The Idiot (66 page)

‘I don’t understand you at all, Parfyon Semyonych.’

‘She explained to me about you long ago, but earlier on I saw you sitting with the other girl at the bandstand. She swore to me, yesterday and today she swore that you were head over heels in love with Aglaya Yepanchina. It’s all the same to me, Prince, and it’s not my business, either; if you’ve fallen out of love with her, she hasn’t yet fallen out of love with you. I mean, you know perfectly well that she really wants you to marry that other one, she’s given her word on it, heh-heh! She says to me: “Until then, I won’t marry you - they go to church first, and then we go to church.” What’s going on there I don’t understand and have never understood: either she loves you beyond all bounds, or ... if she loves you, then why does she want to get you married to someone else? She says: “I want to see him happy” - that means she loves you.’

‘I told you and wrote to you that she’s ... not in her right mind,’ said the prince, listening to Rogozhin’s words in torment.

‘God knows! It may be that you’re the one who’s mistaken ... however, she did name the day of our wedding this afternoon, after I brought her back from the band concert: we’ll go to the altar in three weeks’ time, and possibly even earlier, she says; she swore a vow, took down the icon, kissed it. So now, Prince, it’s all up to you, heh-heh!’

‘This is all delirium! What you say about me will never, never be! Tomorrow I shall come and see you both ...’

‘But how can she be mad?’ observed Rogozhin. ‘How can everyone else consider that she’s in her right mind for everyone else, while only you believe she’s insane? How can she write the letters they’re receiving there? If she’s mad, then they’d be able to see that from the letters.’

‘What letters?’ the prince asked in alarm.

‘She sends letters there, to the other one, who reads them. Didn’t you know? Well, then you’ll find out; she’ll probably show them to you herself.’

‘I don’t believe it!’ the prince exclaimed.

‘Ach! Well, Lev Nikolaich, it’s easy seeing you’ve only gone a little way along this path, and you’re merely at the beginning. Just you wait: you’
ll be keeping your own private police force, patrolling day and night yourself and knowing every step that’s taken, if only ...’

‘Stop it, and don’t ever say that again!’ exclaimed the prince. ‘Listen, Parfyon, I was walking here before you arrived just now, and I suddenly began to laugh, I don’t know why, the only reason I can think of is that tomorrow is my birthday, as if it were preordained. It’s nearly twelve now. Let’s go and celebrate the day! I have wine, let’s drink wine, wish for me what I don’t know what to wish for myself, and it must be you who wishes it, while I shall wish you complete happiness. Otherwise, return my cross to me! I mean, you didn’t send my cross back to me the next day, did you? Are you wearing it now?’

‘Yes, I am,’ Rogozhin said quietly.

‘Well, let’s go. I don’t want to celebrate my new life without you, because my new life has started! Didn’t you know, Parfyon, that my new life started today?’

‘Now I can see for myself that it has; I’ll tell her. You’re not yourself at all, Lev Nikolaich.’

As he approached his dacha with Rogozhin, the prince noticed with extreme astonishment that a noisy and numerous company, brightly illuminated, had assembled on the veranda. This merry company was laughing and singing loudly; it even seemed to be arguing, to the point of shouting; at a first glance one might have supposed that everyone was having a most hilarious time. And indeed, when he went up the steps to the veranda, he saw that everyone was drinking, and drinking champagne, and had apparently been doing so for quite a long time now, with the result that many of the revellers had managed to become most pleasantly animated. The guests were all familiar to the prince, but it was strange that they had all gathered at once, as if by invitation, though the prince had not invited anyone, and had only just remembered it was his birthday, by chance.

‘You must have told someone you were going to serve champagne, so they all came flocking round,’ muttered Rogozhin, ascending the veranda after the prince. ‘We know how it is; you just have to whistle to them ...’ he added, almost with hatred, recalling of course his own recent past.

They all greeted the prince with shouts and birthday wishes, and surrounded him. Some were very noisy, others much calmer, but all hurried to congratulate him, having heard about his birthday, and each one waited his turn. The presence of certain persons engaged the prince’s interest, Burdovsky, for example; but most surprising of all was the fact that Yevgeny Pavlovich had suddenly turned up among this company the prince could almost not believe it, and felt something almost approaching fear at the sight of him.

