The Idiot (26 page)

‘Did you really love her before this?’

‘I loved her to begin with. Well, enough said ... There are women who are fit only to be mistresses and nothing else. I’m not saying she was my mistress. If she wants to live quietly, I’ll live quietly; but if she rebels, I’ll leave her at once, and take the money with me. I don’t want to look ridiculous; above all I don’t want to look ridiculous.’

‘I can’t help thinking,’ the prince observed cautiously, ‘that Nastasya Filippovna is clever. Why, sensing such torment in advance, would she walk into the trap? I mean, she could marry someone else. That’s what I find astonishing.’

‘But that’s where the calculation comes in! You don’t know it all, Prince ... it’s ... and what’s more, she’s convinced that I love her to the point of insanity, I swear to you, and you know, I strongly suspect that she loves me, in her own way, that is, you know the saying: “You always hurt the one you love.” All her life she will regard me as a
valet de carreau
²
(and perhaps that’s what she needs), and yet love me in her own way; she’s preparing to do that, it’s in her character. She’s an extremely Russian woman, I tell you; well, and I’m also preparing a surprise of my own for her. That scene with Varya just now was an accident, but it was to my advantage: now she has seen and been convinced of my devotion and that I’ll break off all ties for her. Which means that we’re no fools, either. By the way, I hope you don’t think I’m always such a chatterbox? My dear Prince, I may indeed be acting badly by taking you into my confidence. But it’s precisely because you’re the first decent person to come my way that I’ve pounced on you, and please don’t take that in the wrong way. You’re not angry about what happened just now, are you? It’s the first time I’ve spoken from the he
art in possibly all of two years. There’s an awful lack of honest people here; Ptitsyn is about as honest as they get. Well, are you laughing or aren’t you? Scoundrels like honest people - didn’t you know that? Though as a matter of fact, in what way am I a scoundrel, tell me, in all conscience? Why do they all follow her in calling me a scoundrel? And you know, I follow her and them in calling myself a scoundrel! That’s scoundrelly indeed!’

‘I shall never consider you a scoundrel now,’ said the prince. ‘Earlier today I thought you were an out-and-out evildoer, and you suddenly made me so glad - there is a lesson: not to judge without experience. Now I see that one can consider you neither an evildoer nor even a very corrupt man. In my opinion, you are just the most ordinary man there could be, except that you’re very weak and not original at all.’

Ganya smiled caustically to himself, but said nothing. The prince saw that his challenge had not met with approval, grew embarrassed and also fell silent.

‘Has father asked you for money?’ Ganya asked suddenly.

‘No.’

‘He will, but don’t give him any. And yet you know he was even a respectable man, I remember. He was admitted to polite society. And how quickly they all meet their end, all those respectable old men! The moment their circumstances change there’s nothing left, as though their powder had gone up in smoke. He didn’t use to lie like that, I assure you; he used simply to be a man with too much enthusiasm, and - look at what it’s resolved itself into! Of course, drink is to blame. Do you know that he keeps a mistress? He’s not just an innocent little old liar now. I can’t understand how mother puts up with it. Has he told you about the siege of Kars? Or about how his grey trace-horse began talking? I mean, it even goes as far as that.’

And Ganya fairly shook with sudden laughter.

‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ he asked the prince.

‘It’s just that I was surprised you laughed so sincerely. You really do still have the laugh of a child. Just now you came in to make amends and said: “If you like, I’ll kiss your hand” - that’s exactly how a child would make amends. So you’re still capable of such words and gestures. And suddenly you start giving an entire lecture about this murky affair and the seventy-five thousand. Really, it’s all rather absurd and hard to countenance.’

‘So what are you trying to conclude from this?’

‘That perhaps you’re acting too thoughtlessly, and shouldn’t you take your bearings first? Perhaps Varvara Ardalionovna is right.’

