Page 225 - the-idiot

prince? ‘As you decide, so it shall be!’ If he had said ‘yes,’ I
should have given my consent! But he said ‘no,’ so I refused.
Here was my whole life hanging on his one word! Surely I
was serious enough?’
‘The prince! What on earth has the prince got to do with
it? Who the deuce is the prince?’ cried the general, who
could conceal his wrath no longer.
‘The prince has this to do with it—that I see in him. for
the first time in all my life, a man endowed with real truth-
fulness of spirit, and I trust him. He trusted me at first sight,
and I trust him!’
‘It only remains for me, then, to thank Nastasia Phili-
povna for the great delicacy with which she has treated me,’
said Gania, as pale as death, and with quivering lips. ‘That
is my plain duty, of course; but the prince—what has he to
do in the matter?’
‘I see what you are driving at,’ said Nastasia Philipovna.
‘You imply that the prince is after the seventy-five thou-
sand roubles —I quite understand you. Mr. Totski, I forgot
to say, ‘Take your seventy-five thousand roubles’—I don’t
want them. I let you go free for nothing take your freedom!
You must need it. Nine years and three months’ captivity is
enough for anybody. Tomorrow I shall start afresh—today I
am a free agent for the first time in my life.
‘General, you must take your pearls back, too—give them
to your wife—here they are! Tomorrow I shall leave this flat
altogether, and then there’ll be no more of these pleasant
little social gatherings, ladies and gentlemen.’
So saying, she scornfully rose from her seat as though

The Idiot