The Idiot

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

discovered it_absolutely_ for certain, these last few days.”

  “What are you doing, then?” cried Evgenie, in horror. “You must bemarrying her solely out of _fear_, then! I can’t make head or tail of it,prince. Perhaps you don’t even love her?”

  “Oh, no; I love her with all my soul. Why, she is a child! She’s a childnow--a real child. Oh! you know nothing about it at all, I see.”

  “And are you assured, at the same time, that you love Aglaya too?”

  “Yes--yes--oh; yes!”

  “How so? Do you want to make out that you love them _both?_”

  “Yes--yes--both! I do!”

  “Excuse me, prince, but think what you are saying! Recollect yourself!”

  “Without Aglaya--I--I _must_ see Aglaya!--I shall die in my sleep verysoon--I thought I was dying in my sleep last night. Oh! if Aglaya onlyknew all--I mean really, _really_ all! Because she must know _all_--that’sthe first condition towards understanding. Why cannot we ever know allabout another, especially when that other has been guilty? But Idon’t know what I’m talking about--I’m so confused. You pained me sodreadfully. Surely--surely Aglaya has not the same expression now asshe had at the moment when she ran away? Oh, yes! I am guilty and Iknow it--I know it! Probably I am in fault all round--I don’t quite knowhow--but I am in fault, no doubt. There is something else, but I cannotexplain it to you, Evgenie Pavlovitch. I have no words; but Aglaya willunderstand. I have always believed Aglaya will understand--I am assuredshe will.”

  “No, prince, she will not. Aglaya loved like a woman, like a humanbeing, not like an abstract spirit. Do you know what, my poor prince?The most probable explanation of the matter is that you never lovedeither the one or the other in reality.”

  “I don’t know--perhaps you are right in much that you have said, EvgeniePavlovitch. You are very wise, Evgenie Pavlovitch--oh! how my head isbeginning to ache again! Come to her, quick--for God’s sake, come!”

  “But I tell you she is not in Pavlofsk! She’s in Colmina.”

  “Oh, come to Colmina, then! Come--let us go at once!”

  “No--no, impossible!” said Evgenie, rising.

  “Look here--I’ll write a letter--take a letter for me!”

  “No--no, prince; you must forgive me, but I can’t undertake any suchcommissions! I really can’t.”

  And so they parted.

  Evgenie Pavlovitch left the house with strange convictions. He, too,felt that the prince must be out of his mind.

  “And what did he mean by that _face_--a face which he so fears, and yetso loves? And meanwhile he really may die, as he says, without seeingAglaya, and she will never know how devotedly he loves her! Ha, ha, ha!How does the fellow manage to love two of them? Two different kinds oflove, I suppose! This is very interesting--poor idiot! What on earthwill become of him now?”

  X.

  The prince did not die before his wedding--either by day or night, ashe had foretold that he might. Very probably he passed disturbed nights,and was afflicted with bad dreams; but, during the daytime, among hisfellow-men, he seemed as kind as ever, and even contented; only a littlethoughtful when alone.

  The wedding was hurried on. The day was fixed for exactly a week afterEvgenie’s visit to the prince. In the face of such haste as this,even the prince’s best friends (if he had had any) would have felt thehopelessness of any attempt to save “the poor madman.” Rumour said thatin the visit of Evgenie Pavlovitch was to be discerned the influence ofLizabetha Prokofievna and her husband... But if those good souls, inthe boundless kindness of their hearts, were desirous of saving theeccentric young fellow from ruin, they were unable to take any strongermeasures to attain that end. Neither their position, nor their privateinclination, perhaps (and only naturally), would allow them to use anymore pronounced means.

  We have observed before that even some of the prince’s nearestneighbours had begun to oppose him. Vera Lebedeff’s passive disagreementwas limited to the shedding of a few solitary tears; to more frequentsitting alone at home, and to a diminished frequency in her visits tothe prince’s apartments.

  Colia was occupied with his father at this time. The old man died duringa second stroke, which took place just eight days after the first. Theprince showed great sympathy in the grief of the family, and during thefirst days of their mourning he was at the house a great deal with NinaAlexandrovna. He went to the funeral, and it was observable that thepublic assembled in church greeted his arrival and departure withwhisperings, and watched him closely.

