Page 70 - the-idiot

would they like to receive her into their house? At all events,
though she did not reject the idea of this marriage, she de-
sired not to be hurried. As for the seventy-five thousand
roubles, Mr. Totski need not have found any difficulty or
awkwardness about the matter; she quite understood the
value of money, and would, of course, accept the gift. She
thanked him for his delicacy, however, but saw no reason
why Gavrila Ardalionovitch should not know about it.
She would not marry the latter, she said, until she felt
persuaded that neither on his part nor on the part of his
family did there exist any sort of concealed suspicions as to
herself. She did not intend to ask forgiveness for anything
in the past, which fact she desired to be known. She did not
consider herself to blame for anything that had happened in
former years, and she thought that Gavrila Ardalionovitch
should be informed as to the relations which had existed
between herself and Totski during the last five years. If she
accepted this money it was not to be considered as indem-
nification for her misfortune as a young girl, which had not
been in any degree her own fault, but merely as compensa-
tion for her ruined life.
She became so excited and agitated during all these ex-
planations and confessions that General Epanchin was
highly gratified, and considered the matter satisfacto-
rily arranged once for all. But the once bitten Totski was
twice shy, and looked for hidden snakes among the flowers.
However, the special point to which the two friends partic-
ularly trusted to bring about their object (namely, Gania’s
attractiveness for Nastasia Philipovna), stood out more and