SOURCE: "A Game of Love or of Chance?," in Romanian Review, Vol. 41, No. 6, 1987, pp. 89-95.

In the following essay, Mihaescu analyzes love relationships and the impact of chance in A Stormy Night.

"RICA VENTURIANO": Oh, I am sorry, I apologize, but neither I am to blame, nor you, or Madam Zita either: The blame lies with the number plate on the gate … Madam Zita had written to me she lived at number 9 … I saw number 9 on the gate and I entered {He talks sotto voce with Zita, Veta and Chiriac).

DUMITRACHE TITIRCA (speaking to Nae Ipingescu): That's right. It's the builder who did it to me: he plastered the wall at the gate and nailed number 6 upside down; tomorrow I must by all means have him set it to rights, for fear of another conflict happening to me."

In I. L. Caragiale's A Stormy Night, these words are...