The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (grave mercy TXT) đ
- Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Performer: 014044792X
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âItâs a good thing that you take it philosophically, at all events,â said Varia. âIâm really very glad of it.â
âYes, itâs off our handsâoff YOURS, I should say.â
âI think I have served you faithfully. I never even asked you what happiness you expected to find with Aglaya.â
âDid I ever expect to find happiness with Aglaya?â
âCome, come, donât overdo your philosophy. Of course you did. Now itâs all over, and a good thing, too; pair of fools that we have been! I confess I have never been able to look at it seriously. I busied myself in it for your sake, thinking that there was no knowing what might happen with a funny girl like that to deal with. There were ninety to one chances against it. To this moment I canât make out why you wished for it.â
âHâm! now, I suppose, you and your husband will never weary of egging me on to work again. Youâll begin your lectures about perseverance and strength of will, and all that. I know it all by heart,â said Gania, laughing.
âHeâs got some new idea in his head,â thought Varia. âAre they pleased over thereâthe parents?â asked Gania, suddenly.
âNâno, I donât think they are. You can judge for yourself. I think the general is pleased enough; her mother is a little uneasy. She always loathed the idea of the prince as a HUSBAND; everybody knows that.â
âOf course, naturally. The bridegroom is an impossible and ridiculous one. I mean, has SHE given her formal consent?â
âShe has not said âno,â up to now, and thatâs all. It was sure to be so with her. You know what she is like. You know how absurdly shy she is. You remember how she used to hide in a cupboard as a child, so as to avoid seeing visitors, for hours at a time. She is just the same now; but, do you know, I think there is something serious in the matter, even from her side; I feel it, somehow. She laughs at the prince, they say, from morn to night in order to hide her real feelings; but you may be sure she finds occasion to say something or other to him on the sly, for he himself is in a state of radiant happiness. He walks in the clouds; they say he is extremely funny just now; I heard it from themselves. They seemed to be laughing at me in their sleevesâ those elder girlsâI donât know why.â
Gania had begun to frown, and probably Varia added this last sentence in order to probe his thought. However, at this moment, the noise began again upstairs.
âIâll turn him out!â shouted Gania, glad of the opportunity of venting his vexation. âI shall just turn him outâwe canât have this.â
âYes, and then heâll go about the place and disgrace us as he did yesterday.â
âHow âas he did yesterdayâ? What do you mean? What did he do yesterday?â asked Gania, in alarm.
âWhy, goodness me, donât you know?â Varia stopped short.
âWhat? You donât mean to say that he went there yesterday!â cried Gania, flushing red with shame and anger. âGood heavens, Varia! Speak! You have just been there. WAS he there or not, QUICK?â And Gania rushed for the door. Varia followed and caught him by both hands.
âWhat are you doing? Where are you going to? You canât let him go now; if you do heâll go and do something worse.â
âWhat did he do there? What did he say?â âThey couldnât tell me themselves; they couldnât make head or tail of it; but he frightened them all. He came to see the general, who was not at home; so he asked for Lizabetha Prokofievna. First of all, he begged her for some place, or situation, for work of some kind, and then he began to complain about US, about me and my husband, and you, especially YOU; he said a lot of things.â
âOh! couldnât you find out?â muttered Gania, trembling hysterically.
âNoânothing more than that. Why, they couldnât understand him themselves; and very likely didnât tell me all.â
Gania seized his head with both hands and tottered to the window; Varia sat down at the other window.
