白痴 英文版 The Idiot
陀思妥耶夫斯基 Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Idiot II. Page 2
One of these was a middle-aged man of very respectableappearance, but with the stamp of parvenu upon him, a man whomnobody knew, and who evidently knew nobody. The other followerwas younger and far less respectable-looking.
No one else followed the eccentric lady; but as she descended thesteps she did not even look behind her, as though it wereabsolutely the same to her whether anyone were following or not.She laughed and talked loudly, however, just as before. She wasdressed with great taste, but with rather more magnificence thanwas needed for the occasion, perhaps.
She walked past the orchestra, to where an open carriage waswaiting, near the road.
The prince had not seen HER for more than three months. All thesedays since his arrival from Petersburg he had intended to pay hera visit, but some mysterious presentiment had restrained him. Hecould not picture to himself what impression this meeting withher would make upon him, though he had often tried to imagine it,with fear and trembling. One fact was quite certain, and that wasthat the meeting would be painful.
Several times during the last six months he had recalled theeffect which the first sight of this face had had upon him, whenhe only saw its portrait. He recollected well that even theportrait face had left but too painful an impression.
That month in the provinces, when he had seen this woman nearlyevery day, had affected him so deeply that he could not now lookback upon it calmly. In the very look of this woman there wassomething which tortured him. In conversation with Rogojin he hadattributed this sensation to pity--immeasurable pity, and thiswas the truth. The sight of the portrait face alone had filledhis heart full of the agony of real sympathy; and this feeling ofsympathy, nay, of actual SUFFERING, for her, had never left hisheart since that hour, and was still in full force. Oh yes, andmore powerful than ever!
But the prince was not satisfied with what he had said toRogojin. Only at this moment, when she suddenly made herappearance before him, did he realize to the full the exactemotion which she called up in him, and which he had notdescribed correctly to Rogojin.
And, indeed, there were no words in which he could have expressedhis horror, yes, HORROR, for he was now fully convinced from hisown private knowledge of her, that the woman was mad.
If, loving a woman above everything in the world, or at leasthaving a foretaste of the possibility of such love for her, onewere suddenly to behold her on a chain, behind bars and under thelash of a keeper, one would feel something like what the poorprince now felt.
"What's the matter?" asked Aglaya, in a whisper, giving hissleeve a little tug.
Nastasia Philipovna was at this moment passing the young ladies'chairs.
Evgenie Pavlovitch continued some apparently extremely funny andinteresting anecdote to Alexandra, speaking quickly and with muchanimation. The prince remembered that at this moment Aglayaremarked in a half-whisper:
"WHAT a--"
She did not finish her indefinite sentence; she restrainedherself in a moment; but it was enough.
Nastasia Philipovna, who up to now had been walking along asthough she had not noticed the Epanchin party, suddenly turnedher head in their direction, as though she had just observedEvgenie Pavlovitch sitting there for the first time.
"Why, I declare, here he is!" she cried, stopping suddenly. "Theman one can't find with all one's messengers sent about theplace, sitting just under one's nose, exactly where one neverthought of looking! I thought you were sure to be at your uncle'sby this time."
Evgenie Pavlovitch flushed up and looked angrily at NastasiaPhilipovna, then turned his back on her.
"What I don't you know about it yet? He doesn't know--imaginethat! Why, he's shot himself. Your uncle shot himself this verymorning. I was told at two this afternoon. Half the town mustknow it by now. They say there are three hundred and fiftythousand roubles, government money, missing; some say fivehundred thousand. And I was under the impression that he wouldleave you a fortune! He's whistled it all away. A most depravedold gentleman, really! Well, ta, ta!--bonne chance! Surely youintend to be off there, don't you? Ha, ha! You've retired fromthe army in good time, I see! Plain clothes! Well done, slyrogue! Nonsense! I see--you knew it all before--I dare say youknew all about it yesterday-"
Although the impudence of this attack, this public proclamationof intimacy, as it were, was doubtless premeditated, and had itsspecial object, yet Evgenie Pavlovitch at first seemed to intendto make no show of observing either his tormentor or her words.But Nastasia's communication struck him with the force of athunderclap. On hearing of his uncle's death he suddenly grew aswhite as a sheet, and turned towards his informant.
