real surprise, and this time hisexpression of face had no mockery in it whatever.
“What are you looking so surprised about, my friend?” asked Mrs.Epanchin, suddenly. “Did you suppose he was stupider than yourself, andwas incapable of forming his own opinions, or what?”
“No! Oh no! Not at all!” said Evgenie. “But--how is it, prince, thatyou--(excuse the question, will you?)--if you are capable of observingand seeing things as you evidently do, how is it that you saw nothingdistorted or perverted in that claim upon your property, which youacknowledged a day or two since; and which was full of arguments foundedupon the most distorted views of right and wrong?”
“I’ll tell you what, my friend,” cried Mrs. Epanchin, of a sudden, “hereare we all sitting here and imagining we are very clever, and perhapslaughing at the prince, some of us, and meanwhile he has received aletter this very day in which that same claimant renounces his claim,and begs the prince’s pardon. There! _we_ don’t often get that sort ofletter; and yet we are not ashamed to walk with our noses in the airbefore him.”
“And Hippolyte has come down here to stay,” said Colia, suddenly.
“What! has he arrived?” said the prince, starting up.
“Yes, I brought him down from town just after you had left the house.”
“There now! It’s just like him,” cried Lizabetha Prokofievna, boilingover once more, and entirely oblivious of the fact that she hadjust taken the prince’s part. “I dare swear that you went up to townyesterday on purpose to get the little wretch to do you the great honourof coming to stay at your house. You did go up to town, you know youdid--you said so yourself! Now then, did you, or did you not, go down onyour knees and beg him to come, confess!”
“No, he didn’t, for I saw it all myself,” said Colia. “On the contrary,Hippolyte kissed his hand twice and thanked him; and all the prince saidwas that he thought Hippolyte might feel better here in the country!”
“Don’t, Colia,--what is the use of saying all that?” cried the prince,rising and taking his hat.
“Where are you going to now?” cried Mrs. Epanchin.
“Never mind about him now, prince,” said Colia. “He is all right andtaking a nap after the journey. He is very happy to be here; but I thinkperhaps it would be better if you let him alone for today,--he is verysensitive now that he is so ill--and he might be embarrassed if you showhim too much attention at first. He is decidedly better today, and sayshe has not felt so well for the last six months, and has coughed muchless, too.”
The prince observed that Aglaya came out of her corner and approachedthe table at this point.
He did not dare look at her, but he was conscious, to the very tips ofhis fingers, that she was gazing at him, perhaps angrily; and that shehad probably flushed up with a look of fiery indignation in her blackeyes.
“It seems to me, Mr. Colia, that you were very foolish to bring youryoung friend down--if he is the same consumptive boy who wept soprofusely, and invited us all to his own funeral,” remarked EvgeniePavlovitch. “He talked so eloquently about the blank wall outside hisbedroom window, that I’m sure he will never support life here withoutit.”
“I think so too,” said Mrs. Epanchin; “he will quarrel with you, and beoff,” and she drew her workbox towards her with an air of dignity, quiteoblivious of the fact that the family was about to start for a walk inthe park.
“Yes, I remember he boasted about the blank wall in an extraordinaryway,” continued Evgenie, “and I feel that without that blank wallhe will never be able to die eloquently; and he does so long to dieeloquently!”
“Oh, you must forgive him the blank wall,” said the prince, quietly. “Hehas come down to see a few trees now, poor fellow.”
“Oh, I forgive him with all my heart; you may tell him so if you like,” laughed Evgenie.
“I don’t think you should take it quite like that,” said the prince,quietly, and without removing his eyes from the carpet. “I think it ismore a case of his forgiving you.”
“Forgiving me! why so? What have I done to need his forgiveness?”
“If you don’t understand, then--but of course, you do understand.He wished--he wished to bless you all round and to have yourblessing--before he died--that’s all.”
“My dear prince,” began Prince S., hurriedly, exchanging glances withsome of those present, “you will not easily find heaven on earth, andyet you seem to expect to. Heaven is a difficult thing to find anywhere,prince; far more difficult than appears to that good heart of yours.Better stop this conversation, or we shall all be growing quitedisturbed in our minds, and--”
“Let’s go and hear the band, then,” said Lizabetha Prokofievna, angrilyrising from her place.
