Page 409 - the-idiot

plained Doktorenko.
‘The article in the newspaper put it at fifty!’ cried Colia.
‘I beg your pardon,’ said the prince, going up to Burdo-
vsky. ‘I have done you a great wrong, but I did not send you
that money as a charity, believe me. And now I am again to
blame. I offended you just now.’ (The prince was much dis-
tressed; he seemed worn out with fatigue, and spoke almost
incoherently.) ‘I spoke of swindling... but I did not apply that
to you. I was deceived .... I said you were... afflicted... like
me... But you are not like me... you give lessons... you sup-
port your mother. I said you had dishonoured your mother,
but you love her. She says so herself... I did not know... Gavr-
ila Ardalionovitch did not tell me that... Forgive me! I dared
to offer you ten thousand roubles, but I was wrong. I ought
to have done it differently, and now... there is no way of do-
ing it, for you despise me...’
‘I declare, this is a lunatic asylum!’ cried Lizabetha Pro-
kofievna.
‘Of course it is a lunatic asylum!’ repeated Aglaya sharply,
but her words were overpowered by other voices. Everybody
was talking loudly, making remarks and comments; some
discussed the affair gravely, others laughed. Ivan Fedoro-
vitch Epanchin was extremely indignant. He stood waiting
for his wife with an air of offended dignity. Lebedeff’s neph-
ew took up the word again.
‘Well, prince, to do you justice, you certainly know how
to make the most of your—let us call it infirmity, for the
sake of politeness; you have set about offering your money
and friendship in such a way that no self-respecting man

0 The Idiot