|
This is an interesting passage, and I hope that AdA or another native speaker offers their opinion. However, I perceive the sentence in question as describing Pascal's behavior during the period of time that the group started playing Pascal's game (laughing at jokes and treating the players at that time) so that (i.e., in the future from the time he chose to laugh at jokes and treat the players a certain way) he would improve his chances of getting the group to stay (and play) for a long time and even give Pascal a tip on leaving.
The use of past subjunctive here signals that, from the perspective of the time that Pascal chose to behave in a certain way, getting the players to stay a long time and even give him a tip when leaving, was a hoped-for result, rather than a guaranteed result. Using the indicative would imply that the result was guaranteed, rather than hoped for.
|