The Queen of Spades

- What are you, my mother! deaf, whether! - cried the Countess. - Veli soon lay carriage.
- Now! - she replied quietly girl and ran to the front.
A servant entered and gave the Countess books from Prince Pavel Alexandrovich.
- Good! Thank, - said the countess. - Lizanka, Lizanka! so where are you running?
- Dress Up.
- You'll have time, mother. Stay here. Cutting-the first volume; read aloud ...
Her companion took the book and read a few lines.
- Louder! - said the countess. - What is with you, my mother? you lost your voice, whether?.. Guess: give me that footstool, closer ... well,! –
Lizaveta read two more pages. The Countess yawned.
- Put the book, - she said, - what nonsense! Send it back to Prince Paul with my thanks ... But where is the carriage?
- Boxes ready. - said Lizaveta, looking at the street.
- Why are not you dressed? - said the countess, - I must always wait for you! it, mother, unbearably.
Lisa ran to her room. Less than two minutes, Countess began to ring with all his might. Three girls ran into a door, and the valet at another.
- What is it you do not doklicheshsya? - said the Countess. - Tell Lizaveta Ivanovna, I'm waiting for her.
Lizaveta Ivanovna went into the hood and hat.
- Finally, my mother! - said the countess. - What kind of clothes! why is?.. one deceive?.. And what is the weather? - it seems, wind.
- Not at all, Your Excellency! very quiet, with! - replied the valet.
- You always say at random! Open to the window.
And there is: wind! and preholodny! postpone coach! Lizanka, we will not go: there was nothing to dress up.
"And now my life!"- thought Lizaveta.
Indeed, Lizaveta Ivanovna was a very unfortunate creature. Stranger is bitter bread *, Dante says, and heavy steps of another porch, and who should know the bitterness of dependence, but poor of an old lady? countess ***, of course, not a bad heart; but she was capricious, as a woman, spoiled by the world, avaricious and egotistical, like all old people, otlyubivshie in his life, and not the present. She participated in all the vanities of the great world, I went to balls, where she sat in a corner, painted and dressed in old fashion, as ugly and necessary decoration of the ballroom; her with low bows came arriving guests, both established rite, and then no it is not engaged. At home, she took the whole city, observing a strict etiquette and not recognizing one's face. Its numerous servants, razzhirev and turn gray in her front and the maiden, She did what she wanted, vie robbing the dying old woman. Lizaveta Ivanovna was the martyr of the household. She poured out the tea, and was reproached with using too much sugar; she read novels aloud and was to blame for all mistakes of the author; she accompanied the Countess in her walks, and was responsible for the weather and the pavement. She was assigned a salary, which never paid extra; and yet they demanded of it, that she was dressed, like everyone else, that is, as very few. In the light, she played the most pitiable role. Everyone knew her, and nobody noticed; At balls she danced only, how lacking vis-à-vis #, and the ladies took her arm whenever, as they had to go to the bathroom to fix something in their finery. She was proud of, She felt her position keenly, and she looked about her, - looking forward to a savior; but young people, calculating in their giddiness, honored her attention, although Lizaveta Ivanovna was a hundred times prettier than arrogant and cold brides, about which they buzz. How many times, quietly slink away from a magnificent living room, she went to cry in her own poor little room, where screens were, wallpapered, chest of drawers, glass and a painted bed and where a tallow candle burnt feebly in a copper candlestick!
One day, - This happened two days after the party, described at the beginning of this story, and a week previous to the scene, where we stayed, - Lizaveta Ivanovna, sitting by the window for the hoop, inadvertently I looked outside and saw a young engineer, standing motionless with his eyes fixed upon her window. She lowered her head and over her work; Five minutes later she looked out again, - the young officer stood in the same place. Not being in the habit of flirting with passing officers, she stopped to look at the street and sewed about two hours, without raising her head. served dinner. she got, He is beginning to put her embroidery and, glancing casually into the street, Again she saw the officer. It seemed to her rather strange. After dinner, she went to the window with a certain feeling of uneasiness, but the officer was not, - and she forgot about him ...