‘Ah, morality! I myself am well aware that I’m still a little boy,’ Ganya interrupted hotly. ‘Prince, I’m not going into this murky affair out of calculation,’ he continued, letting out his secret like a young man whose vanity has been wounded. ‘If that were the case, I would have certainly have been in error, because I am not yet strong in mind and character. I am going into it because of passion, because of inclination,
because I have a supreme purpose. I expect you think that as soon as I get the seventy-five thousand I’ll buy myself a carriage. No, sir, when it happens, I shall wear out my three-year-old frock coat and give up all my club acquaintances. We have few men of perseverance, though we have plenty of moneylenders, and I want to persevere. The main thing is to carry it through to the end - that’s the whole task! Ptitsyn was sleeping in the street at seventeen, sold penknives and began with copecks; now he has sixty thousand, but only after goodness knows what gymnastics! Now I am going to jump over the gymnastics, and begin with capital; in fifteen years’ time I shall say: “Behold Ivolgin, King of the Jews.” You say I’m a man with no originality. Bear in mind, dear Prince, that there is nothing more hurtful to a man of our time and race than to tell him he has no originality, has a weak character, lacks any particular talent and is an ordinary fellow. You didn’t even consider me worthy of being called a decent scoundrel, you know, I wanted to eat your bones for that just now! You insulted me worse than Yepanchin, who considers me (without words or wiles, in the simplicity of my soul, bear that in mind) capable of selling him my wife! That has been driving me insane for a long time, and I want money. Once I’ve made money, you know, I’ll be a man of the greatest originality. The most vile and hateful thing about money is that it even imparts talent. And will go on doing so until the end of the world. You may say that this is all childish talk, or poetry, perhaps - what of it, I’ll be all the merrier, but the business will be done all the same. I’ll go through with it, and persevere.
Rira bien qui rira le dernier!
³
Why does Yepanchin insult me like that? Out of spite? Never, sir. Simply because I’m too insignificant. Well, sir, but then ... However, enough, and it’s time to go. Kolya has already peeked round the door twice; he’s calling you to dinner. But I must be off. I shall drop by and visit you now and then. You’ll have quite a nice time with us; now you’ll be part of the family. But see that you don’t give me away. I think you and I will either be friends, or enemies. What do you suppose, Prince, if I had kissed your hand ( as I sincerely offered to do), would I have been your enemy thereafter, as a result?’

‘Of course you would, only not for ever, later you wouldn’t have been able to keep it up, and you’d have forgiven me,’ the prince decided, after some thought and beginning to laugh.

‘E-heh! One must be more cautious with you. The devil, you’ve put some poison into that, too. And who knows, perhaps you’re my enemy too? By the way, ha-ha-ha! I forgot to ask: was I correct in thinking that you’re rather taken with Nastasya Filippovna? Eh?’

‘Yes ... I am.’

‘You’re in love?’

‘N-no.’

‘But he’s blushing all over, and suffering. Well, it’s all right, it’s all right, I’m not going to laugh;
au revoir.
But you know, I mean, she’s a woman of virtue, can you believe that? You think she lives with the
other one, with Totsky? Not a bit of it! And hasn’t for a long time. And did you notice that she’s terribly awkward, and was embarrassed at certain moments just now? It’s true. Those are the ones who like to wield power. Well, goodbye!’

Ganya went out far more at ease than he had been when he came in, and was now in a good mood. The prince remained motionless for some ten minutes, thinking.

Kolya again stuck his head round the door.

‘I don’t want dinner, Kolya; I had a good lunch at the Yepanchins’ earlier.’

Kolya came all the way round the door and handed the prince a note. It was from the general, folded and sealed. It was clear from Kolya’s face that he found it a painful task. The prince read the note, got up and took his hat.

‘It’s only a couple of blocks away,’ Kolya said, starting to grow embarrassed. ‘He’s sitting there now, with a bottle. Though how he gets credit there, I really don’t know. Prince, dear fellow, please don’t say anything to the family about my bringing you the note! I’ve sworn a thousand times not take these notes, but I feel sorry for him; but look, please don’t stand on ceremony with him; give him some change, and let that be an end of it.’

‘Actually, Kolya, I had the same thought myself; I need to see your papa ... about a certain matter ... Come on, let’s go.’

Kolya took the prince a short way, to Liteinaya and a café and billiards room, on the ground floor, the entrance from the street. Here on the right, in a corner of a small, separate room, like an old regular, Ardalion Alexandrovich sat with a bottle in front of him on the table and, indeed, with a copy of the
Indépendance Belge
in his hands. He was expecting the prince; as soon as he caught sight of him he at once put down his newspaper and began a heated and verbose explanation, of which, however, the prince understood nothing, as the general was by now more or less ‘primed’.

‘I haven’t got ten roubles,’ the prince interrupted, ‘but here’s twenty-five, change it, and give me fifteen, for otherwise I myself won’t have anything left.’

‘Oh, naturally; and you may rest assured that it will be
this very moment ...’

‘In addition, I have a request to make of you, General. You’ve never been at Nastasya Filippovna’s, have you?’

‘I? Never been? You say this to me? Several times, my dear fellow, several times!’ the general exclaimed, in a fit of complacent and triumphant irony. ‘But in the end I broke it off myself because I didn’t want to encourage an improper union. You have seen for yourself, you were a witness this morning: I have done all that a father could do, but a meek and lenient father; well, now a different sort of father is going to enter the stage, and then - we shall see, we shall see if an honourable old soldier can defeat the intrigue, or if a shameless “camellia” will enter a most noble family.’

