advanced into the room mechanically; but perceiving
Nina Alexandrovna and Varia he became more or less
embarrassed, in spite of his excitement. His followers
entered after him, and all paused a moment at sight of the
ladies. Of course their modesty was not fated to be long-
lived, but for a moment they were abashed. Once let them
begin to shout, however, and nothing on earth should
disconcert them.
‘What, you here too, prince?’ said Rogojin, absently,
but a little surprised all the same ‘ Still in your gaiters, eh?’
He sighed, and forgot the prince next moment, and his
wild eyes wandered over to Nastasia again, as though
attracted in that direction by some magnetic force. The Idiot
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Nastasia looked at the new arrivals with great curiosity.
Gania recollected himself at last.
‘Excuse me, sirs,’ he said, loudly, ‘but what does all this
mean?’ He glared at the advancing crowd generally, but
addressed his remarks especially to their captain, Rogojin.
‘You are not in a stable, gentlemen, though you may
think it—my mother and sister are present.’
‘Yes, I see your mother and sister,’ muttered Rogojin,
through his teeth; and Lebedeff seemed to feel himself
called upon to second the statement.
‘At all events, I must request you to step into the salon,’
said Gania, his rage rising quite out of proportion to his
words, ‘and then I shall inquire—‘
‘What, he doesn’t know me!’ said Rogojin, showing
his teeth disagreeably. ‘He doesn’t recognize Rogojin!’ He
did not move an inch, however.
‘I have met you somewhere, I believe, but—‘
‘Met me somewhere, pfu! Why, it’s only three months
since I lost two hundred roubles of my father’s money to
you, at cards. The old fellow died before he found out.
Ptitsin knows all about it. Why, I’ve only to pull out a
three-rouble note and show it to you, and you’d crawl on
your hands and knees to the other end of the town for it;
that’s the sort of man you are. Why, I’ve come now, at The Idiot
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this moment, to buy you up! Oh, you needn’t think that
because I wear these boots I have no money. I have lots of
money, my beauty,—enough to buy up you and all yours
together. So I shall, if I like to! I’ll buy you up! I will!’ he
yelled, apparently growing more and more intoxicated and
excited.’ Oh, Nastasia Philipovna! don’t turn me out! Say
one word, do! Are you going to marry this man, or not?’
Rogojin asked his question like a lost soul appealing to
some divinity, with the reckless daring of one appointed to
die, who has nothing to lose.
He awaited the reply in deadly anxiety.
Nastasia Philipovna gazed at him with a haughty,
ironical. expression of face; but when she glanced at Nina
Alexandrovna and Varia, and from them to Gania, she
changed her tone, all of a sudden.
‘Certainly not; what are you thinking of? What could
have induced you to ask such a question?’ she replied,
quietly and seriously, and even, apparently, with some
astonishment.
‘No? No?’ shouted Rogojin, almost out of his mind
with joy. ‘You are not going to, after all? And they told
me—oh, Nastasia Philipovna—they said you had promised
to marry him, HIM! As if you COULD do it!—him—
pooh! I don’t mind saying it to everyone— I’d buy him The Idiot
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off for a hundred roubles, any day pfu! Give him a
thousand, or three if he likes, poor devil’ and he’d cut and
run the day before his wedding, and leave his bride to me!
Wouldn’t you, Gania, you blackguard? You’d take three
thousand, wouldn’t you? Here’s the money! Look, I’ve
come on purpose to pay you off and get your receipt,
formally. I said I’d buy you up, and so I will.’
‘Get out of this, you drunken beast!’ cried Gania, who
was red and white by turns.
Rogojin’s troop, who were only waiting for an excuse,
set up a howl at this. Lebedeff stepped forward and
whispered something in Parfen’s ear.
‘You’re right, clerk,’ said the latter, ‘you’re right, tipsy
spirit—you’re right!—Nastasia Philipovna,’ he added,
looking at her like some lunatic, harmless generally, but
suddenly wound up to a pitch of audacity, ‘here are
eighteen thousand roubles, and—and you shall have
more—.’ Here he threw a packet of bank- notes tied up in
white paper, on the table before her, not daring to say all
he wished to say.
‘No-no-no!’ muttered Lebedeff, clutching at his arm.
