Page 56 - the-idiot

quence of my narrative too much, if I diverge for a moment
at this point, in order to explain the mutual relations be-
tween General Epanchin’s family and others acting a part
in this history, at the time when we take up the thread of
their destiny. I have already stated that the general, though
he was a man of lowly origin, and of poor education, was,
for all that, an experienced and talented husband and father.
Among other things, he considered it undesirable to hurry
his daughters to the matrimonial altar and to worry them
too much with assurances of his paternal wishes for their
happiness, as is the custom among parents of many grown-
up daughters. He even succeeded in ranging his wife on his
side on this question, though he found the feat very difficult
to accomplish, because unnatural; but the general’s argu-
ments were conclusive, and founded upon obvious facts.
The general considered that the girls’ taste and good sense
should be allowed to develop and mature deliberately, and
that the parents’ duty should merely be to keep watch, in or-
der that no strange or undesirable choice be made; but that
the selection once effected, both father and mother were
bound from that moment to enter heart and soul into the
cause, and to see that the matter progressed without hin-
drance until the altar should be happily reached.
Besides this, it was clear that the Epanchins’ position
gained each year, with geometrical accuracy, both as to fi-
nancial solidity and social weight; and, therefore, the longer
the girls waited, the better was their chance of making a
brilliant match.
But again, amidst the incontrovertible facts just recorded,