FACE—I looked at her face, you see. Even in the
morning when I saw her portrait, I felt that I could not
BEAR to look at it. Now, there’s Vera Lebedeff, for
instance, her eyes are quite different, you know. I’m
AFRAID of her face!’ he added, with real alarm.
‘You are AFRAID of it?’
‘Yes—she’s mad!’ he whispered, growing pale.
‘Do you know this for certain?’ asked Evgenie, with
the greatest curiosity.
‘Yes, for certain—quite for certain, now! I have
discovered it ABSOLUTELY for certain, these last few
days.’
‘What are you doing, then?’ cried Evgenie, in horror.
‘You must be marrying her solely out of FEAR, then! I
can’t make head or tail of it, prince. Perhaps you don’t
even love her?’
‘Oh, no; I love her with all my soul. Why, she is a
child! She’s a child now—a real child. Oh! you know
nothing about it at all, I see.’
‘And are you assured, at the same time, that you love
Aglaya too?’ The Idiot
1087 of 1149
‘Yes—yes—oh; yes!’
‘How so? Do you want to make out that you love
them BOTH?’
‘Yes—yes—both! I do!’
‘Excuse me, prince, but think what you are saying!
Recollect yourself!’
‘Without Aglaya—I—I MUST see Aglaya!—I shall die
in my sleep very soon—I thought I was dying in my sleep
last night. Oh! if Aglaya only knew all—I mean really,
REALLY all! Because she must know ALL—that’s the
first condition towards understanding. Why cannot we
ever know all about another, especially when that other
has been guilty? But I don’t know what I’m talking
about—I’m so confused. You pained me so dreadfully.
Surely—surely Aglaya has not the same expression now as
she had at the moment when she ran away? Oh, yes! I am
guilty and I know it—I know it! Probably I am in fault all
round—I don’t quite know how—but I am in fault, no
doubt. There is something else, but I cannot explain it to
you, Evgenie Pavlovitch. I have no words; but Aglaya will
understand. I have always believed Aglaya will
understand—I am assured she will.’
‘No, prince, she will not. Aglaya loved like a woman,
like a human being, not like an abstract spirit. Do you The Idiot
1088 of 1149
‘No—no, prince; you must forgive me, but I can’t
undertake any such commissions! I really can’t.’
know what, my poor prince? The most probable
explanation of the matter is that you never loved either
the one or the other in reality.’
‘I don’t know—perhaps you are right in much that you
have said, Evgenie Pavlovitch. You are very wise, Evgenie
Pavlovitch—oh! how my head is beginning to ache again!
Come to her, quick—for God’s sake, come!’
‘But I tell you she is not in Pavlofsk! She’s in Colmina.’
‘Oh, come to Colmina, then! Come—let us go at
once!’
‘No—no, impossible!’ said Evgenie, rising.
‘Look here—I’ll write a letter—take a letter for me!’
And so they parted.
Evgenie Pavlovitch left the house with strange
convictions. He, too, felt that the prince must be out of
his mind.
‘And what did he mean by that FACE—a face which
he so fears, and yet so loves? And meanwhile he really may
die, as he says, without seeing Aglaya, and she will never
know how devotedly he loves her! Ha, ha, ha! How does
the fellow manage to love two of them? Two different The Idiot
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kinds of love, I suppose! This is very interesting—poor
idiot! What on earth will become of him now?’ The Idiot
1090 of 1149
X
THE prince did not die before his wedding—either by
day or night, as he had foretold that he might. Very
probably he passed disturbed nights, and was afflicted with
bad dreams; but, during the daytime, among his fellow-
men, he seemed as kind as ever, and even contented; only
a little thoughtful when alone.
The wedding was hurried on. The day was fixed for
exactly a week after Evgenie’s visit to the prince. In the
face of such haste as this, even the prince’s best friends (if
he had had any) would have felt the hopelessness of any
attempt to save’ the poor madman.’ Rumour said that in
the visit of Evgenie Pavlovitch was to be discerned the
influence of Lizabetha Prokofievna and her husband... But
if those good souls, in the boundless kindness of their
hearts, were desirous of saving the eccentric young fellow
from ruin, they were unable to take any stronger measures
to attain that end. Neither their position, nor their private
inclination, perhaps (and only naturally), would allow
them to use any more pronounced means.
