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possessed—you have sucked my bones to the marrow.
How long shall I be your victim? Shameless,
dishonourable man!’
‘Marfa Borisovna! Marfa Borisovna! Here is ... the
Prince Muishkin! General Ivolgin and Prince Muishkin,’
stammered the disconcerted old man.
‘Would you believe,’ said the mistress of the house,
suddenly addressing the prince, ‘would you believe that
that man has not even spared my orphan children? He has
stolen everything I possessed, sold everything, pawned
everything; he has left me nothing—nothing! What am I
to do with your IOU’s, you cunning, unscrupulous rogue?
Answer, devourer I answer, heart of stone! How shall I
feed my orphans? with what shall I nourish them? And
now he has come, he is drunk! He can scarcely stand.
How, oh how, have I offended the Almighty, that He
should bring this curse upon me! Answer, you worthless
villain, answer!’
But this was too much for the general.
‘Here are twenty-five roubles, Marfa Borisovna ... it is
all that I can give ... and I owe even these to the prince’s
generosity—my noble friend. I have been cruelly
deceived. Such is ... life ... Now ... Excuse me, I am very
weak,’ he continued, standing in the centre of the room, The Idiot
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and bowing to all sides. ‘I am faint; excuse me! Lenotchka
... a cushion ... my dear!’
Lenotchka, a little girl of eight, ran to fetch the cushion
at once, and placed it on the rickety old sofa. The general
meant to have said much more, but as soon as he had
stretched himself out, he turned his face to the wall, and
slept the sleep of the just.
With a grave and ceremonious air, Marfa Borisovna
motioned the prince to a chair at one of the card-tables.
She seated herself opposite, leaned her right cheek on her
hand, and sat in silence, her eyes fixed on Muishkin, now
and again sighing deeply. The three children, two little
girls and a boy, Lenotchka being the eldest, came and leant
on the table and also stared steadily at him. Presently Colia
appeared from the adjoining room.
‘I am very glad indeed to have met you here, Colia,’
said the prince. ‘Can you do something for me? I must see
Nastasia Philipovna, and I asked Ardalion Alexandrovitch
just now to take me to her house, but he has gone to
sleep, as you see. Will you show me the way, for I do not
know the street? I have the address, though; it is close to
the Grand Theatre.’
‘Nastasia Philipovna? She does not live there, and to
tell you the truth my father has never been to her house! It The Idiot
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is strange that you should have depended on him! She
lives near Wladimir Street, at the Five Corners, and it is
quite close by. Will you go directly? It is just half-past
nine. I will show you the way with pleasure.’
Colia and the prince went off together. Alas! the latter
had no money to pay for a cab, so they were obliged to
walk.
‘I should have liked to have taken you to see
Hippolyte,’ said Colia. ‘He is the eldest son of the lady
you met just now, and was in the next room. He is ill, and
has been in bed all day. But he is rather strange, and
extremely sensitive, and I thought he might be upset
considering the circumstances in which you came ...
Somehow it touches me less, as it concerns my father,
while it is HIS mother. That, of course, makes a great
difference. What is a terrible disgrace to a woman, does
not disgrace a man, at least not in the same way. Perhaps
public opinion is wrong in condemning one sex, and
excusing the other. Hippolyte is an extremely clever boy,
but so prejudiced. He is really a slave to his opinions.’
‘Do you say he is consumptive?’
‘Yes. It really would be happier for him to die young.
If I were in his place I should certainly long for death. He
is unhappy about his brother and sisters, the children you The Idiot
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saw. If it were possible, if we only had a little money, we
should leave our respective families, and live together in a
little apartment of our own. It is our dream. But, do you
know, when I was talking over your affair with him, he
was angry, and said that anyone who did not call out a
man who had given him a blow was a coward. He is very
irritable to-day, and I left off arguing the matter with him.
So Nastasia Philipovna has invited you to go and see her?’
‘To tell the truth, she has not.’
