Page 769 - the-idiot

peared to the contrary, I give you my word, I see this more
plainly every day. I do not judge you; I merely say this to
have it off my mind, and I am only sorry that I did not say
it all THEN—‘
Hippolyte flushed hotly. He had thought at first that the
prince was ‘humbugging’ him; but on looking at his face he
saw that he was absolutely serious, and had no thought of
any deception. Hippolyte beamed with gratification.
‘And yet I must die,’ he said, and almost added: ‘a man
like me @
‘And imagine how that Gania annoys me! He has de-
veloped the idea —or pretends to believe—that in all
probability three or four others who heard my confession
will die before I do. There’s an idea for you—and all this
by way of CONSOLING me! Ha! ha! ha! In the first place
they haven’t died yet; and in the second, if they DID die—
all of them—what would be the satisfaction to me in that?
He judges me by himself. But he goes further, he actually
pitches into me because, as he declares, ‘any decent fellow’
would die quietly, and that ‘all this’ is mere egotism on my
part. He doesn’t see what refinement of egotism it is on his
own part—and at the same time, what ox-like coarseness!
Have you ever read of the death of one Stepan Gleboff, in
the eighteenth century? I read of it yesterday by chance.’
‘Who was he?’
He was impaled on a stake in the time of Peter.’
‘I know, I know! He lay there fifteen hours in the hard
frost, and died with the most extraordinary fortitude—I
know—what of him?’

The Idiot