At this moment, Lizabetha Prokofievna rose swiftly from her seat,beckoned her companions, and left the place almost at a run.
Only the prince stopped behind for a moment, as though inindecision; and Evgenie Pavlovitch lingered too, for he had notcollected his scattered wits. But the Epanchins had not had timeto get more than twenty paces away when a scandalous episodeoccurred. The young officer, Evgenie Pavlovitch's friend who hadbeen conversing with Aglaya, said aloud in a great state ofindignation:
"She ought to be whipped--that's the only way to deal withcreatures like that--she ought to be whipped!"
This gentleman was a confidant of Evgenie's, and had doubtlessheard of the carriage episode.
Nastasia turned to him. Her eyes flashed; she rushed up to ayoung man standing near, whom she did not know in the least, butwho happened to have in his hand a thin cane. Seizing this fromhim, she brought it with all her force across the face of herinsulter.
All this occurred, of course, in one instant of time.
The young officer, forgetting himself, sprang towards her.Nastasia's followers were not by her at the moment (the elderlygentleman having disappeared altogether, and the younger mansimply standing aside and roaring with laughter).
In another moment, of course, the police would have been on thespot, and it would have gone hard with Nastasia Philipovna hadnot unexpected aid appeared.
Muishkin, who was but a couple of steps away, had time to springforward and seize the officer's arms from behind.
The officer, tearing himself from the prince's grasp, pushed himso violently backwards that he staggered a few steps and thensubsided into a chair.
But there were other defenders for Nastasia on the spot by thistime. The gentleman known as the "boxer" now confronted theenraged officer.
"Keller is my name, sir; ex-lieutenant," he said, very loud. "Ifyou will accept me as champion of the fair sex, I am at yourdisposal. English boxing has no secrets from me. I sympathizewith you for the insult you have received, but I can't permit youto raise your hand against a woman in public. If you prefer tomeet me--as would be more fitting to your rank--in some othermanner, of course you understand me, captain."
But the young officer had recovered himself, and was no longerlistening. At this moment Rogojin appeared, elbowing through thecrowd; he took Nastasia's hand, drew it through his arm, andquickly led her away. He appeared to be terribly excited; he wastrembling all over, and was as pale as a corpse.As he carried Nastasia off, he turned and grinned horribly in theofficer's face, and with low malice observed:
"Tfu! look what the fellow got! Look at the blood on his cheek!Ha, ha!"
Recollecting himself, however, and seeing at a glance the sort ofpeople he had to deal with, the officer turned his back on bothhis opponents, and courteously, but concealing his face with hishandkerchief, approached the prince, who was now rising from thechair into which he had fallen.
"Prince Muishkin, I believe? The gentleman to whom I had thehonour of being introduced?"
"She is mad, insane--I assure you, she is mad," replied theprince in trembling tones, holding out both his handsmechanically towards the officer.
"I cannot boast of any such knowledge, of course, but I wished toknow your name."
He bowed and retired without waiting for an answer.
Five seconds after the disappearance of the last actor in thisscene, the police arrived. The whole episode had not lasted morethan a couple of minutes. Some of the spectators had risen fromtheir places, and departed altogether; some merely exchangedtheir seats for others a little further off; some were delightedwith the occurrence, and talked and laughed over it for a longtime.
In a word, the incident closed as such incidents do, and the bandbegan to play again. The prince walked away after the Epanchinparty. Had he thought of looking round to the left after he hadbeen pushed so unceremoniously into the chair, he would haveobserved Aglaya standing some twenty yards away. She had stayedto watch the scandalous scene in spite of her mother's andsisters' anxious cries to her to come away.
Prince S. ran up to her and persuaded her, at last, to come homewith them.
Lizabetha Prokofievna saw that she returned in such a state ofagitation that it was doubtful whether she had even heard theircalls. But only a couple of minutes later, when they had reachedthe park, Aglaya suddenly remarked, in her usual calm,indifferent voice:
"I wanted to see how the farce would end."