{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Cold?", "pos": 3727}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Very, and this is a thaw, too. Fancy if it had been a hard frost! I never thought it would be so cold in the old country. I’ve grown quite out of the way of it.", "pos": 3735}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "What, been abroad, I suppose?", "pos": 3929}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, straight from Switzerland.", "pos": 3961}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Wheugh! my goodness!", "pos": 3995}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, they did not cure me.", "pos": 4768}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Hey! that’s it! You stumped up your money for nothing, and we believe in those fellows, here!", "pos": 4796}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Gospel truth, sir, Gospel truth! Gospel truth! All they do is to get hold of our good Russian money free, gratis, and for nothing.", "pos": 4945}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, but you’re quite wrong in my particular instance,", "pos": 5223}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Why? Was there no one else to pay for you?", "pos": 5536}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "That is—where am I going to stay? I—I really don’t quite know yet, I—", "pos": 5869}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I suppose your whole set-up is in that bundle, then?", "pos": 5975}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I bet anything it is!", "pos": 6047}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Your bundle has some importance, however,", "pos": 6370}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "for though I dare say it is not stuffed full of friedrichs d’or and louis d’or—judge from your costume and gaiters—still—if you can add to your possessions such a valuable property as a relation like Mrs. General Epanchin, then your bundle becomes a significant object at once. That is, of course, if you really are a relative of Mrs. Epanchin’s, and have not made a little error through—well, absence of mind, which is very common to human beings; or, say—through a too luxuriant fancy?", "pos": 6570}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, you are right again,", "pos": 7060}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "H’m! you spent your postage for nothing, then. H’m! you are candid, however—and that is commendable. H’m! Mrs. Epanchin—oh yes! a most eminent person. I know her. As for Mr. Pavlicheff, who supported you in Switzerland, I know him too—at least, if it was Nicolai Andreevitch of that name? A fine fellow he was—and had a property of four thousand souls in his day.", "pos": 7327}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes, Nicolai Andreevitch—that was his name,", "pos": 7693}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Excuse me,", "pos": 8676}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "whom have I the honour to be talking to?", "pos": 8766}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Prince Lef Nicolaievitch Muishkin,", "pos": 8809}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Prince Muishkin? Lef Nicolaievitch? H’m! I don’t know, I’m sure! I may say I have never heard of such a person,", "pos": 8890}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "At least, the name, I admit, is historical. Karamsin must mention the family name, of course, in his history—but as an individual—one never hears of any Prince Muishkin nowadays.", "pos": 9034}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Of course not,", "pos": 9215}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "there are none, except myself. I believe I am the last and only one. As to my forefathers, they have always been a poor lot; my own father was a sublieutenant in the army. I don’t know how Mrs. Epanchin comes into the Muishkin family, but she is descended from the Princess Muishkin, and she, too, is the last of her line.", "pos": 9252}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And did you learn science and all that, with your professor over there?", "pos": 9577}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh yes—I did learn a little, but—", "pos": 9685}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I’ve never learned anything whatever,", "pos": 9721}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, but I learned very little, you know!", "pos": 9777}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "They could not teach me very much on account of my illness.", "pos": 9866}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Do you know the Rogojins?", "pos": 9928}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, I don’t—not at all! I hardly know anyone in Russia. Why, is that your name?", "pos": 9988}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes, I am Rogojin, Parfen Rogojin.", "pos": 10070}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Parfen Rogojin? dear me—then don’t you belong to those very Rogojins, perhaps—", "pos": 10107}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes—those very ones,", "pos": 10263}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Dear me—is it possible?", "pos": 10493}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "what, a son of that very Semen Rogojin—hereditary honourable citizen—who died a month or so ago and left two million and a half of roubles?", "pos": 10635}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And how do you know that he left two million and a half of roubles?", "pos": 10777}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "However, it’s true enough that my father died a month ago, and that here am I returning from Pskoff, a month after, with hardly a boot to my foot. They’ve treated me like a dog! I’ve been ill of fever at Pskoff the whole time, and not a line, nor farthing of money, have I received from my mother or my confounded brother!", "pos": 10926}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And now you’ll have a million roubles, at least—goodness gracious me!", "pos": 11251}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Five weeks since, I was just like yourself, with nothing but a bundle and the clothes I wore. I ran away from my father and came to Pskoff to my aunt’s house, where I caved in at once with fever, and he went and died while I was away. All honour to my respected father’s memory—but he uncommonly nearly killed me, all the same. Give you my word, prince, if I hadn’t cut and run then, when I did, he’d have murdered me like a dog.", "pos": 11363}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I suppose you angered him somehow?", "pos": 11839}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Oh, yes; I angered him—I certainly did anger him. But what puts me out so is my brother. Of course my mother couldn’t do anything—she’s too old—and whatever brother Senka says is law for her! But why couldn’t he let me know? He sent a telegram, they say. What’s the good of a telegram? It frightened my aunt so that she sent it back to the office unopened, and there it’s been ever since! It’s only thanks to Konief that I heard at all; he wrote me all about it. He says my brother cut off the gold tassels from my father’s coffin, at night ‘because they’re worth a lot of money!’ says he. Why, I can get him sent off to Siberia for that alone, if I like; it’s sacrilege. Here, you—scarecrow!", "pos": 12689}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "sacrilege or not, by law?", "pos": 13453}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Sacrilege, certainly—certainly sacrilege,", "pos": 13481}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And it’s Siberia for sacrilege, isn’t it?", "pos": 13542}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Undoubtedly so; Siberia, of course!", "pos": 13586}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "They will think that I’m still ill, but I sloped off quietly, seedy as I was, took the train and came away. Aha, brother Senka, you’ll have to open your gates and let me in, my boy! I know he told tales about me to my father—I know that well enough but I certainly did rile my father about Nastasia Philipovna that’s very sure, and that was my own doing.", "pos": 13624}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Nastasia Philipovna?", "pos": 14016}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Come, you know nothing about her,", "pos": 14096}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And supposing I do know something?", "pos": 14159}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Bosh! there are plenty of Nastasia Philipovnas. And what an impertinent beast you are! I thought some creature like you would hang on to me as soon as I got hold of my money.", "pos": 14230}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, but I do know, as it happens,", "pos": 14427}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Lebedeff knows all about her. You are pleased to reproach me, your excellency, but what if I prove that I am right after all? Nastasia Philipovna’s family name is Barashkoff—I know, you see—and she is a very well known lady, indeed, and comes of a good family, too. She is connected with one Totski, Afanasy Ivanovitch, a man of considerable property, a director of companies, and so on, and a great friend of General Epanchin, who is interested in the same matters as he is.", "pos": 14504}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "My eyes! The devil take the fellow, how does he know that?", "pos": 14982}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Why, he knows everything—Lebedeff knows everything! I was a month or two with Lihachof after his father died, your excellency, and while he was knocking about—he’s in the debtor’s prison now—I was with him, and he couldn’t do a thing without Lebedeff; and I got to know Nastasia Philipovna and several people at that time.", "pos": 15085}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Nastasia Philipovna? Why, you don’t mean to say that she and Lihachof—", "pos": 15410}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "No, no, no, no, no! Nothing of the sort, I assure you! Oh dear no, not for the world! Totski’s the only man with any chance there. Oh, no! He takes her to his box at the opera at the French theatre of an evening, and the officers and people all look at her and say, ‘By Jove, there’s the famous Nastasia Philipovna!’ but no one ever gets any further than that, for there is nothing more to say.", "pos": 15518}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Yes, it’s quite true, so Zaleshoff told me. I was walking about the Nefsky one fine day, prince, in my father’s old coat, when she suddenly came out of a shop and stepped into her carriage. I swear I was all of a blaze at once. Then I met Zaleshoff—looking like a hair-dresser’s assistant, got up as fine as I don’t know who, while I looked like a tinker. ‘Don’t flatter yourself, my boy,’ said he; ‘she’s not for such as you; she’s a princess, she is, and her name is Nastasia Philipovna Barashkoff, and she lives with Totski, who wishes to get rid of her because he’s growing rather old—fifty-five or so—and wants to marry a certain beauty, the loveliest woman in all Petersburg.’ And then he told me that I could see Nastasia Philipovna at the opera-house that evening, if I liked, and described which was her box. Well, I’d like to see my father allowing any of us to go to the theatre; he’d sooner have killed us, any day. However, I went for an hour or so and saw Nastasia Philipovna, and I never slept a wink all night after. Next morning my father happened to give me two government loan bonds to sell, worth nearly five thousand roubles each. ‘Sell them,’ said he, ‘and then take seven thousand five hundred roubles to the office, give them to the cashier, and bring me back the rest of the ten thousand, without looking in anywhere on the way; look sharp, I shall be waiting for you.’ Well, I sold the bonds, but I didn’t take the seven thousand roubles to the office; I went straight to the English shop and chose a pair of earrings, with a diamond the size of a nut in each. They cost four hundred roubles more than I had, so I gave my name, and they trusted me. With the earrings I went at once to Zaleshoff’s. ‘Come on!’ I said, ‘come on to Nastasia Philipovna’s,’ and off we went without more ado. I tell you I hadn’t a notion of what was about me or before me or below my feet all the way; I saw nothing whatever. We went straight into her drawing-room, and then she came out to us. I didn’t say right out who I was, but Zaleshoff said: ‘From Parfen Rogojin, in memory of his first meeting with you yesterday; be so kind as to accept these!’ She opened the parcel, looked at the earrings, and laughed.", "pos": 15941}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Thank your friend Mr. Rogojin for his kind attention,", "pos": 18197}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Why didn’t I die there on the spot? The worst of it all was, though, that the beast Zaleshoff got all the credit of it! I was short and abominably dressed, and stood and stared in her face and never said a word, because I was shy, like an ass! And there was he all in the fashion, pomaded and dressed out, with a smart tie on, bowing and scraping; and I bet anything she took him for me all the while! Look here now, none of your interference here after this—do you understand?", "pos": 18286}
{"speaker": "Zaleshoff", "text": "And how are you going to settle up with your father?", "pos": 18808}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I thought I might as well jump into the Neva at once without going home first; but it struck me that I wouldn’t, after all, and I went home feeling like one of the damned.", "pos": 18871}
{"speaker": "the clerk", "text": "My goodness! And his father,", "pos": 19045}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "This is only a foretaste,", "pos": 19571}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "wait a bit till night comes, and I’ll come back and talk to you again.", "pos": 19608}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "There,", "pos": 19942}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "take your earrings, you wretched old miser; although they are ten times dearer than their value to me now that I know what it must have cost Parfen to get them! Give Parfen my compliments,", "pos": 19961}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "and thank him very much!", "pos": 20162}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oho! we’ll make Nastasia Philipovna sing another song now!", "pos": 20536}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Hey, my boy, we’ll get her some proper earrings now! We’ll get her such earrings that—", "pos": 20644}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Look here,", "pos": 20733}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "look here, if you so much as name Nastasia Philipovna again, I’ll tan your hide as sure as you sit there!", "pos": 20794}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Accept, accept, Prince Lef Nicolaievitch", "pos": 22015}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "don’t let it slip! Accept, quick!", "pos": 22081}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I will come with the greatest pleasure, and thank you very much for taking a fancy to me. I dare say I may even come today if I have time, for I tell you frankly that I like you very much too. I liked you especially when you told us about the diamond earrings; but I liked you before that as well, though you have such a dark-clouded sort of