‘Then how do you come to be going there?’ cried
Colia, so much astonished that he stopped short in the
middle of the pavement. ‘And ... and are you going to her
At Home in that costume?’
‘I don’t know, really, whether I shall be allowed in at
all. If she will receive me, so much the better. If not, the
matter is ended. As to my clothes—what can I do?’
‘Are you going there for some particular reason, or
only as a way of getting into her society, and that of her
friends?’
‘No, I have really an object in going ... That is, I am
going on business it is difficult to explain, but...’
‘Well, whether you go on business or not is your affair,
I do not want to know. The only important thing, in my
eyes, is that you should not be going there simply for the The Idiot
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pleasure of spending your evening in such company—
cocottes, generals, usurers! If that were the case I should
despise and laugh at you. There are terribly few honest
people here, and hardly any whom one can respect,
although people put on airs—Varia especially! Have you
noticed, prince, how many adventurers there are
nowadays? Especially here, in our dear Russia. How it has
happened I never can understand. There used to be a
certain amount of solidity in all things, but now what
happens? Everything is exposed to the public gaze, veils
are thrown back, every wound is probed by careless
fingers. We are for ever present at an orgy of scandalous
revelations. Parents blush when they remember their old-
fashioned morality. At Moscow lately a father was heard
urging his son to stop at nothing—at nothing, mind
you!—to get money! The press seized upon the story, of
course, and now it is public property. Look at my father,
the general! See what he is, and yet, I assure you, he is an
honest man! Only ... he drinks too much, and his morals
are not all we could desire. Yes, that’s true! I pity him, to
tell the truth, but I dare not say so, because everybody
would laugh at me—but I do pity him! And who are the
really clever men, after all? Money- grubbers, every one of
them, from the first to the last. Hippolyte finds excuses for The Idiot
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money-lending, and says it is a necessity. He talks about
the economic movement, and the ebb and flow of capital;
the devil knows what he means. It makes me angry to hear
him talk so, but he is soured by his troubles. Just imagine-
the general keeps his mother-but she lends him money!
She lends it for a week or ten days at very high interest!
Isn’t it disgusting? And then, you would hardly believe it,
but my mother— Nina Alexandrovna—helps Hippolyte
in all sorts of ways, sends him money and clothes. She
even goes as far as helping the children, through
Hippolyte, because their mother cares nothing about
them, and Varia does the same.’
‘Well, just now you said there were no honest nor
good people about, that there were only money-
grubbers—and here they are quite close at hand, these
honest and good people, your mother and Varia! I think
there is a good deal of moral strength in helping people in
suchcircum stances.’
‘Varia does it from pride, and likes showing off, and
giving herself airs. As to my mother, I really do admire
her—yes, and honour her. Hippolyte, hardened as he is,
feels it. He laughed at first, and thought it vulgar of her—
but now, he is sometimes quite touched and overcome by
her kindness. H’m! You call that being strong and good? I The Idiot
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will remember that! Gania knows nothing about it. He
would say that it was encouraging vice.’
‘Ah, Gania knows nothing about it? It seems there are
many things that Gania does not know,’ exclaimed the
prince, as he considered Colia’s last words.
‘Do you know, I like you very much indeed, prince? I
shall never forget about this afternoon.’
‘I like you too, Colia.’
‘Listen to me! You are going to live here, are you not?’
said Colia. ‘I mean to get something to do directly, and
earn money. Then shall we three live together? You, and
I, and Hippolyte? We will hire a flat, and let the general
come and visit us. What do you say?’
‘It would be very pleasant,’ returned the prince. ‘But
we must see. I am really rather worried just now. What!
are we there already? Is that the house? What a long flight
of steps! And there’s a porter! Well, Colia I don’t know
what will come of it all.’
The prince seemed quite distracted for the moment.
‘You must tell me all about it tomorrow! Don’t be
afraid. I wish you success; we agree so entirely I that can
do so, although I do not understand why you are here.
