country town--as you all know--and twoballs to provide for!
“Poor Peter Volhofskoi was desperately in love with Anfisa Alexeyevna.I don’t know whether there was anything--I mean I don’t know whetherhe could possibly have indulged in any hope. The poor fellow was besidehimself to get her a bouquet of camellias. Countess Sotski and SophiaBespalova, as everyone knew, were coming with white camellia bouquets.Anfisa wished for red ones, for effect. Well, her husband Platon wasdriven desperate to find some. And the day before the ball, Anfisa’srival snapped up the only red camellias to be had in the place, fromunder Platon’s nose, and Platon--wretched man--was done for. Now ifPeter had only been able to step in at this moment with a red bouquet,his little hopes might have made gigantic strides. A woman’s gratitudeunder such circumstances would have been boundless--but it waspractically an impossibility.
“The night before the ball I met Peter, looking radiant. ‘What is it?’I ask. ‘I’ve found them, Eureka!’ ‘No! where, where?’ ‘At Ekshaisk (alittle town fifteen miles off) there’s a rich old merchant, who keepsa lot of canaries, has no children, and he and his wife are devoted toflowers. He’s got some camellias.’ ‘And what if he won’t let you havethem?’ ‘I’ll go on my knees and implore till I get them. I won’t goaway.’ ‘When shall you start?’ ‘Tomorrow morning at five o’clock.’ ‘Goon,’ I said, ‘and good luck to you.’
“I was glad for the poor fellow, and went home. But an idea got hold ofme somehow. I don’t know how. It was nearly two in the morning. I rangthe bell and ordered the coachman to be waked up and sent to me. Hecame. I gave him a tip of fifteen roubles, and told him to get thecarriage ready at once. In half an hour it was at the door. I got in andoff we went.
“By five I drew up at the Ekshaisky inn. I waited there till dawn, andsoon after six I was off, and at the old merchant Trepalaf’s.
“‘Camellias!’ I said, ‘father, save me, save me, let me have somecamellias!’ He was a tall, grey old man--a terrible-looking oldgentleman. ‘Not a bit of it,’ he says. ‘I won’t.’ Down I went on myknees. ‘Don’t say so, don’t--think what you’re doing!’ I cried; ‘it’s amatter of life and death!’ ‘If that’s the case, take them,’ says he.So up I get, and cut such a bouquet of red camellias! He had a wholegreenhouse full of them--lovely ones. The old fellow sighs. I pull out ahundred roubles. ‘No, no!’ says he, ‘don’t insult me that way.’ ‘Oh, ifthat’s the case, give it to the village hospital,’ I say. ‘Ah,’ he says,‘that’s quite a different matter; that’s good of you and generous. I’llpay it in there for you with pleasure.’ I liked that old fellow, Russianto the core, _de la vraie souche_. I went home in raptures, but tookanother road in order to avoid Peter. Immediately on arriving I sent upthe bouquet for Anfisa to see when she awoke.
“You may imagine her ecstasy, her gratitude. The wretched Platon, whohad almost died since yesterday of the reproaches showered upon him,wept on my shoulder. Of course poor Peter had no chance after this.
“I thought he would cut my throat at first, and went about armed readyto meet him. But he took it differently; he fainted, and had brain feverand convulsions. A month after, when he had hardly recovered, he wentoff to the Crimea, and there he was shot.
“I assure you this business left me no peace for many a long year. Whydid I do it? I was not in love with her myself; I’m afraid it was simplymischief--pure ‘cussedness’ on my part.
“If I hadn’t seized that bouquet from under his nose he might have beenalive now, and a happy man. He might have been successful in life, andnever have gone to fight the Turks.”
Totski ended his tale with the same dignity that had characterized itscommencement.
Nastasia Philipovna’s eyes were flashing in a most unmistakable way,now; and her lips were all a-quiver by the time Totski finished hisstory.
All present watched both of them with curiosity.
“You were right, Totski,” said Nastasia, “it is a dull game and a stupidone. I’ll just tell my story, as I promised, and then we’ll play cards.”
“Yes, but let’s have the story first!” cried the general.
“Prince,” said Nastasia Philipovna, unexpectedly turning to Muishkin,“here are my old friends, Totski and General Epanchin, who wish to marryme off. Tell me what you think. Shall I marry or not? As you decide, soshall it be.”