Two days later, leaving the Countess to sit in the carriage, She saw him again. He was standing near the entrance, covering his face with a beaver collar: his black eyes gleamed from under his hat. Lizaveta Ivanovna was frightened, not knowing what, and sat in the carriage with inexplicable trepidation.
returning home, She ran to the window, - the officer was standing in the same place, staring at her: she went, tormented by a sense of curiosity and agitated, quite new to her.
Since then, not a day, to young people, at a certain hour, He was not under the windows of their homes. Between them and it was established a sort of mute acquaintance. Sitting in her place of work, she felt it coming, - I raised her head, I looked at it every day longer and longer. Young man, it seemed, I was grateful for her: she saw the sharp eye of youth, how a sudden flush covered his pale cheeks every time, When their eyes met. A week later, she smiled at him ...
When Tomsky asked permission to introduce his friend Countess, the heart of the poor girl's beating. but learning, that Narumov not an engineer, and the Horse Guards, she regretted, that the indiscreet question voiced her secret to the volatile Tomsky.
Hermann was the son of Russified Germans, leaving him with little capital. Firmly convinced of the need to establish their independence, Hermann did not touch and interest, He lived on his pay, He did not allow himself the slightest whim. However, He was reserved and ambitious, and his companions rarely had occasion to laugh at his excessive thrift. He had strong passions and an ardent imagination, but the hardness saved him from the usual errors of youth. So, eg, being heart player, I never had a card in hand, calculated for, that his condition did not allow him (as he said) sacrifice the necessary in the hope of winning the superfluous, - and yet the whole night sat at the card table and follow with feverish anxiety the different turns of the game.
Anecdote of the three cards is strongly acted on his imagination and the whole night did not come out of his head. "What, if a, - he thought the following evening, wandering around Petersburg, - what, if the old Countess reveal to me his secret! - or appoint me these three winning cards! Why not try my luck?.. introduce her, win her favor, - perhaps the, become her lover, - but it all takes time - and she is eighty-seven years, - she could die in a week, - Two days later!.. And most anecdote?.. Can I trust him?.. Not! payment, temperance and diligence: Here are my three winning cards, Now that the triple, usemerit my capital and bring me peace and independence!»
Reasoning thus, he found himself in one of the main streets of St. Petersburg, front of the house of ancient architecture. The street was crowded with carriages, one after another coach rolled to a lighted entrance. From coaches constantly stretched the slender foot of some young beauty, then hremuchaya boots, the striped stocking and shoe diplomatic. Coats and cloaks flashed past the majestic porter. Hermann stopped.
- Whose is this house? - he asked the policeman corner.
- Countess ***, - replied the watchman.
Germanys zatrepetal. Amazing anecdote again presented to his imagination. He began to walk around the house, I am thinking of its owner and her strange secret. Late when he returned to his humble corner; I could not sleep, and, when sleep seized them, he dreamed card, green table, piles of banknotes and heaps of ducats. He played one card after, bent corners firmly, won
incessantly, and zagrebal to yourself gold, and put banknotes into the pocket. Waking up too late, He sighed over the loss of his imaginary wealth, I went again to roam around the city and once again found himself in front of the house of the Countess ***. An unknown force, it seemed, attracted him to it. He stopped and looked at the window. In one he saw the black-haired head, inclined, probably, on the book or on the job. head lifted. Hermann saw a fresh face and a black eye. That moment decided his fate.
III
You write, my angel, soon more letters of four pages that I can not read. #
Correspondence.

