Page 355 - the-idiot

duce myself—General Ivolgin—I carried you in my arms
as a baby—‘
‘Delighted, I’m sure,’ said Aglaya; ‘I am acquainted with
Varvara Ardalionovna and Nina Alexandrovna.’ She was
trying hard to restrain herself from laughing.
Mrs. Epanchin flushed up; some accumulation of spleen
in her suddenly needed an outlet. She could not bear this
General Ivolgin whom she had once known, long ago—in
society.
‘You are deviating from the truth, sir, as usual!’ she re-
marked, boiling over with indignation; ‘you never carried
her in your life!’
‘You have forgotten, mother,’ said Aglaya, suddenly. ‘He
really did carry me about,—in Tver, you know. I was six
years old, I remember. He made me a bow and arrow, and I
shot a pigeon. Don’t you remember shooting a pigeon, you
and I, one day?’
‘Yes, and he made me a cardboard helmet, and a little
wooden sword—I remember!’ said Adelaida.
‘Yes, I remember too!’ said Alexandra. ‘You quarrelled
about the wounded pigeon, and Adelaida was put in the
corner, and stood there with her helmet and sword and all.’
The poor general had merely made the remark about
having carried Aglaya in his arms because he always did so
begin a conversation with young people. But it happened
that this time he had really hit upon the truth, though he
had himself entirely forgotten the fact. But when Adelaida
and Aglaya recalled the episode of the pigeon, his mind be-
came filled with memories, and it is impossible to describe

The Idiot