Page 705 - the-idiot

‘Excuse me, Varia Ardalionovna, I will proceed. I can, of
course, neither love nor respect the prince, though he is a
good-hearted fellow, if a little queer. But there is no need
whatever for me to hate him. I quite understood your broth-
er when he first offered me aid against the prince, though I
did not show it; I knew well that your brother was making a
ridiculous mistake in me. I am ready to spare him, however,
even now; but solely out of respect for yourself, Varvara Ar-
dalionovna.
‘Having now shown you that I am not quite such a fool
as I look, and that I have to be fished for with a rod and line
for a good long while before I am caught, I will proceed to
explain why I specially wished to make your brother look a
fool. That my motive power is hate, I do not attempt to con-
ceal. I have felt that before dying (and I am dying, however
much fatter I may appear to you), I must absolutely make a
fool of, at least, one of that class of men which has dogged
me all my life, which I hate so cordially, and which is so
prominently represented by your much esteemed brother.
I should not enjoy paradise nearly so much without hav-
ing done this first. I hate you, Gavrila Ardalionovitch, solely
(this may seem curious to you, but I repeat)—solely because
you are the type, and incarnation, and head, and crown of
the most impudent, the most self-satisfied, the most vulgar
and detestable form of commonplaceness. You are ordinary
of the ordinary; you have no chance of ever fathering the
pettiest idea of your own. And yet you are as jealous and
conceited as you can possibly be; you consider yourself a
great genius; of this you are persuaded, although there are

0 The Idiot