you write me
four-page letters
so fast that I am not able
to read them.
A Correspondence
Lizaveta Ivanovna took off
her hat and hood,
the Countess sent for her
and told her to get the carriage.
They took their seats.
Just at the moment when two footmen were
assisting the old lady to enter the carriage,
Lizaveta saw her Engineer standing
close beside the wheel;
he grasped her hand;
alarm caused her to lose her presence
of mind, and the young man disappeared -
but not before he had left
a letter between her fingers.
She concealed it in her glove,
and during the whole of the drive
she neither saw nor heard anything.
Who was that person
that met us just now?
What is the name of this bridge?
What is written on that signboard?
What is the matter
with you, my dear
Have you taken leave of
your senses, or what is it?
Do you not hear me
or understand what I say?...
Heaven be thanked,
I am still in my right mind
and speak plainly enough!
Lizaveta Ivanovna did not hear her.
On returning home
she ran to her room,
and drew the letter out
of her glove: it was not sealed.
Lizaveta read it.
The letter contained
a declaration of love;
it was tender, respectful,
and copied word for word
from a German novel.
But Lizaveta did not know German,
and she was pleased.
But the letter made her feel uneasy.
She was now entering into secret
relationship with a young man.
His boldness alarmed her.
She reproached herself
for her imprudent behaviour,
and knew not what to do.
Should she sit by the window,
and by her indifference to the officer
cool his wish for further courting?
Should she send his letter back,
or should she answer him coldly?
There was nobody to turn to,
for she had neither
female friend nor adviser...
She decided to respond.
She sat down at her writing-table,
and began to think.
She would begin her letter,
and then stop:
her words were now too
condescending
now too cruel.
She has succeeded
in writing a few lines
with which she felt satisfied.
I am convinced,
that your intentions are honourable,
and that you
do not wish
to offend me by
any imprudent behaviour,
but our acquaintance
must not begin in such a manner.
I return you your letter,
and I hope
that I shall never have
any cause to complain
of this undeserved slight.
The next day, as soon as
Hermann made his appearance,
Lizaveta rose from her embroidery,
went into the drawing-room,
opened the ventilator
and threw the letter into the street,
trusting that the young officer would
have the perception to pick it up.
Hermann hastened forward,
picked it up
and then repaired
to a confectioner's shop.
Breaking the seal of the envelope, he found
inside it his own letter and Lizaveta's reply.
He had expected this,
and he returned home,
his mind deeply occupied
with his intrigue.
Three days afterwards,
a bright-eyed young girl
from a milliner's establishment
brought Lizaveta a letter.
Lizaveta opened it
with great uneasiness,
fearing that it was
a demand for money,
when suddenly she recognised
Hermann's hand-writing.
You have made a mistake,
my dear, this letter is not for me.
Oh, yes, it is for you.
Have the goodness to read it.
Hermann requested an interview.
She were alarmed
at the audacious request, and
the manner in which it was made.
It cannot be! This letter
is certainly not for me!
If the letter was not for you,
why have you torn it up?
I should have given it back
to the person who sent it.
Be good enough,
my dear,
not to bring me any more
letters for the future,
and tell the person who sent you
that he ought to be ashamed...
But Hermann was not the man
to be thus put off.
Every day Lizaveta received
from him a letter,
sent now in this way,
now in that.
They were no longer
translated from the German.
Hermann wrote them under
the inspiration of passion,
and spoke in his own language,
and they bore full testimony
to the inflexibility of his desire
and the disordered condition
of his uncontrollable imagination.
Lizaveta no longer thought
of sending them back to him:
she became intoxicated
with them
and began to reply to them,
and little by little her answers became
longer and more affectionate.
At last she threw out of the window
to him the following letter:
This evening there is going to be a ball
at the Embassy. The Countess will be there.
We shall remain until two o'clock.
You have now an opportunity
of seeing me alone.
As soon as the Countess is gone,
the servants will very probably go out,
and there will be
nobody left but the Swiss,
but he usually goes
to sleep in his lodge.
Come about half-past eleven.
Walk straight upstairs.
If you meet anybody in the ante-room,
ask if the Countess is at home.