face. Thanks very much for the offer of clothes and a fur coat; I certainly shall require both clothes and coat very soon. As for money, I have hardly a copeck about me at this moment.", "pos": 22217}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You shall have lots of money; by the evening I shall have plenty; so come along!", "pos": 22746}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "That’s true enough, he’ll have lots before evening!", "pos": 22829}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "But, look here, are you a great hand with the ladies? Let’s know that first?", "pos": 22900}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh no, oh no!", "pos": 22994}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I couldn’t, you know—my illness—I hardly ever saw a soul.", "pos": 23027}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Wait in the next room, please; and leave your bundle here,", "pos": 29753}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "If you don’t mind, I would rather sit here with you,", "pos": 30037}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I should prefer it to sitting in there.", "pos": 30109}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I do not ask you what your business may be, all I have to do is to announce you; and unless the secretary comes in here I cannot do that.", "pos": 30419}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes, straight from the train! Did not you intend to say, ‘Surely you are not Prince Muishkin?’ just now, but refrained out of politeness?", "pos": 31124}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Surely you are not Prince Muishkin?", "pos": 31182}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I assure you I am not deceiving you; you shall not have to answer for me. As to my being dressed like this, and carrying a bundle, there’s nothing surprising in that—the fact is, my circumstances are not particularly rosy at this moment.", "pos": 31303}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "H’m!—no, I’m not afraid of that, you see; I have to announce you, that’s all. The secretary will be out directly—that is, unless you—yes, that’s the rub—unless you—come, you must allow me to ask you—you’ve not come to beg, have you?", "pos": 31543}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh dear no, you can be perfectly easy on that score. I have quite another matter on hand.", "pos": 31778}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You must excuse my asking, you know. Your appearance led me to think—but just wait for the secretary; the general is busy now, but the secretary is sure to come out.", "pos": 31870}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh—well, look here, if I have some time to wait, would you mind telling me, is there any place about where I could have a smoke? I have my pipe and tobacco with me.", "pos": 32038}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Smoke?", "pos": 32205}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, sir, you cannot smoke here, and I wonder you are not ashamed of the very suggestion. Ha, ha! a cool idea that, I declare!", "pos": 32339}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, I didn’t mean in this room! I know I can’t smoke here, of course. I’d adjourn to some other room, wherever you like to show me to. You see, I’m used to smoking a good deal, and now I haven’t had a puff for three hours; however, just as you like.", "pos": 32467}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Now how on earth am I to announce a man like that?", "pos": 32719}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "In the first place, you’ve no right in here at all; you ought to be in the waiting-room, because you’re a sort of visitor—a guest, in fact—and I shall catch it for this. Look here, do you intend to take up you abode with us?", "pos": 32794}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, I don’t think so. I don’t think I should stay even if they were to invite me. I’ve simply come to make their acquaintance, and nothing more.", "pos": 33109}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Make their acquaintance?", "pos": 33256}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Then why did you say you had business with the general?", "pos": 33342}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh well, very little business. There is one little matter—some advice I am going to ask him for; but my principal object is simply to introduce myself, because I am Prince Muishkin, and Madame Epanchin is the last of her branch of the house, and besides herself and me there are no other Muishkins left.", "pos": 33400}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What—you’re a relation then, are you?", "pos": 33706}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, hardly so. If you stretch a point, we are relations, of course, but so distant that one cannot really take cognizance of it. I once wrote to your mistress from abroad, but she did not reply. However, I have thought it right to make acquaintance with her on my arrival. I am telling you all this in order to ease your mind, for I see you are still far from comfortable on my account. All you have to do is to announce me as Prince Muishkin, and the object of my visit will be plain enough. If I am received—very good; if not, well, very good again. But they are sure to receive me, I should think; Madame Epanchin will naturally be curious to see the only remaining representative of her family. She values her Muishkin descent very highly, if I am rightly informed.", "pos": 33816}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I really think I must request you to step into the next room!", "pos": 35185}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Why? If I had been sitting there now, I should not have had the opportunity of making these personal explanations. I see you are still uneasy about me and keep eyeing my cloak and bundle. Don’t you think you might go in yourself now, without waiting for the secretary to come out?", "pos": 35299}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, no! I can’t announce a visitor like yourself without the secretary. Besides the general said he was not to be disturbed—he is with the Colonel C—. Gavrila Ardalionovitch goes in without announcing.", "pos": 35582}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Who may that be? a clerk?", "pos": 35786}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What? Gavrila Ardalionovitch? Oh no; he belongs to one of the companies. Look here, at all events put your bundle down, here.", "pos": 35814}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes, I will if I may; and—can I take off my cloak", "pos": 35942}
{"speaker": "Servant", "text": "Of course; you can’t go in there with it on, anyhow.", "pos": 35993}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "And what time of day does the lady receive?", "pos": 36436}
{"speaker": "Servant", "text": "Oh, that’s not in my province! I believe she receives at any time; it depends upon the visitors. The dressmaker goes in at eleven. Gavrila Ardalionovitch is allowed much earlier than other people, too; he is even admitted to early lunch now and then.", "pos": 36536}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It is much warmer in the rooms here than it is abroad at this season, but it is much warmer there out of doors. As for the houses—a Russian can’t live in them in the winter until he gets accustomed to them.", "pos": 36789}
{"speaker": "Servant", "text": "Don’t they heat them at all?", "pos": 37021}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well, they do heat them a little; but the houses and stoves are so different to ours.", "pos": 37052}
