The Idiot (8 page)

‘Nastasya Filippovna? Did she and Likhachov ...’ Rogozhin looked at him with animosity, and his lips even grew pale and began to tremble.

‘N-nothing! N-n-nothing! Nothing, I swear it!’ the official recollected himself and hurried on. ‘That’s to say, no money could ever buy Likhachov what he wanted! Not like Armance. No, Totsky was the only one. In the evenings she would sit in her own box at the Bolshoi or the French Theatre.
⁵
The officers talked a lot among themselves, but they couldn’t prove anything: “There,” they’d say, “that’s the famous Nastasya Filippovna,” but that was all, and as for the rest of it - nothing! Because there wasn’t anything.’

‘That’s all true,’ Rogozhin confirmed gloomily, knitting his brow, ‘Zalyozhev told me the same thing at the time. That day, Prince, I was running across Nevsky Prospect wearing my father’s three-year-old fur jacket, and there she was coming out of a shop and getting into a carriage. It burned me right through. I met Zalyozhev, he’s not like me, he goes about like a barber’s assistant, even has a monocle in one eye, while we had a high old time at my father’s with blacked boots and cabbage soup without meat. She’s not for the likes of you, she’s a princess, he says, she’s called Nastasya Filippovna, Barashkova’s her last name, she lives with Totsky, but Totsky doesn’t know how to get rid of her, for he’s reached a regular age, he says, fifty-five, and wants to marry the most beautiful woman in St Petersburg. Then he also suggested to me that I could see Nastasya Filippovna at the Bolshoi Theatre that very day, at the ballet, she’d be sitting in her box, in the baignoire. Just try getting out of my father’s house to go to the ballet - he’d have no mercy - he’d kill me! However, I
did manage to sneak out for an hour and saw Nastasya Filippovna again; I didn’t get any sleep that night. In the morning my deceased father gave me two five per cent credit notes, each worth five thousand, go and sell them, he said, and take seven thousand five hundred to Andreyev at his office, pay it to him, and bring the rest of the change of the ten thousand back to me, and don’t drop in anywhere on your way; I’ll be waiting for you. I sold the notes, took the money, but didn’t go to Andreyev’s office, no, instead, without giving it a further thought, I went to the English shop and spent it all, chose a pair of earrings with a nice little diamond in each of them, about the size of a nut they were, I still owed four hundred, told them my name, they gave me credit. I took the earrings to Zalyozhev: told him this and that and said, brother, let’s go and see Nastasya Filippovna. We set off. What was under my feet, what in front of me, what to the sides - none of that do I know or remember. We walked straight into her entrance hall, and she came out to us herself. You see, I didn’t let on who I was; and Zalyozhev just said: “From Parfyon Rogozhin, as a memento of his meeting with you yesterday; please be so good as to accept it.” She opened it, glanced inside, and smiled thinly: “Thank your friend Mr Rogozhin for his kind attention,” she said - took her leave and went away. Well, why didn’t I just die right there and then? I mean, I’d only gone there because I’d thought: “Say what you like, I won’t return alive!” The most offensive thing was that rogue Zalyozhev taking all the limelight. I’m quite short, and I was dressed like a lackey, and I stood there, saying nothing, staring at her, because I was embarrassed, while he was dressed in the latest fashion, his hair all pomaded and waved, ruddy-cheeked, with a check cravat - ingratiating himself, bowing and scraping, and she probably thought he was me! “Well,” I said as we went out, “don’t go getting any ideas in your head, you understand?” He laughed: “And how are you going to smooth things over with Semyon Parfyonych?” To tell the truth, I was just about ready to throw myself in the water right there on the spot, without going home, but I thought: “Well it’s all the same, anyway,” and went off home like a man who’s been damned.’

‘Ooh! Aah!’ the official grimaced, and was even seized by a shudder. ‘You know, the deceased used to hound men to the next life for ten roubles, let alone ten thousand,’ he nodded to the prince. The prince was studying Rogozhin with curiosity; the latter seemed even paler at that moment.

