Page 414 - the-idiot

ing off with your cashbox, with a clear conscience! He does
not call it a dishonest action but ‘the impulse of a noble de-
spair’; ‘a negation’; or the devil knows what! Bah! everything
is upside down, everyone walks head downwards. A young
girl, brought up at home, suddenly jumps into a cab in the
middle of the street, saying: ‘Good-bye, mother, I married
Karlitch, or Ivanitch, the other day!’ And you think it quite
right? You call such conduct estimable and natural? The
‘woman question’? Look here,’ she continued, pointing to
Colia, ‘the other day that whippersnapper told me that this
was the whole meaning of the ‘woman question.’ But even
supposing that your mother is a fool, you are none the less,
bound to treat her with humanity. Why did you come here
tonight so insolently? ‘Give us our rights, but don’t dare to
speak in our presence. Show us every mark of deepest re-
spect, while we treat you like the scum of the earth.’ The
miscreants have written a tissue of calumny in their article,
and these are the men who seek for truth, and do battle for
the right! ‘We do not beseech, we demand, you will get no
thanks from us, because you will be acting to satisfy your
own conscience!’ What morality! But, good. heavens! if you
declare that the prince’s generosity will, excite no grati-
tude in you, he might answer that he is not, bound to be
grateful to Pavlicheff, who also was only satisfying his own
conscience. But you counted on the prince’s, gratitude to-
wards Pavlicheff; you never lent him any money; he owes
you nothing; then what were you counting upon if not on
his gratitude? And if you appeal to that sentiment in oth-
ers, why should you expect to be exempted from it? They

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