‘Oh, sit down, sit down, why are you standing?’
Lizabetha Prokofievna placed a chair for him with her
own hands.
‘Thank you,’ he said gently. ‘Sit opposite to me, and let
us talk. We must have a talk now, Lizabetha Prokofievna;
I am very anxious for it.’ He smiled at her once more.
‘Remember that today, for the last time, I am out in the
air, and in the company of my fellow-men, and that in a
fortnight I shall I certainly be no longer in this world. So,
in a way, this is my farewell to nature and to men. I am
not very sentimental, but do you know, I am quite glad
that all this has happened at Pavlofsk, where at least one
can see a green tree.’
‘But why talk now?’ replied Lizabetha Prokofievna,
more and more alarmed; ‘are quite feverish. Just now you
would not stop shouting, and now you can hardly breathe.
You are gasping.’
‘I shall have time to rest. Why will you not grant my
last wish? Do you know, Lizabetha Prokofievna, that I The Idiot
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have dreamed of meeting you for a long while? I had
often heard of you from Colia; he is almost the only
person who still comes to see me. You are an original and
eccentric woman; I have seen that for myself—Do you
know, I have even been rather fond of you?’
‘Good heavens! And I very nearly struck him!’
‘You were prevented by Aglaya Ivanovna. I think I am
not mistaken? That is your daughter, Aglaya Ivanovna?
She is so beautiful that I recognized her directly, although
I had never seen her before. Let me, at least, look on
beauty for the last time in my life,’ he said with a wry
smile. ‘You are here with the prince, and your husband,
and a large company. Why should you refuse to gratify my
last wish?’
‘Give me a chair!’ cried Lizabetha Prokofievna, but she
seized one for herself and sat down opposite to Hippolyte.
‘Colia, you must go home with him,’ she commanded and
tomorrow I will come my self. ‘
‘Will you let me ask the prince for a cup of tea?... I am
exhausted. Do you know what you might do, Lizabetha
Prokofievna? I think you wanted to take the prince home
with you for tea. Stay here, and let us spend the evening
together. I am sure the prince will give us all some tea.
Forgive me for being so free and easy— but I know you The Idiot
523 of 1149
are kind, and the prince is kind, too. In fact, we are all
good-natured people—it is really quite comical.’
The prince bestirred himself to give orders. Lebedeff
hurried out, followed by Vera.
‘It is quite true,’ said Mrs. Epanchin decisively. ‘Talk,
but not too loud, and don’t excite yourself. You have
made me sorry for you. Prince, you don’t deserve that I
should stay and have tea with you, yet I will, all the same,
but I won’t apologize. I apologize to nobody! Nobody! It
is absurd! However, forgive me, prince, if I blew you
up—that is, if you like, of course. But please don’t let me
keep anyone,’ she added suddenly to her husband and
daughters, in a tone of resentment, as though they had
grievously offended her. ‘I can come home alone quite
well.’
But they did not let her finish, and gathered round her
eagerly. The prince immediately invited everyone to stay
for tea, and apologized for not having thought of it before.
The general murmured a few polite words, and asked
Lizabetha Prokofievna if she did not feel cold on the
terrace. He very nearly asked Hippolyte how long he had
been at the University, but stopped himself in time.
Evgenie Pavlovitch and Prince S. suddenly grew
extremely gay and amiable. Adelaida and Alexandra had The Idiot
524 of 1149
not recovered from their surprise, but it was now mingled
with satisfaction; in short, everyone seemed very much
relieved that Lizabetha Prokofievna had got over her
paroxysm. Aglaya alone still frowned, and sat apart in
silence. All the other guests stayed on as well; no one
wanted to go, not even General Ivolgin, but Lebedeff said
something to him in passing which did not seem to please
him, for he immediately went and sulked in a corner. The
prince took care to offer tea to Burdovsky and his friends
as well as the rest. The invitation made them rather
uncomfortable. They muttered that they would wait for
Hippolyte, and went and sat by themselves in a distant
corner of the verandah. Tea was served at once; Lebedeff
had no doubt ordered it for himself and his family before
the others arrived. It was striking eleven. The Idiot
525 of 1149
X
AFTER moistening his lips with the tea which Vera
Lebedeff brought him, Hippolyte set the cup down on the
table, and glanced round. He seemed confused and almost
at a loss.
