Willi cast one last glance back over his shoulder out into the open air, over the roofs of the villas toward the hills. And he swore to himself that he would be sitting in the garden with the Kessners in no more than half an hour at the most.

Together with the other men he entered a dark corner of the cafe, a place where neither the spring air nor the spring light could penetrate. To show that he had absolutely no intention of joining the game, he pulled his chair way back from the table. The consul, a gaunt man of uncertain age, with a mustache trimmed English style and reddish, partly grey, thinning hair, elegantly dressed in a light grey suit, was studying, with the thoroughness that characterized him, a card which Dr. Flegmann, acting as banker, had just dealt him. He won, and Dr. Flegmann drew some brand-new bills from his wallet.

"He doesn't even bat an eyelash," noted Wimmer with ironic appreciation.

"Eyelash-batting doesn't change anything," answered Flegmann coolly, his lids half closed. Regiment Doctor Tugut, division chief of the military hospital in Baden, put down a bank of two hundred gulden.

This is not for me today! thought Willi, and pulled his armchair still farther back.

The actor Elrief, a young man of good family, more famous for his stinginess than for his talent, allowed Willi to see his cards. He bet small sums and shook his head in bewilderment when he lost. Tugut soon doubled his capital. The theatre manager Weiss borrowed some money from Elrief, and Dr. Flegmann took still more money out of his wallet. Tugut was on the point of withdrawing when the consul, without counting, cried, "The whole bank!" He lost, and with a quick reach into his wallet he made good his debt, which amounted to three hundred gulden. "Once more the whole bank!" he said. The regiment doctor declined. Dr. Flegmann took over as banker and dealt the cards. Willi declined to take one, and only for fun, at Elrief's continued urging, he placed a gulden on Elrief's card "to bring him luck"-and won. In the next round Dr. Flegmann tossed Willi a card which he didn't refuse. He won again, lost, won, pulled his chair up to the table between the others, who willingly made room for him, and won-lost-won-lost, as if fate could not quite decide what she had in store for him today. The theatre manager had to return to the theatre and forgot to give Elrief back the money he had borrowed from him, even though he had already won far more. Willi was a little ahead but was still nine hundred and fifty gulden short of the thousand he needed.

"Nothing's happening!" Greising declared, dissatisfied. The consul became the banker again, and at that moment everyone knew that the game was finally about to get serious.

Hardly anything more was known about Consul Schnabel other than that he was a consul, the ambassador of a small free state in South America, and a "wholesale merchant." It had been Weiss who had introduced him into the officers' circle, and the theatre manager's relationship with him came about because the consul had known how to interest him in hiring a minor actress, who, immediately upon her appearance in a small part, had entered into a more intimate relationship with Herr Elrief. The company would have enjoyed engaging in the good old custom of making fun of the deceived lover, but ever since he had casually asked Elrief, while dealing cards and without looking up, a cigar between his teeth, "Well, how's our little mutual lady friend?" it was clear that the consul could not be gotten the better of with jokes and taunts. This impression was substantiated by a remark he once made to Greising, who late one evening, after two glasses of cognac, had allowed himself an offensive remark about consuls of unknown countries. With a piercing look he had said, "Why are you taunting me, Herr Lieutenant? Have you already inquired as to whether I am of sufficient rank to give you satisfaction in a duel?"

A long, contemplative silence had followed this speech, but, as if by tacit agreement, no further consequences were drawn from this statement, and it was decided, without any explicit discussion, but unanimously, that the consul should be treated more gingerly.

The consul lost. No one objected when, against his usual custom, he immediately put down a new bank, and, after losing that one as well, still another. The other players won, especially Willi. He put his original capital, the one hundred and twenty gulden, back into his pocket-nothing would induce him to risk those again.