“Yes.”
“Another time with pleasure, Count! But now I am tired and am preparing for sleep. Would you like a glass of wine? It is famous wine.”
“But I want to play a little—now.”
“I don’t intend to play any more tonight. Maybe some one of the gentlemen will; but I won’t, Count! You must please excuse me.”
“Then you won’t?”
Loúhnof shrugged his shoulders to express his sorrow at the impossibility of fulfilling the Count’s desire.
“Not on any account?”
The same shrug.
“But I particularly request it. … Well, will you play?”
Silence.
“Will you play?” the Count asked again. “Mind!”
The same silence and a rapid glance over the spectacles at the Count’s face, which was beginning to frown.
“Will you play?” shouted the Count very loud, striking the table with his hand so that the bottle toppled over and the wine was spilt. “You know you did not win fairly? … Will you play?—I ask you for the third time.”
“I said I would not. This is really strange, Count! and it is not at all proper to come and hold a knife to a man’s throat,” remarked Loúhnof, not raising his eyes. A momentary silence followed, during which the Count’s face grew paler and paler. Suddenly a terrible blow on the head