‘What I particularly wanted to ask you is, could you not, as an acquaintance, take me to Nastasya Filippovna’s this evening? I absolutely need to do this today; I have business; but I really don’t know how to get in. I was introduced earlier today, but not invited: the soiree is a formal one. However, I’m prepared to overlook certain proprieties, and I don’t even mind being laughed at, as long as I can get in somehow.’

‘And you have quite, quite coincided with my plan, my young friend,’ the general exclaimed in rapture. ‘I didn’t ask you to come here for this trivial matter!’ he continued, taking the money all the same, and putting it in his pocket. ‘I really asked you to come here in order to invite you as a companion on a visit to Nastasya Filippovna, or rather on a campaign against Nastasya Filippovna! General Ivolgin and Prince Myshkin! That will surely make her sit up and take notice! And I, on the pretext of an act of kindness on her birthday, will at last make known my will - obliquely, not directly, but it will be the same as if it were directly. Then Ganya himself will see his position: whether it’s to be his father, an honourable man and ... so to speak ... etcetera, or ... But what will be will be! Your plan is a most fertile one. We shall set off at nine, we still have plenty of time.’

‘Where does she live?’

‘A long way from here: near the Bolshoi Theatre, Mytovtsova’s house, almost right on the square, on the first floor ... It won’t be a large gathering, even though it’s her birthday, and they’ll break up early ...’

It had now long been evening; the prince still sat waiting, listening to the general, who had begun a countless multitude of anecdotes and had not finished one of them. On the prince’s arrival he had asked for a new bottle and took an hour to finish it, then asked for another, and finished that one, too. It was a fair guess that during this time the general succeeded in telling very nearly the whole of his story. At last, the prince got up and said he could not wait any longer. The general drained the last dregs of the bottle, got up and went out of the room, walking very unsteadily. The prince was in despair. He could not understand how he could have so stupid as to let himself be taken in. In reality, he never had been; he had placed his reliance on the general in order to somehow find a way to get into Nastasya Filippovna’s, even if it caused a scandal, but had not reckoned on a major scandal: the general proved to be decidedly drunk, in a state of the most violent eloquence, and spoke incessantly, with emotion, with tears in his soul. The constant gist of it was that because of the bad behaviour of all the members of his family everything had gone to pot, and that it was now time for him to draw the line. At last they came out on to Liteinaya. The thaw still continued; a dismal, warm, damp wind whistled about the streets, carriages splashed through the mud, the hooves of trotting-horse and cart-horse resonantly struck the cobbles. Pedestrians wandered along the pavements in a wet and dismal throng. There were drunks here and there among them.

‘Do you see those lit-up windows on the first floor?’ the general was saying. ‘That’s where my comrades live, while I, who’ve served longer and suffered more than any of them, have gone on foot to the Bolshoi Theatre, to the apartment of a woman of doubtful reputation! A man with thirteen bullets in his chest ... you don’t believe me? And yet it was exclusively for me that Pirogov telegraphed Paris and left besieged Sebastopol for a while, and Nélaton, the Paris court physician, got a safe conduct in the name of science and came to besieged Sebastopol in order to examine me.
¹
The very highest command knows about it: “Oh, that’s the Ivolgin who got thirteen bullets! ...” That’s how they talk, sir! Do you see that house, Prince? On the first floor there lives my old comrade General Sokolovich, with a most noble and numerous family. Well, that house and another three houses on Nevsky and two on Morskaya - that’s the entire present circle of my acquaintances, my purely personal acquaintances, that is. Nina Alexandrovna long ago resigned herself to circumstances. But I still remember ... and, as it were, relax in the educated circle of the company of my former comrades and subordinates, who adore me to this day. This General Sokolovich (as a matter of fact, I haven’t been to see him for a very long time, nor have I seen Anna Fyodorovna) ... you know
, dear Prince, when you don’t receive guests yourself, you somehow find yourself giving up visiting other people. But ... ahem ... you don’t look as though you believe me ... However, why should I not introduce the son of my best friend and childhood companion into this charming family home? General Ivolgin and Prince Myshkin! You will see an astounding girl, and not just one: two, even three, the ornament of the capital and of society: beauty, progressive education, progressive orientation ... the woman question, poetry - all this has been combined into a happy, diversified mixture, not to mention a dowry of eighty thousand roubles, in cash, for each of them, which never does any harm, no matter what woman questions and social questions there may be ... in other words, I have an absolute, total duty and obligation to introduce you. General Ivolgin and Prince Myshkin!’ ‘This minute? Now? But you’ve forgotten,’ the prince began.