Page 270 - the-idiot

prince went to Moscow, as we know. Gania and his mother
went to live with Varia and Ptitsin immediately after the
latter’s wedding, while the general was housed in a debtor’s
prison by reason of certain IOU’s given to the captain’s wid-
ow under the impression that they would never be formally
used against him. This unkind action much surprised poor
Ardalion Alexandrovitch, the victim, as he called himself,
of an ‘unbounded trust in the nobility of the human heart.’
When he signed those notes of hand,he never dreamt
that they would be a source of future trouble. The event
showed that he was mistaken. ‘Trust in anyone after this!
Have the least confidence in man or woman!’ he cried in
bitter tones, as he sat with his new friends in prison, and
recounted to them his favourite stories of the siege of Kars,
and the resuscitated soldier. On the whole, he accommodat-
ed himself very well to his new position. Ptitsin and Varia
declared that he was in the right place, and Gania was of the
same opinion. The only person who deplored his fate was
poor Nina Alexandrovna, who wept bitter tears over him,
to the great surprise of her household, and, though always
in feeble health, made a point of going to see him as often
as possible.
Since the general’s ‘mishap,’ as Colia called it, and the
marriage of his sister, the boy had quietly possessed himself
of far more freedom. His relations saw little of him, for he
rarely slept at home. He made many new friends; and was
moreover, a frequent visitor at the debtor’s prison, to which
he invariably accompanied his mother. Varia, who used to
be always correcting him, never spoke to him now on the