thousand roubles, it is indeed, I packed it up myself,I saw the money! My queen, let me get into the fire after it--say theword--I’ll put my whole grey head into the fire for it! I have a poorlame wife and thirteen children. My father died of starvation last week.Nastasia Philipovna, Nastasia Philipovna!” The wretched little man wept,and groaned, and crawled towards the fire.
“Away, out of the way!” cried Nastasia. “Make room, all of you! Gania,what are you standing there for? Don’t stand on ceremony. Put in yourhand! There’s your whole happiness smouldering away, look! Quick!”
But Gania had borne too much that day, and especially this evening, andhe was not prepared for this last, quite unexpected trial.
The crowd parted on each side of him and he was left face to face withNastasia Philipovna, three paces from her. She stood by the fire andwaited, with her intent gaze fixed upon him.
Gania stood before her, in his evening clothes, holding his white glovesand hat in his hand, speechless and motionless, with arms folded andeyes fixed on the fire.
A silly, meaningless smile played on his white, death-like lips. Hecould not take his eyes off the smouldering packet; but it appeared thatsomething new had come to birth in his soul--as though he were vowing tohimself that he would bear this trial. He did not move from his place.In a few seconds it became evident to all that he did not intend torescue the money.
“Hey! look at it, it’ll burn in another minute or two!” cried NastasiaPhilipovna. “You’ll hang yourself afterwards, you know, if it does! I’mnot joking.”
The fire, choked between a couple of smouldering pieces of wood, haddied down for the first few moments after the packet was thrown upon it.But a little tongue of fire now began to lick the paper from below,and soon, gathering courage, mounted the sides of the parcel, and creptaround it. In another moment, the whole of it burst into flames, and theexclamations of woe and horror were redoubled.
“Nastasia Philipovna!” lamented Lebedeff again, straining towards thefireplace; but Rogojin dragged him away, and pushed him to the rear oncemore.
The whole of Rogojin’s being was concentrated in one rapturous gaze ofecstasy. He could not take his eyes off Nastasia. He stood drinking herin, as it were. He was in the seventh heaven of delight.
“Oh, what a queen she is!” he ejaculated, every other minute, throwingout the remark for anyone who liked to catch it. “That’s the sort ofwoman for me! Which of you would think of doing a thing like that, youblackguards, eh?” he yelled. He was hopelessly and wildly beside himselfwith ecstasy.
The prince watched the whole scene, silent and dejected.
“I’ll pull it out with my teeth for one thousand,” said Ferdishenko.
“So would I,” said another, from behind, “with pleasure. Devil take thething!” he added, in a tempest of despair, “it will all be burnt up in aminute--It’s burning, it’s burning!”
“It’s burning, it’s burning!” cried all, thronging nearer and nearer tothe fire in their excitement.
“Gania, don’t be a fool! I tell you for the last time.”
“Get on, quick!” shrieked Ferdishenko, rushing wildly up to Gania, andtrying to drag him to the fire by the sleeve of his coat. “Get it, youdummy, it’s burning away fast! Oh--_damn_ the thing!”
Gania hurled Ferdishenko from him; then he turned sharp round and madefor the door. But he had not gone a couple of steps when he tottered andfell to the ground.
“He’s fainted!” the cry went round.
“And the money’s burning still,” Lebedeff lamented.
“Burning for nothing,” shouted others.
“Katia-Pasha! Bring him some water!” cried Nastasia Philipovna. Then shetook the tongs and fished out the packet.
Nearly the whole of the outer covering was burned away, but it wassoon evident that the contents were hardly touched. The packet had beenwrapped in a threefold covering of newspaper, and the notes were safe.All breathed more freely.
“Some dirty little thousand or so may be touched,” said Lebedeff,immensely relieved, “but there’s very little harm done, after all.”
“It’s all his--the whole packet is for him, do you hear--all of you?” cried Nastasia Philipovna, placing the packet by the side of Gania.“He restrained himself, and didn’t go after it; so his self-respect isgreater than his thirst for money. All right--he’ll come to directly--hemust have the packet or he’ll cut his throat afterwards. There! He’scoming to himself. General, Totski, all of you, did you hear me? Themoney is all Gania’s. I give it to him, fully conscious of my action, asrecompense for--well, for anything he thinks best. Tell him so. Let itlie here beside him. Off we go, Rogojin! Goodbye, prince. I have seena man for the first time in my life. Goodbye, Afanasy Ivanovitch--andthanks!”
The Rogojin gang followed their leader and Nastasia Philipovna to theentrance-hall, laughing and shouting and whistling.
In the hall the servants were waiting, and handed her her fur cloak.Martha, the cook, ran in from the kitchen. Nastasia kissed them allround.
“Are you really throwing us all over, little mother? Where, where areyou going to? And on your birthday, too!” cried the four girls, cryingover her and kissing her hands.
“I am going out into the world, Katia; perhaps I shall be a laundress. Idon’t know. No more of Afanasy Ivanovitch, anyhow. Give him my respects.Don’t think badly of me, girls.”
The prince hurried down to the front gate where the party were settlinginto the troikas, all the bells tinkling a merry accompaniment thewhile. The general caught him up on the stairs:
“Prince, prince!” he cried, seizing hold of his arm, “recollectyourself! Drop her, prince! You see what sort of a woman she is. I amspeaking to you like a father.”
The prince glanced at him, but said nothing. He shook himself free, andrushed on downstairs.
The general was just in time to see the prince take the first sledge hecould get, and, giving the order to Ekaterinhof, start off in pursuitof the troikas. Then the general’s fine grey horse dragged that worthyhome, with some new thoughts, and some new hopes and calculationsdeveloping in his brain, and with the pearls in his pocket, for he hadnot forgotten to bring them along with him, being a man of business.Amid his new thoughts and ideas there came, once or twice, the image ofNastasia Philipovna. The general sighed.
“I’m sorry, really sorry,” he muttered. “She’s a ruined woman. Mad! mad!However, the prince is not for Nastasia Philipovna now,--perhaps it’s aswell.”
Two more of Nastasia’s guests, who walked a short distance together,indulged in high moral sentiments of a similar nature.
“Do you know, Totski, this is all very like what they say goes onamong the Japanese?” said Ptitsin. “The offended party there, they say,marches off to his insulter and says to him, ‘You insulted me, so I havecome to rip myself open before your eyes;’ and with these words hedoes actually rip his stomach open before his enemy, and considers,doubtless, that he is having all possible and necessary satisfaction andrevenge. There are strange characters in the world, sir!”
“H’m! and you think there was something of this sort here, do you? Dearme--a very remarkable comparison, you know! But you must have observed,my dear Ptitsin, that I did all I possibly could. I could do no morethan I did. And you must admit that there are some rare qualities inthis woman. I felt I could not speak in that Bedlam, or I should havebeen tempted to cry out, when she reproached me, that she herself wasmy best justification. Such a woman could make anyone forget allreason--everything! Even that moujik, Rogojin, you saw, brought hera hundred thousand roubles! Of course, all that happened tonightwas ephemeral, fantastic, unseemly--yet it lacked neither colour nororiginality. My God! What might not have been made of such a charactercombined with such beauty! Yet in spite of all efforts--in spite of alleducation, even--all those gifts are wasted! She is an uncut diamond....I have often said so.”
And Afanasy Ivanovitch heaved a deep sigh.
The Idiot Page 37