‘Just look, Lizabetha Prokofievna,’ he began, with a
kind of feverish haste; ‘these china cups are supposed to be
extremely valuable. Lebedeff always keeps them locked up
in his china- cupboard; they were part of his wife’s dowry.
Yet he has brought them out tonight—in your honour, of
course! He is so pleased—’ He was about to add
something else, but could not find the words.
‘There, he is feeling embarrassed; I expected as much,’
whispered Evgenie Pavlovitch suddenly in the prince’s ear.
‘It is a bad sign; what do you think? Now, out of spite, he
will come out with something so outrageous that even
Lizabetha Prokofievna will not be able to stand it.’
Muishkin looked at him inquiringly.
‘You do not care if he does?’ added Evgenie
Pavlovitch. ‘Neither do I; in fact, I should be glad, merely
as a proper punishment for our dear Lizabetha
Prokofievna. I am very anxious that she should get it, The Idiot
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without delay, and I shall stay till she does. You seem
feverish.’
‘Never mind; by-and-by; yes, I am not feeling well,’
said the prince impatiently, hardly listening. He had just
heard Hippolyte mention his own name.
‘You don’t believe it?’ said the invalid, with a nervous
laugh. ‘I don’t wonder, but the prince will have no
difficulty in believing it; he will not be at all surprised.’
‘Do you hear, prince—do you hear that?’ said
Lizabetha Prokofievna, turning towards him.
There was laughter in the group around her, and
Lebedeff stood before her gesticulating wildly.
‘He declares that your humbug of a landlord revised
this gentleman’s article—the article that was read aloud
just now—in which you got such a charming dressing-
down.’
The prince regarded Lebedeff with astonishment.
‘Why don’t you say something?’ cried Lizabetha
Prokofievna, stamping her foot.
‘Well,’ murmured the prince, with his eyes still fixed
on Lebedeff, ‘I can see now that he did.’
‘Is it true?’ she asked eagerly.
‘Absolutely, your excellency,’ said Lebedeff, without
the least hesitation. The Idiot
527 of 1149
Mrs. Epanchin almost sprang up in amazement at his
answer, and at the assurance of his tone.
‘He actually seems to boast of it!’ she cried.
‘I am base—base!’ muttered Lebedeff, beating his
breast, and hanging his head.
‘What do I care if you are base or not? He thinks he
has only to say, ‘I am base,’ and there is an end of it. As to
you, prince, are you not ashamed?—I repeat, are you not
ashamed, to mix with such riff-raff? I will never forgive
you!’
‘The prince will forgive me!’ said Lebedeff with
emotional conviction.
Keller suddenly left his seat, and approached Lizabetha.
Prokofievna.
‘It was only out of generosity, madame,’ he said in a
resonant voice, ‘and because I would not betray a friend in
an awkward position, that I did not mention this revision
before; though you heard him yourself threatening to kick
us down the steps. To clear the matter up, I declare now
that I did have recourse to his assistance, and that I paid
him six roubles for it. But I did not ask him to correct my
style; I simply went to him for information concerning the
facts, of which I was ignorant to a great extent, and which
he was competent to give. The story of the gaiters, the The Idiot
528 of 1149
appetite in the Swiss professor’s house, the substitution of
fifty roubles for two hundred and fifty—all such details, in
fact, were got from him. I paid him six roubles for them;
but he did not correct the style.’
‘I must state that I only revised the first part of the
article,’ interposed Lebedeff with feverish impatience,
while laughter rose from all around him; ‘but we fell out
in the middle over one idea, so I never corrected the
second part. Therefore I cannot be held responsible for the
numerous grammatical blunders in it.’
‘That is all he thinks of!’ cried Lizabetha Prokofievna.
‘May I ask when this article was revised?’ said Evgenie
Pavlovitch to Keller.
‘Yesterday morning,’ he replied, ‘we had an interview
which we all gave our word of honour to keep secret.’
‘The very time when he was cringing before you and
making protestations of devotion! Oh, the mean wretches!
I will have nothing to do with your Pushkin, and your
daughter shall not set foot in my house!’
Lizabetha Prokofievna was about to rise, when she saw
Hippolyte laughing, and turned upon him with irritation.
