Jeffrey Aspern contre la Dame de pique

Tchekalinski commença à tailler ; ses mains tremblaient. À droite, on vit sortir une dame ; à gauche un as.
« L’as gagne, dit Hermann, et il découvrit sa carte.
– Votre dame a perdu », dit Tchekalinski d’un ton de voix mielleux.
Hermann tressaillit. Au lieu d’un as, il avait devant lui une dame de pique. Il n’en pouvait croire ses yeux, et ne comprenait pas comment il avait pu se méprendre de la sorte.
Les yeux attachés sur cette carte funeste, il lui sembla que la dame de pique clignait de l’œil et lui souriait d’un air railleur. Il reconnut avec horreur une ressemblance étrange entre cette dame de pique et la défunte comtesse…
« Maudite vieille ! » s’écria-t-il épouvanté. Tchekalinski, d’un coup de râteau, ramassa tout son gain. Hermann demeura longtemps immobile, anéanti. Quand enfin il quitta la table de jeu, il y eut un moment de causerie bruyante. Un fameux ponte ! disaient les joueurs. Tchekalinski mêla les cartes, et le jeu continua.
(Pouchkine - La Dame de pique, trad. Mérimée)

"She wanted to say something to me--the last day--something very particular, but she couldn't."
"Something very particular?"
"Something more about the papers."
"And did you guess--have you any idea?"
"No, I have thought--but I don't know.  I have thought all kinds of things."
"And for instance?"
"Well, that if you were a relation it would be different."
"If I were a relation?"
"If you were not a stranger. Then it would be the same for you as for me. Anything that is mine--would be yours, and you could do what you like. I couldn't prevent you--and you would have no responsibility."

She brought out this droll explanation with a little nervous rush, as if she were speaking words she had got by heart. They gave me an impression of subtlety and at first I failed to follow. But after a moment her face helped me to see further, and then a light came into my mind. It was embarrassing, and I bent my head over Jeffrey Aspern's portrait. What an odd expression was in his face!  "Get out of it as you can, my dear fellow!"
(James - The Aspern Papers).

[Ou bien James d'après Pouchkine ? 

(...) the whole episode was essentially delightful to me. I foresaw that I should have a summer after my own literary heart, and the sense of holding my opportunity was much greater than the sense of losing it.  There could be no Venetian business without patience, and since I adored the place I was much more in the spirit of it for having laid in a large provision. That spirit kept me perpetual company and seemed to look out at me from the revived immortal face--in which all his genius shone--of the great poet who was my prompter. I had invoked him and he had come; he hovered before me half the time; it was as if his bright ghost had returned to earth to tell me that he regarded the affair as his own no less than mine and that we should see it fraternally, cheerfully to a conclusion.]