白痴 英文版 The Idiot
陀思妥耶夫斯基 Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Idiot XI. Page 2
"Well, how anybody can call you an idiot after that, is more thanI can understand!" cried the boxer.
The prince reddened slightly.
"Bourdaloue, the archbishop, would not have spared a man likeme," Keller continued, "but you, you have judged me withhumanity. To show how grateful I am, and as a punishment, I willnot accept a hundred and fifty roubles. Give me twenty-five--thatwill be enough; it is all I really need, for a fortnight atleast. I will not ask you for more for a fortnight. I should liketo have given Agatha a present, but she does not really deserveit. Oh, my dear prince, God bless you!"
At this moment Lebedeff appeared, having just arrived fromPetersburg. He frowned when he saw the twenty-five rouble note inKeller's hand, but the latter, having got the money, went away atonce. Lebedeff began to abuse him.
"You are unjust; I found him sincerely repentant," observed theprince, after listening for a time.
"What is the good of repentance like that? It is the same exactlyas mine yesterday, when I said, 'I am base, I am base,'--words,and nothing more!"
"Then they were only words on your part? I thought, on thecontrary..."
"Well, I don't mind telling you the truth--you only! Because yousee through a man somehow. Words and actions, truth andfalsehood, are all jumbled up together in me, and yet I amperfectly sincere. I feel the deepest repentance, believe it ornot, as you choose; but words and lies come out in the infernalcraving to get the better of other people. It is always there--thenotion of cheating people, and of using my repentant tears to myown advantage! I assure you this is the truth, prince! I wouldnot tell any other man for the world! He would laugh and jeer atme--but you, you judge a man humanely."
"Why, Keller said the same thing to me nearly word for word a fewminutes ago!" cried Muishkin. "And you both seem inclined toboast about it! You astonish me, but I think he is more sincerethan you, for you make a regular trade of it. Oh, don't put onthat pathetic expression, and don't put your hand on your heart!Have you anything to say to me? You have not come for nothing..."
Lebedeff grinned and wriggled.
interrupted the prince, red withindignation.
"I have been waiting all day for you, because I want to ask you aquestion; and, for once in your life, please tell me the truth atonce. Had you anything to do with that affair of the carriageyesterday?"
Lebedeff began to grin again, rubbed his hands, sneezed, butspoke not a word in reply.
"I see you had something to do with it."
"Indirectly, quite indirectly! I am speaking the truth--I amindeed! I merely told a certain person that I had people in myhouse, and that such and such personages might be found amongthem."
"I am aware that you sent your son to that house--he told me sohimself just now, but what is this intrigue?" said the prince,impatiently.
"It is not my intrigue!" cried Lebedeff, waving his hand.
"It was engineered by other people, and is, properly speaking,rather a fantasy than an intrigue!"
"But what is it all about? Tell me, for Heaven's sake! Cannot youunderstand how nearly it touches me? Why are they blackeningEvgenie Pavlovitch's reputation?"
Lebedeff grimaced and wriggled again.
"Prince!" said he. "Excellency! You won't let me tell you thewhole truth; I have tried to explain; more than once I havebegun, but you have not allowed me to go on..."
The prince gave no answer, and sat deep in thought. Evidently hewas struggling to decide.
"Very well! Tell me the truth," he said, dejectedly.
and sat deep in thought. Evidently hewas.
"Aglaya Ivanovna ..." began Lebedeff, promptly.
"Be silent! At once!" interrupted the prince, red withindignation, and perhaps with shame, too. "It is impossible andabsurd! All that has been invented by you, or fools like you! Letme never hear you say a word again on that subject!"
"There's the deuce and all going on there!" he said. "First ofall about the row last night, and I think there must be somethingnew as well, though I didn't like to ask. Not a word about YOU,prince, the whole time!" The most interesting fact was thatAglaya had been quarrelling with her people about Gania. Coliadid not know any details, except that it had been a terriblequarrel! Also Evgenie Pavlovitch had called, and met with anexcellent reception all round. And another curious thing: Mrs.Epanchin was so angry that she called Varia to her--Varia wastalking to the girls--and turned her out of the house "once forall "she said. "I heard it from Varia herself--Mrs. Epanchin wasquite polite, but firm; and when Varia said good-bye to thegirls, she told them nothing about it, and they didn't know theywere saying goodbye for the last time. I'm sorry for Varia, andfor Gania too; he isn't half a bad fellow, in spite of hisfaults, and I shall never forgive myself for not liking himbefore! I don't know whether I ought to continue to go to theEpanchins' now," concluded Colia--" I like to be quiteindependent of others, and of other people's quarrels if I can;but I must think over it."
