"Splendid! Do it again," they cried, "once more."
Well enough to cry "once more," especially for the Pole. That fellow would have been glad enough to crawl under the billiard-table, or even under the Blue bridge, for a half-ruble! Yet he was the first to cry, "Splendid! but you haven't wiped off all the dust yet."
I, Petrushka the marker, was pretty well known to everybody.
Only, of course, I did not care to show my hand yet. I lost my second game.
"It does not become me at all to play with you, sir," says I.
He laughs. Then, as I was playing the third game, he stood forty-nine and I nothing. I laid the cue on the billiard-table, and said, "Bárin, shall we play off?"
"What do you mean by playing off?" says he. "How would you have it?"
"You make it three rubles or nothing," says I.
"Why," says he, "have I been playing with you for money?" The fool!
He turned rather red.