In the meanwhile Lebedev, flushed and almost in ecstasy, came running up with explanations; he was rather well primed. From his chatter it turned out that everyone had gathered quite naturally, and even by accident. Ahead of everyone else, towards evening, Ippolit had arrived and, feeling much better, had requested that he be allowed to wait for the prince on the veranda. He had made himself comfortable on the sofa; then Lebedev came down to join him, and after that the entire household, including General Ivolgin and his daughters. Burdovsky had arrived with Ippolit, as his escort. Ganya and Ptitsyn, it seemed, had dropped in not long ago, as they were passing (their appearance coincided with the incident in the park); then Keller appeared, told them about the birthday and demanded champagne. Yevgeny Pavlovich had arrived only half an hour before. Kolya had also vociferously insisted on champagne and a festive celebration. Lebedev had readily served the wine.

‘But it’s mine, it’s mine!’ he babbled to the prince, ‘it’s all on me, to celebrate and congratulate you, and there’ll be refreshments,
zakuski,
¹
and my daughter is attending to it; but, Prince, if you only kn
ew the subject that’s currently being discussed. Do you remember Hamlet’s “To be or not to be”? A contemporary subject, sir, a contemporary one! Questions and answers ... And Mr Terentyev is in the highest degree of ... he doesn’t want to go to sleep! Oh, he’s only had the merest sip, the merest sip of champagne, it won’t harm him ... Approach, 0 Prince, and decide! They’ve all been waiting for you, they’ve all been waiting for your pleasant wit ...’

The prince noticed the charming, affectionate gaze of Vera Lebedeva, who had also hurried to thread her way through the crowd towards him. Past all the rest of them, he extended a hand to her first; she blushed with pleasure and wished him ‘a happy life
starting this very day’.
Then she ran at full tilt to the kitchen, where she prepared the
zakuski;
but even before the prince’s arrival - as soon as she had a moment to tear herself away from her work - she appeared on the veranda and listened with all her attention to the heated arguments about the most abstract matters, strange to her, which flowed ceaselessly on among the tipsy guests. Her younger sister had fallen asleep in the next room, on a trunk, with her mouth open, but the boy, Lebedev’s son, was standing beside Kolya and Ippolit, and the look on his animated face alone was enough to show that he was ready to stand here, enjoying and listening, for another ten hours on end if need be.

‘I’ve been specially waiting for you, and I’m awfully glad you’ve arrived in such a happy mood,’ Ippolit said quietly when the prince went over to shake his hand, immediately after Vera.

‘And how do you know that I’m so “happy”?’

‘One can see it in your face. Say good evening to the gentlemen and come and sit with us here as soon as you can. I’ve been especially waiting for you,’ he added, placing significant emphasis on the fact that he had been waiting. To the prince’s observation as to whether it might not be harmful for him to sit up so late, he replied that he was surprised at himself for having wanted to die three days earlier, and that he had never felt better than this evening.

Burdovsky jumped up and muttered that he was‘on hand ...’,that he was ‘escorting’ Ippolit, and that he was also glad; that in the letter he had ‘written rubbish’, but was now ‘just glad ...’ Without finishing his sentence, he shook the prince’s hand firmly and sat down on his chair.

After all the others, the prince went over to Yevgeny Pavlovich, who at once took him by the arm.

‘I just want to say a couple of words in your ear,’ he whispered in an undertone, ‘about something extremely important; let’s go over there for a moment.’

‘A couple of words,’ another voice whispered in the prince’s other ear, and another hand took him by the arm from the other side. With surprise, the prince observed a dreadfully dishevelled figure, flushed, winking and laughing, in whom at that same moment he recognized Ferdyshchenko, who had appeared from Lord only knows where.

‘Do you remember Ferdyshchenko?’

‘Where did you spring from?’ exclaimed the prince.

‘He apologizes!’ exclaimed Keller, running up. ‘He’s been hiding, he didn’t want to come out and see you, he was hiding in the corner there, he apologizes, Prince, he feels he’s to blame.’

‘But for what, for what?’

‘I met him, Prince, I met him just now and brought him here; he’s my rare friend; but he apologizes.’

‘I’m very glad, gentlemen; now in you go, sit down with everyone else, I’ll be there in a moment,’ the prince freed himself, at last, hurrying over to Yevgeny Pavlovich.

‘It’s entertaining here at your place,’ the latter observed, ‘and I’ve enjoyed the half hour I’ve spent waiting for you. Listen, dearest Lev Nikolayevich, I’ve arranged everything with Kurmyshev and have dropped by to reassure you; you have nothing to worry about, he has taken the matter very, very sensibly, all the more so, in my opinion, as he himself was more to blame.’

‘Who is this Kurmyshev?’

