“Oh, aren’t you ashamed of yourself—aren’t you ashamed? Are you
really the sort of woman you are trying to represent yourself to be? Is it
possible?” The prince was now addressing Nastasia, in a tone of reproach,
which evidently came from his very heart.
Nastasia Philipovna looked surprised, and smiled, but evidently
concealed something beneath her smile and with some confusion and a
glance at Gania she left the room.
However, she had not reached the outer hall when she turned round,
walked quickly up to Nina Alexandrovna, seized her hand and lifted it to
her lips.
“He guessed quite right. I am not that sort of woman,” she whispered
hurriedly, flushing red all over. Then she turned again and left the room so
quickly that no one could imagine what she had come back for. All they saw
was that she said something to Nina Alexandrovna in a hurried whisper, and
seemed to kiss her hand. Varia, however, both saw and heard all, and
watched Nastasia out of the room with an expression of wonder.
Gania recollected himself in time to rush after her in order to show her
out, but she had gone. He followed her to the stairs.
“Don’t come with me,” she cried, “Au revoir, till the evening—do you
hear? Au revoir!”
He returned thoughtful and confused; the riddle lay heavier than ever on
his soul. He was troubled about the prince, too, and so bewildered that he
did not even observe Rogojin’s rowdy band crowd past him and step on his
toes, at the door as they went out. They were all talking at once. Rogojin
went ahead of the others, talking to Ptitsin, and apparently insisting
vehemently upon something very important.
“You’ve lost the game, Gania” he cried, as he passed the latter.
Gania gazed after him uneasily, but said nothing.
XI.
The prince now left the room and shut himself up in his own chamber.
Colia followed him almost at once, anxious to do what he could to console
him. The poor boy seemed to be already so attached to him that he could
hardly leave him.
“You were quite right to go away!” he said. “The row will rage there
worse than ever now; and it’s like this every day with us—and all through
that Nastasia Philipovna.”
“You have so many sources of trouble here, Colia,” said the prince.
“Yes, indeed, and it is all our own fault. But I have a great friend who is
much worse off even than we are. Would you like to know him?”
“Yes, very much. Is he one of your school-fellows?”
“Well, not exactly. I will tell you all about him some day…. What do you
think of Nastasia Philipovna? She is beautiful, isn’t she? I had never seen
her before, though I had a great wish to do so. She fascinated me. I could
forgive Gania if he were to marry her for love, but for money! Oh dear! that
is horrible!”
“Yes, your brother does not attract me much.”
“I am not surprised at that. After what you… But I do hate that way of
looking at things! Because some fool, or a rogue pretending to be a fool,
strikes a man, that man is to be dishonoured for his whole life, unless he
wipes out the disgrace with blood, or makes his assailant beg forgiveness on
his knees! I think that so very absurd and tyrannical. Lermontoff’s Bal
Masque is based on that idea—a stupid and unnatural one, in my opinion;
but he was hardly more than a child when he wrote it.”
“I like your sister very much.”
“Did you see how she spat in Gania’s face! Varia is afraid of no one. But
you did not follow her example, and yet I am sure it was not through
cowardice. Here she comes! Speak of a wolf and you see his tail! I felt sure
that she would come. She is very generous, though of course she has her
faults.”
Varia pounced upon her brother.
“This is not the place for you,” said she. “Go to father. Is he plaguing
you, prince?”
“Not in the least; on the contrary, he interests me.”
“Scolding as usual, Varia! It is the worst thing about her. After all, I
believe father may have started off with Rogojin. No doubt he is sorry now.
Perhaps I had better go and see what he is doing,” added Colia, running off.
“Thank God, I have got mother away, and put her to bed without another
scene! Gania is worried—and ashamed—not without reason! What a
spectacle! I have come to thank you once more, prince, and to ask you if
you knew Nastasia Philipovna before?”
“No, I have never known her.”
“Then what did you mean, when you said straight out to her that she was
not really ‘like that’? You guessed right, I fancy. It is quite possible she was
not herself at the moment, though I cannot fathom her meaning. Evidently
she meant to hurt and insult us. I have heard curious tales about her before
now, but if she came to invite us to her house, why did she behave so to my
mother? Ptitsin knows her very well; he says he could not understand her
today. With Rogojin, too! No one with a spark of self-respect could have
talked like that in the house of her… Mother is extremely vexed on your
account, too…
“That is nothing!” said the prince, waving his hand.
“But how meek she was when you spoke to her!”
“Meek! What do you mean?”