‘Well, sir, I suppose you wanted to make me look
ridiculous?’ The Idiot
529 of 1149
‘Heaven forbid!’ he answered, with a forced smile. ‘But
I am more than ever struck by your eccentricity, Lizabetha
Prokofievna. I admit that I told you of Lebedeff’s
duplicity, on purpose. I knew the effect it would have on
you,—on you alone, for the prince will forgive him. He
has probably forgiven him already, and is racking his brains
to find some excuse for him—is not that the truth,
prince?’
He gasped as he spoke, and his strange agitation seemed
to increase.
‘Well?’ said Mrs. Epanchin angrily, surprised at his
tone; ‘well, what more?’
‘I have heard many things of the kind about you ...they
delighted me... I have learned to hold you in the highest
esteem,’ continued Hippolyte.
His words seemed tinged with a kind of sarcastic
mockery, yet he was extremely agitated, casting suspicious
glances around him, growing confused, and constantly
losing the thread of his ideas. All this, together with his
consumptive appearance, and the frenzied expression of
his blazing eyes, naturally attracted the attention of
everyone present.
‘I might have been surprised (though I admit I know
nothing of the world), not only that you should have The Idiot
530 of 1149
stayed on just now in the company of such people as
myself and my friends, who are not of your class, but that
you should let these ... young ladies listen to such a
scandalous affair, though no doubt novel-reading has
taught them all there is to know. I may be mistaken; I
hardly know what I am saying; but surely no one but you
would have stayed to please a whippersnapper (yes, a
whippersnapper; I admit it) to spend the evening and take
part in everything—only to be ashamed of it tomorrow. (I
know I express myself badly.) I admire and appreciate it all
extremely, though the expression on the face of his
excellency, your husband, shows that he thinks it very
improper. He-he!’ He burst out laughing, and was seized
with a fit of coughing which lasted for two minutes and
prevented him from speaking.
‘He has lost his breath now!’ said Lizabetha Prokofievna
coldly, looking at him with more curiosity than pity:
‘Come, my dear boy, that is quite enough—let us make an
end of this.’
Ivan Fedorovitch, now quite out of patience,
interrupted suddenly. ‘Let me remark in my turn, sir,’ he
said in tones of deep annoyance, ‘that my wife is here as
the guest of Prince Lef Nicolaievitch, our friend and
neighbour, and that in any case, young man, it is not for The Idiot
531 of 1149
you to pass judgment on the conduct of Lizabetha
Prokofievna, or to make remarks aloud in my presence
concerning what feelings you think may be read in my
face. Yes, my wife stayed here,’ continued the general,
with increasing irritation, ‘more out of amazement than
anything else. Everyone can understand that a collection of
such strange young men would attract the attention of a
person interested in contemporary life. I stayed myself, just
as I sometimes stop to look on in the street when I see
something that may be regarded as-as-as-"
‘As a curiosity,’ suggested Evgenie Pavlovitch, seeing
his excellency involved in a comparison which he could
not complete.
‘That is exactly the word I wanted,’ said the general
with satisfaction—’ a curiosity. However, the most
astonishing and, if I may so express myself, the most
painful, thing in this matter, is that you cannot even
understand, young man, that Lizabetha Prokofievna, only
stayed with you because you are ill, —if you really are
dying—moved by the pity awakened by your plaintive
appeal, and that her name, character, and social position
place her above all risk of contamination. Lizabetha
Prokofievna!’ he continued, now crimson with rage, ‘if The Idiot
532 of 1149
you are coming, we will say goodnight to the prince,
and—‘
‘Thank you for the lesson, general,’ said Hippolyte,
with unexpected gravity, regarding him thoughtfully.
‘Two minutes more, if you please, dear Ivan
Fedorovitch,’ said Lizabetha Prokofievna to her husband;
‘it seems to me that he is in a fever and delirious; you can
see by his eyes what a state he is in; it is impossible to let
him go back to Petersburg tonight. Can you put him up,
Lef Nicolaievitch? I hope you are not bored, dear prince,’
she added suddenly to Prince S. ‘Alexandra, my dear,
come here! Your hair is coming down.’
She arranged her daughter’s hair, which was not in the
least disordered, and gave her a kiss. This was all that she
had called her for.
‘I thought you were capable of development,’ said
Hippolyte, coming out of his fit of abstraction. ‘Yes, that is
