man has ever proposed to marry me. Do you hear,
Afanasy Ivanovitch? What do YOU think of what the
prince has just been saying? It was almost immodest,
wasn’t it? You, Rogojin, wait a moment, don’t go yet! I
see you don’t intend to move however. Perhaps I may go
with you yet. Where did you mean to take me to?’
‘To Ekaterinhof,’ replied Lebedeff. Rogojin simply
stood staring, with trembling lips, not daring to believe his
ears. He was stunned, as though from a blow on the head. The Idiot
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‘What are you thinking of, my dear Nastasia?’ said
Daria Alexeyevna in alarm. ‘What are you saying?’ ‘You
are not going mad, are you?’
Nastasia Philipovna burst out laughing and jumped up
from the sofa.
‘You thought I should accept this good child’s
invitation to ruin him, did you?’ she cried. ‘That’s Totski’s
way, not mine. He’s fond of children. Come along,
Rogojin, get your money ready! We won’t talk about
marrying just at this moment, but let’s see the money at all
events. Come! I may not marry you, either. I don’t know.
I suppose you thought you’d keep the money, if I did! Ha,
ha, ha! nonsense! I have no sense of shame left. I tell you I
have been Totski’s concubine. Prince, you must marry
Aglaya Ivanovna, not Nastasia Philipovna, or this fellow
Ferdishenko will always be pointing the finger of scorn at
you. You aren’t afraid, I know; but I should always be
afraid that I had ruined you, and that you would reproach
me for it. As for what you say about my doing you
honour by marrying you-well, Totski can tell you all
about that. You had your eye on Aglaya, Gania, you
know you had; and you might have married her if you
had not come bargaining. You are all like this. You should
choose, once for all, between disreputable women, and The Idiot
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respectable ones, or you are sure to get mixed. Look at the
general, how he’s staring at me!’
‘This is too horrible,’ said the general, starting to his
feet. All were standing up now. Nastasia was absolutely
beside herself.
‘I am very proud, in spite of what I am,’ she continued.
‘You called me ‘perfection’ just now, prince. A nice sort
of perfection to throw up a prince and a million and a half
of roubles in order to be able to boast of the fact
afterwards! What sort of a wife should I make for you,
after all I have said? Afanasy Ivanovitch, do you observe I
have really and truly thrown away a million of roubles?
And you thought that I should consider your wretched
seventy-five thousand, with Gania thrown in for a
husband, a paradise of bliss! Take your seventy-five
thousand back, sir; you did not reach the hundred
thousand. Rogojin cut a better dash than you did. I’ll
console Gania myself; I have an idea about that. But now I
must be off! I’ve been in prison for ten years. I’m free at
last! Well, Rogojin, what are you waiting for? Let’s get
ready and go.’
‘Come along!’ shouted Rogojin, beside himself with
joy. ‘Hey! all of you fellows! Wine! Round with it! Fill
the glasses!’ The Idiot
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‘Get away!’ he shouted frantically, observing that Daria
Alexeyevna was approaching to protest against Nastasia’s
conduct. ‘Get away, she’s mine, everything’s mine! She’s a
queen, get away!’
He was panting with ecstasy. He walked round and
round Nastasia Philipovna and told everybody to ‘keep
their distance.’
All the Rogojin company were now collected in the
drawing-room; some were drinking, some laughed and
talked: all were in the highest and wildest spirits.
Ferdishenko was doing his best to unite himself to them;
the general and Totski again made an attempt to go.
Gania, too stood hat in hand ready to go; but seemed to
be unable to tear his eyes away from the scene before him
‘Get out, keep your distance!’ shouted Rogojin.
‘What are you shouting about there!’ cried Nastasia
‘I’m not yours yet. I may kick you out for all you know I
haven’t taken your money yet; there it all is on the table
Here, give me over that packet! Is there a hundred
thousand roubles in that one packet? Pfu! what
abominable stuff it looks! Oh! nonsense, Daria
Alexeyevna; you surely did not expect me to ruin HIM?’
(indicating the prince). ‘Fancy him nursing me! Why, he
needs a nurse himself! The general, there, will be his nurse The Idiot
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now, you’ll see. Here, prince, look here! Your bride is
accepting money. What a disreputable woman she must
be! And you wished to marry her! What are you crying
about? Is it a bitter dose? Never mind, you shall laugh yet.
