report about you, I should never have comeall this way into the park--at midnight, too!”
“I don’t understand you in the least, Parfen.”
“Oh, _she_ told me all about it long ago, and tonight I saw for myself.I saw you at the music, you know, and whom you were sitting with. Sheswore to me yesterday, and again today, that you are madly in love withAglaya Ivanovna. But that’s all the same to me, prince, and it’s not myaffair at all; for if you have ceased to love _her_, _she_ has not ceasedto love _you_. You know, of course, that she wants to marry you to thatgirl? She’s sworn to it! Ha, ha! She says to me, ‘Until then I won’t marryyou. When they go to church, we’ll go too--and not before.’ What on earthdoes she mean by it? I don’t know, and I never did. Either she loves youwithout limits or--yet, if she loves you, why does she wish to marryyou to another girl? She says, ‘I want to see him happy,’ which is tosay--she loves you.”
“I wrote, and I say to you once more, that she is not in her rightmind,” said the prince, who had listened with anguish to what Rogojinsaid.
“Goodness knows--you may be wrong there! At all events, she named theday this evening, as we left the gardens. ‘In three weeks,’ says she,‘and perhaps sooner, we shall be married.’ She swore to it, took off hercross and kissed it. So it all depends upon you now, prince, You see!Ha, ha!”
“That’s all madness. What you say about me, Parfen, never can and neverwill be. Tomorrow, I shall come and see you--”
“How can she be mad,” Rogojin interrupted, “when she is sane enough forother people and only mad for you? How can she write letters to _her_, ifshe’s mad? If she were insane they would observe it in her letters.”
“What letters?” said the prince, alarmed.
“She writes to _her_--and the girl reads the letters. Haven’t youheard?--You are sure to hear; she’s sure to show you the lettersherself.”
“I won’t believe this!” cried the prince.
“Why, prince, you’ve only gone a few steps along this road, I perceive.You are evidently a mere beginner. Wait a bit! Before long, you’ll haveyour own detectives, you’ll watch day and night, and you’ll know everylittle thing that goes on there--that is, if--”
“Drop that subject, Rogojin, and never mention it again. And listen:as I have sat here, and talked, and listened, it has suddenly struck methat tomorrow is my birthday. It must be about twelve o’clock, now; comehome with me--do, and we’ll see the day in! We’ll have some wine, andyou shall wish me--I don’t know what--but you, especially you, mustwish me a good wish, and I shall wish you full happiness in return.Otherwise, hand me my cross back again. You didn’t return it to me nextday. Haven’t you got it on now?”
“Yes, I have,” said Rogojin.
“Come along, then. I don’t wish to meet my new year without you--my newlife, I should say, for a new life is beginning for me. Did you know,Parfen, that a new life had begun for me?”
“I see for myself that it is so--and I shall tell _her_. But you are notquite yourself, Lef Nicolaievitch.”
IV.
The prince observed with great surprise, as he approached his villa,accompanied by Rogojin, that a large number of people were assembled onhis verandah, which was brilliantly lighted up. The company seemed merryand were noisily laughing and talking--even quarrelling, to judge fromthe sounds. At all events they were clearly enjoying themselves, andthe prince observed further on closer investigation--that all had beendrinking champagne. To judge from the lively condition of some of theparty, it was to be supposed that a considerable quantity of champagnehad been consumed already.
All the guests were known to the prince; but the curious part of thematter was that they had all arrived on the same evening, as though withone accord, although he had only himself recollected the fact that itwas his birthday a few moments since.
“You must have told somebody you were going to trot out the champagne,and that’s why they are all come!” muttered Rogojin, as the two enteredthe verandah. “We know all about that! You’ve only to whistle and theycome up in shoals!” he continued, almost angrily. He was doubtlessthinking of his own late experiences with his boon companions.
All surrounded the prince with exclamations of welcome, and, on hearingthat it was his birthday, with cries of congratulation and delight; manyof them were very noisy.
The presence of certain of those in the room surprised the princevastly, but the guest whose advent filled him with the greatestwonder--almost amounting to alarm--was Evgenie Pavlovitch. The princecould not believe his eyes when he beheld the latter, and could not helpthinking that something was wrong.
