The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (grave mercy TXT) đ
- Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Performer: 014044792X
Book online «The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (grave mercy TXT) đ». Author Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The heavy curtain was drawn now, and it was very dark. The bright Petersburg summer nights were already beginning to close in, and but for the full moon, it would have been difficult to distinguish anything in Rogojinâs dismal room, with the drawn blinds. They could just see one anothers faces, however, though not in detail. Rogojinâs face was white, as usual. His glittering eyes watched the prince with an intent stare.
âHad you not better light a candle?â said Muishkin.
âNo, I neednât,â replied Rogojin, and taking the other by the hand he drew him down to a chair. He himself took a chair opposite and drew it up so close that he almost pressed against the princeâs knees. At their side was a little round table.
Sit down,â said Rogojin; âletâs rest a bit.â There was silence for a moment.
âI knew you would be at that hotel,â he continued, just as men sometimes commence a serious conversation by discussing any outside subject before leading up to the main point. âAs I entered the passage it struck me that perhaps you were sitting and waiting for me, just as I was waiting for you. Have you been to the old lady at Ismailofsky barracks?â
âYes,â said the prince, squeezing the word out with difficulty owing to the dreadful beating of his heart.
âI thought you would. âTheyâll talk about it,â I thought; so I determined to go and fetch you to spend the night hereââWe will be together,â I thought, âfor this one nightâââ
âRogojin, WHERE is Nastasia Philipovna?â said the prince, suddenly rising from his seat. He was quaking in all his limbs, and his words came in a scarcely audible whisper. Rogojin rose also.
âThere,â he whispered, nodding his head towards the curtain.
âAsleep?â whispered the prince.
Rogojin looked intently at him again, as before.
âLetâs go inâbut you mustnâtâwellâletâs go in.â
He lifted the curtain, pausedâand turned to the prince. âGo in,â he said, motioning him to pass behind the curtain. Muishkin went in.
Itâs so dark,â he said.
âYou can see quite enough,â muttered Rogojin.
âI can just see thereâs a bedââ
âGo nearer,â suggested Rogojin, softly.
The prince took a step forwardâthen anotherâand paused. He stood and stared for a minute or two.
Neither of the men spoke a word while at the bedside. The princeâs heart beat so loud that its knocking seemed to be distinctly audible in the deathly silence.
But now his eyes had become so far accustomed to the darkness that he could distinguish the whole of the bed. Someone was asleep upon itâin an absolutely motionless sleep. Not the slightest movement was perceptible, not the faintest breathing could be heard. The sleeper was covered with a white sheet; the outline of the limbs was hardly distinguishable. He could only just make out that a human being lay outstretched there.
All around, on the bed, on a chair beside it, on the floor, were scattered the different portions of a magnificent white silk dress, bits of lace, ribbons and flowers. On a small table at the bedside glittered a mass of diamonds, torn off and thrown down anyhow. From under a heap of lace at the end of the bed peeped a small white foot, which looked as though it had been chiselled out of marble; it was terribly still.
The prince gazed and gazed, and felt that the more he gazed the more deathlike became the silence. Suddenly a fly awoke somewhere, buzzed across the room, and settled on the pillow. The prince shuddered.
âLetâs go,â said Rogojin, touching his shoulder. They left the alcove and sat down in the two chairs they had occupied before, opposite to one another. The prince trembled more and more violently, and never took his questioning eyes off Rogojinâs face.
âI see you are shuddering, Lef Nicolaievitch,â said the latter, at length, âalmost as you did once in Moscow, before your fit; donât you remember? I donât know what I shall do with youââ
The prince bent forward to listen, putting all the strain he could muster upon his understanding in order to take in what Rogojin said, and continuing to gaze at the latterâs face.
âWas it you?â he muttered, at last, motioning with his head towards the curtain.
âYes, it was I,â whispered Rogojin, looking down.
Neither spoke for five minutes.
