Page 344 - the-idiot

several people called to see the prince, and assembled in
the verandah. Gania was the first to arrive. He had grown
so pale and thin that the prince could hardly recognize
him. Then came Varia and Ptitsin, who were rusticating
in the neighbourhood. As to General Ivolgin, he scarcely
budged from Lebedeff’s house, and seemed to have moved
to Pavlofsk with him. Lebedeff did his best to keep Ardalion
Alexandrovitch by him, and to prevent him from invading
the prince’s quarters. He chatted with him confidentially,
so that they might have been taken for old friends. During
those three days the prince had noticed that they frequently
held long conversations; he often heard their voices raised
in argument on deep and learned subjects, which evidently
pleased Lebedeff. He seemed as if he could not do without
the general. But it was not only Ardalion Alexandrovitch
whom Lebedeff kept out of the prince’s way. Since they had
come to the villa, he treated his own family the same. Upon
the pretext that his tenant needed quiet, he kept him almost
in isolation, and Muishkin protested in vain against this ex-
cess of zeal. Lebedeff stamped his feet at his daughters and
drove them away if they attempted to join the prince on the
terrace; not even Vera was excepted.
‘They will lose all respect if they are allowed to be so free
and easy; besides it is not proper for them,’ he declared at
last, in answer to a direct question from the prince.
‘Why on earth not?’ asked the latter. ‘Really, you know,
you are making yourself a nuisance, by keeping guard over
me like this. I get bored all by myself; I have told you so over
and over again, and you get on my nerves more than ever