advice.’
The prince commended his aspirations with warmth.
‘Quite so—quite so! But this is all mere nonsense. I
came here to speak of something quite different,
something very important, prince. And I have determined
to come to you as to a man in whose sincerity and nobility
of feeling I can trust like—like—are you surprised at my
words, prince?’ The Idiot
897 of 1149
The prince was watching his guest, if not with much
surprise, at all events with great attention and curiosity.
The old man was very pale; every now and then his lips
trembled, and his hands seemed unable to rest quietly, but
continually moved from place to place. He had twice
already jumped up from his chair and sat down again
without being in the least aware of it. He would take up a
hook from the table and open it—talking all the while,—
look at the heading of a chapter, shut it and put it back
again, seizing another immediately, but holding it
unopened in his hand, and waving it in the air as he spoke.
‘But enough!’ he cried, suddenly. ‘I see I have been
boring you with my—‘
‘Not in the least—not in the least, I assure you. On the
contrary, I am listening most attentively, and am anxious
to guess-"
‘Prince, I wish to place myself in a respectable
position—I wish to esteem myself—and to—‘
‘My dear sir, a man of such noble aspirations is worthy
of all esteem by virtue of those aspirations alone.’
The prince brought out his ‘copy-book sentence’ in the
firm belief that it would produce a good effect. He felt
instinctively that some such well-sounding humbug,
brought out at the proper moment, would soothe the old The Idiot
898 of 1149
man’s feelings, and would be specially acceptable to such a
man in such a position. At all hazards, his guest must be
despatched with heart relieved and spirit comforted; that
was the problem before the prince at this moment.
The phrase flattered the general, touched him, and
pleased him mightily. He immediately changed his tone,
and started off on a long and solemn explanation. But
listen as he would, the prince could make neither head nor
tail of it.
The general spoke hotly and quickly for ten minutes;
he spoke as though his words could not keep pace with his
crowding thoughts. Tears stood in his eyes, and yet his
speech was nothing but a collection of disconnected
sentences, without beginning and without end—a string of
unexpected words and unexpected sentiments—colliding
with one another, and jumping over one another, as they
burst from his lips.
‘Enough!’ he concluded at last, ‘you understand me,
and that is the great thing. A heart like yours cannot help
understanding the sufferings of another. Prince, you are
the ideal of generosity; what are other men beside
yourself? But you are young—accept my blessing! My
principal object is to beg you to fix an hour for a most
important conversation—that is my great hope, prince. The Idiot
899 of 1149
My heart needs but a little friendship and sympathy, and
yet I cannot always find means to satisfy it.’
‘But why not now? I am ready to listen, and—‘
‘No, no—prince, not now! Now is a dream! And it is
too, too important! It is to be the hour of Fate to me—
MY OWN hour. Our interview is not to be broken in
upon by every chance comer, every impertinent guest—
and there are plenty of such stupid, impertinent fellows’—
(he bent over and whispered mysteriously, with a funny,
frightened look on his face)—‘who are unworthy to tie
your shoe, prince. I don’t say MINE, mind—you will
understand me, prince. Only YOU understand me,
prince—no one else. HE doesn’t understand me, he is
absolutely—ABSOLUTELY unable to sympathize. The
first qualification for understanding another is Heart.’
The prince was rather alarmed at all this, and was
obliged to end by appointing the same hour of the
following day for the interview desired. The general left
him much comforted and far less agitated than when he
had arrived.
At seven in the evening, the prince sent to request
Lebedeff to pay him a visit. Lebedeff came at once, and
‘esteemed it an honour,’ as he observed, the instant he
entered the room. He acted as though there had never The Idiot
900 of 1149
been the slightest suspicion of the fact that he had
systematically avoided the prince for the last three days.
He sat down on the edge of his chair, smiling and
making faces, and rubbing his hands, and looking as
though he were in delighted expectation of hearing some
important communication, which had been long guessed
by all.
The prince was instantly covered with confusion; for it
appeared to be plain that everyone expected something of
him—that everyone looked at him as though anxious to
congratulate him, and greeted him with hints, and smiles,
and knowing looks.
