Here, you—scarecrow!’ he added, addressing the clerk at
his side, ‘is it sacrilege or not, by law?’
‘Sacrilege, certainly—certainly sacrilege,’ said the latter.
‘And it’s Siberia for sacrilege, isn’t it?’
‘Undoubtedly so; Siberia, of course!’
‘They will think that I’m still ill,’ continued Rogojin to
the prince, ‘but I sloped off quietly, seedy as I was, took
the train and came away. Aha, brother Senka, you’ll have
to open your gates and let me in, my boy! I know he told
tales about me to my father—I know that well enough but
I certainly did rile my father about Nastasia Philipovna
that’s very sure, and that was my own doing.’
‘Nastasia Philipovna?’ said the clerk, as though trying to
think out something.
‘Come, you know nothing about HER,’ said Rogojin,
impatiently.
‘And supposing I do know something?’ observed the
other, triumphantly.
‘Bosh! there are plenty of Nastasia Philipovnas. And
what an impertinent beast you are!’ he added angrily. ‘I
thought some creature like you would hang on to me as
soon as I got hold of my money. ‘
‘Oh, but I do know, as it happens,’ said the clerk in an
aggravating manner. ‘Lebedeff knows all about her. You The Idiot
15 of 1149
are pleased to reproach me, your excellency, but what if I
prove that I am right after all? Nastasia Phillpovna’s family
name is Barashkoff—I know, you see-and she is a very
well known lady, indeed, and comes of a good family,
too. She is connected with one Totski, Afanasy
Ivanovitch, a man of considerable property, a director of
companies, and so on, and a great friend of General
Epanchin, who is interested in the same matters as he is.’
‘My eyes!’ said Rogojin, really surprised at last. ‘The
devil take the fellow, how does he know that?’
‘Why, he knows everything—Lebedeff knows
everything! I was a month or two with Lihachof after his
father died, your excellency, and while he was knocking
about—he’s in the debtor’s prison now—I was with him,
and he couldn’t do a thing without Lebedeff; and I got to
know Nastasia Philipovna and several people at that time.’
‘Nastasia Philipovna? Why, you don’t mean to say that
she and Lihachof—’ cried Rogojin, turning quite pale.
‘No, no, no, no, no! Nothing of the sort, I assure you!’
said Lebedeff, hastily. ‘Oh dear no, not for the world!
Totski’s the only man with any chance there. Oh, no! He
takes her to his box at the opera at the French theatre of
an evening, and the officers and people all look at her and
say, ‘By Jove, there’s the famous Nastasia Philipovna!’ but The Idiot
16 of 1149
no one ever gets any further than that, for there is nothing
more to say.’
‘Yes, it’s quite true,’ said Rogojin, frowning gloomily;
‘so Zaleshoff told me. I was walking about the Nefsky one
fine day, prince, in my father’s old coat, when she
suddenly came out of a shop and stepped into her carriage.
I swear I was all of a blaze at once. Then I met
Zaleshoff—looking like a hair-dresser’s assistant, got up as
fine as I don’t know who, while I looked like a tinker.
‘Don’t flatter yourself, my boy,’ said he; ‘she’s not for such
as you; she’s a princess, she is, and her name is Nastasia
Philipovna Barashkoff, and she lives with Totski, who
wishes to get rid of her because he’s growing rather old—
fifty- five or so—and wants to marry a certain beauty, the
loveliest woman in all Petersburg.’ And then he told me
that I could see Nastasia Philipovna at the opera-house
that evening, if I liked, and described which was her box.
Well, I’d like to see my father allowing any of us to go to
the theatre; he’d sooner have killed us, any day. However,
I went for an hour or so and saw Nastasia Philipovna, and
I never slept a wink all night after. Next morning my
father happened to give me two government loan bonds
to sell, worth nearly five thousand roubles each. ‘Sell
them,’ said he, ‘and then take seven thousand five hundred The Idiot
17 of 1149
roubles to the office, give them to the cashier, and bring
me back the rest of the ten thousand, without looking in
anywhere on the way; look sharp, I shall be waiting for
you.’ Well, I sold the bonds, but I didn’t take
the seven thousand roubles to the office; I went straight to
the English shop and chose a pair of earrings, with a
diamond the size of a nut in each. They cost four hundred
roubles more than I had, so I gave my name, and they
trusted me. With the earrings I went at once to
Zaleshoff’s. ‘Come on!’ I said, ‘come on to Nastasia
Philipovna’s,’ and off we went without more ado. I tell
you I hadn’t a notion of what was about me or before me
or below my feet all the way; I saw nothing whatever. We
went straight into her drawing-room, and then she came
out to us.