Good-bye!’ cried Colia excitedly. ‘Now I will rush back
and tell Hippolyte all about our plans and proposals! But as The Idiot
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to your getting in—don’t be in the least afraid. You will
see her. She is so original about everything. It’s the first
floor. The porter will show you.’ The Idiot
248 of 1149
XIII
THE prince was very nervous as he reached the outer
door; but he did his best to encourage himself with the
reflection that the worst thing that could happen to him
would be that he would not be received, or, perhaps,
received, then laughed at for coming.
But there was another question, which terrified him
considerably, and that was: what was he going to do when
he DID get in? And to this question he could fashion no
satisfactory reply.
If only he could find an opportunity of coming close
up to Nastasia Philipovna and saying to her: ‘Don’t ruin
yourself by marrying this man. He does not love you, he
only loves your money. He told me so himself, and so did
Aglaya Ivanovna, and I have come on purpose to warn
you’—but even that did not seem quite a legitimate or
practicable thing to do. Then, again, there was another
delicate question, to which he could not find an answer;
dared not, in fact, think of it; but at the very idea of which
he trembled and blushed. However, in spite of all his fears
and heart-quakings he went in, and asked for Nastasia
Philipovna. The Idiot
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Nastasia occupied a medium-sized, but distinctly
tasteful, flat, beautifully furnished and arranged. At one
period of these five years of Petersburg life, Totski had
certainly not spared his expenditure upon her. He had
calculated upon her eventual love, and tried to tempt her
with a lavish outlay upon comforts and luxuries, knowing
too well how easily the heart accustoms itself to comforts,
and how difficult it is to tear one’s self away from luxuries
which have become habitual and, little by little,
indispensable.
Nastasia did not reject all this, she even loved her
comforts and luxuries, but, strangely enough, never
became, in the least degree, dependent upon them, and
always gave the impression that she could do just as well
without them. In fact, she went so far as to inform Totski
on several occasions that such was the case, which the
latter gentleman considered a very unpleasant
communication indeed.
But, of late, Totski had observed many strange and
original features and characteristics in Nastasia, which he
had neither known nor reckoned upon in former times,
and some of these fascinated him, even now, in spite of
the fact that all his old calculations with regard to her were
long ago cast to the winds. The Idiot
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A maid opened the door for the prince (Nastasia’s
servants were all females) and, to his surprise, received his
request to announce him to her mistress without any
astonishment. Neither his dirty boots, nor his wide-
brimmed hat, nor his sleeveless cloak, nor his evident
confusion of manner, produced the least impression upon
her. She helped him off with his cloak, and begged him to
wait a moment in the ante-room while she announced
him.
The company assembled at Nastasia Philipovna’s
consisted of none but her most intimate friends, and
formed a very small party in comparison with her usual
gatherings on this anniversary.
In the first place there were present Totski, and General
Epanchin. They were both highly amiable, but both
appeared to be labouring under a half-hidden feeling of
anxiety as to the result of Nastasia’s deliberations with
regard to Gania, which result was to be made public this
evening.
Then, of course, there was Gania who was by no
means so amiable as his elders, but stood apart, gloomy,
and miserable, and silent. He had determined not to bring
Varia with him; but Nastasia had not even asked after her,
though no sooner had he arrived than she had reminded The Idiot
251 of 1149
him of the episode between himself and the prince. The
general, who had heard nothing of it before, began to
listen with some interest, while Gania, drily, but with
perfect candour, went through the whole history,
including the fact of his apology to the prince. He finished
by declaring that the prince was a most extraordinary man,
and goodness knows why he had been considered an idiot
hitherto, for he was very far from being one.
Nastasia listened to all this with great interest; but the
conversation soon turned to Rogojin and his visit, and this
theme proved of the greatest attraction to both Totski and
the general.
Ptitsin was able to afford some particulars as to
Rogojin’s conduct since the afternoon. He declared that
he had been busy finding money for the latter ever since,
