Tsehhov daam koeraga Chekov Lady and the Lapdog
with a pistol, whereupon she expires. Hermann then goes up to Lizaveta Ivanovna to confess all. Lizaveta is
distraught and calls Hermann a "monster" nevertheless, she supplies him with a key to enable him to leave
the house unseen (Chapter IV).
More from superstition than remorse, Hermann goes to the funeral service for the Countess (Chapter V).
When he approaches the coffin, he thinks he sees the dead woman wink "mockingly" at him. In his confusion,
and contrary to his normal habit, Hermann quaffs a quantity of wine over dinner, returns home to sleep,
waking at a quarter to three in the morning, whereupon he appears to receive a visitation from an old woman,
whom he recognises as the Countess. This visitor tells him that he may win by playing the three, seven and
ace, in that order, at the rate of one card a day, and thereafter never again in his life; he will earn her
forgiveness if he marries Lizaveta Ivanovna. Three, seven and ace, we are told in the climactic Chapter VI,
annaabi.ee 