He was clearly aghast at the largeness of the sum, and
thought a far smaller amount should have been tried first. The Idiot
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‘No, you fool—you don’t know whom you are dealing
with—and it appears I am a fool, too!’ said Parfen,
trembling beneath the flashing glance of Nastasia. ‘Oh,
curse it all! What a fool I was to listen to you!’ he added,
with profound melancholy.
Nastasia Philipovna, observing his woe-begone
expression, suddenly burst out laughing.
‘Eighteen thousand roubles, for me? Why, you declare
yourself a fool at once,’ she said, with impudent
familiarity, as she rose from the sofa and prepared to go.
Gania watched the whole scene with a sinking of the
heart.
‘Forty thousand, then—forty thousand roubles instead
of eighteen! Ptitsin and another have promised to find me
forty thousand roubles by seven o’clock tonight. Forty
thousand roubles—paid down on the nail!’
The scene was growing more and more disgraceful; but
Nastasia Philipovna continued to laugh and did not go
away. Nina Alexandrovna and Varia had both risen from
their places and were waiting, in silent horror, to see what
would happen. Varia’s eyes were all ablaze with anger; but
the scene had a different effect on Nina Alexandrovna.
She paled and trembled, and looked more and more like
fainting every moment. The Idiot
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‘Very well then, a HUNDRED thousand! a hundred
thousand! paid this very day. Ptitsin! find it for me. A
good share shall stick to your fingers—come!’
‘You are mad!’ said Ptitsin, coming up quickly and
seizing him by the hand. ‘You’re drunk—the police will
be sent for if you don’t look out. Think where you are.’
‘Yes, he’s boasting like a drunkard,’ added Nastasia, as
though with the sole intention of goading him.
‘I do NOT boast! You shall have a hundred thousand,
this very day. Ptitsin, get the money, you gay usurer! Take
what you like for it, but get it by the evening! I’ll show
that I’m in earnest!’ cried Rogojin, working himself up
into a frenzy of excitement.
‘Come, come; what’s all this?’ cried General Ivolgin,
suddenly and angrily, coming close up to Rogojin. The
unexpectedness of this sally on the part of the hitherto
silent old man caused some laughter among the intruders.
‘Halloa! what’s this now?’ laughed Rogojin. ‘You
come along with me, old fellow! You shall have as much
to drink as you like.’
‘Oh, it’s too horrible!’ cried poor Colia, sobbing with
shame and annoyance.
‘Surely there must be someone among all of you here
who will turn this shameless creature out of the room?’ The Idiot
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cried Varia, suddenly. She was shaking and trembling with
rage.
‘That’s me, I suppose. I’m the shameless creature!’ cried
Nastasia Philipovna, with amused indifference. ‘Dear me,
and I came—like a fool, as I am—to invite them over to
my house for the evening! Look how your sister treats me,
Gavrila Ardalionovitch.’
For some moments Gania stood as if stunned or struck
by lightning, after his sister’s speech. But seeing that
Nastasia Philipovna was really about to leave the room this
time, he sprang at Varia and seized her by the arm like a
madman.
‘What have you done?’ he hissed, glaring at her as
though he would like to annihilate her on the spot. He
was quite beside himself, and could hardly articulate his
words for rage.
‘What have I done? Where are you dragging me to?’
‘Do you wish me to beg pardon of this creature
because she has come here to insult our mother and
disgrace the whole household, you low, base wretch?’
cried Varia, looking back at her brother with proud
defiance.
A few moments passed as they stood there face to face,
Gania still holding her wrist tightly. Varia struggled The Idiot
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once—twice—to get free; then could restrain herself no
longer, and spat in his face.
‘There’s a girl for you!’ cried Nastasia Philipovna. ‘Mr.
Ptitsin, I congratulate you on your choice.’
Gania lost his head. Forgetful of everything he aimed a
blow at Varia, which would inevitably have laid her low,
but suddenly another hand caught his. Between him and
Varia stood the prince.
‘Enough—enough!’ said the latter, with insistence, but
all of a tremble with excitement.
‘Are you going to cross my path for ever, damn you!’
cried Gania; and, loosening his hold on Varia, he slapped
the prince’s face with all his force.
Exclamations of horror arose on all sides. The prince
grew pale as death; he gazed into Gania’s eyes with a
strange, wild, reproachful look; his lips trembled and
vainly endeavoured to form some words; then his mouth
twisted into an incongruous smile.