Trust to time.’ (In spite of these words there were two
large tears rolling down Nastasia’s own cheeks.) ‘It’s far
better to think twice of it now than afterwards. Oh! you
mustn’t cry like that! There’s Katia crying, too. What is it,
Katia, dear? I shall leave you and Pasha a lot of things, I’ve
laid them out for you already; but good-bye, now. I made
an honest girl like you serve a low woman like myself. It’s
better so, prince, it is indeed. You’d begin to despise me
afterwards— we should never be happy. Oh! you needn’t
swear, prince, I shan’t believe you, you know. How
foolish it would be, too! No, no; we’d better say good-bye
and part friends. I am a bit of a dreamer myself, and I used
to dream of you once. Very often during those five years
down at his estate I used to dream and think, and I always
imagined just such a good, honest, foolish fellow as you,
one who should come and say to me: ‘You are an
innocent woman, Nastasia Philipovna, and I adore you.’ I
dreamt of you often. I used to think so much down there
that I nearly went mad; and then this fellow here would
come down. He would stay a couple of months out of the The Idiot
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twelve, and disgrace and insult and deprave me, and then
go; so that I longed to drown myself in the pond a
thousand times over; but I did not dare do it. I hadn’t the
heart, and now—well, are you ready, Rogojin?’
‘Ready—keep your distance, all of you!’
‘We’re all ready,’ said several of his friends. ‘The troikas
[Sledges drawn by three horses abreast.] are at the door,
bells and all.’
Nastasia Philipovna seized the packet of bank-notes.
‘Gania, I have an idea. I wish to recompense you—why
should you lose all? Rogojin, would he crawl for three
roubles as far as the Vassiliostrof?
‘Oh, wouldn’t he just!’
‘Well, look here, Gania. I wish to look into your heart
once more, for the last time. You’ve worried me for the
last three months—now it’s my turn. Do you see this
packet? It contains a hundred thousand roubles. Now, I’m
going to throw it into the fire, here—before all these
witnesses. As soon as the fire catches hold of it, you put
your hands into the fire and pick it out—without gloves,
you know. You must have bare hands, and you must turn
your sleeves up. Pull it out, I say, and it’s all yours. You
may burn your fingers a little, of course; but then it’s a
hundred thousand roubles, remember—it won’t take you The Idiot
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long to lay hold of it and snatch it out. I shall so much
admire you if you put your hands into the fire for my
money. All here present may be witnesses that the whole
packet of money is yours if you get it out. If you don’t get
it out, it shall burn. I will let no one else come; away—get
away, all of you—it’s my money! Rogojin has bought me
with it. Is it my money, Rogojin?’
‘Yes, my queen; it’s your own money, my joy.’
‘Get away then, all of you. I shall do as I like with my
own— don’t meddle! Ferdishenko, make up the fire,
quick!’
‘Nastasia Philipovna, I can’t; my hands won’t obey me,’
said Ferdishenko, astounded and helpless with
bewilderment.
‘Nonsense,’ cried Nastasia Philipovna, seizing the poker
and raking a couple of logs together. No sooner did a
tongue of flame burst out than she threw the packet of
notes upon it.
Everyone gasped; some even crossed themselves.
‘She’s mad—she’s mad!’ was the cry.
‘Oughtn’t-oughtn’t we to secure her?’ asked the
general of Ptitsin, in a whisper; ‘or shall we send for the
authorities? Why, she’s mad, isn’t she—isn’t she, eh?’ The Idiot
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‘N-no, I hardly think she is actually mad,’ whispered
Ptitsin, who was as white as his handkerchief, and
trembling like a leaf. He could not take his eyes off the
smouldering packet.
‘She’s mad surely, isn’t she?’ the general appealed to
Totski.
‘I told you she wasn’t an ordinary woman,’ replied the
latter, who was as pale as anyone.
‘Oh, but, positively, you know—a hundred thousand
roubles!’
‘Goodness gracious! good heavens!’ came from all
quarters of the room.
All now crowded round the fire and thronged to see
what was going on; everyone lamented and gave vent to
exclamations of horror and woe. Some jumped up on
chairs in order to get a better view. Daria Alexeyevna ran
into the next room and whispered excitedly to Katia and
Pasha. The beautiful German disappeared altogether.