"I don't think you need break your heart over Gania," said theprince; "for if what you say is true, he must be considereddangerous in the Epanchin household, and if so, certain hopes ofhis must have been encouraged."
"What? What hopes?" cried Colia; "you surely don't mean Aglaya?--oh, no!--"
"You're a dreadful sceptic, prince," he continued, after amoment's silence. "I have observed of late that you have grownsceptical about everything. You don't seem to believe in peopleas you did, and are always attributing motives and so on--am Iusing the word 'sceptic' in its proper sense?"
"I believe so; but I'm not sure."
"Well, I'll change it, right or wrong; I'll say that you are notsceptical, but JEALOUS. There! you are deadly jealous of Gania,over a certain proud damsel! Come!" Colia jumped up, with thesewords, and burst out laughing. He laughed as he had perhaps neverlaughed before, and still more when he saw the prince flushing upto his temples. He was delighted that the prince should bejealous about Aglaya. However, he stopped immediately on seeingthat the other was really hurt, and the conversation continued,very earnestly, for an hour or more.
Next day the prince had to go to town, on business. Returning inthe afternoon, he happened upon General Epanchin at the station.The latter seized his hand, glancing around nervously, as if hewere afraid of being caught in wrong-doing, and dragged him intoa first-class compartment. He was burning to speak aboutsomething of importance.
"In the first place, my dear prince, don't be angry with me. Iwould have come to see you yesterday, but I didn't know howLizabetha Prokofievna would take it. My dear fellow, my house issimply a hell just now, a sort of sphinx has taken up its abodethere. We live in an atmosphere of riddles; I can't make head ortail of anything. As for you, I feel sure you are the least toblame of any of us, though you certainly have been the cause of agood deal of trouble. You see, it's all very pleasant to be aphilanthropist; but it can be carried too far. Of course I admirekind-heartedness, and I esteem my wife, but--"
The general wandered on in this disconnected way for a long time;it was clear that he was much disturbed by some circumstancewhich he could make nothing of.
"It is plain to me, that YOU are not in it at all," he continued,at last, a little less vaguely, "but perhaps you had better notcome to our house for a little while. I ask you in thefriendliest manner, mind; just till the wind changes again. Asfor Evgenie Pavlovitch," he continued with some excitement, "thewhole thing is a calumny, a dirty calumny. It is simply a plot,an intrigue, to upset our plans and to stir up a quarrel. Yousee, prince, I'll tell you privately, Evgenie and ourselves havenot said a word yet, we have no formal understanding, we are inno way bound on either side, but the word may be said very soon,don't you see, VERY soon, and all this is most injurious, and ismeant to be so. Why? I'm sure I can't tell you. She's anextraordinary woman, you see, an eccentric woman; I tell you I amso frightened of that woman that I can't sleep. What a carriagethat was, and where did it come from, eh? I declare, I was baseenough to suspect Evgenie at first; but it seems certain thatthat cannot be the case, and if so, why is she interfering here?That's the riddle, what does she want? Is it to keep Evgenie toherself? But, my dear fellow, I swear to you, I swear he doesn'teven KNOW her, and as for those bills, why, the whole thing is aninvention! And the familiarity of the woman! It's quite clear wemust treat the impudent creature's attempt with disdain, andredouble our courtesy towards Evgenie. I told my wife so.
"Now I'll tell you my secret conviction. I'm certain that she'sdoing this to revenge herself on me, on account of the past,though I assure you that all the time I was blameless. I blush atthe very idea. And now she turns up again like this, when Ithought she had finally disappeared! Where's Rogojin all thistime? I thought she was Mrs. Rogojin, long ago."
The old man was in a state of great mental perturbation. Thewhole of the journey, which occupied nearly an hour, he continuedin this strain, putting questions and answering them himself,shrugging his shoulders, pressing the prince's hand, and assuringthe latter that, at all events, he had no suspicion whatever ofHIM. This last assurance was satisfactory, at all events. Thegeneral finished by informing him that Evgenie's uncle was headof one of the civil service departments, and rich, very rich, anda gourmand. "And, well, Heaven preserve him, of course--butEvgenie gets his money, don't you see? But, for all this, I'muncomfortable, I don't know why. There's something in the air, Ifeel there's something nasty in the air, like a bat, and I'm byno means comfortable."
And it was not until the third day that the formal reconciliationbetween the prince and the Epanchins took place, as said before.