Page 89 - the-idiot

though rather timid smile, but as the last words fell from his
lips he began to laugh, and looked at her merrily.
‘You are not very modest!’ said she.
‘But how brave you are!’ said he. ‘You are laughing, and
I— that man’s tale impressed me so much, that I dreamt of
it afterwards; yes, I dreamt of those five minutes …’
He looked at his listeners again with that same serious,
searching expression.
‘You are not angry with me?’ he asked suddenly, and with
a kind of nervous hurry, although he looked them straight
in the face.
‘Why should we be angry?’ they cried.
‘Only because I seem to be giving you a lecture, all the
time!’
At this they laughed heartily.
‘Please don’t be angry with me,’ continued the prince. ‘I
know very well that I have seen less of life than other peo-
ple, and have less knowledge of it. I must appear to speak
strangely sometimes …’
He said the last words nervously.
‘You say you have been happy, and that proves you have
lived, not less, but more than other people. Why make all
these excuses?’ interrupted Aglaya in a mocking tone of
voice. ‘Besides, you need not mind about lecturing us; you
have nothing to boast of. With your quietism, one could
live happily for a hundred years at least. One might show
you the execution of a felon, or show you one’s little finger.
You could draw a moral from either, and be quite satisfied.
That sort of existence is easy enough.’

The Idiot