agnet, the misery is that I don't think I can get up the
stairs; I am quite done. Therefore, take your wings and fly, and let
the captain take his, and both of you fly home. As for me--" Here the
count laid down on the sofa and fell asleep.

Every one laughed; but the name he had given Ivan--Ritter
Magnet--stuck to him.

"Do you care to play cards, my learned one?" said the Marquis Salista.

"Once every three years."

"That is not often enough."

The marquis could not at this moment explain why it was not often
enough, for at this moment Count Stefan acquainted his guests that it
was time for them to depart, seeing that the ball below stairs had
broken up, and every one had gone away. The countess's rest,
therefore, might be disturbed by any noise overhead. Every one agreed
that this was quite proper.

"Only," said Salista, "there is no need for us to go home. Let us
have the card-table. Let us spend our time well. Who is for a game?"

Three players soon presented themselves; Baron Oscar was one of the
first. But the fourth? The captain called to Ivan.

"Now, my learned friend."

Count Stefan thought it necessary to inform the stranger, who was his
guest, that at the tarok-table the stakes were very high.

"Only a kreuzer the point," said the captain.

"Yes, but kreuzer points in such a game often amount to seven or eight
hundred gulden to the losing side. These gentlemen have changed a
simple game into a hazardous venture."

Ivan laughed. "Every day of my life I play hazard with nature itself;
every day I speculate with all I have on a mere chance, and play only
one card." So saying, he rolled his chair to the green table.

The game commenced. The game of hazard, as it is generally played, is
a game of chance, it needs only luck and boldness; a drunken man can
almost win by accident. But as it is played in Pesth it is something
quite different; what is called luck, chance, accident, is here allied
to skill, prudence, consideration, and boldness. The tarok-player must
not only study his cards, but also the faces of his adversaries. He
must be Lavater and Tartuffe in one; he must be a general who develops
at every moment a fresh plan of campaign, and a Bosco who can, from
the first card that is played, divine the whole situation; he must,
however, be generous, and sacrifice himself for the sake of the
general good. Therefore it was that the spectators pitied Ivan when he
sat down to the card-table to play