Only Lizaveta Ivanovna had scarcely taken off her hat and cloak, when the Countess sent for her and ordered the carriage again to file. They went to sit down. At the same time,, as the two footmen lifted the old woman and stuck in door, Lizaveta at the wheel saw her Engineer; He grabbed her hand; she could not recover from the fright, the young man disappeared: letter remained in her hand. She hid it in her glove, and during all the way she did not hear anything and did not see. The countess was wont to do every minute in the coach questions: who is to meet with us? - the name of this bridge? - what it says on the sign? Lizaveta this time answered at random and at random, and angered the Countess.
- What's the matter with you, my mother! Tetanus whether found on you, whether? You do or you do not hear or do not understand?.. God bless, I do not kartavlyu and of the mind has not survived!
Lizaveta Ivanovna did not listen. returning home, she ran to her room, She pulled out of her glove a letter: it was not sealed. Lizaveta Ivanovna read it. The letter contained a declaration of love: it was tender, respectful, and word for word from a German novel. But Lizaveta German did not know how and was very pleased with it.
, The letter is extremely worried about her. For the first time she entered into secret, close relations with young men. His boldness alarmed her. She reproached herself for her imprudent behavior, and did not know, what to do: stop whether to sit by the window and neglect the young officer desire for further persecution? - whether to send him a letter? - I answer coldly and decisively? She had no one to consult, in it there was not a girlfriend, not nastavnicy. Lizaveta Ivanovna decided to answer.
She sat down at the writing table, He took the pen, paper - and wondered. Several times she began her letter, - and tore it: the expression seemed to her too lenient, is too violent. Finally she managed to write a few lines, that she was satisfied. "I'm sure, - she wrote, - that your intentions are honorable, and that you do not wish to offend me by any imprudent behavior; but our acquaintance must not begin in such a way. I return you your letter and hope, I'll never have any cause to complain of this undeserved slight ".
Next day, seeing walking Hermann, Lizaveta arose due to the hoop, I came out in the hall, I opened the window and threw the letter into the street, trusting that the young officer's agility. Hermann ran, He picked it up and went into a confectioner's shop. Breaking, he found his letter and answer Lizaveta. He had expected and returned home, very occupied with his intrigue.
Three days after Lizaveta Ivanovna young, Quick-to Mademoiselle brought a note from the fashionable shops. Lizaveta opened it with great uneasiness, foreseeing cash requirements, and suddenly she recognized Hermann's hand.
- you, darling, make a mistake, - she said, - this letter is not for me.
- Not, it is for you! - replied the girl, smiling very knowingly. - Kindly read!
Lizaveta Ivanovna ran a note. Hermann requested an interview.
- Can not be! - said Lizaveta, frightened and haste requirements and method, their use of. - This letter is certainly not for me! - And she tore it into pieces.
- When not writing for you, Why have you torn it? - said the girl, - I would have given it back to, who sent him.
- You are welcome, darling! - said Lizaveta, disconcerted by this remark, - to bring me the notes do not carry. Because, who sent you, tell, that he should be ashamed ...
But Germany has not subsided. Every day Lizaveta received from him a letter, totem, some other way. They were no longer translated from the German. Hermann wrote them, inspired by passion, and said tongue, he is characterized by: They express and inflexibility of his desire, and a mess of unbridled imagination. Lizaveta no longer thought of sending: she reveled in them; I began to answer them, - and its notes the hour became longer and gentler. Finally, she threw him out of the window the following letter:
"Today the ball at *** Skog envoy. The Countess will be there. We will stay until two o'clock. Here's a case of seeing me alone. As soon as the Countess is gone, its people, probably, will disperse, in the passage will remain doorman, but he usually goes to his room. Come half past eleven. Go straight to the stairs. If you meet anybody in front, you ask, home you Countess. You say no, - and there is nothing. You'll have to come back. But, probably, you will not find anyone. Girls sit at, all in one room. Step to the left from the front, walk straight up to the Countess's bedroom. In the bedroom, behind a screen, you will see two small doors: Right in the office, where the Countess never enters; left in the corridor, and a little winding staircase: this leads to my room ".

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