more becauseyou were a sickly child, stammering in your speech, and almostdeformed--for it is known that all his life Nicolai Andreevitch had apartiality for unfortunates of every kind, especially children. In myopinion this is most important. I may add that I discovered yet anotherfact, the last on which I employed my detective powers. Seeing how fondPavlicheff was of you,--it was thanks to him you went to school, andalso had the advantage of special teachers--his relations and servantsgrew to believe that you were his son, and that your father had beenbetrayed by his wife. I may point out that this idea was only accreditedgenerally during the last years of Pavlicheff’s life, when hisnext-of-kin were trembling about the succession, when the earlier storywas quite forgotten, and when all opportunity for discovering the truthhad seemingly passed away. No doubt you, Mr. Burdovsky, heard thisconjecture, and did not hesitate to accept it as true. I have had thehonour of making your mother’s acquaintance, and I find that she knowsall about these reports. What she does not know is that you, her son,should have listened to them so complaisantly. I found your respectedmother at Pskoff, ill and in deep poverty, as she has been ever sincethe death of your benefactor. She told me with tears of gratitude howyou had supported her; she expects much of you, and believes ferventlyin your future success...”
“Oh, this is unbearable!” said Lebedeff’s nephew impatiently. “What isthe good of all this romancing?”
“It is revolting and unseemly!” cried Hippolyte, jumping up in a fury.
Burdovsky alone sat silent and motionless.
“What is the good of it?” repeated Gavrila Ardalionovitch, withpretended surprise. “Well, firstly, because now perhaps Mr. Burdovskyis quite convinced that Mr. Pavlicheff’s love for him came simply fromgenerosity of soul, and not from paternal duty. It was most necessaryto impress this fact upon his mind, considering that he approved of thearticle written by Mr. Keller. I speak thus because I look on you, Mr.Burdovsky, as an honourable man. Secondly, it appears that there was nointention of cheating in this case, even on the part of Tchebaroff. Iwish to say this quite plainly, because the prince hinted a whileago that I too thought it an attempt at robbery and extortion. On thecontrary, everyone has been quite sincere in the matter, and althoughTchebaroff may be somewhat of a rogue, in this business he has actedsimply as any sharp lawyer would do under the circumstances. He lookedat it as a case that might bring him in a lot of money, and he did notcalculate badly; because on the one hand he speculated on the generosityof the prince, and his gratitude to the late Mr. Pavlicheff, and onthe other to his chivalrous ideas as to the obligations of honour andconscience. As to Mr. Burdovsky, allowing for his principles, we mayacknowledge that he engaged in the business with very little personalaim in view. At the instigation of Tchebaroff and his other friends,he decided to make the attempt in the service of truth, progress, andhumanity. In short, the conclusion may be drawn that, in spite of allappearances, Mr. Burdovsky is a man of irreproachable character, andthus the prince can all the more readily offer him his friendship, andthe assistance of which he spoke just now...”
“Hush! hush! Gavrila Ardalionovitch!” cried Muishkin in dismay, but itwas too late.
“I said, and I have repeated it over and over again,” shouted Burdovskyfuriously, “that I did not want the money. I will not take it... why...Iwill not... I am going away!”
He was rushing hurriedly from the terrace, when Lebedeff’s nephew seizedhis arms, and said something to him in a low voice. Burdovsky turnedquickly, and drawing an addressed but unsealed envelope from his pocket,he threw it down on a little table beside the prince.
“There’s the money!... How dare you?... The money!”
“Those are the two hundred and fifty roubles you dared to send him as acharity, by the hands of Tchebaroff,” explained Doktorenko.
“The article in the newspaper put it at fifty!” cried Colia.
“I beg your pardon,” said the prince, going up to Burdovsky. “I havedone you a great wrong, but I did not send you that money as a charity,believe me. And now I am again to blame. I offended you just now.” (Theprince was much distressed; he seemed worn out with fatigue, and spokealmost incoherently.) “I spoke of swindling... but I did not apply thatto you. I was deceived .... I said you were... afflicted... like me...But you are not like me... you give lessons... you support your mother.I said you had dishonoured your mother, but you love her. She says soherself... I did not know... Gavrila Ardalionovitch did not tell methat... Forgive me! I dared to offer you ten thousand roubles, but I waswrong. I ought to have done it differently, and now... there is no wayof doing it, for you despise me...”