Keller, for instance, had run into the house three times
of late, ‘just for a moment,’ and each time with the air of
desiring to offer his congratulations. Colia, too, in spite of
his melancholy, had once or twice begun sentences in
much the same strain of suggestion or insinuation.
The prince, however, immediately began, with some
show of annoyance, to question Lebedeff categorically, as
to the general’s present condition, and his opinion
thereon. He described the morning’s interview in a few
words.
‘Everyone has his worries, prince, especially in these
strange and troublous times of ours,’ Lebedeff replied, The Idiot
901 of 1149
drily, and with the air of a man disappointed of his
reasonable expectations.
‘Dear me, what a philosopher you are!’ laughed the
prince.
Philosophy is necessary, sir—very necessary—in our
day. It is too much neglected. As for me, much esteemed
prince, I am sensible of having experienced the honour of
your confidence in a certain matter up to a certain point,
but never beyond that point. I do not for a moment
complain—‘
‘Lebedeff, you seem to be angry for some reason!’ said
the prince.
‘Not the least bit in the world, esteemed and revered
prince! Not the least bit in the world!’ cried Lebedeff,
solemnly, with his hand upon his heart. ‘On the contrary,
I am too painfully aware that neither by my position in the
world, nor by my gifts of intellect and heart, nor by my
riches, nor by any former conduct of mine, have I in any
way deserved your confidence, which is far above my
highest aspirations and hopes. Oh no, prince; I may serve
you, but only as your humble slave! I am not angry, oh
no! Not angry; pained perhaps, but nothing more.
‘My dear Lebedeff, I—‘ The Idiot
902 of 1149
‘Oh, nothing more, nothing more! I was saying to
myself but now... ‘I am quite unworthy of friendly
relations with him,’ say I; ‘but perhaps as landlord of this
house I may, at some future date, in his good time, receive
information as to certain imminent and much to be
desired changes—’’
So saying Lebedeff fixed the prince with his sharp little
eyes, still in hope that he would get his curiosity satisfied.
The prince looked back at him in amazement.
‘I don’t understand what you are driving at!’ he cried,
almost angrily, ‘and, and—what an intriguer you are,
Lebedeff!’ he added, bursting into a fit of genuine
laughter.
Lebedeff followed suit at once, and it was clear from his
radiant face that he considered his prospects of satisfaction
immensely improved.
‘And do you know,’ the prince continued, ‘I am
amazed at your naive ways, Lebedeff! Don’t he angry with
me—not only yours, everybody else’s also! You are
waiting to hear something from me at this very moment
with such simplicity that I declare I feel quite ashamed of
myself for having nothing whatever to tell you. I swear to
you solemnly, that there is nothing to tell. There! Can you
take that in?’ The prince laughed again. The Idiot
903 of 1149
Lebedeff assumed an air of dignity. It was true enough
that he was sometimes naive to a degree in his curiosity;
but he was also an excessively cunning gentleman, and the
prince was almost converting him into an enemy by his
repeated rebuffs. The prince did not snub Lebedeff’s
curiosity, however, because he felt any contempt for him;
but simply because the subject was too delicate to talk
about. Only a few days before he had looked upon his
own dreams almost as crimes. But Lebedeff considered the
refusal as caused by personal dislike to himself, and was
hurt accordingly. Indeed, there was at this moment a piece
of news, most interesting to the prince, which Lebedeff
knew and even had wished to tell him, but which he now
kept obstinately to himself.
‘And what can I do for you, esteemed prince? Since I
am told you sent for me just now,’ he said, after a few
moments’ silence.
‘Oh, it was about the general,’ began the prince,
waking abruptly from the fit of musing which he too had
indulged in ‘and-and about the theft you told me of.’
‘That is—er—about—what theft?’
‘Oh come! just as if you didn’t understand, Lukian
Timofeyovitch! What are you up to? I can’t make you
out! The money, the money, sir! The four hundred The Idiot
904 of 1149
roubles that you lost that day. You came and told me
about it one morning, and then went off to Petersburg.
There, NOW do you understand?’