You will be told 'No,' in which case
there will be nothing left for you to do
but to go away again. But it is most
probable that you will meet nobody.
The maidservants will all
be together in one room.
On leaving the ante-room,
turn to the left,
...turn to the left...
and walk straight on until you
reach the Countess's bedroom.
In the bedroom, behind a screen,
you will find two doors:
the one on the right leads to a cabinet,
which the Countess never enters;
on the right...
the one on the left...
...a little winding staircase;
this leads to my ...
On the right...
On the left...
Hermann trembled like a tiger,
as he waited for the appointed
time to arrive.
At ten o'clock in the evening he was
already in front of the Countess's house.
The weather was terrible;
the wind blew
with great violence;
the sleety snow fell in large flakes;
the lamps emitted a feeble light,
the streets were deserted;
from time to time a sledge,
drawn by a sorry-looking hack,
passed by, on the look-out
for a belated passenger.
Hermann was enveloped in a thick
overcoat, and felt neither wind nor snow.
At last the Countess's
carriage drew up.
Hermann saw two footmen carry out
in their arms the bent form of the old lady,
wrapped in sable fur,
and immediately behind her,
clad in a warm mantle,
and with her head ornamented with a wreath
of fresh flowers, followed Lizaveta.
The door was closed.
The carriage rolled away heavily
through the yielding snow.
The porter shut the street-door;
the windows became dark.
Hermann began walking up and
down near the deserted house;
at length he stopped under a lamp, and glanced
at his watch: it was 20 minutes past eleven.
He remained standing under the lamp,
his eyes fixed upon the watch,
impatiently waiting for
the remaining minutes to pass.
At half-past eleven precisely,
Hermann ascended
the steps of the house,
and made his way into the
brightly-illuminated vestibule.
The porter was not there.
Hermann hastily ascended the staircase,
opened the door of the ante-room
and saw a footman sitting asleep
in an antique chair by the side of a lamp.
With a light firm step
Hermann passed by him.
The drawing-room and
dining-room were in darkness,
but a feeble reflection penetrated
thither from the lamp in the ante-room.
Hermann reached
the Countess's bedroom.
Before a shrine,
which was full of old images,
a golden lamp was burning.
Faded stuffed chairs and
divans with soft cushions
stood in melancholy symmetry
around the room, the walls of which
were hung with China silk.
On one side of the room hung two portraits
painted in Paris by Madame Lebrun.
One of these represented
a stout, red-faced man
of about forty years of age in a bright-green
uniform and with a star upon his breast;
the other - a beautiful young
woman, with an aquiline nose
forehead curls and a rose
in her powdered hair.
In the corners stood porcelain
shepherds and shepherdesses,
dining-room clocks from the worksho
of the celebrated Lefroy,
bandboxes, roulettes, fans and the various
playthings for the amusement of ladies
that were in vogue
at the end of the last century,
when Montgolfier's balloons and
Mesmer's magnetism were the rage.
Hermann stepped behind the screen.
At the back of it stood
a little iron bedstead;
on the right was the door
which led to the cabinet;
on the left - the other
which led to the corridor.
He opened the latter, and saw
the little winding staircase
which led to the room
of the poor companion...
But he retraced his steps
and entered the dark cabinet.
The time passed slowly.
All was still.
The clock in the drawing-room
struck twelve;
the strokes echoed through
the room one after the other,
and everything was quiet again.
Hermann stood leaning
against the cold stove.
He was calm;
his heart beat regularly, like that
of a man resolved upon a dangerous
but inevitable undertaking.
One o'clock in the morning
struck; then two;
and he heard the distant
noise of carriage-wheels.
An involuntary agitation
took possession of him.
The carriage drew near
and stopped.
He heard the sound
of carriage-steps.
All began to bustle.
They started running
voices resounded,
and it was light.
Three maids entered
the room running,
and the Countess, half alive,
sank into the armchair.
Hermann peeped through a chink.
Lizaveta Ivanovna
passed close by him,
and he heard her hurried steps as she
hastened up the little spiral staircase.
