Page 659 - the-idiot

ed Lebedeff, as sweet as sugar again. ‘If you don’t wish me to
suspect Mr. Burdovsky?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Nor the general? Ha, ha, ha!’
‘Nonsense!’ said the prince, angrily, turning round upon
him.
‘Quite so, nonsense! Ha, ha, ha! dear me! He did amuse
me, did the general! We went off on the hot scent to Wilkin’s
together, you know; but I must first observe that the general
was even more thunderstruck than I myself this morning,
when I awoke him after discovering the theft; so much so
that his very face changed—he grew red and then pale, and
at length flew into a paroxysm of such noble wrath that I
assure you I was quite surprised! He is a most generous-
hearted man! He tells lies by the thousands, I know, but it
is merely a weakness; he is a man of the highest feelings; a
simple-minded man too, and a man who carries the con-
viction of innocence in his very appearance. I love that
man, sir; I may have told you so before; it is a weakness of
mine. Well—he suddenly stopped in the middle of the road,
opened out his coat and bared his breast. ‘Search me,’ he
says, ‘you searched Keller; why don’t you search me too? It
is only fair!’ says he. And all the while his legs and hands
were trembling with anger, and he as white as a sheet all
over! So I said to him, ‘Nonsense, general; if anybody but
yourself had said that to me, I’d have taken my head, my
own head, and put it on a large dish and carried it round to
anyone who suspected you; and I should have said: ‘There,
you see that head? It’s my head, and I’ll go bail with that

The Idiot