‘Used to hound them?’ Rogozhin said, interrupting him. ‘What do you know about it? He immediately found out everything,’ he continued, turning to the prince, ‘and of course Zalyozhev went off to tell everyone he met. My father grabbed me, locked me in upstairs, and thrashed me for an hour. “That was just to prepare you,” he said. “I’ll be back to say goodnight to you as well.” And what do you think? The grey-headed fellow went off to see Nastasya Filippovna, bowed to the ground, implored her and wept; at last she brought out the box to him, and snapped: “Here you are,” she said, “here are your earrings, old greybeard, and they’re ten times more pre
cious to me now that I know the danger Parfyon faced in going to get them. Give him my greetings,” she said, “and thank Parfyon Semyonych.” Well, meanwhile I got twenty roubles from Seryozhka Protushin, with Mother’s blessing, and set off by train for Pskov, arriving there in a fever; the old women began to recite the saints’ days over me, and I sat there drunk, and then went crawling round the taverns on the last of my money, and lay all night sprawled in the street, and by morning my fever had got worse, and meanwhile during the night the dogs had worried at me. I only just managed to come to.’

‘Well, sir, well, sir, now Nastasya Filippovna will sing a different tune for us!’ the official giggled, rubbing his hands. ‘What are those earrings now, sir? Now we shall reward her with such earrings that ...’

‘And if you say one more word about Nastasya Filippovna, as God is my witness I’ll thrash you, and I don’t care if you did travel about with Likhachov!’ shouted Rogozhin, seizing him violently by the arm.

‘If you thrash me it means you don’t reject me! Thrash me! If you thrash me, it means you’ll have placed your seal on me ... But look, we’ve arrived!’

Indeed, they were entering the station. Although Rogozhin had said he had left in secret, several people were waiting for him. They were shouting and waving their caps at him.

‘Look, Zalyozhev’s here, too!’ Rogozhin muttered, gazing at them with a smile that was triumphant and even somehow malicious, and suddenly turned to the prince. ‘Prince, I don’t know why, but I’ve developed a liking for you. Maybe it’s because I met you at a moment like this, and after all I met him, too (he pointed to Lebedev), and I didn’t develop a liking for him. Come to my house, Prince. We’ll take off those silly gaiters, and I’ll dress you in a first-class marten fur coat; I’ll have a first-class frock coat made for you, too, a white waistcoat, or whatever you want, I’ll stuff your pockets full of money, and ... we’ll go and see Nastasya Filippovna! Will you come, or not?’

‘Pay heed to what he says, Lev Nikolayevich!’ Lebedev chimed in with imposing solemnity. ‘Oh, don’t let the chance slip! Oh, don’t let it slip! ...’

Prince Myshkin half rose to his feet, politely extended his hand to Rogozhin and said to him graciously:

‘I’ll come with the greatest of pleasure, and I thank you very much for liking me. I may even come today, if I can manage to. Because, I’ll tell you candidly, I also like you very much, especially after what you told me about the diamond earrings. I liked you even before the earrings, though you have a gloomy face. Thank you also for the promised clothes and for the fur coat, because I will indeed soon need clothes and a fur coat. As for money, at the present moment I’ve hardly a copeck.’

‘There’ll be money, there’ll be money by this evening, come to my house!’

‘There’ll be money, there’ll be money,’ the official chimed in. ‘From this evening until break of day there’ll be money!’

‘And how about the female sex, Prince, are you a great admirer? Let me know in advance.’

‘I, n-n-no! You see, I ... Perhaps you don’t know, but you see, because of my congenital illness I don’t have any experience of women at all.’

‘Well, if that’s how it is,’ Rogozhin exclaimed, ‘you really are a holy fool, and such men as you God loveth!’

‘And such as these the Lord God loveth,’ the official chimed in.

‘As for you, quill-driver, you can follow me,’ Rogozhin said to Lebedev as they all got out of the carriage.

Lebedev had ended up by achieving his goal. Soon the noisy throng moved away in the direction of Voznesensky Prospect.
⁶
The prince’s way led towards Liteinaya. It was damp and wet; the prince asked passers-by for directions - there were still more than two miles to the end of the journey that awaited him, and he decided to take a cab.