For a moment his heart was assailed
by something like a pricking of conscience,
but the emotion was only transitory,
and his heart became
petrified as before.
The Countess began to undress
before her looking-glass.
Her rose-bedecked cap
was taken off,
and then her powdered wig was removed
from off her white and closely-cut hair.
Hairpins fell in showers around her.
Her yellow satin dress, brocaded with silver,
fell down at her swollen feet.
Hermann was a witness of the repugnant
mysteries of her toilette;
at last the Countess was in her
night-cap and dressing-gown,
and in this costume,
more suitable to her age,
she appeared less
hideous and deformed.
Like all old people, the Countess
suffered from insomnia.
She undressed, sat down in an armchair
and dismissed her maids
The candles were taken out,
there was only one lamp
burning in the room.
The Countess sat there
looking quite yellow,
mumbling with her flaccid lips
and swaying to and fro.
Her dull eyes expressed
complete vacancy of mind,
and, looking at her,
one would have thought
that the rocking of her body was
not a voluntary action of her own,
but was produced by the action
of some concealed galvanic mechanism.
Suddenly the death-like face
assumed an inexplicable expression.
The lips ceased to tremble,
the eyes became animated:
before the Countess
stood an unknown man.
Do not be alarmed,
for Heaven's sake,
do not be alarmed!
I have no intention
of doing you any harm,
I have only come
to ask a favour of you.
I have only come
to ask a favour of you.
Do not be alarmed!
You can insure
the happiness of my life,
and it will cost you nothing.
I know that you can name
three cards in order ...
It was a joke,
I assure you it was only a joke.
There is no joking
about the matter.
Remember Chaplitzky,
whom you helped to win.
Can you not name me
these three winning cards?
For whom are you preserving
your secret? For your grandsons?
They are rich enough without it;
they do not know the worth of money.
Your cards would be
of no use to a spendthrift.
He who cannot preserve
his paternal inheritance,
will die in want, even though
he had a demon at his service.
I am not a man of that sort;
I know the value of money.
Your three cards will not
be thrown away upon me.
Come!..
If your heart has ever known
the feeling of love,
if you remember its rapture,
if you have ever smiled at the cry
of your new-born child,
if any human feeling has ever
entered into your breast,
I entreat you
by the feelings of a wife, a lover,
a mother, by all that is most sacred in life,
not to reject my prayer.
Reveal to me your secret.
Of what use is it to you?...
May be it is connected
with some terrible sin
with the loss of eternal salvation, with
some bargain with the devil... Reflect, -
you are old;
you have not long to live -
I am ready to take your sins
upon my soul. Remember...
that the happiness
of a man
is in your hands,
that not only I, but my children, and
grandchildren will bless your memory
and reverence you as a saint...
You old hag!
then I will make you answer!
Come, an end to this
childish nonsense!
I ask you for the last time:
will you tell me the names
of your three cards,
or will you not?
The Countess made no reply.
Hermann perceived
that she was dead!
Chapter IV
7 ??? 18**.
May 7, 18**.
A man without morals
or religion. - A Correspondence.
Lizaveta Ivanovna was in her room,
still in her ball dress,
lost in thought.
On returning home, she
dismissed the chambermaid
who reluctantly came
over to help her,
said that she would undress herself,
and with a trembling heart went to her room,
hoping to find Hermann there,
yet wishing not to find him.
At the first glance she convinced
herself that he was not there,
and she thanked her fate for having
prevented him keeping the appointment.
She sat down without undressing,
and began to recall to mind
all the circumstances which in so
short a time had carried her so far.
It was not three weeks
since the time
when she first saw the young
officer from the window-
and yet she was already
in correspondence with him,
and he had succeeded in inducing
her to grant him a nocturnal interview!
She knew his name only through
his having written it at the bottom
of some of his letters;
she had never spoken to him,
had never heard his voice,
and had never
heard him spoken of
until that evening.
But, strange to say,
that very evening at the ball,
Tomsky, being piqued
with the young Princess Pauline,
who, contrary to her usual
custom, did not flirt with him,
wished to revenge himself
by assuming an air of indifference:
he therefore engaged Lizaveta Ivanovna
and danced an endless mazurka with her.
