of course, for I think he was entirely to blame himself.”
“What Moloftsoff?”
“The young fellow whose arms you held, don’t you know? He was so wildwith you that he was going to send a friend to you tomorrow morning.”
“What nonsense!”
“Of course it is nonsense, and in nonsense it would have ended,doubtless; but you know these fellows, they--”
“Excuse me, but I think you must have something else that you wished tospeak about, Evgenie Pavlovitch?”
“Of course, I have!” said the other, laughing. “You see, my dear fellow,tomorrow, very early in the morning, I must be off to town about thisunfortunate business (my uncle, you know!). Just imagine, my dear sir, itis all true--word for word--and, of course, everybody knew it exceptingmyself. All this has been such a blow to me that I have not managed tocall in at the Epanchins’. Tomorrow I shall not see them either, becauseI shall be in town. I may not be here for three days or more; in a word,my affairs are a little out of gear. But though my town business is,of course, most pressing, still I determined not to go away until I hadseen you, and had a clear understanding with you upon certain points;and that without loss of time. I will wait now, if you will allow me,until the company departs; I may just as well, for I have nowhere elseto go to, and I shall certainly not do any sleeping tonight; I’m far tooexcited. And finally, I must confess that, though I know it is bad formto pursue a man in this way, I have come to beg your friendship, mydear prince. You are an unusual sort of a person; you don’t lie at everystep, as some men do; in fact, you don’t lie at all, and there is amatter in which I need a true and sincere friend, for I really may claimto be among the number of bona fide unfortunates just now.”
He laughed again.
“But the trouble is,” said the prince, after a slight pause forreflection, “that goodness only knows when this party will break up.Hadn’t we better stroll into the park? I’ll excuse myself, there’s nodanger of their going away.”
“No, no! I have my reasons for wishing them not to suspect us of beingengaged in any specially important conversation. There are gentrypresent who are a little too much interested in us. You are not aware ofthat perhaps, prince? It will be a great deal better if they see thatwe are friendly just in an ordinary way. They’ll all go in a couple ofhours, and then I’ll ask you to give me twenty minutes--half an hour atmost.”
“By all means! I assure you I am delighted--you need not have enteredinto all these explanations. As for your remarks about friendship withme--thanks, very much indeed. You must excuse my being a little absentthis evening. Do you know, I cannot somehow be attentive to anythingjust now?”
“I see, I see,” said Evgenie, smiling gently. His mirth seemed very nearthe surface this evening.
“What do you see?” said the prince, startled.
“I don’t want you to suspect that I have simply come here to deceiveyou and pump information out of you!” said Evgenie, still smiling, andwithout making any direct reply to the question.
“Oh, but I haven’t the slightest doubt that you did come to pump me,” said the prince, laughing himself, at last; “and I dare say you arequite prepared to deceive me too, so far as that goes. But what of that?I’m not afraid of you; besides, you’ll hardly believe it, I feelas though I really didn’t care a scrap one way or the other, justnow!--And--and--and as you are a capital fellow, I am convinced of that, Idare say we really shall end by being good friends. I like you very muchEvgenie Pavlovitch; I consider you a very good fellow indeed.”
“Well, in any case, you are a most delightful man to have to deal with,be the business what it may,” concluded Evgenie. “Come along now, I’lldrink a glass to your health. I’m charmed to have entered into alliancewith you. By-the-by,” he added suddenly, “has this young Hippolyte comedown to stay with you?”
“Yes.”
“He’s not going to die at once, I should think, is he?”
“Why?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’ve been half an hour here with him, and he--”
Hippolyte had been waiting for the prince all this time, and had neverceased looking at him and Evgenie Pavlovitch as they conversed in thecorner. He became much excited when they approached the table once more.He was disturbed in his mind, it seemed; perspiration stood in largedrops on his forehead; in his gleaming eyes it was easy to readimpatience and agitation; his gaze wandered from face to face of thosepresent, and from object to object in the room, apparently without aim.He had taken a part, and an animated one, in the noisy conversation ofthe company; but his animation was clearly the outcome of fever. Histalk was almost incoherent; he would break off in the middle of asentence which he had begun with great interest, and forget what he hadbeen saying. The prince discovered to his dismay that Hippolyte had beenallowed to drink two large glasses of champagne; the one now standing byhim being the third. All this he found out afterwards; at the moment hedid not notice anything, very particularly.