  The same thing happened in the park and in the street, wherever he went.He was pointed out when he drove by, and he often overheard the name ofNastasia Philipovna coupled with his own as he passed. People lookedout for her at the funeral, too, but she was not there; and anotherconspicuous absentee was the captain’s widow, whom Lebedeff hadprevented from coming.

  The funeral service produced a great effect on the prince. He whisperedto Lebedeff that this was the first time he had ever heard a Russianfuneral service since he was a little boy. Observing that he was lookingabout him uneasily, Lebedeff asked him whom he was seeking.

  “Nothing. I only thought I--”

  “Is it Rogojin?”

  “Why--is he here?”

  “Yes, he’s in church.”

  “I thought I caught sight of his eyes!” muttered the prince, inconfusion. “But what of it!--Why is he here? Was he asked?”

  “Oh, dear, no! Why, they don’t even know him! Anyone can come in, youknow. Why do you look so amazed? I often meet him; I’ve seen him atleast four times, here at Pavlofsk, within the last week.”

  “I haven’t seen him once--since that day!” the prince murmured.

  As Nastasia Philipovna had not said a word about having met Rogojinsince “that day,” the prince concluded that the latter had his ownreasons for wishing to keep out of sight. All the day of the funeral ourhero was in a deeply thoughtful state, while Nastasia Philipovna wasparticularly merry, both in the daytime and in the evening.

  Colia had made it up with the prince before his father’s death, and itwas he who urged him to make use of Keller and Burdovsky, promisingto answer himself for the former’s behaviour. Nina Alexandrovna andLebedeff tried to persuade him to have the wedding in St. Petersburg,instead of in the public fashion contemplated, down here at Pavlofskin the height of the season. But the prince only said that NastasiaPhilipovna desired to have it so, though he saw well enough whatprompted their arguments.

  The next day Keller came to visit the prince. He was in a high state ofdelight with the post of honour assigned to him at the wedding.

  Before entering he stopped on the threshold, raised his hand as ifmaking a solemn vow, and cried:

  “I won’t drink!”

  Then he went up to the prince, seized both his hands, shook them warmly,and declared that he had at first felt hostile towards the project ofthis marriage, and had openly said so in the billiard-rooms, but thatthe reason simply was that, with the impatience of a friend, he hadhoped to see the prince marry at least a Princess de Rohan or de Chabot;but that now he saw that the prince’s way of thinking was ten times morenoble than that of “all the rest put together.” For he desired neitherpomp nor wealth nor honour, but only the truth! The sympathies ofexalted personages were well known, and the prince was too highlyplaced by his education, and so on, not to be in some sense an exaltedpersonage!

  “But all the common herd judge differently; in the town, atthe meetings, in the villas, at the band, in the inns and thebilliard-rooms, the coming event has only to be mentioned and there areshouts and cries from everybody. I have even heard talk of getting up a‘charivari’ under the windows on the wedding-night. So if ‘you have needof the pistol’ of an honest man, prince, I am ready to fire half a dozenshots even before you rise from your nuptial couch!”

  Keller also advised, in anticipation of the crowd making a rush afterthe ceremony, that a fire-hose should be placed at the entrance to thehouse; but Lebedeff was opposed to this measure,
which he said mightresult in the place being pulled down.

  “I assure you, prince, that Lebedeff is intriguing against you. He wantsto put you under control. Imagine that! To take ‘from you the use ofyour free-will and your money’--that is to say, the two things thatdistinguish us from the animals! I have heard it said positively. It isthe sober truth.”

  The prince recollected that somebody had told him something of the kindbefore, and he had, of course, scoffed at it. He only laughed now, andforgot the hint at once.

  Lebedeff really had been busy for some little while; but, as usual, hisplans had become too complex to succeed, through sheer excess of ardour.When he came to the prince--the very day before the wedding--to confess(for he always confessed to the persons against whom he intrigued,especially when the plan failed), he informed our hero that he himselfwas a born Talleyrand, but for some unknown reason had become simpleLebedeff. He then proceeded to explain his whole game to the prince,interesting the latter exceedingly.

  According to Lebedeff’s account, he had first tried what he could dowith General Epanchin. The latter informed him that he wished well