“You told her it was a shame for her to behave so, and her manner
changed at once; she was like another person. You have some influence
over her, prince,” added Varia, smiling a little.
The door opened at this point, and in came Gania most unexpectedly.
He was not in the least disconcerted to see Varia there, but he stood a
moment at the door, and then approached the prince quietly.
“Prince,” he said, with feeling, “I was a blackguard. Forgive me!” His
face gave evidence of suffering. The prince was considerably amazed, and
did not reply at once. “Oh, come, forgive me, forgive me!” Gania insisted,
rather impatiently. “If you like, I’ll kiss your hand. There!”
The prince was touched; he took Gania’s hands, and embraced him
heartily, while each kissed the other.
“I never, never thought you were like that,” said Muishkin, drawing a
deep breath. “I thought you—you weren’t capable of—”
“Of what? Apologizing, eh? And where on earth did I get the idea that
you were an idiot? You always observe what other people pass by
unnoticed; one could talk sense to you, but—”
“Here is another to whom you should apologize,” said the prince,
pointing to Varia.
“No, no! they are all enemies! I’ve tried them often enough, believe me,”
and Gania turned his back on Varia with these words.
“But if I beg you to make it up?” said Varia.
“And you’ll go to Nastasia Philipovna’s this evening—”
“If you insist: but, judge for yourself, can I go, ought I to go?”
“But she is not that sort of woman, I tell you!” said Gania, angrily. “She
was only acting.”
“I know that—I know that; but what a part to play! And think what she
must take you for, Gania! I know she kissed mother’s hand, and all that, but
she laughed at you, all the same. All this is not good enough for seventy-
five thousand roubles, my dear boy. You are capable of honourable feelings
still, and that’s why I am talking to you so. Oh! do take care what you are
doing! Don’t you know yourself that it will end badly, Gania?”
So saying, and in a state of violent agitation, Varia left the room.
“There, they are all like that,” said Gania, laughing, “just as if I do not
know all about it much better than they do.”
He sat down with these words, evidently intending to prolong his visit.
“If you know it so well,” said the prince a little timidly, “why do you
choose all this worry for the sake of the seventy-five thousand, which, you
confess, does not cover it?”
“I didn’t mean that,” said Gania; “but while we are upon the subject, let
me hear your opinion. Is all this worry worth seventy-five thousand or not?”
“Certainly not.”
“Of course! And it would be a disgrace to marry so, eh?”
“A great disgrace.”
“Oh, well, then you may know that I shall certainly do it, now. I shall
certainly marry her. I was not quite sure of myself before, but now I am.
Don’t say a word: I know what you want to tell me—”
“No. I was only going to say that what surprises me most of all is your
extraordinary confidence.”
“How so? What in?”
“That Nastasia Philipovna will accept you, and that the question is as
good as settled; and secondly, that even if she did, you would be able to
pocket the money. Of course, I know very little about it, but that’s my view.
When a man marries for money it often happens that the wife keeps the
money in her own hands.”
“Of course, you don’t know all; but, I assure you, you needn’t be afraid,
it won’t be like that in our case. There are circumstances,” said Gania,
rather excitedly. “And as to her answer to me, there’s no doubt about that.
Why should you suppose she will refuse me?”
“Oh, I only judge by what I see. Varvara Ardalionovna said just now—”
“Oh she—they don’t know anything about it! Nastasia was only chaffing
Rogojin. I was alarmed at first, but I have thought better of it now; she was
simply laughing at him. She looks on me as a fool because I show that I
meant her money, and doesn’t realize that there are other men who would
deceive her in far worse fashion. I’m not going to pretend anything, and
you’ll see she’ll marry me, all right. If she likes to live quietly, so she shall;
but if she gives me any of her nonsense, I shall leave her at once, but I shall
keep the money. I’m not going to look a fool; that’s the first thing, not to
look a fool.”
“But Nastasia Philipovna seems to me to be such a sensible woman, and,
as such, why should she run blindly into this business? That’s what puzzles
me so,” said the prince.
“You don’t know all, you see; I tell you there are things—and besides,
I’m sure that she is persuaded that I love her to distraction, and I give you
my word I have a strong suspicion that she loves me, too—in her own way,
of course. She thinks she will be able to make a sort of slave of me all my
life; but I shall prepare a little surprise for her. I don’t know whether I ought
to be confidential with you, prince; but, I assure you, you are the only
decent fellow I have come across. I have not spoken so sincerely as I am
doing at this moment for years. There are uncommonly few honest people
about, prince; there isn’t one honester than Ptitsin, he’s the best of the lot.