We have observed before that even some of the
prince’s nearest neighbours had begun to oppose him. The Idiot
1091 of 1149
Vera Lebedeff’s passive disagreement was limited to the
shedding of a few solitary tears; to more frequent sitting
alone at home, and to a diminished frequency in her visits
to the prince’s apartments.
Colia was occupied with his father at this time. The old
man died during a second stroke, which took place just
eight days after the first. The prince showed great
sympathy in the grief of the family, and during the first
days of their mourning he was at the house a great deal
with Nina Alexandrovna. He went to the funeral, and it
was observable that the public assembled in church greeted
his arrival and departure with whisperings, and watched
him closely.
The same thing happened in the park and in the street,
wherever he went. He was pointed out when he drove
by, and he often overheard the name of Nastasia
Philipovna coupled with his own as he passed. People
looked out for her at the funeral, too, but she was not
there; and another conspicuous absentee was the captain’s
widow, whom Lebedeff had prevented from coming.
The funeral service produced a great effect on the
prince. He whispered to Lebedeff that this was the first
time he had ever heard a Russian funeral service since he The Idiot
1092 of 1149
was a little boy. Observing that he was looking about him
uneasily, Lebedeff asked him whom he was seeking.
‘Nothing. I only thought I—‘
‘Is it Rogojin?’
‘Why—is he here?’
‘Yes, he’s in church.’
‘I thought I caught sight of his eyes!’ muttered the
prince, in confusion. ‘But what of it!—Why is he here?
Was he asked?’
‘Oh, dear, no! Why, they don’t even know him!
Anyone can come in, you know. Why do you look so
amazed? I often meet him; I’ve seen him at least four
times, here at Pavlofsk, within the last week.’
‘I haven’t seen him once—since that day!’ the prince
murmured.
As Nastasia Philipovna had not said a word about
having met Rogojin since ‘that day,’ the prince concluded
that the latter had his own reasons for wishing to keep out
of sight. All the day of the funeral our hero, was in a
deeply thoughtful state, while Nastasia Philipovna was
particularly merry, both in the daytime and in the evening.
Colia had made it up with the prince before his father’s
death, and it was he who urged him to make use of Keller
and Burdovsky, promising to answer himself for the The Idiot
1093 of 1149
former’s behaviour. Nina Alexandrovna and Lebedeff tried
to persuade him to have the wedding in St. Petersburg,
instead of in the public fashion contemplated, down here
at Pavlofsk in the height of the season. But the prince only
said that Nastasia Philipovna desired to have it so, though
he saw well enough what prompted their arguments.
The next day Keller came to visit the prince. He was in
a high state of delight with the post of honour assigned to
him at the wedding.
Before entering he stopped on the threshold, raised his
hand as if making a solemn vow, and cried:
‘I won’t drink!’
Then he went up to the prince, seized both his hands,
shook them warmly, and declared that he had at first felt
hostile towards the project of this marriage, and had
openly said so in the billiard-rooms, but that the reason
simply was that, with the impatience of a friend, he had
hoped to see the prince marry at least a Princess de Rohan
or de Chabot; but that now he saw that the prince’s way
of thinking was ten times more noble than that of ‘all the
rest put together.’ For he desired neither pomp nor wealth
nor honour, but only the truth! The sympathies of exalted
personages were well known, and the prince was too The Idiot
1094 of 1149
highly placed by his education, and so on, not to be in
some sense an exalted personage!
‘But all the common herd judge ‘differently; in the
town, at the meetings, in the villas, at the band, in the inns
and the billiard-rooms, the coming event has only to be
mentioned and there are shouts and cries from everybody.
I have even heard talk of getting up a ‘charivari’ under the
windows on the wedding- night. So if ‘you have need of
the pistol’ of an honest man, prince, I am ready to fire half
a dozen shots even before you rise from your nuptial
couch!’
Keller also advised, in anticipation of the crowd making
a rush after the ceremony, that a fire-hose should be
placed at the entrance to the house; but Lebedeff was
opposed to this measure, which he said might result in the
place being pulled down.