During the whole of the time he kept teasing
her about her partiality for Engineer officers;
he assured her that he knew
far more than she imagined,
and some of his jests
were so happily aimed,
that Lizaveta thought
several times
that her secret
was known to him.
From whom have
you learnt all this?
From a friend of a person very well
known to you - a very distinguished man.
- And who is this distinguished man?
- His name is Hermann.
This Hermann, is a man
of romantic personality.
He has the profile of a Napoleon,
and the soul of a Mephistopheles.
I believe that he has at least three
crimes upon his conscience...
How pale you have become!..
- I have a headache...
But what did this Hermann
- or whatever his name is - tell you
Hermann is very much
dissatisfied with his friend:
he says that in his place
he would act very differently...
I even think that Hermann
himself has designs upon you;
at least, he listens
very attentively to all
that his friend has
to say about you.
And where has he seen me?
In church, perhaps; or on the parade
- God alone knows where.
It may have been in your room,
while you were asleep,
for there is nothing that he...
Three ladies approaching him with the question:
"oubliou regret?" interrupted the conversation,
which had become so tantalisingly
interesting to Lizaveta.
The lady chosen by Tomsky
was the Princess Pauline herself.
She managed to speak to him
by making another round,
by turning round
in front of her chair.
On returning to his place,
Tomsky thought no more
either of Hermann or Lizaveta.
She longed to renew
the interrupted conversation,
but the mazurka came to an end,
and shortly afterwards
the old Countess
took her departure.
Tomsky's words were nothing more
than the customary small talk of the dance,
but they sank deep into
the soul of the young dreamer.
The portrait, sketched by Tomsky,
was very much like the image
she made up in her mind,
and thanks to the latest romances,
it was a trivial face
frightened her and
fascinated her imagination.
She was now sitting
with her bare arms crossed
and with her head, still adorned with flowers,
sunk upon her uncovered bosom.
Suddenly the door opened
and Hermann entered.
She shuddered.
Where were you?
In the old Countess's bedroom.
I have just left her.
The Countess is dead.
My God!
What do you say?
And I am afraid, that I am
the cause of her death.
Lizaveta looked at him,
and Tomsky's words
found an echo in her soul:
"This man has at least three
crimes upon his conscience!"
Hermann sat down by the window near her,
and related all that had happened.
Lizaveta listened
to him in terror.
So all those passionate letters,
those ardent desires,
this bold obstinate pursuit -
all this was not love!
Money - that was what
his soul yearned for!
She could not satisfy his desire
and make him happy.
I had been nothing but
the blind tool of a robber,
of the murderer of my
aged benefactress!..
She wept bitter tears
of agonised repentance.
Hermann gazed at her in silence:
his heart, too, was
a prey to violent emotion,
but neither the tears
of the poor girl,
nor the wonderful charm of her beauty could
produce any impression upon his hardened soul.
He felt no pricking of conscience
at the thought of the dead old woman.
One thing only grieved him:
the irreparable
loss of the secret
from which he had expected
to obtain great wealth.
You are a monster!
I did not wish for her death,
my pistol was not loaded.
Both remained silent.
The day began to dawn.
Lizaveta extinguished her candle:
a pale light illumined her room.
She wiped her tear-stained eyes
and raised them towards Hermann:
he was sitting near the window, with his arms
crossed and with a fierce frown upon his forehead.
In this attitude he bore
a striking resemblance
to the portrait of Napoleon.
This resemblance
struck Lizaveta even.
How shall I get you
out of the house?
I thought of conducting you
down the secret staircase,
but in that case it would be necessary to go
through the Countess's bedroom, and I am afraid.
Tell me how to find
this secret staircase -
I will go alone.
Hermann pressed
her cold, limp hand,
kissed her bowed head,
and left the room.
He descended the winding staircase, and
once more entered the Countess's bedroom.
The dead old lady
sat as if petrified;
her face expressed
profound tranquillity.
Hermann stopped before her,
and gazed long and earnestly at her, as if he
wished to convince himself of the terrible reality;
at last he entered the cabinet,
felt behind the tapestry
for the door,
and then began to descend the dark
staircase, filled with strange emotions.
