Page 723 - the-idiot

made with a penknife, a most improbable contingency.’
‘And—and—the general?’
‘Ah, very angry all day, sir; all yesterday and all today. He
shows decided bacchanalian predilections at one time, and
at another is tearful and sensitive, but at any moment he is
liable to paroxysms of such rage that I assure you, prince, I
am quite alarmed. I am not a military man, you know. Yes-
terday we were sitting together in the tavern, and the lining
of my coat was— quite accidentally, of course—sticking out
right in front. The general squinted at it, and flew into a
rage. He never looks me quite in the face now, unless he is
very drunk or maudlin; but yesterday he looked at me in
such a way that a shiver went all down my back. I intend to
find the purse tomorrow; but till then I am going to have
another night of it with him.’
‘What’s the good of tormenting him like this?’ cried the
prince.
‘I don’t torment him, prince, I don’t indeed!’ cried Lebe-
deff, hotly. ‘I love him, my dear sir, I esteem him; and believe
it or not, I love him all the better for this business, yes—and
value him more.’
Lebedeff said this so seriously that the prince quite lost
his temper with him.
‘Nonsense! love him and torment him so! Why, by the
very fact that he put the purse prominently before you, first
under the chair and then in your lining, he shows that he
does not wish to deceive you, but is anxious to beg your for-
giveness in this artless way. Do you hear? He is asking your
pardon. He confides in the delicacy of your feelings, and in

The Idiot