Page 798 - the-idiot

‘I assure you of it,’ laughed Ivan Petrovitch, gazing
amusedly at the prince.
‘Oh! I didn’t say it because I DOUBT the fact, you know.
(Ha, ha.) How could I doubt such a thing? (Ha, ha, ha.) I
made the remark because—because Nicolai Andreevitch
Pavlicheff was such a splendid man, don’t you see! Such a
high-souled man, he really was, I assure you.’
The prince did not exactly pant for breath, but he ‘seemed
almost to CHOKE out of pure simplicity and goodness of
heart,’ as Adelaida expressed it, on talking the party over
with her fiance, the Prince S., next morning.
‘But, my goodness me,’ laughed Ivan Petrovitch, ‘why
can’t I be cousin to even a splendid man?’
‘Oh, dear!’ cried the prince, confused, trying to hurry his
words out, and growing more and more eager every mo-
ment: ‘I’ve gone and said another stupid thing. I don’t know
what to say. I—I didn’t mean that, you know—I—I—he re-
ally was such a splendid man, wasn’t he?’
The prince trembled all over. Why was he so agitated?
Why had he flown into such transports of delight without
any apparent reason? He had far outshot the measure of joy
and emotion consistent with the occasion. Why this was it
would be difficult to say.
He seemed to feel warmly and deeply grateful to some-
one for something or other—perhaps to Ivan Petrovitch;
but likely enough to all the guests, individually, and collec-
tively. He was much too happy.
Ivan Petrovitch began to stare at him with some sur-
prise; the dignitary, too, looked at him with considerable