The old Countess answered not a word.

Hermann rose to his feet.

“You old hag!” he exclaimed, grinding his teeth, “then I will make you answer!” With these words he drew a pistol from his pocket.  At the sight of the pistol, the Countess for the second time exhibited strong emotions.  She shook her head, and raised her hands as if to protect herself from the shot.  Then she fell backwards, and remained motionless.

“Come, an end to this childish nonsense!” said Hermann, taking hold of her hand.  “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!

IV

Lizaveta Ivanovna was sitting in her room, still in her ball dress, lost in deep thought.  On returning home, she had hastily dismissed the chambermaid, who very reluctantly came forward to assist her, saying that she would undress herself, and with a trembling heart had gone up to her own room, expecting to find Hermann there, but yet hoping not to find him.  At the first glance he was not there, and she thanked her fate for having prevented him keeping the appointment.  She sat down without undressing, and began to call to mind all the circumstances which in a short time had carried her so far.  It was not three weeks since the time when she had first seen 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 N——­, 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 learned all this?” she asked, smiling.

“From a friend of a person very well known to you,” replied Tomsky, “from a very distinguished man.”

“And whom is this distinguished man?”

“His name is Hermann.”  Lizaveta made no reply, but her hands and feet lost all sense of feeling.

“This Hermann,” continued Tomsky, “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?”