Page 702 - the-idiot

Hippolyte looked furious, but he restrained himself.
‘I don’t quite agree with you that your father is out of his
mind,’ he observed, quietly. ‘On the contrary, I cannot help
thinking he has been less demented of late. Don’t you think
so? He has grown so cunning and careful, and weighs his
words so deliberately; he spoke to me about that Kapiton
fellow with an object, you know! Just fancy—he wanted me
to—‘
‘Oh, devil take what he wanted you to do! Don’t try to
be too cunning with me, young man!’ shouted Gania. ‘If
you are aware of the real reason for my father’s present con-
dition (and you have kept such an excellent spying watch
during these last few days that you are sure to be aware of
it)—you had no right whatever to torment the—unfortu-
nate man, and to worry my mother by your exaggerations of
the affair; because the whole business is nonsense—simply
a drunken freak, and nothing more, quite unproved by any
evidence, and I don’t believe that much of it!’ (he snapped
his fingers). ‘But you must needs spy and watch over us all,
because you are a-a—‘
‘Screw!’ laughed Hippolyte.
‘Because you are a humbug, sir; and thought fit to worry
people for half an hour, and tried to frighten them into be-
lieving that you would shoot yourself with your little empty
pistol, pirouetting about and playing at suicide! I gave you
hospitality, you have fattened on it, your cough has left you,
and you repay all this—‘
‘Excuse me—two words! I am Varvara Ardalionovna’s
guest, not yours; YOU have extended no hospitality to me.

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