Page 167 - the-idiot

mind saying it to everyone— I’d buy him off for a hundred
roubles, any day pfu! Give him a thousand, or three if he
likes, poor devil’ and he’d cut and run the day before his
wedding, and leave his bride to me! Wouldn’t you, Gania,
you blackguard? You’d take three thousand, wouldn’t you?
Here’s the money! Look, I’ve come on purpose to pay you
off and get your receipt, formally. I said I’d buy you up, and
so I will.’
‘Get out of this, you drunken beast!’ cried Gania, who
was red and white by turns.
Rogojin’s troop, who were only waiting for an excuse, set
up a howl at this. Lebedeff stepped forward and whispered
something in Parfen’s ear.
‘You’re right, clerk,’ said the latter, ‘you’re right, tipsy spir-
it—you’re right!—Nastasia Philipovna,’ he added, looking
at her like some lunatic, harmless generally, but suddenly
wound up to a pitch of audacity, ‘here are eighteen thou-
sand roubles, and—and you shall have more—.’ Here he
threw a packet of banknotes tied up in white paper, on the
table before her, not daring to say all he wished to say.
‘No-no-no!’ muttered Lebedeff, clutching at his arm. He
was clearly aghast at the largeness of the sum, and thought
a far smaller amount should have been tried first.
‘No, you fool—you don’t know whom you are dealing
with—and it appears I am a fool, too!’ said Parfen, trem-
bling beneath the flashing glance of Nastasia. ‘Oh, curse it
all! What a fool I was to listen to you!’ he added, with pro-
found melancholy.
Nastasia Philipovna, observing his woe-begone expres-

1 The Idiot