Page 401 - the-idiot

pressions which had escaped him in his excitement. If he
had not been driven beyond the limits of endurance, he
would not have ventured to express certain conjectures
so openly. He had no sooner sat down than his heart was
torn by sharp remorse. Besides insulting Burdovsky with
the supposition, made in the presence of witnesses, that he
was suffering from the complaint for which he had him-
self been treated in Switzerland, he reproached himself
with the grossest indelicacy in having offered him the ten
thousand roubles before everyone. ‘I ought to have waited
till to-morrow and offered him the money when we were
alone,’ thought Muishkin. ‘Now it is too late, the mischief is
done! Yes, I am an idiot, an absolute idiot!’ he said to him-
self, overcome with shame and regret.
Till then Gavrila Ardalionovitch had sat apart in silence.
When the prince called upon him, he came and stood by his
side, and in a calm, clear voice began to render an account
of the mission confided to him. All conversation ceased in-
stantly. Everyone, especially the Burdovsky party, listened
with the utmost curiosity.

00 The Idiot