"Here is the cursed nine upon which, the other night, I lost everything.

All along I knew that I should lose my money.

Said I to myself: 'The devil take you, you false, accursed card!'" Just as Nozdrev uttered the words Porphyri entered with a fresh bottle of liquor; but Chichikov declined either to play or to drink.
"Why do you refuse to play ?" asked Nozdrev.
"Because I feel indisposed to do so.

Moreover, I must confess that I am no great hand at cards." "WHY are you no great hand at them ?" Chichikov shrugged his shoulders.

"Because I am not," he replied.
"You are no great hand at ANYTHING, I think." "What does that matter?
God has made me so." "The truth is that you are a Thetuk, and nothing else.