Page 472 - the-idiot

I

HE Epanchin family, or at least the more serious mem-
Tbers of it, were sometimes grieved because they seemed
so unlike the rest of the world. They were not quite cer-
tain, but had at times a strong suspicion that things did not
happen to them as they did to other people. Others led a
quiet, uneventful life, while they were subject to continual
upheavals. Others kept on the rails without difficulty; they
ran off at the slightest obstacle. Other houses were governed
by a timid routine; theirs was somehow different. Perhaps
Lizabetha Prokofievna was alone in making these fretful
observations; the girls, though not wanting in intelligence,
were still young; the general was intelligent, too, but narrow,
and in any difficulty he was content to say, ‘H’m!’ and leave
the matter to his wife. Consequently, on her fell the respon-
sibility. It was not that they distinguished themselves as a
family by any particular originality, or that their excursions
off the track led to any breach of the proprieties. Oh no.
There was nothing premeditated, there was not even any
conscious purpose in it all, and yet, in spite of everything,
the family, although highly respected, was not quite what
every highly respected family ought to be. For a long time
now Lizabetha Prokofievna had had it in her mind that all
the trouble was owing to her ‘unfortunate character, ‘and
this added to her distress. She blamed her own stupid un-

1