Totski grew white as a sheet. The general was struck dumb. All presentstarted and listened intently. Gania sat rooted to his chair.
“Marry whom?” asked the prince, faintly.
“Gavrila Ardalionovitch Ivolgin,” said Nastasia, firmly and evenly.
There were a few seconds of dead silence.
The prince tried to speak, but could not form his words; a great weightseemed to lie upon his breast and suffocate him.
“N-no! don’t marry him!” he whispered at last, drawing his breath withan effort.
“So be it, then. Gavrila Ardalionovitch,” she spoke solemnly andforcibly, “you hear the prince’s decision? Take it as my decision; andlet that be the end of the matter for good and all.”
“Nastasia Philipovna!” cried Totski, in a quaking voice.
“Nastasia Philipovna!” said the general, in persuasive but agitatedtones.
Everyone in the room fidgeted in their places, and waited to see whatwas coming next.
“Well, gentlemen!” she continued, gazing around in apparentastonishment; “what do you all look so alarmed about? Why are you soupset?”
“But--recollect, Nastasia Philipovna,” stammered Totski, “you gave apromise, quite a free one, and--and you might have spared us this. I amconfused and bewildered, I know; but, in a word, at such a moment, andbefore company, and all so-so-irregular, finishing off a game with aserious matter like this, a matter of honour, and of heart, and--”
“I don’t follow you, Afanasy Ivanovitch; you are losing your head. Inthe first place, what do you mean by ‘before company’? Isn’t the companygood enough for you? And what’s all that about ‘a game’? I wished totell my little story, and I told it! Don’t you like it? You heard whatI said to the prince? ‘As you decide, so it shall be!’ If he had said‘yes,’ I should have given my consent! But he said ‘no,’ so I refused.Here was my whole life hanging on his one word! Surely I was seriousenough?”
“The prince! What on earth has the prince got to do with it? Who thedeuce is the prince?” cried the general, who could conceal his wrath nolonger.
“The prince has this to do with it--that I see in him for the firsttime in all my life, a man endowed with real truthfulness of spirit, andI trust him. He trusted me at first sight, and I trust him!”
“It only remains for me, then, to thank Nastasia Philipovna for thegreat delicacy with which she has treated me,” said Gania, as pale asdeath, and with quivering lips. “That is my plain duty, of course; butthe prince--what has he to do in the matter?”
“I see what you are driving at,” said Nastasia Philipovna. “You implythat the prince is after the seventy-five thousand roubles--I quiteunderstand you. Mr. Totski, I forgot to say, ‘Take your seventy-fivethousand roubles’--I don’t want them. I let you go free for nothing--takeyour freedom! You must need it. Nine years and three months’ captivityis enough for anybody. Tomorrow I shall start afresh--today I am a freeagent for the first time in my life.
“General, you must take your pearls back, too--give them to yourwife--here they are! Tomorrow I shall leave this flat altogether, andthen there’ll be no more of these pleasant little social gatherings,ladies and gentlemen.”
So saying, she scornfully rose from her seat as though to depart.
“Nastasia Philipovna! Nastasia Philipovna!”
The words burst involuntarily from every mouth. All present started upin bewildered excitement; all surrounded her; all had listened uneasilyto her wild, disconnected sentences. All felt that something hadhappened, something had gone very far wrong indeed, but no one couldmake head or tail of the matter.
At this moment there was a furious ri
ng at the bell, and a great knockat the door--exactly similar to the one which had startled the companyat Gania’s house in the afternoon.
“Ah, ah! here’s the climax at last, at half-past twelve!” cried NastasiaPhilipovna. “Sit down, gentlemen, I beg you. Something is about tohappen.”
So saying, she reseated herself; a strange smile played on her lips. Shesat quite still, but watched the door in a fever of impatience.
“Rogojin and his hundred thousand roubles, no doubt of it,” mutteredPtitsin to himself.
XV.
Katia, the maid-servant, made her appearance, terribly frightened.
“Goodness knows what it means, ma’am,” she said. “There is a wholecollection of men come--all tipsy--and want to see you. They say that‘it’s Rogojin, and she knows all about it.’”
“It’s all right, Katia, let them all in at once.”
“Surely not _all_, ma’am? They seem so disorderly--it’s dreadful to seethem.”
“Yes _all_, Katia, all--every one of them. Let them in, or they’ll comein whether you like or no. Listen! what a noise they are making! Perhapsyou are offended,