‘Oh—h—h! You mean the four hundred roubles!’ said
Lebedeff, dragging the words out, just as though it had
only just dawned upon him what the prince was talking
about. ‘Thanks very much, prince, for your kind
interest—you do me too much honour. I found the
money, long ago!’
‘You found it? Thank God for that!’
‘Your exclamation proves the generous sympathy of
your nature, prince; for four hundred roubles—to a
struggling family man like myself—is no small matter!’
‘I didn’t mean that; at least, of course, I’m glad for your
sake, too,’ added the prince, correcting himself, ‘ but—
how did you find it?’
‘Very simply indeed! I found it under the chair upon
which my coat had hung; so that it is clear the purse
simply fell out of the pocket and on to the floor!’
‘Under the chair? Impossible! Why, you told me
yourself that you had searched every corner of the room?
How could you not have looked in the most likely place
of all?’ The Idiot
905 of 1149
‘Of course I looked there,—of course I did! Very much
so! I looked and scrambled about, and felt for it, and
wouldn’t believe it was not there, and looked again and
again. It is always so in such cases. One longs and expects
to find a lost article; one sees it is not there, and the place
is as hare as one’s palm; and yet one returns and looks
again and again, fifteen or twenty times, likely enough!’
‘Oh, quite so, of course. But how was it in your
case?—I don’t quite understand,’ said the bewildered
prince. ‘You say it wasn’t there at first, and that you
searched the place thoroughly, and yet it turned up on that
very spot!’
‘Yes, sir—on that very spot.’ The prince gazed
strangely at Lebedeff. ‘And the general?’ he asked,
abruptly.
‘The—the general? How do you mean, the general?’
said Lebedeff, dubiously, as though he had not taken in
the drift of the prince’s remark.
‘Oh, good heavens! I mean, what did the general say
when the purse turned up under the chair? You and he
had searched for it together there, hadn’t you?’
‘Quite so—together! But the second time I thought
better to say nothing about finding it. I found it alone.’ The Idiot
906 of 1149
‘But—why in the world—and the money? Was it all
there?’
‘I opened the purse and counted it myself; right to a
single rouble.’
‘I think you might have come and told me,’ said the
prince, thoughtfully.
‘Oh—I didn’t like to disturb you, prince, in the midst
of your private and doubtless most interesting personal
reflections. Besides, I wanted to appear, myself, to have
found nothing. I took the purse, and opened it, and
counted the money, and shut it and put it down again
under the chair.’
‘What in the world for?’
‘Oh, just out of curiosity,’ said Lebedeff, rubbing his
hands and sniggering.
‘What, it’s still there then, is it? Ever since the day
before yesterday?’
‘Oh no! You see, I was half in hopes the general might
find it. Because if I found it, why should not he too
observe an object lying before his very eyes? I moved the
chair several times so as to expose the purse to view, but
the general never saw it. He is very absent just now,
evidently. He talks and laughs and tells stories, and
suddenly flies into a rage with me, goodness knows why.’ The Idiot
907 of 1149
‘Well, but—have you taken the purse away now?’
‘No, it disappeared from under the chair in the night.’
‘Where is it now, then?’
‘Here,’ laughed Lebedeff, at last, rising to his full height
and looking pleasantly at the prince, ‘here, in the lining of
my coat. Look, you can feel it for yourself, if you like!’
Sure enough there was something sticking out of the
front of the coat—something large. It certainly felt as
though it might well be the purse fallen through a hole in
the pocket into the lining.
‘I took it out and had a look at it; it’s all right. I’ve let it
slip back into the lining now, as you see, and so I have
been walking about ever since yesterday morning; it
knocks against my legs when I walk along.’
‘H’m! and you take no notice of it?’
‘Quite so, I take no notice of it. Ha, ha! and think of
this, prince, my pockets are always strong and whole, and
yet, here in one night, is a huge hole. I know the
phenomenon is unworthy of your notice; but such is the
case. I examined the hole, and I declare it actually looks as
though it had been made with a pen- knife, a most
improbable contingency.’
‘And—and—the general?’ The Idiot
