wonderfullyclever solicitor, and if he really tells you this, I think you may bepretty sure that he is right. It so happens, luckily, that I know hishandwriting, for I have lately had business with him. If you would allowme to see it, I should perhaps be able to tell you.”
The prince held out the letter silently, but with a shaking hand.
“What, what?” said the general, much agitated.
“What’s all this? Is he really heir to anything?”
All present concentrated their attention upon Ptitsin, reading theprince’s letter. The general curiosity had received a new fillip.Ferdishenko could not sit still. Rogojin fixed his eyes first on theprince, and then on Ptitsin, and then back again; he was extremelyagitated. Lebedeff could not stand it. He crept up and read overPtitsin’s shoulder, with the air of a naughty boy who expects a box onthe ear every moment for his indiscretion.
XVI.
“It’s good business,” said Ptitsin, at last, folding the letter andhanding it back to the prince. “You will receive, without the slightesttrouble, by the last will and testament of your aunt, a very large sumof money indeed.”
“Impossible!” cried the general, starting up as if he had been shot.
Ptitsin explained, for the benefit of the company, that the prince’saunt had died five months since. He had never known her, but she was hismother’s own sister, the daughter of a Moscow merchant, one Paparchin,who had died a bankrupt. But the elder brother of this same Paparchin,had been an eminent and very rich merchant. A year since it had sohappened that his only two sons had both died within the same month.This sad event had so affected the old man that he, too, had died veryshortly after. He was a widower, and had no relations left, exceptingthe prince’s aunt, a poor woman living on charity, who was herself atthe point of death from dropsy; but who had time, before she died,to set Salaskin to work to find her nephew, and to make her willbequeathing her newly-acquired fortune to him.
It appeared that neither the prince, nor the doctor with whom he livedin Switzerland, had thought of waiting for further communications;but the prince had started straight away with Salaskin’s letter in hispocket.
“One thing I may tell you, for certain,” concluded Ptitsin, addressingthe prince, “that there is no question about the authenticity of thismatter. Anything that Salaskin writes you as regards your unquestionableright to this inheritance, you may look upon as so much money in yourpocket. I congratulate you, prince; you may receive a million and a halfof roubles, perhaps more; I don’t know. All I _do_ know is that Paparchinwas a very rich merchant indeed.”
“Hurrah!” cried Lebedeff, in a drunken voice. “Hurrah for the last ofthe Muishkins!”
“My goodness me! and I gave him twenty-five roubles this morning asthough he were a beggar,” blurted out the general, half senseless withamazement. “Well, I congratulate you, I congratulate you!” And thegeneral rose from his seat and solemnly embraced the prince. All cameforward with congratulations; even those of Rogojin’s party who hadretreated into the next room, now crept softly back to look on. For themoment even Nastasia Philipovna was forgotten.
But gradually the consciousness crept back into the minds of each onepresent that the prince had just made her an offer of marriage. Thesituation had, therefore, become three times as fantastic as before.
Totski sat and shrugged his shoulders, bewildered. He was the only guestleft sitting at this time; the others had thronged round the table indisorder, and were all talking at once.
It was generally agreed, afterwards, in recalling that evening, thatfrom this moment Nastasia Philipovna seemed entirely to lose her senses.She continued to sit still in her place, looking around at her guestswith a strange, bewildered expression, as though she were trying tocollect her thoughts, and could not. Then she suddenly turned to theprince, and glared at him with frowning brows; but this only lasted onemoment. Perhaps it suddenly struck her that all this was a jest, but hisface seemed to reassure her. She reflected, and smiled again, vaguely.
“So I am really a princess,” she whispered to herself, ironically,and glancing accidentally at Daria Alexeyevna’s face, she burst outlaughing.
“Ha, ha, ha!” she cried, “this is an unexpected climax, after all. Ididn’t expect this. What are you all standing up for, gentlemen? Sitdown; congratulate me and the prince! Ferdishenko, just step out andorder some more champagne, will you? Katia, Pasha,” she added suddenly,seeing the servants at the door, “come here! I’m going to be married,did you hear? To the prince. He has a million and a half of roubles; heis Prince Muishkin, and has asked me to marry him. Here, prince, comeand sit by me; and here comes the wine. Now then, ladies and gentlemen,where are your congratulations?”