“I declare, this is a lunatic asylum!” cried Lizabetha Prokofievna.
“Of course it is a lunatic asylum!” repeated Aglaya sharply, but herwords were overpowered by other voices. Everybody was talking loudly,making remarks and comments; some discussed the affair gravely, otherslaughed. Ivan Fedorovitch Epanchin was extremely indignant. He stoodwaiting for his wife with an air of offended dignity. Lebedeff’s nephewtook up the word again.
“Well, prince, to do you justice, you certainly know how to make themost of your--let us call it infirmity, for the sake of politeness; youhave set about offering your money and friendship in such a way thatno self-respecting man could possibly accept them. This is an excess ofingenuousness or of malice--you ought to know better than anyone whichword best fits the case.”
“Allow me, gentlemen,” said Gavrila Ardalionovitch, who had justexamined the contents of the envelope, “there are only a hundred roubleshere, not two hundred and fifty. I point this out, prince, to preventmisunderstanding.”
“Never mind, never mind,” said the prince, signing to him to keep quiet.
“But we do mind,” said Lebedeff’s nephew vehemently. “Prince, your‘never mind’ is an insult to us. We have nothing to hide; our actionscan bear daylight. It is true that there are only a hundred roublesinstead of two hundred and fifty, but it is all the same.”
“Why, no, it is hardly the same,” remarked Gavrila Ardalionovitch, withan air of ingenuous surprise.
“Don’t interrupt, we are not such fools as you think, Mr. Lawyer,” criedLebedeff’s nephew angrily. “Of course there is a difference betweena hundred roubles and two hundred and fifty, but in this case theprinciple is the main point, and that a hundred and fifty roublesare missing is only a side issue. The point to be emphasized is thatBurdovsky will not accept your highness’s charity; he flings it back inyour face, and it scarcely matters if there are a hundred roubles or twohundred and fifty. Burdovsky has refused ten thousand roubles; youheard him. He would not have returned even a hundred roubles if he wasdishonest! The hundred and fifty roubles were paid to Tchebaroff forhis travelling expenses. You may jeer at our stupidity and at ourinexperience in business matters; you have done all you could already tomake us look ridiculous; but do not dare to call us dishonest. Thefour of us will club together every day to repay the hundred and fiftyroubles to the prince, if we have to pay it in instalments of a roubleat a time, but we will repay it, with interest. Burdovsky is poor, hehas no millions. After his journey to see the prince Tchebaroff sent inhis bill. We counted on winning... Who would not have done the same insuch a case?”
“Who indeed?” exclaimed Prince S.
“I shall certainly go mad, if I stay here!” cried Lizabetha Prokofievna.
“It reminds me,” said Evgenie Pavlovitch, laughing, “of the famous pleaof a certain lawyer who lately defended a man for murdering six peoplein order to rob them. He excused his client on the score of poverty.‘It is quite natural,’ he said in conclusion, ‘considering the stateof misery he was in, that he should have thought of murdering these sixpeople; which of you, gentlemen, would not have done the same in hisplace?’”
“Enough,” cried Lizabetha Prokofievna abruptly, trembling with anger,“we have had enough of this balderdash!”
In a state of terrible excitement she threw back her head, with flamingeyes, casting looks of contempt and defiance up
on the whole company,in which she could no longer distinguish friend from foe. She hadrestrained herself so long that she felt forced to vent her rage onsomebody. Those who knew Lizabetha Prokofievna saw at once how it waswith her. “She flies into these rages sometimes,” said Ivan Fedorovitchto Prince S. the next day, “but she is not often so violent as she wasyesterday; it does not happen more than once in three years.”
“Be quiet, Ivan Fedorovitch! Leave me alone!” cried Mrs. Epanchin. “Whydo you offer me your arm now? You had not sense enough to take me awaybefore. You are my husband, you are a father, it was your duty to dragme away by force, if in my folly I refused to obey you and go quietly.You might at least have thought of your daughters. We can find ourway out now without your help. Here is shame enough for a year! Waita moment ‘till I thank the prince! Thank you, prince, for theentertainment you have given us! It was most amusing to hear these youngmen... It is vile, vile! A chaos, a scandal, worse than a nightmare!Is it possible that there can be many such people on earth? Be