‘My lady! my sovereign!’ lamented Lebedeff, falling on
his knees before Nastasia Philipovna, and stretching out his
hands towards the fire; ‘it’s a hundred thousand roubles, it
is indeed, I packed it up myself, I saw the money! My
queen, let me get into the fire after it—say the word-I’ll
put my whole grey head into the fire for it! I have a poor The Idiot
315 of 1149
lame wife and thirteen children. My father died of
starvation last week. Nastasia Philipovna, Nastasia
Philipovna!’ The wretched little man wept, and groaned,
and crawled towards the fire.
‘Away, out of the way!’ cried Nastasia. ‘Make room, all
of you! Gania, what are you standing there for? Don’t
stand on ceremony. Put in your hand! There’s your whole
happiness smouldering away, look! Quick!’
But Gania had borne too much that day, and especially
this evening, and he was not prepared for this last, quite
unexpected trial.
The crowd parted on each side of him and he was left
face to face with Nastasia Philipovna, three paces from
her. She stood by the fire and waited, with her intent gaze
fixed upon him.
Gania stood before her, in his evening clothes, holding
his white gloves and hat in his hand, speechless and
motionless, with arms folded and eyes fixed on the fire.
A silly, meaningless smile played on his white, death-
like lips. He could not take his eyes off the smouldering
packet; but it appeared that something new had come to
birth in his soul—as though he were vowing to himself
that he would bear this trial. He did not move from his The Idiot
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place. In a few seconds it became evident to all that he did
not intend to rescue the money.
‘Hey! look at it, it’ll burn in another minute or two!’
cried Nastasia Philipovna. ‘You’ll hang yourself afterwards,
you know, if it does! I’m not joking.’
The fire, choked between a couple of smouldering
pieces of wood, had died down for the first few moments
after the packet was thrown upon it. But a little tongue of
fire now began to lick the paper from below, and soon,
gathering courage, mounted the sides of the parcel, and
crept around it. In another moment, the whole of it burst
into flames, and the exclamations of woe and horror were
redoubled.
‘Nastasia Philipovna!’ lamented Lebedeff again,
straining towards the fireplace; but Rogojin dragged him
away, and pushed him to the rear once more.
The whole of Regojin’s being was concentrated in one
rapturous gaze of ecstasy. He could not take his eyes off
Nastasia. He stood drinking her in, as it were. He was in
the seventh heaven of delight.
‘Oh, what a queen she is!’ he ejaculated, every other
minute, throwing out the remark for anyone who liked to
catch it. ‘That’s the sort of woman for me! Which of you
would think of doing a thing like that, you blackguards, The Idiot
317 of 1149
eh?’ he yelled. He was hopelessly and wildly beside himself
with ecstasy.
The prince watched the whole scene, silent and
dejected.
‘I’ll pull it out with my teeth for one thousand,’ said
Ferdishenko.
‘So would I,’ said another, from behind, ‘with pleasure.
Devil take the thing!’ he added, in a tempest of despair, ‘it
will all be burnt up in a minute—It’s burning, it’s
burning!’
‘It’s burning, it’s burning!’ cried all, thronging nearer
and nearer to the fire in their excitement.
‘Gania, don’t be a fool! I tell you for the last time.’
‘Get on, quick!’ shrieked Ferdishenko, rushing wildly
up to Gania, and trying to drag him to the fire by the
sleeve of his coat. ‘Get it, you dummy, it’s burning away
fast! Oh—DAMN the thing!’
Gania hurled Ferdishenko from him; then he turned
sharp round and made for the door. But he had not gone a
couple of steps when he tottered and fell to the ground.
‘He’s fainted!’ the cry went round.
‘And the money’s burning still,’ Lebedeff lamented.
‘Burning for nothing,’ shouted others. The Idiot
318 of 1149
‘Katia-Pasha! Bring him some water!’ cried Nastasia
Philipovna. Then she took the tongs and fished out the
packet.
Nearly the whole of the outer covering was burned
away, but it was soon evident that the contents were
hardly touched. The packet had been wrapped in a
threefold covering of newspaper, and the, notes were safe.
All breathed more freely.
‘Some dirty little thousand or so may be touched,’ said
Lebedeff, immensely relieved, ‘but there’s very little harm
done, after all.’
‘It’s all his—the whole packet is for him, do you hear—
all of you?’ cried Nastasia Philipovna, placing the packet
by the side of Gania. ‘He restrained himself, and didn’t go
after it; so his self-respect is greater than his thirst for
money. All right— he’ll come to directly—he must have
the packet or he’ll cut his throat afterwards. There! He’s
