Page 370 - the-idiot

fashionable to drive a waggonette with red wheels.’
‘You got that from some magazine, Colia,’ remarked Ad-
elaida.
‘He gets most of his conversation in that way,’ laughed
Evgenie Pavlovitch. ‘He borrows whole phrases from the
reviews. I have long had the pleasure of knowing both
Nicholai Ardalionovitch and his conversational methods,
but this time he was not repeating something he had read;
he was alluding, no doubt, to my yellow waggonette, which
has, or had, red wheels. But I have exchanged it, so you are
rather behind the times, Colia.’
The prince had been listening attentively to Radomski’s
words, and thought his manner very pleasant. When Co-
lia chaffed him about his waggonette he had replied with
perfect equality and in a friendly fashion. This pleased
Muishkin.
At this moment Vera came up to Lizabetha Prokofievna,
carrying several large and beautifully bound books, appar-
ently quite new.
‘What is it?’ demanded the lady.
‘This is Pushkin,’ replied the girl. ‘Papa told me to offer
it to you.’
‘What? Impossible!’ exclaimed Mrs. Epanchin.
‘Not as a present, not as a present! I should not have taken
the liberty,’ said Lebedeff, appearing suddenly from be-
hind his daughter. ‘It is our own Pushkin, our family copy,
Annenkoff’s edition; it could not be bought now. I beg to
suggest, with great respect, that your excellency should buy
it, and thus quench the noble literary thirst which is con-