{"speaker": "Servant", "text": "H’m! were you long away?", "pos": 37140}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Four years! and I was in the same place nearly all the time,—in one village.", "pos": 37167}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You must have forgotten Russia, hadn’t you?", "pos": 37246}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, indeed I had—a good deal; and, would you believe it, I often wonder at myself for not having forgotten how to speak Russian? Even now, as I talk to you, I keep saying to myself ‘how well I am speaking it.’ Perhaps that is partly why I am so talkative this morning. I assure you, ever since yesterday evening I have had the strongest desire to go on and on talking Russian.", "pos": 37292}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "H’m! yes; did you live in Petersburg in former years?", "pos": 37672}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "In Petersburg? Oh no! hardly at all, and now they say so much is changed in the place that even those who did know it well are obliged to relearn what they knew. They talk a good deal about the new law courts, and changes there, don’t they?", "pos": 37870}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "H’m! yes, that’s true enough. Well now, how is the law over there, do they administer it more justly than here?", "pos": 38113}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, I don’t know about that! I’ve heard much that is good about our legal administration, too. There is no capital punishment here for one thing.", "pos": 38227}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Is there over there?", "pos": 38375}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes—I saw an execution in France—at Lyons. Schneider took me over with him to see it.", "pos": 38398}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What, did they hang the fellow?", "pos": 38486}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, they cut off people’s heads in France.", "pos": 38520}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What did the fellow do?—yell?", "pos": 38565}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh no—it’s the work of an instant. They put a man inside a frame and a sort of broad knife falls by machinery—they call the thing a guillotine—it falls with fearful force and weight—the head springs off so quickly that you can’t wink your eye in between. But all the preparations are so dreadful. When they announce the sentence, you know, and prepare the criminal and tie his hands, and cart him off to the scaffold—that’s the fearful part of the business. The people all crowd round—even women—though they don’t at all approve of women looking on.", "pos": 38597}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, it’s not a thing for women.", "pos": 39149}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Of course not—of course not!—bah! The criminal was a fine intelligent fearless man; Le Gros was his name; and I may tell you—believe it or not, as you like—that when that man stepped upon the scaffold he cried, he did indeed,—he was as white as a bit of paper. Isn’t it a dreadful idea that he should have cried—cried! Whoever heard of a grown man crying from fear—not a child, but a man who never had cried before—a grown man of forty-five years. Imagine what must have been going on in that man’s mind at such a moment; what dreadful convulsions his whole spirit must have endured; it is an outrage on the soul that’s what it is. Because it is said ‘thou shalt not kill,’ is he to be killed because he murdered some one else? No, it is not right, it’s an impossible theory. I assure you, I saw the sight a month ago and it’s dancing before my eyes to this moment. I dream of it, often.", "pos": 39183}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, at all events it is a good thing that there’s no pain when the poor fellow’s head flies off,", "pos": 40426}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Do you know, though, you made that remark now, and everyone says the same thing, and the machine is designed with the purpose of avoiding pain, this guillotine I mean; but a thought came into my head then: what if it be a bad plan after all? You may laugh at my idea, perhaps—but I could not help its occurring to me all the same. Now with the rack and tortures and so on—you suffer terrible pain of course; but then your torture is bodily pain only (although no doubt you have plenty of that) until you die. But here I should imagine the most terrible part of the whole punishment is, not the bodily pain at all—but the certain knowledge that in an hour,—then in ten minutes, then in half a minute, then now—this very instant—your soul must quit your body and that you will no longer be a man—and that this is certain, certain! That’s the point—the certainty of it. Just that instant when you place your head on the block and hear the iron grate over your head—then—that quarter of a second is the most awful of all. This is not my own fantastical opinion—many people have thought the same; but I feel it so deeply that I’ll tell you what I think. I believe that to execute a man for murder is to punish him immeasurably more dreadfully than is equivalent to his crime. A murder by sentence is far more dreadful than a murder committed by a criminal. The man who is attacked by robbers at night, in a dark wood, or anywhere, undoubtedly hopes and hopes that he may yet escape until the very moment of his death. There are plenty of instances of a man running away, or imploring for mercy—at all events hoping on in some degree—even after his throat was cut. But in the case of an execution, that last hope—having which it is so immeasurably less dreadful to die,—is taken away from the wretch and certainty substituted in its place! There is his sentence, and with it that terrible certainty that he cannot possibly escape death—which, I consider, must be the most dreadful anguish in the world. You may place a soldier before a cannon’s mouth in battle, and fire upon him—and he will still hope. But read to that same soldier his death-sentence, and he will either go mad or burst into tears. Who dares to say that any man can suffer this without going mad? No, no! it is an abuse, a shame, it is unnecessary—why should such a thing exist? Doubtless there may be men who have been sentenced, who have suffered this mental anguish for a while and then have been reprieved; perhaps such men may have been able to relate their feelings afterwards. Our Lord Christ spoke of this anguish and dread. No! no! no! No man should be treated so, no man, no man!", "pos": 40567}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "If you are really very anxious for a smoke,", "pos": 43432}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I think it might possibly be managed, if you are very quick about it. You see they might come out and inquire for you, and you wouldn’t be on the spot. You see that door there? Go in there and you’ll find a little room on the right; you can smoke there, only open the window, because I ought not to allow it really, and—.", "pos": 43491}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "This gentleman declares, Gavrila Ardalionovitch,", "pos": 44065}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "that he is Prince Muishkin and a relative of Madame Epanchin’s. He has just arrived from abroad, with nothing but a bundle by way of luggage—.", "pos": 44169}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Are you Prince Muishkin?", "pos": 44591}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Was it not you, then, who sent a letter a year or less ago—from Switzerland, I think it was—to Elizabetha Prokofievna (Mrs. Epanchin)?", "pos": 45353}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It was.", "pos": 45490}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, then, of course they will remember who you are. You wish to see the general? I’ll tell him at once—he will be free