After a year or two she was left alone by the death of her companion, and step by step she learned all the lessons of sorrow.  From one stage of misfortune to another she gradually fell into the deepest misery, and had become a poor old beggar in the streets when Count Kallash came so unexpectedly to her rescue.

It will be remembered that, as a result of Natasha’s act of vengeance, the elder Princess Chechevinski left behind her only a fraction of the money her son expected to inherit.  And this fraction he by no means hoarded, but with cynical disregard of the future he poured money out like water, gambling, drinking, plunging into every form of dissipation.  Within a few months his entire inheritance was squandered.

Several years earlier Prince Chechevinski had taken a deep interest in conjuring and had devoted time and care to the study of various forms of parlor magic.  He had even paid considerable sums to traveling conjurers in exchange for their secrets.  Naturally gifted, he had mastered some of the most difficult tricks, and his skill in card conjuring would not have done discredit even to a professional magician.

The evening when his capital had almost melted away and the shadow of ruin lay heavy upon him, he happened to be present at a reception where card play was going on and considerable sums were staked.

A vacancy at one of the tables could not be filled, and, in spite of his weak protest of unwillingness, Prince Chechevinski was pressed into service.  He won for the first few rounds, and then began to lose, till the amount of his losses far exceeded the slender remainder of his capital.  A chance occurred where, by the simple expedient of neutralizing the cut, mere child’s play for one so skilled in conjuring, he was able to turn the scale in his favor, winning back in a single game all that he had already lost.  He had hesitated for a moment, feeling the abyss yawning beneath him; then he had falsed, made the pass, and won the game.  That night he swore to himself that he would never cheat again, never again be tempted to dishonor his birth; and he kept his oath till his next run of bad luck, when he once more neutralized the cut and turned the “luck” in his direction.

The result was almost a certainty from the outset, Prince Chechevinski became a habitual card sharper.

For a long time fortune favored him.  His mother’s reputation for wealth, the knowledge that he was her sole heir, the high position of the family, shielded him from suspicion.  Then came the thunderclap.  He was caught in the act of “dealing a second” in the English Club, and driven from the club as a blackleg.  Other reverses followed:  a public refusal on the part of an officer to play cards with him, followed by a like refusal to give him satisfaction in a duel; a second occasion in which he was caught redhanded; a criminal trial; six years in Siberia.  After two years he escaped by way of the Chinese frontier,