“Because I must go on gambling and win the money back. I can’t remain your debtor.”
“You will only increase your indebtedness, Amadeus. But I won’t prevent you, if you’ll make up your mind to name a limit.”
Amadeus laughed hoarsely. “I knew you’d be magnanimous, Christian Wahnschaffe. Plunge the thorn deeper into my wound. Go on!”
“I don’t understand you, Amadeus,” Christian said calmly. “Ask as much money of me as you please. To be sure, I’d prefer to have you ask it for another purpose.”
“How magnanimous again, how magnanimous!” Amadeus jeered. “But suppose that naming a limit is just what I won’t do? Suppose I want to strip off my beggar’s shame and become frankly a robber? Would you cast me off in that case?”
“I don’t know what I should do,” Christian answered. “Perhaps I should try to convince you that you are not acting justly.”
These sober and simple words made a visible impression on Amadeus Voss. He lowered his head and, after a while, he said: “It crushes the heart—that interval between the hopping of the little ball and the decision of the judge. The faded bank notes rustle up, or a round roll of gold is driven up on a shovel. I invented a system. I divided eight letters into groups of three and five. Once I won seventeen hundred with my system, another time three thousand. You mustn’t leave me in the lurch, Wahnschaffe. I have a soul, too. Three and five—that’s my problem. I’ll break the bank. I’ll break the bank thrice—ten times! It is possible, and therefore it can be done. Can three and five withstand a cloudburst of gold? Would Danaë repel Perseus, or would she demand that he bring her first the head of the Gorgon Medusa?”
He fell silent very suddenly. Christian had laid an arm about his shoulder, and this familiar caress was so new and unexpected that Amadeus breathed deep as a child in its sleep. “Think of what has happened, Amadeus,” said Christian. “Do think of the words you said to me: ‘It is possible that you need me; it is certain that without you I am lost.’ Have you forgotten so soon, dear friend?”
Amadeus started. He stood still and grasped Christian’s hands: “For the love of God ... no one has ever spoken to me thus ... no one!”
“You will not forget it then, Amadeus?” Christian said softly.