‘Very well—never mind about me; but I shall not allow
you to strike her!’ he said, at last, quietly. Then, suddenly,
he could bear it no longer, and covering his face with his
hands, turned to the wall, and murmured in broken
accents:
‘Oh! how ashamed you will be of this afterwards!’ The Idiot
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Gania certainly did look dreadfully abashed. Colia
rushed up to comfort the prince, and after him crowded
Varia, Rogojin and all, even the general.
‘It’s nothing, it’s nothing!’ said the prince, and again he
wore the smile which was so inconsistent with the
circumstances.
‘Yes, he will be ashamed!’ cried Rogojin. ‘You will be
properly ashamed of yourself for having injured such a—
such a sheep’ (he could not find a better word). ‘Prince,
my dear fellow, leave this and come away with me. I’ll
show you how Rogojin shows his affection for his
friends.’
Nastasia Philipovna was also much impressed, both
with Gania’s action and with the prince’s reply.
Her usually thoughtful, pale face, which all this while
had been so little in harmony with the jests and laughter
which she had seemed to put on for the occasion, was
now evidently agitated by new feelings, though she tried
to conceal the fact and to look as though she were as ready
as ever for jesting and irony.
‘I really think I must have seen him somewhere!’ she
murmured seriously enough.
‘Oh, aren’t you ashamed of yourself—aren’t you
ashamed? Are you really the sort of woman you are trying The Idiot
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to represent yourself to be? Is it possible?’ The prince was
now addressing Nastasia, in a tone of reproach, which
evidently came from his very heart.
Nastasia Philipovna looked surprised, and smiled, but
evidently concealed something beneath her smile and with
some confusion and a glance at Gania she left the room.
However, she had not reached the outer hall when she
turned round, walked quickly up to Nina Alexandrovna,
seized her hand and lifted it to her lips.
‘He guessed quite right. I am not that sort of woman,’
she whispered hurriedly, flushing red all over. Then she
turned again and left the room so quickly that no one
could imagine what she had come back for. All they saw
was that she said something to Nina Alexandrovna in a
hurried whisper, and seemed to kiss her hand. Varia,
however, both saw and heard all, and watched Nastasia
out of the room with an expression of wonder.
Gania recollected himself in time to rush after her in
order to show her out, but she had gone. He followed her
to the stairs.
‘Don’t come with me,’ she cried, ‘Au revoir, till the
evening—do you hear? Au revoir!’
He returned thoughtful and confused; the riddle lay
heavier than ever on his soul. He was troubled about the The Idiot
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prince, too, and so bewildered that he did not even
observe Rogojin’s rowdy band crowd past him and step
on his toes, at the door as they went out. They were all
talking at once. Rogojin went ahead of the others, talking
to Ptitsin, and apparently insisting vehemently upon
something very important
‘You’ve lost the game, Gania’ he cried, as he passed the
latter.
Gania gazed after him uneasily, but said nothing. The Idiot
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XI
THE prince now left the room and shut himself up in
his own chamber. Colia followed him almost at once,
anxious to do what he could to console him. The poor
boy seemed to be already so attached to him that he could
hardly leave him.
‘You were quite right to go away!’ he said. ‘The row
will rage there worse than ever now; and it’s like this
every day with us— and all through that Nastasia
Philipovna.’
‘You have so many sources of trouble here, Colia,’ said
the prince.
‘Yes, indeed, and it is all our own fault. But I have a
great friend who is much worse off even than we are.
Would you like to know him?’
‘Yes, very much. Is he one of your school-fellows?’
‘Well, not exactly. I will tell you all about him some
day…. What do you think of Nastasia Philipovna? She is
beautiful, isn’t she? I had never seen her before, though I
had a great wish to do so. She fascinated me. I could
forgive Gania if he were to marry her for love, but for
money! Oh dear! that is horrible!’ The Idiot
217 of 1149
‘Yes, your brother does not attract me much.’
‘I am not surprised at that. After what you ... But I do
hate that way of looking at things! Because some fool, or a
rogue pretending to be a fool, strikes a man, that man is to
be dishonoured for his whole life, unless he wipes out the
disgrace with blood, or makes his assailant beg forgiveness
on his knees! I think that so very absurd and tyrannical.