in a minute; but you—you had better wait in the ante-chamber,—hadn’t you? Why is he here?", "pos": 45500}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I tell you, sir, he wished it himself!", "pos": 45743}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You there, Gania?", "pos": 45965}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "come in here, will you?", "pos": 46015}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Come in please, prince!", "pos": 46201}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Quite so,", "pos": 46462}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "and what can I do for you?", "pos": 46495}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, I have no special business; my principal object was to make your acquaintance. I should not like to disturb you. I do not know your times and arrangements here, you see, but I have only just arrived. I came straight from the station. I am come direct from Switzerland.", "pos": 46524}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I have not much time for making acquaintances, as a rule,", "pos": 47158}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "but as, of course, you have your object in coming, I—", "pos": 47236}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I felt sure you would think I had some object in view when I resolved to pay you this visit, but I give you my word, beyond the pleasure of making your acquaintance I had no personal object whatever.", "pos": 47292}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "The pleasure is, of course, mutual; but life is not all pleasure, as you are aware. There is such a thing as business, and I really do not see what possible reason there can be, or what we have in common to—", "pos": 47520}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, there is no reason, of course, and I suppose there is nothing in common between us, or very little; for if I am Prince Muishkin, and your wife happens to be a member of my house, that can hardly be called a ‘reason.’ I quite understand that. And yet that was my whole motive for coming. You see I have not been in Russia for four years, and knew very little about anything when I left. I had been very ill for a long time, and I feel now the need of a few good friends. In fact, I have a certain question upon which I much need advice, and do not know whom to go to for it. I thought of your family when I was passing through Berlin. ‘They are almost relations,’ I said to myself, ‘so I’ll begin with them; perhaps we may get on with each other, I with them and they with me, if they are kind people;’ and I have heard that you are very kind people!", "pos": 47730}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, thank you, thank you, I’m sure,", "pos": 48586}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "May I ask where you have taken up your quarters?", "pos": 48671}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Nowhere, as yet.", "pos": 48722}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What, straight from the station to my house? And how about your luggage?", "pos": 48741}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I only had a small bundle, containing linen, with me, nothing more. I can carry it in my hand, easily. There will be plenty of time to take a room in some hotel by the evening.", "pos": 48816}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, then you do intend to take a room?", "pos": 48995}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Of course.", "pos": 49036}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "To judge from your words, you came straight to my house with the intention of staying there.", "pos": 49049}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That could only have been on your invitation. I confess, however, that I should not have stayed here even if you had invited me, not for any particular reason, but because it is—well, contrary to my practice and nature, somehow.", "pos": 49144}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, indeed! Then it is perhaps as well that I neither did invite you, nor do invite you now. Excuse me, prince, but we had better make this matter clear, once for all. We have just agreed that with regard to our relationship there is not much to be said, though, of course, it would have been very delightful to us to feel that such relationship did actually exist; therefore, perhaps—", "pos": 49375}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Therefore, perhaps I had better get up and go away? And I give you my word, general, that though I know nothing whatever of manners and customs of society, and how people live and all that, yet I felt quite sure that this visit of mine would end exactly as it has ended now. Oh, well, I suppose it’s all right; especially as my letter was not answered. Well, good-bye, and forgive me for having disturbed you!", "pos": 49763}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Do you know, prince,", "pos": 50628}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I do not know you at all, yet, and after all, Elizabetha Prokofievna would very likely be pleased to have a peep at a man of her own name. Wait a little, if you don’t mind, and if you have time to spare?", "pos": 50687}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, I assure you I’ve lots of time, my time is entirely my own! I confess, I thought Elizabetha Prokofievna would very likely remember that I had written her a letter. Just now your servant—outside there—was dreadfully suspicious that I had come to beg of you. I noticed that! Probably he has very strict instructions on that score; but I assure you I did not come to beg. I came to make some friends. But I am rather bothered at having disturbed you; that’s all I care about.—", "pos": 50893}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Look here, prince,", "pos": 51445}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "if you really are the sort of man you appear to be, it may be a source of great pleasure to us to make your better acquaintance; but, you see, I am a very busy man, and have to be perpetually sitting here and signing papers, or off to see his excellency, or to my department, or somewhere; so that though I should be glad to see more of people, nice people—you see, I—however, I am sure you are so well brought up that you will see at once, and—but how old are you, prince?", "pos": 51506}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Twenty-six.", "pos": 51982}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No? I thought you very much younger.", "pos": 51996}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, they say I have a ‘young’ face. As to disturbing you I shall soon learn to avoid doing that, for I hate disturbing people. Besides, you and I are so differently constituted, I should think, that there must be very little in common between us. Not that I will ever believe there is nothing in common between any two people, as some declare is the case. I am sure people make a great mistake in sorting each other into groups, by appearances; but I am boring you, I see, you—", "pos": 52035}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Just two words: have you any means at all? Or perhaps you may be intending to undertake some sort of employment? Excuse my questioning you, but—", "pos": 52516}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, my dear sir, I esteem and understand your kindness in putting the question. No; at present I have no means whatever, and no employment either, but I hope to find some. I was living on other people abroad. Schneider, the professor who treated me and taught me, too, in Switzerland, gave me just enough money for my journey, so that now I have but a few copecks left. There certainly is one question upon which I am anxious to have advice, but—", "pos": 