General Yepanchin lived in his own house, just off Liteinaya, towards the Church of the Transfiguration.
¹
Besides this (magnificent) dwelling, five-sixths of which was rented out, General Yepanchin owned another enormous house on Sadovaya, which also brought in an exceedingly large income. In addition to these two houses, he had an extremely profitable estate of considerable size, just outside St Petersburg; there was also a factory of some kind in the St Petersburg province. In the old days General Yepanchin, as everyone knew, had shared in the farming of revenues.
²
Now he held shares in several solid joint-stock companies, where his voice carried very considerable weight. He passed for a man with big money, big projects and big connections. In some places he was able to make himself quite indispensable, and these places included his own government office. And yet it was also well known that Ivan Fyodorovich Yepanchin was a man who lacked education and was descended from the offspring of a soldier; without doubt, this latter circumstance could only redound to his honour, but the general, though an intelligent man, was also not without some small, highly pardonable weaknesses, and did not take certain hints kindly. But an intelligent and shrewd man he unquestionably was. It was, for example, a rule of his never to push himself forward in situations where it was better to retire into the background, and many valued him precisely for his simplicity, precisely for the fact that he always knew his place. And yet, if those judges had only known the things that sometimes took place in the soul of Ivan Fyodorovich, who knew his place so well! Though he did indeed have both practical sense and experience of worldly matters, and certain very remarkable abilities, he liked to present himself more as the executor of other people’s ideas rather than as a man of wisdom, a man ‘devoted without flattery’,
³
and - where will our age not lead? - even Russian and stout of heart. In the latter connection he had even been involved in a number of amusing incidents; but the general never lost heart, even in the most amusing incidents; he was, moreover, lucky, even at cards, and he played for exceedingly high stakes, and was not only intentionally reluctant to conceal this small apparent weakness for cards, a weakness that had been of such material advantage to him on many occasions, but actually displayed it for all to see. The society he kept was mixed, though it was, of course, composed of the ‘top brass’. But everything lay ahead, there was plenty of time, there was really plenty of time, and everything could not fail to come to him eventually, in its turn. And indeed, where years were concerned, General Yepanchin was, as they say, in the very prime of life, fifty-six and not a day more, which is of course a flourishing age, an age when
real
life truly begins. His good health, his facial complexion, his strong though blackened teeth, his stocky, thick-set build, th
e preoccupied expression of his physiognomy in the morning at his work in the office, the cheerful one in the evening at cards or at the count’s - it all made possible his present and future success, and strewed his excellency’s path with roses.

The general possessed a flourishing family. To be sure, not all was roses there, but there were on the other hand many things on which, both seriously and stout-heartedly, his excellency had long begun to concentrate his principal hopes and aims. And indeed, what aim in life is more important and sacred than a father’s? To what should one adhere, if not to one’s family? The general’s family consisted of his spouse and three grown-up daughters. Very long ago, while still a lieutenant, the general had married a girl of almost his own age, possessing neither beauty nor education, and for whom he had received a dowry of only fifty serfs - which had, it was true, served as the basis of his subsequent fortune. But the general never grumbled later about his early marriage, never spoke of it slightingly as an infatuation of extravagant youth, and his respect for his spouse and occasional fear of her were so great that it could even be said that he loved her. The general’s wife was from the line of the Princes Myshkin, a family which, though it did not shine, was very ancient, and her descent was a great source of pride to her. A certain influential person of those days, one of those patrons whose patronage does not really cost them anything, agreed to take an interest in the marriage of the young princess. He opened the door for the young officer and pushed him through; though the officer did not even need a push, for a mere look would have been enough - it would not have been wasted! With a few exceptions, the married couple spent the entire period of their long jubilee in harmony. At a very young age, as a born princess and the last in her family, and also, perhaps, because of her personal qualities, the general’s wife had been able to find herself several very highly placed patronesses. Later, because of her spouse’s wealth and official standing, she even began to feel somewhat at ease in this higher circle.

During these recent years all three of the general’s daughters -Alexandra, Adelaida and Aglaya-had grown up and matured. To be sure, all three were only Yepanchins, but descended from princes on their mother’s side, with sizeable dowries, with a father who might later lay claim to a very high social position, and, what was also rather important, all three were remarkably pretty, including the eldest, Alexandra, who was already over twenty-five. The middle daughter was twenty-three, while the youngest, Aglaya, had just had her twentieth birthday. This youngest was even quite a beauty, and beginning to attract much attention in society. But this, too, was not all: all three were distinguished by their education, intelligence and talents. It was well known that they were wonderfully fond of one another and that they each supported one another. There was even talk of some kind of sacrifices that were said to have been made by the two elder daughters for the sake of the family idol - the youngest. They were not only reluctant to push themselves forward in company, but were even too modest.
No one could reproach them for being haughty or overbearing, and yet everyone knew that they were proud, and aware of their own worth. The eldest was a musician, and the middle one was an excellent painter; but almost no one knew anything about this for many years, and it had only been discovered in the very recent past, and even then by accident.
⁴
In a word, exceeding praise was lavished on them. But there were also those who did not wish them well. People spoke in horror of how many books they had read. They were in no hurry to get married; though they cherished a certain circle of society, they did not make too much of it. This was all the more remarkable since everyone knew the turn of mind, the character, aims and wishes of their father.