‘I didn’t say right out who I was, but Zaleshoff said:
‘From Parfen Rogojin, in memory of his first meeting
with you yesterday; be so kind as to accept these!’
‘She opened the parcel, looked at the earrings, and
laughed.
‘‘Thank your friend Mr. Rogojin for his kind
attention,’ says she, and bowed and went off. Why didn’t I
die there on the spot? The worst of it all was, though, that
the beast Zaleshoff got all the credit of it! I was short and The Idiot
18 of 1149
abominably dressed, and stood and stared in her face and
never said a word, because I was shy, like an ass! And
there was he all in the fashion, pomaded and dressed out,
with a smart tie on, bowing and scraping; and I bet
anything she took him for me all the while!
‘‘Look here now,’ I said, when we came out, ‘none of
your interference here after this-do you understand?’ He
laughed: ‘And how are you going to settle up with your
father?’ says he. I thought I might as well jump into the
Neva at once without going home first; but it struck me
that I wouldn’t, after all, and I went home feeling like one
of the damned.’
‘My goodness!’ shivered the clerk. ‘And his father,’ he
added, for the prince’s instruction, ‘and his father would
have given a man a ticket to the other world for ten
roubles any day—not to speak of ten thousand!’
The prince observed Rogojin with great curiosity; he
seemed paler than ever at this moment.
‘What do you know about it?’ cried the latter. ‘Well,
my father learned the whole story at once, and Zaleshoff
blabbed it all over the town besides. So he took me
upstairs and locked me up, and swore at me for an hour.
‘This is only a foretaste,’ says he; ‘wait a bit till night
comes, and I’ll come back and talk to you again.’ The Idiot
19 of 1149
‘Well, what do you think? The old fellow went straight
off to Nastasia Philipovna, touched the floor with his
forehead, and began blubbering and beseeching her on his
knees to give him back the diamonds. So after awhile she
brought the box and flew out at him. ‘There,’ she says,
‘take your earrings, you wretched old miser; although they
are ten times dearer than their value to me now that I
know what it must have cost Parfen to get them! Give
Parfen my compliments,’ she says, ‘and thank him very
much!’ Well, I meanwhile had borrowed twenty-five
roubles from a friend, and off I went to Pskoff to my
aunt’s. The old woman there lectured me so that I left the
house and went on a drinking tour round the public-
houses of the place. I was in a high fever when I got to
Pskoff, and by nightfall I was lying delirious in the streets
somewhere or other!’
‘Oho! we’ll make Nastasia Philipovna sing another song
now!’ giggled Lebedeff, rubbing his hands with glee. ‘Hey,
my boy, we’ll get her some proper earrings now! We’ll get
her such earrings that—‘
‘Look here,’ cried Rogojin, seizing him fiercely by the
arm, ‘look here, if you so much as name Nastasia
Philipovna again, I’ll tan your hide as sure as you sit there!’ The Idiot
20 of 1149
‘Aha! do—by all means! if you tan my hide you won’t
turn me away from your society. You’ll bind me to you,
with your lash, for ever. Ha, ha! here we are at the station,
though.’
Sure enough, the train was just steaming in as he spoke.
Though Rogojin had declared that he left Pskoff
secretly, a large collection of friends had assembled to greet
him, and did so with profuse waving of hats and shouting.
‘Why, there’s Zaleshoff here, too!’ he muttered, gazing
at the scene with a sort of triumphant but unpleasant
smile. Then he suddenly turned to the prince: ‘Prince, I
don’t know why I have taken a fancy to you; perhaps
because I met you just when I did. But no, it can’t be that,
for I met this fellow ‘ (nodding at Lebedeff) ‘too, and I
have not taken a fancy to him by any means. Come to see
me, prince; we’ll take off those gaiters of yours and dress
you up in a smart fur coat, the best we can buy. You shall
have a dress coat, best quality, white waistcoat, anything
you like, and your pocket shall be full of money. Come,
and you shall go with me to Nastasia Philipovna’s. Now
then will you come or no?’