52663}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Tell me, how do you intend to live now, and what are your plans?", "pos": 53112}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I wish to work, somehow or other.", "pos": 53204}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh yes, but then, you see, you are a philosopher. Have you any talents, or ability in any direction—that is, any that would bring in money and bread? Excuse me again—", "pos": 53240}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, don’t apologize. No, I don’t think I have either talents or special abilities of any kind; on the contrary. I have always been an invalid and unable to learn much. As for bread, I should think—", "pos": 53408}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Then you have no one, absolutely no one in Russia?", "pos": 55071}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No one, at present; but I hope to make friends; and then I have a letter from—", "pos": 55134}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "At all events, at all events, you must have learned something, and your malady would not prevent your undertaking some easy work, in one of the departments, for instance?", "pos": 55215}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh dear no, oh no! As for a situation, I should much like to find one for I am anxious to discover what I really am fit for. I have learned a good deal in the last four years, and, besides, I read a great many Russian books.", "pos": 55454}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Russian books, indeed? Then, of course, you can read and write quite correctly?", "pos": 55681}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh dear, yes!", "pos": 55763}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Capital! And your handwriting?", "pos": 55779}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Ah, there I am really talented! I may say I am a real caligraphist. Let me write you something, just to show you,", "pos": 55812}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "With pleasure! In fact, it is very necessary. I like your readiness, prince; in fact, I must say—I—I—like you very well, altogether,", "pos": 55967}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What delightful writing materials you have here, such a lot of pencils and things, and what beautiful paper! It’s a charming room altogether. I know that picture, it’s a Swiss view. I’m sure the artist painted it from nature, and that I have seen the very place—", "pos": 56120}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Quite likely, though I bought it here. Gania, give the prince some paper. Here are pens and paper; now then, take this table. What’s this? Halloa! Nastasia Philipovna! Did she send it you herself? Herself?", "pos": 56385}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "She gave it me just now, when I called in to congratulate her. I asked her for it long ago. I don’t know whether she meant it for a hint that I had come empty-handed, without a present for her birthday, or what,", "pos": 56776}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Oh, nonsense, nonsense. What extraordinary ideas you have, Gania! As if she would hint; that’s not her way at all. Besides, what could you give her, without having thousands at your disposal? You might have given her your portrait, however. Has she ever asked you for it?", "pos": 57029}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "No, not yet. Very likely she never will. I suppose you haven’t forgotten about tonight, have you, Ivan Fedorovitch? You were one of those specially invited, you know.", "pos": 57338}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Oh no, I remember all right, and I shall go, of course. I should think so! She’s twenty-five years old today! And, you know, Gania, you must be ready for great things; she has promised both myself and Afanasy Ivanovitch that she will give a decided answer tonight, yes or no. So be prepared!", "pos": 57507}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Are you sure she said that?", "pos": 57874}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Yes, she promised. We both worried her so that she gave in; but she wished us to tell you nothing about it until the day.", "pos": 57958}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Remember, Ivan Fedorovitch, that I was to be free too, until her decision; and that even then I was to have my ‘yes or no’ free.", "pos": 58193}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Why, don’t you, aren’t you—", "pos": 58324}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh, don’t misunderstand—", "pos": 58383}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "But, my dear fellow, what are you doing, what do you mean?", "pos": 58410}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh, I’m not rejecting her. I may have expressed myself badly, but I didn’t mean that.", "pos": 58471}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Reject her! I should think not! Why, my dear fellow, it’s not a question of your rejecting her, it is whether you are prepared to receive her consent joyfully, and with proper satisfaction. How are things going on at home?", "pos": 58559}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "At home? Oh, I can do as I like there, of course; only my father will make a fool of himself, as usual. He is rapidly becoming a general nuisance. I don’t ever talk to him now, but I hold him in check, safe enough. I swear if it had not been for my mother, I should have shown him the way out, long ago. My mother is always crying, of course, and my sister sulks. I had to tell them at last that I intended to be master of my own destiny, and that I expect to be obeyed at home. At least, I gave my sister to understand as much, and my mother was present.", "pos": 58874}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Well, I must say, I cannot understand it! You remember your mother, Nina Alexandrovna, that day she came and sat here and groaned—and when I asked her what was the matter, she says, ‘Oh, it’s such a dishonour to us!’ dishonour! Stuff and nonsense! I should like to know who can reproach Nastasia Philipovna, or who can say a word of any kind against her. Did she mean because Nastasia had been living with Totski? What nonsense it is! You would not let her come near your daughters, says Nina Alexandrovna. What next, I wonder? I don’t see how she can fail to—to understand—", "pos": 59432}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Her own position? She does understand. Don’t be annoyed with her. I have warned her not to meddle in other people’s affairs. However, although there’s comparative peace at home at present, the storm will break if anything is finally settled tonight.", "pos": 60077}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "So this is Nastasia Philipovna. How wonderfully beautiful!", "pos": 60519}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "How do you know it’s Nastasia Philipovna? you surely don’t know her already, do you?", "pos": 61044}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, I do! I have only been one day in Russia, but I have heard of the great beauty!", "pos": 61152}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "There’s news!", "pos": 61350}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh, of course it’s nothing but humbug! It’s all humbug; the young merchant was pleased to indulge in a little innocent recreation! I have heard something of Rogojin!", "pos": 61458}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Yes, so have I! Nastasia Philipovna told us all about the earrings that very day. But now it is quite a different matter. You see the fellow really has a million of roubles, and he is passionately in love. The whole story smells of passion, and we