Down this very staircase, perhaps
coming from the very same room,
and at this very same hour sixty
years ago, there may have glided,
in an embroidered coat, with his
hair dressed a l'oiseau royal
and pressing to his heart his
three-cornered hat, some young gallant,
who has long been
mouldering in the grave,
but the heart of his aged mistress
has only to-day ceased to beat...
At the bottom of the staircase Hermann
found a door, which he opened with a key,
and then traversed a corridor which
conducted him into the street.
Chapter V
That night the dead Baroness von W.
appeared to me
She was all in white
and said:
'How do you do, Mr. Councillor?'
- Swedenborg.
Three days after the fatal night,
at nine o'clock in the morning,
Hermann repaired to the Convent,
where the last honours were to be paid
to the mortal remains of the old Countess.
Although feeling no remorse,
he could not altogether stifle
the voice of conscience,
which said to him: "You are
the murderer of the old woman!"
In spite of his entertaining very little religious
belief, he was exceedingly superstitious;
and believing that the dead Countess
might exercise an evil influence on his life,
he resolved to be present at her
obsequies in order to implore her pardon.
The church was full.
It was with difficulty that Hermann made
his way through the crowd of people.
The coffin was placed upon a rich
catafalque beneath a velvet baldachin.
The deceased Countess lay within it,
with her hands crossed upon her breast,
with a lace cap upon her head
and dressed in a white satin robe.
Around the catafalque stood
the members of her household:
the servants in black caftans, with armorial ribbons
upon their shoulders, and candles in their hands;
the relatives - children, grandchildren, and
great-grandchildren - in deep mourning.
Nobody wept; tears would
have been une affectation.
The Countess was so old, that her
death could have surprised nobody,
and her relatives had long looked
upon her as being out of the world.
A famous preacher pronounced
the funeral sermon.
In simple and touching words he
described the peaceful passing away
of the righteous, who had
passed long years
in calm preparation
for a Christian end.
The angel of death
found her,
engaged in pious meditation
and waiting for
the midnight bridegroom.
The service concluded
amidst profound silence.
The relatives went forward first
to take farewell of the corpse.
Then followed the numerous guests, who
had come to render the last homage to her
who for so many years had been
a participator in their frivolous amusements.
After these followed the members
of the Countess's household.
The last of these was an old woman
of the same age as the deceased.
Two young women led her
forward by the hand.
She had not strength enough
to bow down to the ground -
she merely shed a few tears
and kissed the cold
hand of her mistress.
Hermann now resolved
to approach the coffin.
He knelt down upon
the cold stones
and remained in that
position for some minutes;
at last he arose, as pale as
the deceased Countess herself;
he ascended the steps
of the catafalque
and bent over the corpse...
At that moment
it seemed to him
that the dead woman darted
a mocking look at him
and winked with one eye.
Hermann started back,
took a false step
and fell to the ground.
Several persons raised him up.
At the same moment Lizaveta Ivanovna
was borne fainting into the porch of the church.
This episode
disturbed for some minutes the solemnity
of the gloomy ceremony.
Among the congregation
arose a deep murmur,
and a tall thin chamberlain,
a near relative of the deceased,
whispered in the ear of an Englishman
who was standing near him,
that the young officer was
a natural son of the Countess,
to which the Englishman
coldly replied: "Oh!"
During the whole of that day,
Hermann was strangely excited.
Repairing to an out-of-the-way restaurant
to dine, he drank a great deal of wine,
contrary to his usual custom, in the hope
of deadening his inward agitation.
But the wine only served to excite
his imagination still more.
On returning home, he threw himself
upon his bed without undressing,
and fell into a deep sleep.
When he woke up
it was already night,
and the moon was
shining into the room.
He looked at his watch:
it was a quarter to three.
Sleep had left him;
he sat down upon his bed
and thought of the funeral
of the old Countess.
At that moment
somebody in the street
looked in at his window,
and immediately passed on again.
Hermann paid no attention
to this incident.
A few moments afterwards he heard
the door of his ante-room open.