The rest of the company followed her example.
II.
The prince suddenly approached Evgenie Pavlovitch.
“Evgenie Pavlovitch,” he said, with strange excitement and seizing thelatter’s hand in his own, “be assured that I esteem you as a generousand honourable man, in spite of everything. Be assured of that.”
Evgenie Pavlovitch fell back a step in astonishment. For one moment itwas all he could do to restrain himself from bursting out laughing; but,looking closer, he observed that the prince did not seem to be quitehimself; at all events, he was in a very curious state.
“I wouldn’t mind betting, prince,” he cried, “that you did not in theleast mean to say that, and very likely you meant to address someoneelse altogether. What is it? Are you feeling unwell or anything?”
“Very likely, extremely likely, and you must be a very close observer todetect the fact that perhaps I did not intend to come up to _you_ at all.”
So saying he smiled strangely; but suddenly and excitedly he beganagain:
“Don’t remind me of what I have done or said. Don’t! I am very muchashamed of myself, I--”
“Why, what have you done? I don’t understand you.”
“I see you are ashamed of me, Evgenie Pavlovitch; you are blushing forme; that’s a sign of a good heart. Don’t be afraid; I shall go awaydirectly.”
“What’s the matter with him? Do his fits begin like that?” saidLizabetha Prokofievna, in a high state of alarm, addressing Colia.
“No, no, Lizabetha Prokofievna, take no notice of me. I am not going tohave a fit. I will go away directly; but I know I am afflicted. I wastwenty-four years an invalid, you see--the first twenty-four years of mylife--so take all I do and say as the sayings and actions of aninvalid. I’m going away directly, I really am--don’t be afraid. I amnot blushing, for I don’t think I need blush about it, need I? But I seethat I am out of place in society--society is better without me. It’snot vanity, I assure you. I have thought over it all these last threedays, and I have made up my mind that I ought to unbosom myself candidlybefore you at the first opportunity. There are certain things, certaingreat ideas, which I must not so much as approach, as Prince S. hasjust reminded me, or I shall make you all laugh. I have no sense ofproportion, I know; my words and gestures do not express my ideas--theyare a humiliation and abasement of the ideas, and therefore, I have noright--and I am too sensitive. Still, I believe I am beloved in thishousehold, and esteemed far more than I deserve. But I can’t helpknowing that after twenty-four years of illness there must be some traceleft, so that it is impossible for people to refrain from laughing at mesometimes; don’t you think so?”
He seemed to pause for a reply, for some verdict, as it were, and lookedhumbly around him.
All present stood rooted to the earth with amazement at this unexpectedand apparently uncalled-for outbreak; but the poor prince’s painful andrambling speech gave rise to a strange episode.
“Why do you say all this here?” cried Aglaya, suddenly. “Why do you talklike this to _them?_”
She appeared to be in the last stages of wrath and irritation; her eyesflashed. The prince stood dumbly and blindly before her, and suddenlygrew pale.
“There is not one of them all who is worthy of these words of y
ours,” continued Aglaya. “Not one of them is worth your little finger, not oneof them has heart or head to compare with yours! You are more honestthan all, and better, nobler, kinder, wiser than all. There are somehere who are unworthy to bend and pick up the handkerchief you have justdropped. Why do you humiliate yourself like this, and place yourselflower than these people? Why do you debase yourself before them? Whyhave you no pride?”
“My God! Who would ever have believed this?” cried Mrs. Epanchin,wringing her hands.
“Hurrah for the ‘poor knight’!” cried Colia.
“Be quiet! How dare they laugh at me in your house?” said Aglaya,turning sharply on her mother in that hysterical frame of mind thatrides recklessly over every obstacle and plunges blindly throughproprieties. “Why does everyone, everyone worry and torment me? Why havethey all been bullying me these three days about you, prince? I willnot marry you--never, and under no circumstances! Know that once and forall; as if anyone could marry an absurd creature like you! Just look inthe glass and see what you look like, this very moment! Why, _why_ do theytorment me and say I am going to marry you? You must know