all know what this class of gentry is capable of when infatuated. I am much afraid of some disagreeable scandal, I am indeed!", "pos": 61670}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "You are afraid of the million, I suppose,", "pos": 62069}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "And you are not, I presume, eh?", "pos": 62157}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "How did he strike you, prince? Did he seem to be a serious sort of a man, or just a common rowdy fellow? What was your own opinion about the matter?", "pos": 62191}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I really don’t quite know how to tell you, but it certainly did seem to me that the man was full of passion, and not, perhaps, quite healthy passion. He seemed to be still far from well. Very likely he will be in bed again in a day or two, especially if he lives fast.", "pos": 62610}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "No! do you think so?", "pos": 62903}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, I do think so!", "pos": 62966}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Yes, but the sort of scandal I referred to may happen at any moment. It may be this very evening,", "pos": 62988}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Of course; quite so. In that case it all depends upon what is going on in her brain at this moment.", "pos": 63133}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "You know the kind of person she is at times.", "pos": 63235}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "How? What kind of person is she? Look here, Gania, don’t you go annoying her tonight. What you are to do is to be as agreeable towards her as ever you can. Well, what are you smiling at? You must understand, Gania, that I have no interest whatever in speaking like this. Whichever way the question is settled, it will be to my advantage. Nothing will move Totski from his resolution, so I run no risk. If there is anything I desire, you must know that it is your benefit only. Can’t you trust me? You are a sensible fellow, and I have been counting on you; for, in this matter, that, that—", "pos": 63282}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Yes, that’s the chief thing,", "pos": 63934}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Yes, of course it is the chief thing! What a very curious man you are, Gania! You actually seem to be glad to hear of this millionaire fellow’s arrival—just as though you wished for an excuse to get out of the whole thing. This is an affair in which you ought to act honestly with both sides, and give due warning, to avoid compromising others. But, even now, there is still time. Do you understand me? I wish to know whether you desire this arrangement or whether you do not? If not, say so,—and—and welcome! No one is trying to force you into the snare, Gavrila Ardalionovitch, if you see a snare in the matter, at least.", "pos": 64279}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "I do desire it,", "pos": 64943}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Oh! Why, this is simply beautiful; look at that, Gania, there’s real talent there!", "pos": 65469}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "The gentle Abbot Pafnute signed this. there, that’s the abbot’s real signature—from a manuscript of the fourteenth century. All these old abbots and bishops used to write most beautifully, with such taste and so much care and diligence. Have you no copy of Pogodin, general? If you had one I could show you another type. Stop a bit—here you have the large round writing common in France during the eighteenth century. Some of the letters are shaped quite differently from those now in use. It was the writing current then, and employed by public writers generally. I copied this from one of them, and you can see how good it is. Look at the well-rounded a and d. I have tried to translate the French character into the Russian letters—a difficult thing to do, but I think I have succeeded fairly. Here is a fine sentence, written in a good, original hand—‘Zeal triumphs over all.’ That is the script of the Russian War Office. That is how official documents addressed to important personages should be written. The letters are round, the type black, and the style somewhat remarkable. A stylist would not allow these ornaments, or attempts at flourishes—just look at these unfinished tails!—but it has distinction and really depicts the soul of the writer. He would like to give play to his imagination, and follow the inspiration of his genius, but a soldier is only at ease in the guard-room, and the pen stops half-way, a slave to discipline. How delightful! The first time I met an example of this handwriting, I was positively astonished, and where do you think I chanced to find it? In Switzerland, of all places! Now that is an ordinary English hand. It can hardly be improved, it is so refined and exquisite—almost perfection. This is an example of another kind, a mixture of styles. The copy was given me by a French commercial traveller. It is founded on the English, but the downstrokes are a little blacker, and more marked. Notice that the oval has some slight modification—it is more rounded. This writing allows for flourishes; now a flourish is a dangerous thing! Its use requires such taste, but, if successful, what a distinction it gives to the whole! It results in an incomparable type—one to fall in love with!", "pos": 65774}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Dear me! How you have gone into all the refinements and details of the question! Why, my dear fellow, you are not a caligraphist, you are an artist! Eh, Gania?", "pos": 68075}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Wonderful! And he knows it too,", "pos": 68237}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "You may smile,—but there’s a career in this. You don’t know what a great personage I shall show this to, prince. Why, you can command a situation at thirty-five roubles per month to start with. However, it’s half-past twelve, so to business, prince, for I must be setting to work and shall not see you again today. Sit down a minute. I have told you that I cannot receive you myself very often, but I should like to be of some assistance to you, some small assistance, of a kind that would give you satisfaction. I shall find you a place in one of the State departments, an easy place—but you will require to be accurate. Now, as to your plans—in the house, or rather in the family of Gania here—my young friend, whom I hope you will know better—his mother and sister have prepared two or three rooms for lodgers, and let them to highly recommended young fellows, with board and attendance. I am sure Nina Alexandrovna will take you in on my recommendation. There you will be comfortable and well taken care of; for I do not think, prince, that you are the sort of man to be left to the mercy of Fate in a town like Petersburg. Nina Alexandrovna, Gania’s mother, and Varvara Alexandrovna, are ladies for whom I have the highest possible esteem and respect. Nina Alexandrovna is the wife of General Ardalion Alexandrovitch, my old brother in arms, with whom, I regret to say, on account of certain circumstances, I am no longer acquainted. I give you all this information, prince, in order to make it clear to you that I am personally recommending you to this family, and that in so doing, I am more or less taking upon myself to answer for you. The terms are most reasonable, and I trust that your salary will very shortly prove amply sufficient for your expenditure. Of course pocket-money is a necessity, if only a little; do not be angry, prince, if I strongly recommend you to avoid carrying money in your pocket. But as your purse is quite empty at the present moment, you must allow me to press these twenty-five roubles upon your acceptance, as something