“Do you know I am specially glad that today is your birthday!” criedHippolyte.
“Why?”
“You’ll soon see. D’you know I had a feeling that there would be a lotof people here tonight? It’s not the first time that my presentimentshave been fulfilled. I wish I had known it was your birthday, I’d havebrought you a present--perhaps I have got a present for you! Who knows?Ha, ha! How long is it now before daylight?”
“Not a couple of hours,” said Ptitsin, looking at his watch. “What’s thegood of daylight now? One can read all night in the open air withoutit,” said someone.
“The good of it! Well, I want just to see a ray of the sun,” saidHippolyte. “Can one drink to the sun’s health, do you think, prince?”
“Oh, I dare say one can; but you had better be calm and lie down,Hippolyte--that’s much more important.”
“You are always preaching about resting; you are a regular nurse to me,prince. As soon as the sun begins to ‘resound’ in the sky--what poetsaid that? ‘The sun resounded in the sky.’ It is beautiful, thoughthere’s no sense in it!--then we will go to bed. Lebedeff, tell me, isthe sun the source of life? What does the source, or ‘spring,’ of lifereally mean in the Apocalypse? You have heard of the ‘Star that iscalled Wormwood,’ prince?”
“I have heard that Lebedeff explains it as the railroads that coverEurope like a net.”
Everybody laughed, and Lebedeff got up abruptly.
“No! Allow me, that is not what we are discussing!” he cried, wavinghis hand to impose silence. “Allow me! With these gentlemen... allthese gentlemen,” he added, suddenly addressing the prince, “on certainpoints... that is...” He thumped the table repeatedly, and the laughterincreased. Lebedeff was in his usual evening condition, and had justended a long and scientific argument, which had left him excited andirritable. On such occasions he was apt to evince a supreme contempt forhis opponents.
“It is not right! Half an hour ago, prince, it was agreed among us thatno one should interrupt, no one should laugh, that each person was toexpress his thoughts freely; and then at the end, when everyone hadspoken, objections might be made, even by the atheists. We chose thegeneral as president. Now without some such rule and order, anyone mightbe shouted down, even in the loftiest and most profound thought....”
“Go on! Go on! Nobody is going to interrupt you!” cried several voices.
“Speak, but keep to the point!”
“What is this ‘star’?” asked another.
“I have no idea,” replied General Ivolgin, who presided with muchgravity.
“I love these arguments, prince,” said Keller, also more than halfintoxicated, moving restlessly in his chair. “Scientific and political.” Then, turning suddenly towards Evgenie Pavlovitch, who was seated nearhim: “Do you know, I simply adore reading the accounts of the debates inthe English parliament. Not that the discussions themselves interestme; I am not a politician, you know; but it delights me to see how theyaddress each other ‘the noble lord who agrees with me,�
�� ‘my honourableopponent who astonished Europe with his proposal,’ ‘the noble viscountsitting opposite’--all these expressions, all this parliamentarism ofa free people, has an enormous attraction for me. It fascinates me,prince. I have always been an artist in the depths of my soul, I assureyou, Evgenie Pavlovitch.”
“Do you mean to say,” cried Gania, from the other corner, “do you meanto say that railways are accursed inventions, that they are a source ofruin to humanity, a poison poured upon the earth to corrupt the springsof life?”
Gavrila Ardalionovitch was in high spirits that evening, and it seemedto the prince that his gaiety was mingled with triumph. Of course he wasonly joking with Lebedeff, meaning to egg him on, but he grew excitedhimself at the same time.
“Not the railways, oh dear, no!” replied Lebedeff, with a mixture ofviolent anger and extreme enjoyment. “Considered alone, the railwayswill not pollute the springs of life, but as a whole they are accursed.The whole tendency of our latest centuries, in its scientific andmaterialistic aspect, is most probably accursed.”
“Is it certainly accursed?... or do
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