portion wasted in the firstwanton period of his inheritance, went to his brother, to the greatsatisfaction of the latter.
The old lady, Rogojin’s mother, is still alive, and remembers herfavourite son Parfen sometimes, but not clearly. God spared her theknowledge of this dreadful calamity which had overtaken her house.
Lebedeff, Keller, Gania, Ptitsin, and many other friends of ourscontinue to live as before. There is scarcely any change in them, sothat there is no need to tell of their subsequent doings.
Hippolyte died in great agitation, and rather sooner than he expected,about a fortnight after Nastasia Philipovna’s death. Colia was muchaffected by these events, and drew nearer to his mother in heart andsympathy. Nina Alexandrovna is anxious, because he is “thoughtful beyondhis years,” but he will, we think, make a useful and active man.
The prince’s further fate was more or less decided by Colia, whoselected, out of all the persons he had met during the last six or sevenmonths, Evgenie Pavlovitch, as friend and confidant. To him he made overall that he knew as to the events above recorded, and as to the presentcondition of the prince. He was not far wrong in his choice. EvgeniePavlovitch took the deepest interest in the fate of the unfortunate“idiot,” and, thanks to his influence, the prince found himself oncemore with Dr. Schneider, in Switzerland.
Evgenie Pavlovitch, who went abroad at this time, intending to live along while on the continent, being, as he often said, quite superfluousin Russia, visits his sick friend at Schneider’s every few months.
But Dr. Schneider frowns ever more and more and shakes his head; hehints that the brain is fatally injured; he does not as yet declare thathis patient is incurable, but he allows himself to express the gravestfears.
Evgenie takes this much to heart, and he has a heart, as is provedby the fact that he receives and even answers letters from Colia. Butbesides this, another trait in his character has become apparent, and asit is a good trait we will make haste to reveal it. After each visitto Schneider’s establishment, Evgenie Pavlovitch writes another letter,besides that to Colia, giving the most minute particulars concerning theinvalid’s condition. In these letters is to be detected, and in each onemore than the last, a growing feeling of friendship and sympathy.
The individual who corresponds thus with Evgenie Pavlovitch, and whoengages so much of his attention and respect, is Vera Lebedeff. We havenever been able to discover clearly how such relations sprang up.Of course the root of them was in the events which we have alreadyrecorded, and which so filled Vera with grief on the prince’s accountthat she fell seriously ill. But exactly how the acquaintance andfriendship came about, we cannot say.
We have spoken of these letters chiefly because in them is often to befound some news of the Epanchin family, and of Aglaya in particular.Evgenie Pavlovitch wrote of her from Paris, that after a short andsudden attachment to a certain Polish count, an exile, she had suddenlymarried him, quite against the wishes of her parents, though they hadeventually given their consent through fear of a terrible scandal.Then, after a six months’ silence, Evgenie Pavlovitch informed hiscorrespondent, in a long letter, full of detail, that while paying hislast visit to Dr. Schneider’s establishment, he had there come acrossthe whole Epanchin family (excepting the general, who had remained inSt. Petersburg) and Prince S. The meeting was a strange one. Theyall received Evgenie Pavlovitch with effusive delight; Adelaida andAlexandra were deeply grateful to him for his “angelic kindness to theunhappy prince.”
Lizabetha Prokofievna, when she saw poor Muishkin, in his enfeebled andhumiliated condition, had wept bitterly. Apparently all was forgivenhim.
Prince S. had made a few just and sensible remarks. It seemed to EvgeniePavlovitch that there was not yet perfect harmony between Adelaida andher fiance, but he thought that in time the impulsive young girl wouldlet herself be guided by his reason and experience. Besides, the recentevents that had befallen her family had given Adelaida much to thinkabout, especially the sad experiences of her younger sister. Within sixmonths, everything that the family had dreaded from the marriage withthe Polish count had come to pass. He turned out to be neither countnor exile--at least, in the political sense of the word--but had had toleave his native land owing to some rather dubious affair of the past.It was his noble patriotism, of which he made a great display, thathad rendered him so interesting in Aglaya’s eyes. She was so fascinatedthat, even before marrying him, she joined a committee that had beenorganized abroad to work for the restoration of Poland; and further,she visited the confessional of a celebrated Jesuit priest, who made anabsolute fanatic of her. The supposed fortune of the count had dwindledto a mere nothing, although he had given almost irrefutable evidence ofits existence to Lizabetha Prokofievna and Prince S.
Besides this, before they had been married half a year, the count andhis friend the priest managed to bring about a quarrel between Aglayaand her family, so that it was now several months since they had seenher. In a word, there was a great deal to say; but Mrs. Epanchin, andher daughters, and even Prince S., were still so much distressed byAglaya’s latest infatuations and adventures, that they did not care totalk of them, though they must have known that Evgenie knew much of thestory already.
Poor Lizabetha Prokofievna was most anxious to get home, and, accordingto Evgenie’s account, she criticized everything foreign with muchhostility.
“They can’t bake bread anywhere, decently; and they all freeze in theirhouses, during winter, like a lot of mice in a cellar. At all events,I’ve had a good Russian cry over this poor fellow,” she added, pointingto the prince, who had not recognized her in the slightest degree.“So enough of this nonsense; it’s time we faced the truth. All thiscontinental life, all this Europe of yours, and all the trash about‘going abroad’ is simply foolery, and it is mere foolery on our partto come. Remember what I say, my friend; you’ll live to agree with meyourself.”
So spoke the good lady, almost angrily, as she took leave of EvgeniePavlovitch.
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