Page 277 - the-idiot

absolute frankness.
‘He never drinks much in the morning; if you have come
to talk business with him, do it now. It is the best time. He
sometimes comes back drunk in the evening; but just now
he passes the greater part of the evening in tears, and reads
passages of Holy Scripture aloud, because our mother died
five weeks ago.’
‘No doubt he ran off because he did not know what to
say to you,’ said the youth on the divan. ‘I bet he is trying to
cheat you, and is thinking how best to do it.’
Just then Lebedeff returned, having put on his coat.
‘Five weeks!’ said he, wiping his eyes. ‘Only five weeks!
Poor orphans!’
‘But why wear a coat in holes,’ asked the girl, ‘when your
new one is hanging behind the door? Did you not see it?’
‘Hold your tongue, dragon-fly!’ he scolded. ‘What a
plague you are!’ He stamped his foot irritably, but she only
laughed, and answered:
‘Are you trying to frighten me? I am not Tania, you
know, and I don’t intend to run away. Look, you are waking
Lubotchka, and she will have convulsions again. Why do
you shout like that?’
‘Well, well! I won’t again,’ said the master of the house
his anxiety getting the better of his temper. He went up to
his daughter, and looked at the child in her arms, anxious-
ly making the sign of the cross over her three times. ‘God
bless her! God bless her!’ he cried with emotion. ‘This little
creature is my daughter Luboff,’ addressing the prince. ‘My
wife, Helena, died— at her birth; and this is my big daugh-

The Idiot