âFunny girl, Aglaya,â she observed, after a pause. âWhen she left me she said, âGive my special and personal respects to your parents; I shall certainly find an opportunity to see your father one day,â and so serious over it. Sheâs a strange creature.â
âWasnât she joking? She was speaking sarcastically!â âNot a bit of it; thatâs just the strange part of it.â
âDoes she know about father, do you thinkâor not?â
âThat they do NOT know about it in the house is quite certain, the rest of them, I mean; but you have given me an idea. Aglaya perhaps knows. She alone, though, if anyone; for the sisters were as astonished as I was to hear her speak so seriously. If she knows, the prince must have told her.â
âOh! itâs not a great matter to guess who told her. A thief! A thief in our family, and the head of the family, too!â
âOh! nonsense!â cried Varia, angrily. âThat was nothing but a drunkardâs tale. Nonsense! Why, who invented the whole thingâ Lebedeff and the princeâa pretty pair! Both were probably drunk.â
âFather is a drunkard and a thief; I am a beggar, and the husband of my sister is a usurer,â continued Gania, bitterly. âThere was a pretty list of advantages with which to enchant the heart of Aglaya.â
âThat same husband of your sister, the usurerââ
âFeeds me? Go on. Donât stand on ceremony, pray.â
âDonât lose your temper. You are just like a schoolboy. You think that all this sort of thing would harm you in Aglayaâs eyes, do you? You little know her character. She is capable of refusing the most brilliant party, and running away and starving in a garret with some wretched student; thatâs the sort of girl she is. You never could or did understand how interesting you would have seen in her eyes if you had come firmly and proudly through our misfortunes. The prince has simply caught her with hook and line; firstly, because he never thought of fishing for her, and secondly, because he is an idiot in the eyes of most people. Itâs quite enough for her that by accepting him she puts her family out and annoys them all roundâthatâs what she likes. You donât understand these things.â
âWe shall see whether I understand or no!â said Gania, enigmatically. âBut I shouldnât like her to know all about father, all the same. I thought the prince would manage to hold his tongue about this, at least. He prevented Lebedeff spreading the newsâhe wouldnât even tell me all when I asked himââ
âThen you must see that he is not responsible. What does it matter to you now, in any case? What are you hoping for still? If you HAVE a hope left, it is that your suffering air may soften her heart towards you.â
âOh, she would funk a scandal like anyone else. You are all tarred with one brush!â
âWhat! AGLAYA would have funked? You are a chicken-hearted fellow, Gania!â said Varia, looking at her brother with contempt. âNot one of us is worth much. Aglaya may be a wild sort of a girl, but she is far nobler than any of us, a thousand times nobler!â
âWellâcome! thereâs nothing to get cross about,â said Gania.
âAll Iâm afraid of isâmother. Iâm afraid this scandal about father may come to her ears; perhaps it has already. I am dreadfully afraid.â
âIt undoubtedly has already!â observed Gania.
Varia had risen from her place and had started to go upstairs to her mother; but at this observation of Ganiaâs she turned and gazed at him attentively.
âWho could have told her?â
âHippolyte, probably. He would think it the most delightful amusement in the world to tell her of it the instant he moved over here; I havenât a doubt of it.â
âBut how could he know anything of it? Tell me that. Lebedeff and the prince determined to tell no oneâeven Colia knows nothing.â
âWhat, Hippolyte? He found it out himself, of course. Why, you have no idea what a cunning little animal he is; dirty little gossip! He has the most extraordinary nose for smelling out other peopleâs secrets, or anything approaching to scandal. Believe it or not, but Iâm pretty sure he has got round Aglaya. If he hasnât, he soon will. Rogojin is intimate with him, too. How the prince doesnât notice it, I canât understand. The little wretch considers me his enemy now and does his best to catch me tripping. What on earth does it matter to him, when heâs dying? However, youâll see; I shall catch HIM tripping yet, and not he me.â
âWhy did you get him over here, if you hate him so? And is it really worth your while to try to score off him?â
âWhy, it was yourself who advised me to bring him over!â
âI thought he might be useful. You know he is in love with Aglaya himself, now, and has written to her; he has even written to Lizabetha Prokofievna!â
âOh! heâs not dangerous there!â cried Gania, laughing angrily. âHowever, I believe there is something of that sort in the air; he is very likely to be in love, for he is a mere boy. But he wonât write anonymous letters to the old lady; that would be too audacious a thing for him to attempt; but I dare swear the very first thing he did was to show me up to Aglaya as a base deceiver and intriguer. I confess I was fool enough to attempt something through him at first. I thought he would throw himself into my service out of revengeful feelings towards the prince, the sly little beast! But I know him better now. As for the theft, he may have heard of it from the widow in Petersburg, for if the old man committed himself to such an act, he can have done it for no other object but to give the money to her. Hippolyte said to me, without any prelude, that the general had promised the widow four hundred roubles. Of course I understood, and the little wretch looked at me with a nasty sort of satisfaction. I know him; you may depend upon it he went and told mother too, for the pleasure of wounding her. And why doesnât he die, I should like to know? He undertook to die within three weeks, and here he is getting fatter. His cough is better, too. It was only yesterday that he said that was the second day he hadnât coughed blood.â
âWell, turn him out!â
âI donât HATE, I despise him,â said Gania, grandly. âWell, I do hate him, if you like!â he added, with a sudden access of rage, âand Iâll tell him so to his face, even when heâs dying! If you had but read his confessionâgood Lord! what refinement of impudence! Oh, but Iâd have liked to whip him then and there, like a schoolboy, just to see how surprised he would have been! Now he hates everybody because heâOh, I say, what on earth are they doing there! Listen to that noise! I really canât stand this any longer. Ptitsin!â he cried, as the latter entered the room, âwhat in the name of goodness are we coming to? Listen to thatââ
But the noise came rapidly nearer, the door burst open, and old General Ivolgin, raging, furious, purple-faced, and trembling with anger, rushed in. He was followed by Nina
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