Page 870 - the-idiot

said so in the billiard-rooms, but that the reason simply was
that, with the impatience of a friend, he had hoped to see
the prince marry at least a Princess de Rohan or de Chabot;
but that now he saw that the prince’s way of thinking was
ten times more noble than that of ‘all the rest put togeth-
er.’ For he desired neither pomp nor wealth nor honour, but
only the truth! The sympathies of exalted personages were
well known, and the prince was too highly placed by his
education, and so on, not to be in some sense an exalted
personage!
‘But all the common herd judge ‘differently; in the town,
at the meetings, in the villas, at the band, in the inns and the
billiard-rooms, the coming event has only to be mentioned
and there are shouts and cries from everybody. I have even
heard talk of getting up a ‘charivari’ under the windows on
the weddingnight. So if ‘you have need of the pistol’ of an
honest man, prince, I am ready to fire half a dozen shots
even before you rise from your nuptial couch!’
Keller also advised, in anticipation of the crowd making
a rush after the ceremony, that a fire-hose should be placed
at the entrance to the house; but Lebedeff was opposed to
this measure, which he said might result in the place being
pulled down.
‘I assure you, prince, that Lebedeff is intriguing against
you. He wants to put you under control. Imagine that! To
take ‘from you the use of your free-will and your mon-
ey—that’ is to say, the two things that distinguish us from
the animals! I have heard it said positively. It is the sober
truth.’