to howsuch a marriage could possibly satisfy his real aspirations, or as tothe spiritual condition of our hero at this time, we confess that weshould have great difficulty in giving the required information.
All we know is, that the marriage really was arranged, and that theprince had commissioned Lebedeff and Keller to look after all thenecessary business connected with it; that he had requested them tospare no expense; that Nastasia herself was hurrying on the wedding;that Keller was to be the prince’s best man, at his own earnest request;and that Burdovsky was to give Nastasia away, to his great delight. Thewedding was to take place before the middle of July.
But, besides the above, we are cognizant of certain other undoubtedfacts, which puzzle us a good deal because they seem flatly tocontradict the foregoing.
We suspect, for instance, that having commissioned Lebedeff and theothers, as above, the prince immediately forgot all about masters ofceremonies and even the ceremony itself; and we feel quite certain thatin making these arrangements he did so in order that he might absolutelyescape all thought of the wedding, and even forget its approach if hecould, by detailing all business concerning it to others.
What did he think of all this time, then? What did he wish for? There isno doubt that he was a perfectly free agent all through, and that asfar as Nastasia was concerned, there was no force of any kind broughtto bear on him. Nastasia wished for a speedy marriage, true!--but theprince agreed at once to her proposals; he agreed, in fact, so casuallythat anyone might suppose he was but acceding to the most simple andordinary suggestion.
There are many strange circumstances such as this before us; but inour opinion they do but deepen the mystery, and do not in the smallestdegree help us to understand the case.
However, let us take one more example. Thus, we know for a fact thatduring the whole of this fortnight the prince spent all his days andevenings with Nastasia; he walked with her, drove with her; he began tobe restless whenever he passed an hour without seeing her--in fact,to all appearances, he sincerely loved her. He would listen to her forhours at a time with a quiet smile on his face, scarcely saying a wordhimself. And yet we know, equally certainly, that during this period heseveral times set off, suddenly, to the Epanchins’, not concealingthe fact from Nastasia Philipovna, and driving the latter to absolutedespair. We know also that he was not received at the Epanchins’ so longas they remained at Pavlofsk, and that he was not allowed an interviewwith Aglaya;--but next day he would set off once more on the sameerrand, apparently quite oblivious of the fact of yesterday’s visithaving been a failure,--and, of course, meeting with another refusal.We know, too, that exactly an hour after Aglaya had fled from NastasiaPhilipovna’s house on that fateful evening, the prince was at theEpanchins’,--and that his appearance there had been the cause of thegreatest consternation and dismay; for Aglaya had not been home, and thefamily only discovered then, for the first time, that the two of themhad been to Nastasia’s house together.
It was said that Elizabetha Prokofievna and her daughters had there andthen denounced the prince in the strongest terms, and had refusedany further acquaintance and friendship with him; their rage anddenunciations being redoubled when Varia Ardalionovna suddenly arrivedand stated that Aglaya had been at her house in a terrible state of mindfor the last hour, and that she refused to come home.
This last item of news, which disturbed Lizabetha Prokofievna more thananything else, was perfectly true. On leaving Nastasia’s, Aglaya hadfelt that she would rather die than face her people, and had thereforegone straight to Nina Alexandrovna’s. On receiving the news, Lizabethaand her daughters and the general all rushed off to Aglaya, followedby Prince Lef Nicolaievitch--undeterred by his recent dismissal; butthrough Varia he was refused a sight of Aglaya here also. The end of theepisode was that when Aglaya saw her mother and sisters crying over herand not uttering a word of reproach, she had flung herself into theirarms and gone straight home with them.
It was said that Gania managed to make a fool of himself even on thisoccasion; for, finding himself alone with Aglaya for a minute or twowhen Varia had gone to the Epanchins’, he had thought it a fittingopportunity to make a declaration of his love, and on hearing thisAglaya, in spite of her state of mind at the time, had suddenly burstout laughing, and had put a strange question to him. She asked himwhether he would consent to hold his finger to a lighted candle in proofof his devotion! Gania--it was said--looked so comically bewildered thatAglaya had almost laughed herself into hysterics, and had rushed out ofthe room and upstairs,--where her parents had found her.
