Page 745 - the-idiot

process of settlement—it would be very difficult to explain.
But no sooner had this idea taken root, than all at once de-
clared that they had seen and observed it long ago; that they
had remarked it at the time of the ‘poor knight’ joke, and
even before, though they had been unwilling to believe in
such nonsense.
So said the sisters. Of course, Lizabetha Prokofievna had
foreseen it long before the rest; her ‘heart had been sore’ for
a long while, she declared, and it was now so sore that she
appeared to be quite overwhelmed, and the very thought of
the prince became distasteful to her.
There was a question to be decided—most important, but
most difficult; so much so, that Mrs. Epanchin did not even
see how to put it into words. Would the prince do or not?
Was all this good or bad? If good (which might be the case,
of course), WHY good? If bad (which was hardly doubtful),
WHEREIN, especially, bad? Even the general, the paterfa-
milias, though astonished at first, suddenly declared that,
‘upon his honour, he really believed he had fancied some-
thing of the kind, after all. At first, it seemed a new idea,
and then, somehow, it looked as familiar as possible.’ His
wife frowned him down there. This was in the morning; but
in the evening, alone with his wife, he had given tongue
again.
‘Well, really, you know’—(silence)—‘of course, you know
all this is very strange, if true, which I cannot deny; but’—
(silence).—‘ But, on the other hand, if one looks things in the
face, you know—upon my honour, the prince is a rare good
fellow— and—and—and—well, his name, you know—your

The Idiot