schemers and pretenders; in the second, a haunted widower confronts a former rival. Across both, money, pride, and desire strip away social veneers among émigré Russians abroad. The opening of Der Spieler follows Alexei, tutor to a Russian General’s family, as he rejoins them in Roulettenburg, where they posture as wealthy while quietly awaiting an inheritance from the ailing “Babushka.” The General dazzles and borrows, a slick French “marquis” and the calculating Mademoiselle Blanche circle, and the shy Englishman Mr. Astley silently adores Polina. Alexei’s charged, unequal bond with Polina dominates: she commands him to gamble for her, and he first wins a tidy sum, then rashly loses everything, even as he grows convinced he will surely win when playing for himself. Between tense dinners and nationalist spats, Alexei studies the casino’s rituals, the genteel pose versus plebeian hunger, and the household’s dependence on news of the old woman’s death. Polina hints at urgent debts and presses him for more money, while Alexei’s pride, passion, and fatalism harden into a vow to test his luck alone. The section ends with their strained exchange hanging in the air and the roulette wheel looming as his chosen fate. (This is an automatically generated summary.)