"Are you beside yourself? Don't you see that that man with the glasses is a cheat of the worst order?" "Hey? Nonsense! Be careful what you say." "No nonsense! but quit it, I tell you. It makes no difference to me. Another time I myself would have plucked you; but now I am sorry to see you ruining yourself. Have you any public money left?" "No. What makes you think so about him?" "Brother, I have been over this same road, and I know the ways of these professional gamblers. I tell you that the man in the glasses is a cheat. Quit, please. I ask you as a comrade." "All right; I'll have just one more hand, and then have done with it." "I know what that 'one more' means: very well, we will see." They returned to the gaming-table. In one deal he laid down so many cards, and they were trumped so badly, that he lost a large amount. Turbin rested his hand in the middle of the table, and said, "That's enough! now let us be going." "No, I can't go yet; leave me, please," said Ilyin in vexation, shuffling the bent cards and not looking at Turbin. "All right! the Devil be with you! Lose all you've got, if that please you; but it's time for me to be going.--Come, Zavalshevsky, let us go to the marshal's." And they went out. No one spoke, and Lukhnof did not make the bank until the noise of their feet and of Blücher's paws had died away down the corridor. "That's a madcap," said the proprietor, smiling. "Well, now he won't bother us any more," said the garrison officer in a hurried whisper. And the game went on. IV. The band, composed of the marshal's domestic serfs, were stationed in the butler's pantry, which had been put in order on account of the ball, and, having turned up the sleeves of their coats, had begun at the signal of their leader to play the ancient polonaise "Aleksandr, Yelisaviéta;" and under the soft, brilliant light of the wax candles, the couples began to move in tripping measure through the great ballroom; a governor-general of Catherine's time, with a star, taking out the gaunt wife of the marshal, the marshal with the governor's wife, and so on through all the hierarchy of the government in various combinations and variations,--when Zavalshevsky in a blue coat with a huge collar, and epaulets on his shoulders, and wearing stockings and pumps, and exhaling about him an odor of jasmine with which he had plentifully drenched his mustaches, the facings of his coat, and his handkerchief, entered with the handsome count, who wore tight-fitting blue trousers and a red pelisse embroidered with gold, and wearing on his breast the cross of Vladímir and a medal of 1812. The count was of medium height, but had an extremely handsome figure. His clear blue eyes of remarkable brilliancy, and dark hair which was rather long and fell in thick ringlets, gave his beauty a peculiar character.