Page 180 - the-idiot

You came to make friends with me again just now, and you
said, ‘I will kiss your hand, if you like,’ just as a child would
have said it. And then, all at once you are talking of this
mad project—of these seventy-five thousand roubles! It all
seems so absurd and impossible.’
‘Well, what conclusion have you reached?’
‘That you are rushing madly into the undertaking, and
that you would do well to think it over again. It is more than
possible that Varvara Ardalionovna is right.’
‘Ah! now you begin to moralize! I know that I am only a
child, very well,’ replied Gania impatiently. ‘That is proved
by my having this conversation with you. It is not for money
only, prince, that I am rushing into this affair,’ he contin-
ued, hardly master of his words, so closely had his vanity
been touched. ‘If I reckoned on that I should certainly be
deceived, for I am still too weak in mind and character. I
am obeying a passion, an impulse perhaps, because I have
but one aim, one that overmasters all else. You imagine
that once I am in possession of these seventy-five thousand
roubles, I shall rush to buy a carriage... No, I shall go on
wearing the old overcoat I have worn for three years, and
I shall give up my club. I shall follow the example of men
who have made their fortunes. When Ptitsin was seventeen
he slept in the street, he sold pen-knives, and began with a
copeck; now he has sixty thousand roubles, but to get them,
what has he not done? Well, I shall be spared such a hard be-
ginning, and shall start with a little capital. In fifteen years
people will say, ‘Look, that’s Ivolgin, the king of the Jews!’
You say that I have no originality. Now mark this, prince—

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