Page 196 - the-idiot

our dear Russia. How it has happened I never can under-
stand. There used to be a certain amount of solidity in all
things, but now what happens? Everything is exposed to the
public gaze, veils are thrown back, every wound is probed
by careless fingers. We are for ever present at an orgy of
scandalous revelations. Parents blush when they remem-
ber their old-fashioned morality. At Moscow lately a father
was heard urging his son to stop at nothing—at nothing,
mind you!—to get money! The press seized upon the story,
of course, and now it is public property. Look at my father,
the general! See what he is, and yet, I assure you, he is an
honest man! Only ... he drinks too much, and his morals
are not all we could desire. Yes, that’s true! I pity him, to tell
the truth, but I dare not say so, because everybody would
laugh at me—but I do pity him! And who are the really clev-
er men, after all? Moneygrubbers, every one of them, from
the first to the last. Hippolyte finds excuses for money-lend-
ing, and says it is a necessity. He talks about the economic
movement, and the ebb and flow of capital; the devil knows
what he means. It makes me angry to hear him talk so, but
he is soured by his troubles. Just imagine-the general keeps
his mother-but she lends him money! She lends it for a week
or ten days at very high interest! Isn’t it disgusting? And
then, you would hardly believe it, but my mother— Nina
Alexandrovna—helps Hippolyte in all sorts of ways, sends
him money and clothes. She even goes as far as helping the
children, through Hippolyte, because their mother cares
nothing about them, and Varia does the same.’
‘Well, just now you said there were no honest nor good

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