âBecause, you know,â Rogojin recommenced, as though continuing a former sentence, âif you were ill now, or had a fit, or screamed, or anything, they might hear it in the yard, or even in the street, and guess that someone was passing the night in the house. They would all come and knock and want to come in, because they know I am not at home. I didnât light a candle for the same reason. When I am not hereâfor two or three days at a time, now and thenâno one comes in to tidy the house or anything; those are my orders. So that I want them to not know we are spending the night hereââ
âWait,â interrupted the prince. âI asked both the porter and the woman whether Nastasia Philipovna had spent last night in the house; so they knewââ
âI know you asked. I told them that she had called in for ten minutes, and then gone straight back to Pavlofsk. No one knows she slept here. Last night we came in just as carefully as you and I did today. I thought as I came along with her that she would not like to creep in so secretly, but I was quite wrong. She whispered, and walked on tip-toe; she carried her skirt over her arm, so that it shouldnât rustle, and she held up her finger at me on the stairs, so that I shouldnât make a noiseâit was you she was afraid of. She was mad with terror in the train, and she begged me to bring her to this house. I thought of taking her to her rooms at the Ismailofsky barracks first; but she wouldnât hear of it. She said, âNoânot there; heâll find me out at once there. Take me to your own house, where you can hide me, and tomorrow weâll set off for Moscow.â Thence she would go to Orel, she said. When she went to bed, she was still talking about going to Orel.â
âWait! What do you intend to do now, Parfen?â
âWell, Iâm afraid of you. You shudder and tremble so. Weâll pass the night here together. There are no other beds besides that one; but Iâve thought how weâll manage. Iâll take the cushions off all the sofas, and lay them down on the floor, up against the curtain hereâfor you and meâso that we shall be together. For if they come in and look about now, you know, theyâll find her, and carry her away, and theyâll be asking me questions, and I shall say I did it, and then theyâll take me away, too, donât you see? So let her lie close to usâclose to you and me.
âYes, yes,â agreed the prince, warmly.
âSo we will not say anything about it, or let them take her away?â
âNot for anything!â cried the other; âno, no, no!â
âSo I had decided, my friend; not to give her up to anyone,â continued Rogojin. âWeâll be very quiet. I have only been out of the house one hour all day, all the rest of the time I have been with her. I dare say the air is very bad here. It is so hot. Do you find it bad?â
âI donât knowâperhapsâby morning it will be.â
âIâve covered her with oilclothâbest American oilcloth, and put the sheet over that, and four jars of disinfectant, on account of the smellâas they did at Moscowâyou remember? And sheâs lying so still; you shall see, in the morning, when itâs light. What! canât you get up?â asked Rogojin, seeing the other was trembling so that he could not rise from his seat.
âMy legs wonât move,â said the prince; âitâs fear, I know. When my fear is over, Iâll get upââ
âWait a bitâIâll make the bed, and you can lie down. Iâll lie down, too, and weâll listen and watch, for I donât know yet what I shall do⊠I tell you beforehand, so that you may be ready in case Iââ
Muttering these disconnected words, Rogojin began to make up the beds. It was clear that he had devised these beds long before; last night he slept on the sofa. But there was no room for two on the sofa, and he seemed anxious that he and the prince should be close to one another; therefore, he now dragged cushions of all sizes and shapes from the sofas, and made a sort of bed of them close by the curtain. He then approached the prince, and gently helped him to rise, and led him towards the bed. But the prince could now walk by himself, so that his fear must have passed; for all that, however, he continued to shudder.
âItâs hot weather, you see,â continued Rogojin, as he lay down on the cushions beside Muishkin, âand, naturally, there will be a smell. I darenât open the window. My mother has some beautiful flowers in pots; they have a delicious scent; I thought of fetching them in, but that old servant will find out, sheâs very inquisitive.
âYes, she is inquisitive,â assented the prince.
âI thought of buying flowers, and putting them all round her; but I was afraid it would make us sad to see her with flowers round her.â
âLook here,â said the prince; he was bewildered, and his brain wandered. He seemed to be continually groping for the questions he wished to ask, and then losing them. âListenâtell meâhow did youâwith a knife?âThat same one?â
âYes, that same one.â
âWait a minute, I want to ask you something else, Parfen; all sorts of things; but tell me first, did you intend to kill her before my wedding, at the church door, with your knife?â
âI donât know whether I did or not,â said Rogojin, drily, seeming to be a little astonished at the question, and not quite taking it in.
âDid you never take your knife to Pavlofsk with you?â âNo. As to the knife,â he added, âthis is all I can tell you about it.â He was silent for a moment, and then said, âI took it out of the locked drawer this morning about three, for it was in the early morning all thisâhappened. It has been inside the book ever sinceâandâandâthis is what is such a marvel to me, the knife only went in a couple of inches at most, just under her left breast, and there wasnât more than half a tablespoonful of blood altogether, not more.â
âYesâyesâyesââ The prince jumped up in extraordinary agitation. âI know, I know, Iâve read of that sort of thingâitâs internal haemorrhage, you know. Sometimes there isnât a dropâif the blow goes straight to the heartââ
âWaitâlisten!â cried Rogojin, suddenly, starting up. âSomebodyâs walking about, do you hear? In the hall.â Both sat up to listen.
âI hear,â said the prince in a whisper, his eyes fixed on Rogojin.
âFootsteps?â
âYes.â
âShall we shut the door, and lock it, or not?â
âYes, lock it.â
They locked the door, and both lay down again. There was a long silence.
âYes, by-the-by,â whispered the prince, hurriedly and excitedly as before, as though he had just seized hold of an idea and was afraid of losing it again. âIâI wanted those cards! They say you played cards with her?â
Comments (0)