Hermann thought
that it was his orderly,
drunk as usual, returning from
some nocturnal expedition,
but presently he heard footsteps
that were unknown to him:
somebody was walking
softly over the floor in slippers.
The door opened,
and a woman dressed
in white, entered the room.
Hermann mistook her
for his old nurse,
and wondered what could bring
her there at that hour of the night.
But the white woman
glided rapidly
across the room
and stood before him -
and Hermann
recognised the Countess!
I have come to you
against my wish,
but I have been ordered
to grant your request.
Three, seven, ace,
will win for you
if played in succession,
but only on these conditions:
that you do not play more
than one card in twenty-four hours,
and that you never play again
during the rest of your life.
I forgive you my death,
on condition that you marry
my companion,
Lizaveta Ivanovna...
With these words
she turned round very quietly,
walked with a shuffling
gait towards the door
and disappeared.
Hermann heard the street-door
open and shut,
and again he saw some one look
in at him through the window.
For a long time Hermann
could not recover himself.
He then rose up and
entered the next room.
His orderly was lying
asleep upon the floor,
and he had much
difficulty in waking him.
The orderly was drunk as usual,
and no information could
be obtained from him.
The street-door was locked.
Hermann returned to his room,
lit his candle,
and wrote down all
the details of his vision.
Chapter VI
"Attendez!"
"How dare you say 'attendez' to me?"
"Your excellency,
I said 'attendez, sir'"
Two fixed ideas
can no more exist
together in the moral world
than two bodies can occupy
one and the same place
in the physical world.
"Three, seven, ace,"
soon drove out of Hermann's mind
the thought of the dead Countess.
"Three, seven, ace," were perpetually
running through his head
and continually being
repeated by his lips.
If he saw a young girl,
he would say:
How slender she is!
quite like the three of hearts.
If anybody asked:
"What is the time?"
he would reply:
Five minutes to seven.
Every stout man that he saw
reminded him of the ace.
"Three, seven, ace"
haunted him in his sleep,
and assumed all possible shapes.
The threes bloomed before him
in the forms of magnificent flowers,
the sevens were represented
by Gothic portals,
and the aces became transformed
into gigantic spiders.
One thought alone
occupied his whole mind -
to make a profitable use of the secret
which he had purchased so dearly.
He thought of applying for
a furlough so as to travel abroad.
He wanted to go to Paris
and tempt fortune in some
of the public gambling-houses
that abounded there.
Chance spared him
all this trouble.
There was in Moscow
a society of rich gamesters,
presided over by
the celebrated Chekalinsky,
who had passed all his
life at the card-table
and had amassed millions,
accepting bills of exchange for his winnings
and paying his losses in ready money.
His long experience secured for him
the confidence of his companions,
and his open house, his famous cook,
and his agreeable and fascinating manners
gained for him the respect
of the public.
He came to St. Petersburg.
The young men of the capital flocked
to his rooms, forgetting balls for cards,
and preferring the emotions of faro
to the seductions of flirting.
Narumov conducted Hermann
to Chekalinsky's residence.
They passed through a suite of magnificent
rooms, filled with attentive domestics.
Generals and Privy Counsellors
were playing at whist;
young men were lolling carelessly
upon the velvet-covered sofas,
eating ices and smoking pipes.
In the drawing-room,
at the head of a long table,
around which were assembled
about a score of players,
sat the master of the house
keeping the bank.
He was a man of about sixty years of age,
of a very dignified appearance;
his head was covered
with silvery-white hair;
his full, florid countenance
expressed good-nature,
and his eyes twinkled
with a perpetual smile.
Narumov introduced Hermann to him.
Chekalinsky shook him by
the hand in a friendly manner,
requested him not to stand on
ceremony, and then went on dealing.
The game lasted long.
There were over
thirty cards on the table.
Chekalinsky paused
after each throw,
in order to let the players
to arrange the cards
and wrote down the losses,
listening to their requests,
and politely put straight the corners
of cards that some player had bent.
The game was over now.
Chekalinsky shuffled the cards
and prepared to deal again.
Let me stake.
Yes.
