Page 66 - the-idiot

beloved.
She received four or five friends sometimes, of an eve-
ning. Totski often came. Lately, too, General Epanchin had
been enabled with great difficulty to introduce himself into
her circle. Gania made her acquaintance also, and others
were Ferdishenko, an illbred, and would-be witty, young
clerk, and Ptitsin, a moneylender of modest and polished
manners, who had risen from poverty. In fact, Nastasia
Philipovna’s beauty became a thing known to all the town;
but not a single man could boast of anything more than his
own admiration for her; and this reputation of hers, and her
wit and culture and grace, all confirmed Totski in the plan
he had now prepared.
And it was at this moment that General Epanchin began
to play so large and important a part in the story.
When Totski had approached the general with his re-
quest for friendly counsel as to a marriage with one of his
daughters, he had made a full and candid confession. He had
said that he intended to stop at no means to obtain his free-
dom; even if Nastasia were to promise to leave him entirely
alone in future, he would not (he said) believe and trust her;
words were not enough for him; he must have solid guaran-
tees of some sort. So he and the general determined to try
what an attempt to appeal to her heart would effect. Having
arrived at Nastasia’s house one day, with Epanchin, Totski
immediately began to speak of the intolerable torment of
his position. He admitted that he was to blame for all, but
candidly confessed that he could not bring himself to feel
any remorse for his original guilt towards herself, because