‘I assure you, prince, that Lebedeff is intriguing against
you. He wants to put you under control. Imagine that! To
take ‘from you the use of your free-will and your
money—that’ is to say, the two things that distinguish us
from the animals! I have heard it said positively. It is the
sober truth.’
The prince recollected that somebody had told him
something of the kind before, and he had, of course, The Idiot
1095 of 1149
scoffed at it. He only laughed now, and forgot the hint at
once.
Lebedeff really had been busy for some little while; but,
as usual, his plans had become too complex to succeed,
through sheer excess of ardour. When he came to the
prince—the very day before the wedding—to confess (for
he always confessed to the persons against whom he
intrigued, especially when the plan failed), he informed
our hero that he himself was a born Talleyrand, but for
some unknown reason had become simple Lebedeff. He
then proceeded to explain his whole game to the prince,
interesting the latter exceedingly.
According to Lebedeff’s account, he had first tried what
he could do with General Epanchin. The latter informed
him that he wished well to the unfortunate young man,
and would gladly do what he could to ‘save him,’ but that
he did not think it would be seemly for him to interfere in
this matter. Lizabetha Prokofievna would neither hear nor
see him. Prince S. and Evgenie Pavlovitch only shrugged
their shoulders, and implied that it was no business of
theirs. However, Lebedeff had not lost heart, and went off
to a clever lawyer,—a worthy and respectable man, whom
he knew well. This old gentleman informed him that the
thing was perfectly feasible if he could get hold of The Idiot
1096 of 1149
competent witnesses as to Muishkin’s mental incapacity.
Then, with the assistance of a few influential persons, he
would soon see the matter arranged.
Lebedeff immediately procured the services of an old
doctor, and carried the latter away to Pavlofsk to see the
prince, by way of viewing the ground, as it were, and to
give him (Lebedeff) counsel as to whether the thing was to
be done or not. The visit was not to be official, but merely
friendly.
Muishkin remembered the doctor’s visit quite well. He
remembered that Lebedeff had said that he looked ill, and
had better see a doctor; and although the prince scouted
the idea, Lebedeff had turned up almost immediately with
his old friend, explaining that they had just met at the
bedside of Hippolyte, who was very ill, and that the
doctor had something to tell the prince about the sick
man.
The prince had, of course, at once received him, and
had plunged into a conversation about Hippolyte. He had
given the doctor an account of Hippolyte’s attempted
suicide; and had proceeded thereafter to talk of his own
malady,—of Switzerland, of Schneider, and so on; and so
deeply was the old man interested by the prince’s The Idiot
1097 of 1149
conversation and his description of Schneider’s system,
that he sat on for two hours.
Muishkin gave him excellent cigars to smoke, and
Lebedeff, for his part, regaled him with liqueurs, brought
in by Vera, to whom the doctor—a married man and the
father of a family—addressed such compliments that she
was filled with indignation. They parted friends, and, after
leaving the prince, the doctor said to Lebedeff: ‘If all such
people were put under restraint, there would be no one
left for keepers.’ Lebedeff then, in tragic tones, told of the
approaching marriage, whereupon the other nodded his
head and replied that, after all, marriages like that were not
so rare; that he had heard that the lady was very fascinating
and of extraordinary beauty, which was enough to explain
the infatuation of a wealthy man; that, further, thanks to
the liberality of Totski and of Rogojin, she possessed—so
he had heard—not only money, but pearls, diamonds,
shawls, and furniture, and consequently she could not be
considered a bad match. In brief, it seemed to the doctor
that the prince’s choice, far from being a sign of
foolishness, denoted, on the contrary, a shrewd,
calculating, and practical mind. Lebedeff had been much
struck by this point of view, and he terminated his The Idiot
1098 of 1149
confession by assuring the prince that he was ready, if need
be, to shed his very life’s blood for him.
Hippolyte, too, was a source of some distraction to the
prince at this time; he would send for him at any and
every hour of the day. They lived,—Hippolyte and his
mother and the children,—in a small house not far off, and
the little ones were happy, if only because they were able
to escape from the invalid into the garden. The prince had
