Page 539 - the-idiot

and, on hearing that it was his birthday, with cries of con-
gratulation and delight; many of them were very noisy.
The presence of certain of those in the room surprised
the prince vastly, but the guest whose advent filled him with
the greatest wonder—almost amounting to alarm—was
Evgenie Pavlovitch. The prince could not believe his eyes
when he beheld the latter, and could not help thinking that
something was wrong.
Lebedeff ran up promptly to explain the arrival of all
these gentlemen. He was himself somewhat intoxicated, but
the prince gathered from his long-winded periods that the
party had assembled quite naturally, and accidentally.
First of all Hippolyte had arrived, early in the evening,
and feeling decidedly better, had determined to await the
prince on the verandah. There Lebedeff had joined him,
and his household had followed—that is, his daughters
and General Ivolgin. Burdovsky had brought Hippolyte,
and stayed on with him. Gania and Ptitsin had dropped in
accidentally later on; then came Keller, and he and Colia in-
sisted on having champagne. Evgenie Pavlovitch had only
dropped in half an hour or so ago. Lebedeff had served the
champagne readily.
‘My own though, prince, my own, mind,’ he said, ‘and
there’ll be some supper later on; my daughter is getting it
ready now. Come and sit down, prince, we are all waiting
for you, we want you with us. Fancy what we have been dis-
cussing! You know the question, ‘to be or not to be,’—out
of Hamlet! A contemporary theme! Quite up-to-date! Mr.
Hippolyte has been eloquent to a degree. He won’t go to bed,

The Idiot