Page 238 - the-idiot

‘Here’s a pretty business!’ cried the general. ‘However, it
might have been expected of him.’
The prince continued to regard Nastasia with a sorrow-
ful, but intent and piercing, gaze.
‘Here’s another alternative for me,’ said Nastasia, turn-
ing once more to the actress; ‘and he does it out of pure
kindness of heart. I know him. I’ve found a benefactor. Per-
haps, though, what they say about him may be true—that
he’s an—we know what. And what shall you live on, if you
are really so madly in love with Rogojin’s mistress, that you
are ready to marry her —eh?’
‘I take you as a good, honest woman, Nastasia Philipov-
na—not as Rogojin’s mistress.’
‘Who? I?—good and honest?’
‘Yes, you.’
‘Oh, you get those ideas out of novels, you know. Times
are changed now, dear prince; the world sees things as they
really are. That’s all nonsense. Besides, how can you marry?
You need a nurse, not a wife.’
The prince rose and began to speak in a trembling, timid
tone, but with the air of a man absolutely sure of the truth
of his words.
‘I know nothing, Nastasia Philipovna. I have seen noth-
ing. You are right so far; but I consider that you would be
honouring me, and not I you. I am a nobody. You have suf-
fered, you have passed through hell and emerged pure, and
that is very much. Why do you shame yourself by desiring
to go with Rogojin? You are delirious. You have returned to
Mr. Totski his seventy-five thousand roubles, and declared