Page 465 - the-idiot

now I have quite made up my mind that I won’t have him.
‘Put me in my coffin first and then into my grave, and then
you may marry my daughter to whomsoever you please,’ so
I said to the general this very morning. You see how I trust
you, my boy.’
‘Yes, I see and understand.’
Mrs. Epanchin gazed keenly into the prince’s eyes. She
was anxious to see what impression the news as to Evgenie
Pavlovitch had made upon him.
‘Do you know anything about Gavrila Ardalionovitch?’
she asked at last.
‘Oh yes, I know a good deal.’
‘Did you know he had communications with Aglaya?’
‘No, I didn’t,’ said the prince, trembling a little, and in
great agitation. ‘You say Gavrila Ardalionovitch has private
communications with Aglaya?—Impossible!’
‘Only quite lately. His sister has been working like a rat to
clear the way for him all the winter.’
‘I don’t believe it!’ said the prince abruptly, after a short
pause. ‘Had it been so I should have known long ago.’
‘Oh, of course, yes; he would have come and wept out
his secret on your bosom. Oh, you simpleton—you simple-
ton! Anyone can deceive you and take you in like a—like
a,—aren’t you ashamed to trust him? Can’t you see that he
humbugs you just as much as ever he pleases?’
‘I know very well that he does deceive me occasionally,
and he knows that I know it, but—‘ The prince did not fin-
ish his sentence.
‘And that’s why you trust him, eh? So I should have sup-

The Idiot