At first I felt all the bitterness of
my position. I looked forward with unspeakable dread to the dreary
future in which I should find destitution staring me in the face. But
when once the gamester's madness had seized upon me, I thought no more
of that dreary future; I became as reckless as my father and his
guests; I forgot everything in the excitement of the moment. To be
lucky at the gaming-table was to be happy; to lose was despair. Thus my
youth went by, till the day when my father told me that Colonel Durski
had offered me his hand and fortune, and that I had no alternative but
to accept him."
"Oh, then, your first marriage was no love-match?" cried Reginald,
eagerly.
"A love-match!" exclaimed Paulina, contemptuously. "No; it was a
marriage of convenience, dictated by a father who set less value on his
daughter's happiness than on a good hand of cards. My father told me I
must choose between Leopold Durski and ruin. 'This house cannot shelter
you much longer,' he said. 'For myself there is flight. I can go to
America, and lose my identity in strange cities. I cannot remain in
Vienna, to be pointed at as the beggared Count Veschi. But with you for
my companion I should be tied hand and foot. As a wanderer and an
adventurer, I may prosper alone; but as a wanderer, burdened with a
helpless woman, failure would be certain. It is not a question of
choice, Paulina,' he said, resolutely; 'there is no alternative.
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