Lebedeff ran up promptly to explain the arrival of all these gentlemen.He was himself somewhat intoxicated, but the prince gathered from hislong-winded periods that the party had assembled quite naturally, andaccidentally.
First of all Hippolyte had arrived, early in the evening, and feelingdecidedly better, had determined to await the prince on the verandah.There Lebedeff had joined him, and his household had followed--that is,his daughters and General Ivolgin. Burdovsky had brought Hippolyte, andstayed on with him. Gania and Ptitsin had dropped in accidentally lateron; then came Keller, and he and Colia insisted on having champagne.Evgenie Pavlovitch had only dropped in half an hour or so ago. Lebedeffhad served the champagne readily.
“My own though, prince, my own, mind,” he said, “and there’ll be somesupper later on; my daughter is getting it ready now. Come and sit down,prince, we are all waiting for you, we want you with us. Fancy what wehave been discussing! You know the question, ‘to be or not to be,’--outof Hamlet! A contemporary theme! Quite up-to-date! Mr. Hippolyte hasbeen eloquent to a degree. He won’t go to bed, but he has only drunk alittle champagne, and that can’t do him any harm. Come along, prince,and settle the question. Everyone is waiting for you, sighing for thelight of your luminous intelligence...”
The prince noticed the sweet, welcoming look on Vera Lebedeff’s face, asshe made her way towards him through the crowd. He held out his hand toher. She took it, blushing with delight, and wished him “a happy lifefrom that day forward.” Then she ran off to the kitchen, where herpresence was necessary to help in the preparations for supper. Beforethe prince’s arrival she had spent some time on the terrace, listeningeagerly to the conversation, though the visitors, mostly under theinfluence of wine, were discussing abstract subjects far beyond hercomprehension. In the next room her younger sister lay on a woodenchest, sound asleep, with her mouth wide open; but the boy, Lebedeff’sson, had taken up his position close beside Colia and Hippolyte, hisface lit up with interest in the conversation of his father and therest, to which he would willingly have listened for ten hours at astretch.
“I have waited for you on purpose, and am very glad to see you arrive sohappy,” said Hippolyte, when the prince came forward to press his hand,immediately after greeting Vera.
“And how do you know that I am ‘so happy’?”
“I can see it by your face! Say ‘how do you do’ to the others, andcome and sit down here, quick--I’ve been waiting for you!” he added,accentuating the fact that he had waited. On the prince’s asking, “Willit not be injurious to you to sit out so late?” he replied that he couldnot believe that he had thought himself dying three days or so ago, forhe never had felt better than this evening.
Burdovsky next jumped up and explained that he had come in by accident,having escorted Hippolyte from town. He murmured that he was glad hehad “written nonsense” in his letter, and then pressed the prince’s handwarmly and sat down again.
The prince approached Evgenie Pavlovitch last of all. The latterimmediately took his arm.
“I have a couple of words to say to you,” he began, “and those on a veryimportant matter; let’s go aside for a minute or two.”
“Just a couple of words!” whispered another voice in the prince’s otherear, and another hand took his other arm. Muishkin turned, and to hisgreat surprise observed a red, flushed face and a droll-looking figurewhich he re
cognized at once as that of Ferdishenko. Goodness knows wherehe had turned up from!
“Do you remember Ferdishenko?” he asked.
“Where have you dropped from?” cried the prince.
“He is sorry for his sins now, prince,” cried Keller. “He did notwant to let you know he was here; he was hidden over there in thecorner,--but he repents now, he feels his guilt.”
“Why, what has he done?”
“I met him outside and brought him in--he’s a gentleman who doesn’toften allow his friends to see him, of late--but he’s sorry now.”
“Delighted, I’m sure!--I’ll come back directly, gentlemen,--sit downthere with the others, please,--excuse me one moment,” said the host,getting away with difficulty in order to follow Evgenie.
“You are very gay here,” began the latter, “and I have had quitea pleasant half-hour while I waited for you. Now then, my dear LefNicolaievitch, this is what’s the matter. I’ve arranged it all withMoloftsoff, and have just come in to relieve your mind on that score.You need be under no apprehensions. He was very sensible, as he shouldbe,
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