Hippolyte told the prince this last story, sending for him on purpose.When Muishkin heard about the candle and Gania’s finger he had laughedso that he had quite astonished Hippolyte,--and then shuddered and burstinto tears. The prince’s condition during those days was strange andperturbed. Hippolyte plainly declared that he thought he was out of hismind;--this, however, was hardly to be relied upon.
Offering all these facts to our readers and refusing to explain them,we do not for a moment desire to justify our hero’s conduct. On thecontrary, we are quite prepared to feel our share of the indignationwhich his behaviour aroused in the hearts of his friends. Even VeraLebedeff was angry with him for a while; so was Colia; so was Keller,until he was selected for best man; so was Lebedeff himself,--who beganto intrigue against him out of pure irritation;--but of this anon. Infact we are in full accord with certain forcible words spoken to theprince by Evgenie Pavlovitch, quite unceremoniously, during the courseof a friendly conversation, six or seven days after the events atNastasia Philipovna’s house.
We may remark here that not only the Epanchins themselves, but all whohad anything to do with them, thought it right to break with the princein consequence of his conduct. Prince S. even went so far as to turnaway and cut him dead in the street. But Evgenie Pavlovitch was notafraid to compromise himself by paying the prince a visit, and did so,in spite of the fact that he had recommenced to visit at the Epanchins’,where he was received with redoubled hospitality and kindness after thetemporary estrangement.
Evgenie called upon the prince the day after that on which the Epanchinsleft Pavlofsk. He knew of all the current rumours,--in fact, he hadprobably contributed to them himself. The prince was delighted to seehim, and immediately began to speak of the Epanchins;--which simple andstraightforward opening quite took Evgenie’s fancy, so that he melted atonce, and plunged in medias res without ceremony.
The prince did not know, up to this, that the Epanchins had left theplace. He grew very pale on hearing the news; but a moment later henodded his head, and said thoughtfully:
“I knew it was bound to be so.” Then he added quickly:
“Where have they gone to?”
Evgenie meanwhile observed him attentively, and the rapidity of thequestions, their simplicity, the prince’s candour, and at the sametime, his evident perplexity and mental agitation, surprised himconsiderably. However, he told Muishkin all he could, kindly andin detail. The prince hardly knew anything, for this was the firstinformant from the household whom he had met since the estrangement.
Evgenie reported that Aglaya had been really ill, and that for twonights she had not slept at all, owing to high fever; that now she wasbetter and out of serious danger, but still in a nervous, hystericalstate.
“It’s a good thing that there is peace in the house, at all events,” hecontinued. “They never utter a hint about the past, not only in Aglaya’spresence, but even among themselves. The old people are talking of atrip abroad in the autumn, immediately after Adelaida’s wedding; Aglayareceived the news in silence.”
Evgenie himself was very likely going abroad also; so were Prince S.and his wife, if affairs allowed of it; the general was to stay at home.They were all at their estate of Colmina now, about twenty miles or sofrom St. Petersburg. Princess Bielokonski had not returned to Moscowyet, and was apparently staying on for reasons of her own. LizabethaProkofievna had insisted that it was quite impossible to remain inPavlofsk after wh
at had happened. Evgenie had told her of all therumours current in town about the affair; so that there could be no talkof their going to their house on the Yelagin as yet.
“And in point of fact, prince,” added Evgenie Pavlovitch, “you mustallow that they could hardly have stayed here, considering that theyknew of all that went on at your place, and in the face of your dailyvisits to their house, visits which you insisted upon making in spite oftheir refusal to see you.”
“Yes--yes, quite so; you are quite right. I wished to see AglayaIvanovna, you know!” said the prince, nodding his head.
“Oh, my dear fellow,” cried Evgenie, warmly, with real sorrow in hisvoice, “how could you permit all that to come about as it has? Ofcourse, of course, I know it was all so unexpected. I admit that you,only naturally, lost your head, and--and could not stop the foolishgirl; that was not in your power. I quite see so much; but you reallyshould have understood how seriously she cared for you. She could notbear to share you with another; and you could bring yourself
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