Page 310 - the-idiot

and would have, become just such a man as your father,
and that very quickly, too. You’d have settled down in this
house of yours with some silent and obedient wife. You
would have spoken rarely, trusted no one, heeded no one,
and thought of nothing but making money.’
‘Laugh away! She said exactly the same, almost word for
word, when she saw my father’s portrait. It’s remarkable
how entirely you and she are at one now-a-days.’
‘What, has she been here?’ asked the prince with curios-
ity.
‘Yes! She looked long at the portrait and asked all about
my father. ‘You’d be just such another,’ she said at last, and
laughed. ‘You have such strong passions, Parfen,’ she said,
‘that they’d have taken you to Siberia in no time if you had
not, luckily, intelligence as well. For you have a good deal
of intelligence.’ (She said this—believe it or not. The first
time I ever heard anything of that sort from her.) ‘You’d
soon have thrown up all this rowdyism that you indulge in
now, and you’d have settled down to quiet, steady money-
making, because you have little education; and here you’d
have stayed just like your father before you. And you’d have
loved your money so that you’d amass not two million, like
him, but ten million; and you’d have died of hunger on your
money bags to finish up with, for you carry everything to
extremes.’ There, that’s exactly word for word as she said it
to me. She never talked to me like that before. She always
talks nonsense and laughs when she’s with me. We went all
over this old house together. ‘I shall change all this,’ I said,
‘or else I’ll buy a new house for the wedding.’ ‘No, no!’ she

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