- At this point no one else is even gambling anymore. They’re all just watching Nikolai and Dolokhov go at it.
- Nikolai loses over and over again but still doesn’t stop.
- At the same time, he’s trying to figure out what gives, and why Dolokhov is doing this to him. Um, OK, fair enough, we guess, but it really takes two to tango.
- Finally, after the last hand, Nikolai owes Dolokhov 43 thousand rubles. That’s right, folks. That’s a pretty nuts amount of money back then – maybe like 10 years' salary or something?
- Nikolai clearly can’t afford it, but Dolokhov obnoxiously asks when he’s going to get his money, rubbing it in by saying “lucky in love, unlucky at cards.”
- Ah, so this is about Sonya.
- Clearly Dolokhov is messing with Nikolai, and he wants to keep doing it and then probably forget about this debt. But Nikolai isn’t having it, and says he’ll bring the money tomorrow.