‘Accept, accept, Prince Lef Nicolaievitch’ said Lebedef
solemnly; ‘don’t let it slip! Accept, quick!’ The Idiot
21 of 1149
Prince Muishkin rose and stretched out his hand
courteously, while he replied with some cordiality:
‘I will come with the greatest pleasure, and thank you
very much for taking a fancy to me. I dare say I may even
come today if I have time, for I tell you frankly that I like
you very much too. I liked you especially when you told
us about the diamond earrings; but I liked you before that
as well, though you have such a dark-clouded sort of face.
Thanks very much for the offer of clothes and a fur coat; I
certainly shall require both clothes and coat very soon. As
for money, I have hardly a copeck about me at this
moment.’
‘You shall have lots of money; by the evening I shall
have plenty; so come along!’
‘That’s true enough, he’ll have lots before evening!’ put
in Lebedeff.
‘But, look here, are you a great hand with the ladies?
Let’s know that first?’ asked Rogojin.
‘Oh no, oh no! said the prince; ‘I couldn’t, you
know—my illness—I hardly ever saw a soul.’
‘H’m! well—here, you fellow-you can come along
with me now if you like!’ cried Rogojin to Lebedeff, and
so they all left the carriage. The Idiot
22 of 1149
Lebedeff had his desire. He went off with the noisy
group of Rogojin’s friends towards the Voznesensky,
while the prince’s route lay towards the Litaynaya. It was
damp and wet. The prince asked his way of passers-by,
and finding that he was a couple of miles or so from his
destination, he determined to take a droshky. The Idiot
23 of 1149
II
General Epanchin lived in his own house near the
Litaynaya. Besides this large residence—five-sixths of
which was let in flats and lodgings-the general was owner
of another enormous house in the Sadovaya bringing in
even more rent than the first. Besides these houses he had
a delightful little estate just out of town, and some sort of
factory in another part of the city. General Epanchin, as
everyone knew, had a good deal to do with certain
government monopolies; he was also a voice, and an
important one, in many rich public companies of various
descriptions; in fact, he enjoyed the reputation of being a
well- to-do man of busy habits, many ties, and affluent
means. He had made himself indispensable in several
quarters, amongst others in his department of the
government; and yet it was a known fact that Fedor
Ivanovitch Epanchin was a man of no education whatever,
and had absolutely risen from the ranks.
This last fact could, of course, reflect nothing but credit
upon the general; and yet, though unquestionably a
sagacious man, he had his own little weaknesses-very
excusable ones,—one of which was a dislike to any The Idiot
24 of 1149
allusion to the above circumstance. He was undoubtedly
clever. For instance, he made a point of never asserting
himself when he would gain more by keeping in the
background; and in consequence many exalted personages
valued him principally for his humility and simplicity, and
because ‘he knew his place.’ And yet if these good people
could only have had a peep into the mind of this excellent
fellow who ‘knew his place’ so well! The fact is that, in
spite of his knowledge of the world and his really
remarkable abilities, he always liked to appear to be
carrying out other people’s ideas rather than his own. And
also, his luck seldom failed him, even at cards, for which
he had a passion that he did not attempt to conceal. He
played for high stakes, and moved, altogether, in very
varied society.
As to age, General Epanchin was in the very prime of
life; that is, about fifty-five years of age,—the flowering
time of existence, when real enjoyment of life begins. His
healthy appearance, good colour, sound, though
discoloured teeth, sturdy figure, preoccupied air during
business hours, and jolly good humour during his game at
cards in the evening, all bore witness to his success in life,
and combined to make existence a bed of roses to his
excellency. The general was lord of a flourishing family, The Idiot
25 of 1149
consisting of his wife and three grown-up daughters. He
had married young, while still a lieutenant, his wife being
a girl of about his own age, who possessed neither beauty
nor education, and who brought him no more than fifty
souls of landed property, which little estate served,
however, as a nest-egg for far more important
accumulations. The general never regretted his early
marriage, or regarded it as a foolish youthful escapade; and
he so respected and feared his wife that he was very near
loving her. Mrs. Epanchin came of the princely stock of
Muishkin, which if not a brilliant, was, at all events, a
decidedly ancient family; and she was extremely proud of
