Page 319 - the-idiot

came up softly behind, raised his eyes to heaven, crossed
himself, and saying earnestly—‘God forgive me, for Christ’s
sake!’ he cut his friend’s throat like a sheep, and took the
watch.’
Rogojin roared with laughter. He laughed as though he
were in a sort of fit. It was strange to see him laughing so af-
ter the sombre mood he had been in just before.
‘Oh, I like that! That beats anything!’ he cried convul-
sively, panting for breath. ‘One is an absolute unbeliever;
the other is such a thorough—going believer that he mur-
ders his friend to the tune of a prayer! Oh, prince, prince,
that’s too good for anything! You can’t have invented it. It’s
the best thing I’ve heard!’
‘Next morning I went out for a stroll through the town,’
continued the prince, so soon as Rogojin was a little quieter,
though his laughter still burst out at intervals, ‘and soon
observed a drunken-looking soldier staggering about the
pavement. He came up to me and said, ‘Buy my silver cross,
sir! You shall have it for fourpence—it’s real silver.’ I looked,
and there he held a cross, just taken off his own neck, evi-
dently, a large tin one, made after the Byzantine pattern. I
fished out fourpence, and put his cross on my own neck,
and I could see by his face that he was as pleased as he could
be at the thought that he had succeeded in cheating a fool-
ish gentleman, and away he went to drink the value of his
cross. At that time everything that I saw made a tremen-
dous impression upon me. I had understood nothing about
Russia before, and had only vague and fantastic memories
of it. So I thought, ‘I will wait awhile before I condemn this

1 The Idiot