Page 617 - war-and-peace

‘You may punt,’ he said.
Rostov recalled at that moment a strange conversation
he had once had with Dolokhov. ‘None but fools trust to
luck in play,’ Dolokhov had then said.
‘Or are you afraid to play with me?’ Dolokhov now asked
as if guessing Rostov’s thought.
Beneath his smile Rostov saw in him the mood he had
shown at the Club dinner and at other times, when as if
tired of everyday life he had felt a need to escape from it by
some strange, and usually cruel, action.
Rostov felt ill at ease. He tried, but failed, to find some
joke with which to reply to Dolokhov’s words. But before
he had thought of anything, Dolokhov, looking straight in
his face, said slowly and deliberately so that everyone could
hear:
‘Do you remember we had a talk about cards... ‘He’s a
fool who trusts to luck, one should make certain,’ and I
want to try.’
‘To try his luck or the certainty?’ Rostov asked himself.
‘Well, you’d better not play,’ Dolokhov added, and spring-
ing a new pack of cards said: ‘Bank, gentlemen!’
Moving the money forward he prepared to deal. Rostov
sat down by his side and at first did not play. Dolokhov kept
glancing at him.
‘Why don’t you play?’ he asked.
And strange to say Nicholas felt that he could not help
taking up a card, putting a small stake on it, and beginning
to play.
‘I have no money with me,’ he said.

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