“Hurrah!” cried a number of voices. A rush was made for the wine byRogojin’s followers, though, even among them, there seemed some sort ofrealization that the situation had changed. Rogojin stood and looked on,with an incredulous smile, screwing up one side of his mouth.
“Prince, my dear fellow, do remember what you are about,” said thegeneral, approaching Muishkin, and pulling him by the coat sleeve.
Nastasia Philipovna overheard the remark, and burst out laughing.
“No, no, general!” she cried. “You had better look out! I am theprincess now, you know. The prince won’t let you insult me. AfanasyIvanovitch, why don’t you congratulate me? I shall be able to sit attable with your new wife, now. Aha! you see what I gain by marryinga prince! A million and a half, and a prince, and an idiot into thebargain, they say. What better could I wish for? Life is only just aboutto commence for me in earnest. Rogojin, you are a little too late. Awaywith your paper parcel! I’m going to marry the prince; I’m richer thanyou are now.”
But Rogojin understood how things were tending, at last. Aninexpressibly painful expression came over his face. He wrung his hands;a groan made its way up from the depths of his soul.
“Surrender her, for God’s sake!” he said to the prince.
All around burst out laughing.
“What? Surrender her to _you?_” cried Daria Alexeyevna. “To a fellow whocomes and bargains for a wife like a moujik! The prince wishes to marryher, and you--”
“So do I, so do I! This moment, if I could! I’d give every farthing Ihave to do it.”
“You drunken moujik,” said Daria Alexeyevna, once more. “You ought to bekicked out of the place.”
The laughter became louder than ever.
“Do you hear, prince?” said Nastasia Philipovna. “Do you hear how thismoujik of a fellow goes on bargaining for your bride?”
“He is drunk,” said the prince, quietly, “and he loves you very much.”
“Won’t you be ashamed, afterwards, to reflect that your wife very nearlyran away with Rogojin?”
“Oh, you were raving, you were in a fever; you are still halfdelirious.”
“And won’t you be ashamed when they tell you, afterwards, that your wifelived at Totski’s expense so many years?”
“No; I shall not be ashamed of that. You did not so live by your ownwill.”
“And you’ll never reproach me with it?”
“Never.”
“Take care, don’t commit yourself for a whole lifetime.”
“Nastasia Philipovna.” said the prince, quietly, and with deep emotion,“I said before that I shall esteem your consent to be my wife as a greathonour to myself, and shall consider that it is you who will honourme, not I you, by our marriage. You laughed at these words, and othersaround us laughed as well; I heard them. Very likely I expressed myselffunnily, and I may have looked funny, but, for all that, I believe Iunderstand where honour lies, and what I said was but the literal truth.You were about to ruin yourself just now, irrevocably; you wouldnever have forgiven yourself for so doing afterwards; and yet, youare absolutely blameless. It is impossible that your life should bealtogether ruined at your age. What matter that Rogojin came bargaininghere, and that Gavrila Ardalionovitch would have deceived you if hecould? Why do you continually remind us
of these facts? I assure youonce more that very few could find it in them to act as you have actedthis day. As for your wish to go with Rogojin, that was simply the ideaof a delirious and suffering brain. You are still quite feverish; youought to be in bed, not here. You know quite well that if you had gonewith Rogojin, you would have become a washer-woman next day, rather thanstay with him. You are proud, Nastasia Philipovna, and perhaps you havereally suffered so much that you imagine yourself to be a desperatelyguilty woman. You require a great deal of petting and looking after,Nastasia Philipovna, and I will do this. I saw your portrait thismorning, and it seemed quite a familiar face to me; it seemed to me thatthe portrait-face was calling to me for help. I--I shall respect you allmy life, Nastasia Philipovna,” concluded the prince, as though suddenlyrecollecting himself, and blushing to think of the sort of companybefore whom he had said all this.
Ptitsin bowed his head and looked at the ground, overcome by a mixtureof feelings. Totski muttered to himself: “He may be an idiot, but heknows that flattery is the best road to success here.”
The prince observed Gania’s eyes