Are you laughing? You don’t know, perhaps, that blackguards like honest
people, and being one myself I like you. Why am I a blackguard? Tell me
honestly, now. They all call me a blackguard because of her, and I have got
into the way of thinking myself one. That’s what is so bad about the
business.”
“I for one shall never think you a blackguard again,” said the prince. “I
confess I had a poor opinion of you at first, but I have been so joyfully
surprised about you just now; it’s a good lesson for me. I shall never judge
again without a thorough trial. I see now that you are not only not a
blackguard, but are not even quite spoiled. I see that you are quite an
ordinary man, not original in the least degree, but rather weak.”
Gania laughed sarcastically, but said nothing. The prince, seeing that he
did not quite like the last remark, blushed, and was silent too.
“Has my father asked you for money?” asked Gania, suddenly.
“No.”
“Don’t give it to him if he does. Fancy, he was a decent, respectable man
once! He was received in the best society; he was not always the liar he is
now. Of course, wine is at the bottom of it all; but he is a good deal worse
than an innocent liar now. Do you know that he keeps a mistress? I can’t
understand how mother is so long-suffering. Did he tell you the story of the
siege of Kars? Or perhaps the one about his grey horse that talked? He
loves to enlarge on these absurd histories.” And Gania burst into a fit of
laughter. Suddenly he turned to the prince and asked: “Why are you looking
at me like that?”
“I am surprised to see you laugh in that way, like a child. You came to
make friends with me again just now, and you said, ‘I will kiss your hand, if
you like,’ just as a child would have said it. And then, all at once you are
talking of this mad project—of these seventy-five thousand roubles! It all
seems so absurd and impossible.”
“Well, what conclusion have you reached?”
“That you are rushing madly into the undertaking, and that you would do
well to think it over again. It is more than possible that Varvara
Ardalionovna is right.”
“Ah! now you begin to moralize! I know that I am only a child, very
well,” replied Gania impatiently. “That is proved by my having this
conversation with you. It is not for money only, prince, that I am rushing
into this affair,” he continued, hardly master of his words, so closely had his
vanity been touched. “If I reckoned on that I should certainly be deceived,
for I am still too weak in mind and character. I am obeying a passion, an
impulse perhaps, because I have but one aim, one that overmasters all else.
You imagine that once I am in possession of these seventy-five thousand
roubles, I shall rush to buy a carriage… No, I shall go on wearing the old
overcoat I have worn for three years, and I shall give up my club. I shall
follow the example of men who have made their fortunes. When Ptitsin was
seventeen he slept in the street, he sold pen-knives, and began with a
copeck; now he has sixty thousand roubles, but to get them, what has he not
done? Well, I shall be spared such a hard beginning, and shall start with a
little capital. In fifteen years people will say, ‘Look, that’s Ivolgin, the king
of the Jews!’ You say that I have no originality. Now mark this, prince—
there is nothing so offensive to a man of our time and race than to be told
that he is wanting in originality, that he is weak in character, has no
particular talent, and is, in short, an ordinary person. You have not even
done me the honour of looking upon me as a rogue. Do you know, I could
have knocked you down for that just now! You wounded me more cruelly
than Epanchin, who thinks me capable of selling him my wife! Observe, it
was a perfectly gratuitous idea on his part, seeing there has never been any
discussion of it between us! This has exasperated me, and I am determined
to make a fortune! I will do it! Once I am rich, I shall be a genius, an
extremely original man. One of the vilest and most hateful things connected
with money is that it can buy even talent; and will do so as long as the
world lasts. You will say that this is childish—or romantic. Well, that will
be all the better for me, but the thing shall be done. I will carry it through.
He laughs most, who laughs last. Why does Epanchin insult me? Simply
because, socially, I am a nobody. However, enough for the present. Colia
has put his nose in to tell us dinner is ready, twice. I’m dining out. I shall
come and talk to you now and then; you shall be comfortable enough with
us. They are sure to make you one of the family. I think you and I will
either be great friends or enemies. Look here now, supposing I had kissed
your hand just now, as I offered to do in all sincerity, should I have hated
you for it afterwards?”
“Certainly, but not always. You would not have been able to keep it up,
and would have ended by forgiving me,” said the prince, after a pause for
reflection, and with a pleasant smile.
“Oho, how careful one has to be with you, prince! Haven’t you put a drop
of poison in that remark now, eh? By the way—ha, ha, ha!—I forgot to ask,
was I right in believing that you were a good deal struck yourself with
Nastasia Philipovna.”