‘Why, the fellow you seized by the arms today ... He was so furious that he was going to send someone to you tomorrow with a demand for satisfaction.’

‘Oh come, what nonsense!’

‘Of course it was nonsense, and it would probably have ended with nonsense; but there are these people around ...’

‘Perhaps there’s another reason why you dropped by, Yevgeny Pavlych?’

‘Oh, of course, there’s another reason,’ the latter burst out laughing. ‘Dear Prince, tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn I’m going to St Petersburg on this unhappy business (about my uncle, you know); imagine: it’s all true, and everyone knows it except me. It all came as such a shock to me that I haven’t been able to go
there
(to the Yepanchins); I shan’t be there tomorrow, either, as I’ll be in St Petersburg, you understand? I may be away for several days - in a word, my affairs have started to go to pot. Though the matter is not one of great importance, I thought I should tell you something about it in the most candid way I can, without wasting time, before my departure, I mean. Now if it’s all right with you I shall sit and wait until the guests disperse; what’s more, I have nowhere else to go: I’m so agitated that I can’t sleep. Finally, though it’s wrong and indecent to hound a man so blatantly, I will tell you blatantly: I’ve come to seek your friendship, my dear Prince; you’re a most exemplary fellow, for you don’t tell lies at every step, or perhaps ever at all, and I’m in need of a friend and adviser in a certain matter, for I am now decidedly one of the un
fortunate ...’

He again began to laugh.

‘The only thing is,’ the prince thought for a moment, ‘that you want to wait until they disperse, but I mean, Lord only knows whe
n that will be. Wouldn’t it be better for us to go down to the park now; I’m sure they can wait; I’ll make my excuses.’

‘No, no, I have my reasons for not having them suspect us of having an urgent conversation with a purpose; there are people here who are very interested in our relationship - didn’t you know that, Prince? And it will be far better if they see that our relationship is perfectly normal, friendly, and not simply a matter of urgent expediency - you understand? They’ll disperse in an hour or two; I’ll only take up about twenty minutes, well, half an hour of your time ...’

‘By all means, please - I am only too glad, and you don’t need to explain anything; and thank you very much for your kind words about our friendly relationship. You must forgive me for being so absent-minded today; you know, I somehow can’t concentrate on anything right now.’

‘I can see, I can see,’ muttered Yevgeny Pavlovich, with a slight smile. He was in a very jovial mood this evening.

‘What can you see?’ the prince started.

‘Oh, have no suspicion, dear Prince,’ Yevgeny Pavlovich continued to smile, but without replying directly to the question, ‘have no suspicion that I’ve simply come to hoodwink you and find something out of you in passing, eh?’

‘That you’ve come to find something out from me, of that there can be no doubt,’ the prince began to laugh, at last - and you may even have decided to hoodwink me a little. But after all, so what, I’m not afraid; what’s more, it’s somehow all the same to me now, can you believe it? And ... and ... and as I’m above all convinced that you’re an excellent fellow, then perhaps we shall end by being on friendly terms. I like you very much, Yevgeny Pavlych, you’re ... a very, very decent man, in my view!’

‘Well, at any rate it’s most delightful to have dealings with you, irrespective of what they’re about,’ concluded Yevgeny Pavlovich. ‘Come, I’ll drink a glass to your health; I’m awfully glad I came and made a nuisance of myself. Ah!’ he stopped suddenly. ‘Has that Mr Ippolit moved in to stay with you?’

‘Yes.’

‘I mean, he’s not going to die just yet, I think?’

‘But why?’

‘Oh, no reason; I’ve spent half an hour with him here ...’ Ippolit had been waiting for the prince all this time, ceaselessly watching him and Yevgeny Pavlovich as they talked at one side of the veranda. As they walked over to the table, he became feverishly enlivened. He was anxious and excited; the sweat stood out on his forehead. In addition to a kind of wandering, constant anxiety, there was in his glittering eyes a kind of vague impatience; his gaze moved aimlessly from one object to another, from one face to another. Although so far he had been taking part in the general noisy conversation, his animation was a feverish one; to the actual conversation he was inattentive; his arguing was incoherent, mock
ing and carelessly paradoxical; he did not finish his sentences, abandoning topics that only a minute before he himself had begun to talk about with vehement ardour. The prince learned with surprise and concern that Ippolit had been allowed to drink two full glasses of champagne that evening without hindrance, and that the glass before him, already begun, was now the third. But he only learned this later; at the present moment he was not very observant.