Happy absolution!
Good luck!
Stake!
How much?
excuse me, I cannot
see quite clearly.
47,000 rubles.
At these words every head in
the room turned suddenly round,
and all eyes were
fixed upon Hermann.
"He has taken leave of
his senses!" thought Narumov.
Allow me to inform you,
that you are playing very high;
nobody here has ever staked
more than 275 rubles at once.
Very well,
but do you accept
my card or not?
I only wish to say,
that although I trust my friends,
I can only play
against ready money.
As for me, I am quite sure
that your word is enough,
but as a formality, I ask you
to stake the money.
I have won!
Do you wish me
to settle with you?
If you please.
Chekalinsky drew from his
pocket a number of banknotes
and paid at once.
Hermann took up his
money and left the table.
Narumov could not recover
from his astonishment.
Hermann drank a glass
of lemonade and returned home.
The next evening he appeared
at Chekalinsky's again.
The host was dealing.
Hermann walked up to the table;
the punters made room for him.
Chekalinsky greeted him
with a gracious bow.
Hermann waited for the next
deal and staked.
47,000 rubles all in all
and his previous winning.
Chekalinsky began to deal.
A knave turned up on the right,
a seven on the left.
Hermann showed his...
seven.
There was a general exclamation.
Chekalinsky was
evidently ill at ease,
but he counted out 94.000 rubles
and handed them over to Hermann,
who pocketed them
in the coolest manner possible
and immediately left the house.
The next evening Hermann
appeared again at the table.
Every one was expecting him.
The generals and Privy
Counsellors left their whist
in order to watch
such extraordinary play.
The young officers
quitted their sofas,
and even the servants crowded into
the room. All pressed round Hermann.
The other players
left off punting,
impatient to see
how it would end.
Hermann stood at the table and
prepared to play alone against the pale,
but still smiling Chekalinsky.
Each opened a pack of cards.
Chekalinsky shuffled.
Hermann took a card and
covered it with a pile of bank-notes.
It was like a duel.
Deep silence reigned around.
Chekalinsky began to deal;
his hands trembled.
On the right a queen turned up,
and on the left an ace.
Ace has won!
Your queen has lost.
Instead of an ace,
there lay before him
the queen of spades!
He could not believe his eyes,
nor could he understand how
he had made such a mistake.
At that moment it seemed to him
that the queen of spades
smiled ironically
and winked her eye at him.
He was struck by her
remarkable resemblance...
The old Countess!
Chekalinsky gathered up
his winnings.
Hermann remained
perfectly motionless.
When at last he left the table,
there was a general
commotion in the room.
"Splendidly punted!"
said the players.
Chekalinsky shuffled
the cards afresh,
and the game went on as usual.
EPILOGUE
Hermann went out of his mind,
and is now confined in room Number 17
of the Obukhov Hospital.
He never answers any questions,
but he constantly mutters
with unusual rapidity:
"Three, seven, ace!"
"Three, seven, queen!"
Lizaveta Ivanovna has married
a very amiable young man,
a son of the former
steward of the old Countess.
He is in the service of the State somewhere,
and is in receipt of a good income.
Lizaveta is also supporting
a poor relative.
Tomsky
has been promoted
to the rank of captain,
and has become the husband
of the Princess Pauline.
Cast:
Engineer Hermann
Viktor PROSKURIN
Lizaveta Ivanovna
Irina DYMCHENKO
Countess Anna Fedotovna
Yelena GLAGOLEVA
Tomsky
Vitaly SOLOMIN
Chekalinsky
Innokenty SMOKTUNOVSKY
Narumov
Konstantin GRIGORYEV
Surin
Alexander ZAKHAROV
A. PINTOVSKAYA,
V. BOGDANOV, Ye. GRADOV
Music by
Dmitry BORTYANSKY
Directed by
Igor MASLENNIKOV
Director of Photography
Yury VEKSLER
Production Designer
Isaak KAPLAN
Costume Designer
Nelli LEV
Sound Engineer
Asya ZVEREVA
Translation by Natalie Duddington
and Alec Vagapov
Subtitles by Boris Bulgakov
The End