"Are you ashamed to be seen with me? Stop at home, then, and
you will be asked no questions. A pretty General YOU are, to be
sure! I am a general's widow myself. But, after all, why should
I drag the whole party with me? I will go and see the sights
with only Alexis Ivanovitch as my escort."

De Griers strongly insisted that EVERY ONE ought to accompany
her. Indeed, he launched out into a perfect shower of charming
phrases concerning the pleasure of acting as her cicerone, and
so forth. Every one was touched with his words.

"Mais elle est tombee en enfance," he added aside to the
General. " Seule, elle fera des betises." More than this I could
not overhear, but he seemed to have got some plan in his mind,
or even to be feeling a slight return of his hopes.

The distance to the Casino was about half a verst, and our route
led us through the Chestnut Avenue until we reached the square
directly fronting the building. The General, I could see, was a
trifle reassured by the fact that, though our progress was
distinctly eccentric in its nature, it was, at least, correct
and orderly. As a matter of fact, the spectacle of a person who
is unable to walk is not anything to excite surprise at a spa.
Yet it was clear that the General had a great fear of the Casino
itself: for why should a person who had lost the use of her
limbs--more especially an old woman--be going to rooms which were
set apart only for roulette? On either side of the wheeled chair
walked Polina and Mlle. Blanche--the latter smiling, modestly
jesting, and, in short, making herself so agreeable to the