THE IDIOT. Федор Достоевский
pair of thick lips, a wide nose, small eyes, rather bloodshot, and with an ironical expression in them; as though he were perpetually winking at someone. His whole appearance gave one the idea of impudence; his dress was shabby.
He opened the door just enough to let his head in. His head remained so placed for a few seconds while he quietly scrutinized the room; the door then opened enough to admit his body; but still he did not enter. He stood on the threshold and examined the prince carefully. At last he gave the door a final shove, entered, approached the prince, took his hand and seated himself and the owner of the room on two chairs side by side.
“Ferdishenko,” he said, gazing intently and inquiringly into the prince’s eyes.
“Very well, what next?” said the latter, almost laughing in his face.
“A lodger here,” continued the other, staring as before.
“Do you wish to make acquaintance?” asked the prince.
“Ah!” said the visitor, passing his fingers through his hair and sighing. He then looked over to the other side of the room and around it. “Got any money?” he asked, suddenly.
“Not much.”
“How much?”
“Twenty-five roubles.”
“Let’s see it.”
The prince took his banknote out and showed it to Ferdishenko. The latter unfolded it and looked at it; then he turned it round and examined the other side; then he held it up to the light.
“How strange that it should have browned so,” he said, reflectively. “These twenty-five rouble notes brown in a most extraordinary way, while other notes often grow paler. Take it.”
The prince took his note. Ferdishenko rose.
“I came here to warn you,” he said. “In the first place, don’t lend me any money, for I shall certainly ask you to.”
“Very well.”
“Shall you pay here?”
“Yes, I intend to.”
“Oh! I DON’T intend to. Thanks. I live here, next door to you; you noticed a room, did you? Don’t come to me very often; I shall see you here quite often enough. Have you seen the general?”
“No.”
“Nor heard him?”
“No; of course not.”
“Well, you’ll both hear and see him soon; he even tries to borrow money from me. Avis au lecteur. Good-bye; do you think a man can possibly live with a name like Ferdishenko?”
“Why not?”
“Good-bye.”
And so he departed. The prince found out afterwards that this gentleman made it his business to amaze people with his originality and wit, but that it did not as a rule “come off.” He even produced a bad impression on some people, which grieved him sorely; but he did not change his ways for all that.
As he went out of the prince’s room, he collided with yet another visitor coming in. Ferdishenko took the opportunity of making several warning gestures to the prince from behind the new arrival’s back, and left the room in conscious pride.
This next arrival was a tall red-faced man of about fifty-five, with greyish hair and whiskers, and large eyes which stood out of their sockets. His appearance would have been distinguished had it not been that he gave the idea of being rather dirty. He was dressed in an old coat, and he smelled of vodka when he came near. His walk was effective, and he clearly did his best to appear dignified, and to impress people by his manner.
This gentleman now approached the prince slowly, and with a most courteous smile; silently took his hand and held it in his own, as he examined the prince’s features as though searching for familiar traits therein.
“’Tis he, ’tis he!” he said at last, quietly, but with much solemnity. “As though he were alive once more. I heard the familiar name-the dear familiar name — and, oh. I how it reminded me of the irrevocable past — Prince Muishkin, I believe?”
“Exactly so.”
“General Ivolgin — retired and unfortunate. May I ask your Christian and generic names?”
“Lef Nicolaievitch.”
“So, so — the son of my old, I may say my childhood’s friend, Nicolai Petrovitch.”
“My father’s name was Nicolai Lvovitch.”
“Lvovitch,” repeated the general without the slightest haste, and with perfect confidence, just as though he had not committed himself the least in the world, but merely made a little slip of the tongue. He sat down, and taking the prince’s hand, drew him to a seat next to himself.
“I carried you in my arms as a baby,” he observed.
“Really?” asked the prince. “Why, it’s twenty years since my father died.”
“Yes, yes — twenty years and three months. We were educated together; I went straight into the army, and he —”
“My father went into the army, too. He was a sub-lieutenant in the Vasiliefsky regiment.”
“No, sir — in the Bielomirsky; he changed into the latter shortly before his death. I was at his bedside when he died, and gave him my blessing for eternity. Your mother —” The general paused, as though overcome with emotion.
“She died a few months later, from a cold,” said the prince.
“Oh, not cold — believe an old man — not from a cold, but from grief for her prince. Oh — your mother, your mother! heigh-ho! Youth — youth! Your father and I— old friends as we were — nearly murdered each other for her sake.”
The prince began to be a little incredulous.
“I was passionately in love with her when she was engaged — engaged to my friend. The prince noticed the fact and was furious. He came and woke me at seven o’clock one morning. I rise and dress in amazement; silence on both sides. I understand it all. He takes a couple of pistols out of his pocket — across a handkerchief — without witnesses. Why invite witnesses when both of us would be walking in eternity in a couple of minutes? The pistols are loaded; we stretch the handkerchief and stand opposite one another. We aim the pistols at each other’s hearts. Suddenly tears start to our eyes, our hands shake; we weep, we embrace — the battle is one of self-sacrifice now! The prince shouts, ‘She is yours;’ I cry, ‘She is yours —’ in a word, in a word — You’ve come to live with us, hey?”
“Yes — yes — for a while, I think,” stammered the prince.
“Prince, mother begs you to come to her,” said Colia, appearing at the door.
The prince rose to go, but the general once more laid his hand in a friendly manner on his shoulder, and dragged him down on to the sofa.
“As the true friend of your father, I wish to say a few words to you,” he began. “I have suffered — there was a catastrophe. I suffered without a trial; I had no trial. Nina Alexandrovna my wife, is an excellent woman, so is my daughter Varvara. We have to let lodgings because we are poor — a dreadful, unheard-of come-down for us — for me, who should have been a governor-general; but we are very glad to have YOU, at all events. Meanwhile there is a tragedy in the house.”
The prince looked inquiringly at the other.
“Yes, a marriage is being arranged — a marriage between a questionable woman and a young fellow who might be a flunkey. They wish to bring this woman into the house where my wife and daughter reside, but while I live and breathe she shall never enter my doors. I shall lie at the threshold, and she shall trample me underfoot if she does. I hardly talk to Gania now, and avoid him as much as I can. I warn you of this beforehand, but you cannot fail to observe it.