to begin with. Of course we will settle this little matter another time, and if you are the upright, honest man you look, I anticipate very little trouble between us on that score. Taking so much interest in you as you may perceive I do, I am not without my object, and you shall know it in good time. You see, I am perfectly candid with you. I hope, Gania, you have nothing to say against the prince’s taking up his abode in your house?", "pos": 68319}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh, on the contrary! my mother will be very glad,", "pos": 70879}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I think only one of your rooms is engaged as yet, is it not? That fellow Ferd-Ferd—", "pos": 70967}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Ferdishenko.", "pos": 71053}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Yes—I don’t like that Ferdishenko. I can’t understand why Nastasia Philipovna encourages him so. Is he really her cousin, as he says?", "pos": 71068}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh dear no, it’s all a joke. No more cousin than I am.", "pos": 71204}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Well, what do you think of the arrangement, prince?", "pos": 71260}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Thank you, general; you have behaved very kindly to me; all the more so since I did not ask you to help me. I don’t say that out of pride. I certainly did not know where to lay my head tonight. Rogojin asked me to come to his house, of course, but—", "pos": 71314}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Rogojin? No, no, my good fellow. I should strongly recommend you, paternally,—or, if you prefer it, as a friend,—to forget all about Rogojin, and, in fact, to stick to the family into which you are about to enter.", "pos": 71565}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Thank you, and since you are so very kind there is just one matter which I—", "pos": 71781}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "You must really excuse me, but I positively haven’t another moment now. I shall just tell Elizabetha Prokofievna about you, and if she wishes to receive you at once—as I shall advise her—I strongly recommend you to ingratiate yourself with her at the first opportunity, for my wife may be of the greatest service to you in many ways. If she cannot receive you now, you must be content to wait till another time. Meanwhile you, Gania, just look over these accounts, will you? We mustn’t forget to finish off that matter—", "pos": 71879}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Do you admire that sort of woman, prince?", "pos": 73113}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It’s a wonderful face, and I feel sure that her destiny is not by any means an ordinary, uneventful one. Her face is smiling enough, but she must have suffered terribly—hasn’t she? Her eyes show it—those two bones there, the little points under her eyes, just where the cheek begins. It’s a proud face too, terribly proud! And I—I can’t say whether she is good and kind, or not. Oh, if she be but good! That would make all well!", "pos": 73247}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "And would you marry a woman like that, now?", "pos": 73697}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I cannot marry at all. I am an invalid.", "pos": 73813}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Would Rogojin marry her, do you think?", "pos": 73874}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why not? Certainly he would, I should think. He would marry her tomorrow!—marry her tomorrow and murder her in a week! What’s the matter?", "pos": 73915}
{"speaker": "the footman", "text": "Your highness! His excellency begs your presence in her excellency’s apartments!", "pos": 74205}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "words were not enough for him; he must have solid guarantees of some sort.", "pos": 94493}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "what they wished her to do,", "pos": 95715}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "he had been so frightened by her, five years ago, that he could never now be entirely comfortable until she herself married. such a suggestion from him would, of course, be absurd, unless accompanied by remarks of a more pointed nature. a certain young gentleman of good family, namely, Gavrila Ardalionovitch Ivolgin, with whom she was acquainted, and whom she received at her house, had long loved her passionately, and would give his life for some response from her. he trusted Nastasia Philipovna would not look with contempt upon him if he now expressed his sincere desire to guarantee her future by a gift of seventy-five thousand roubles. the sum would have been left her all the same in his will, and that therefore she must not consider the gift as in any way an indemnification to her for anything, but that there was no reason, after all, why a man should not be allowed to entertain a natural desire to lighten his conscience, etc., etc.; in fact, all that would naturally be said under the circumstances. not a soul in the world, not even General Epanchin, had ever heard a word about the above seventy-five thousand roubles, and that this was the first time he had ever given expression to his intentions in respect to them.", "pos": 95765}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "such a storm as that of five years ago was now quite out of the question. she had long since changed her views of things, and recognized that facts must be taken into consideration in spite of the feelings of the heart. What was done was done and ended, and she could not understand why Totski should still feel alarmed. she had long since known of his daughters, and that she had heard none but good report; that she had learned to think of them with deep and sincere respect. The idea alone that she could in any way serve them, would be to her both a pride and a source of real happiness. she could not as yet say much. she thought it must be the case that he loved her; she felt that she too might learn to love him, if she could be sure of the firmness of his attachment to herself; but he was very young, and it was a difficult question to decide. What she specially liked about him was that he worked, and supported his family by his toil. she had heard that he was proud and ambitious; she had heard much that was interesting of his mother and sister, she had heard of them from Mr. Ptitsin, and would much like to make their acquaintance, but—another question!—would they like to receive her into their house? Mr. Totski need not have found any difficulty or awkwardness about the matter; she quite understood the value of money, and would, of course, accept the gift. She thanked him for his delicacy, however, but saw no reason why Gavrila Ardalionovitch should not know about it. She would not marry the latter, until she felt persuaded that neither on his part nor on the part of his family did there exist any sort of concealed suspicions as to herself. She did not intend to ask forgiveness for anything in the past, which fact she desired to be known. She did not consider herself to blame for anything that had happened in former years, and she thought that Gavrila Ardalionovitch should be informed as to the relations which had existed between herself and Totski during the last five years. If she accepted this money it was not to be considered as indemnification for her misfortune as a young girl, which had not been in any degree her own fault, but merely as compensation for her ruined life.", "pos": 98405}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "no", "pos": 101889}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "take it out of her,", "pos": 103305}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "as though Heaven had sent him on purpose,", "pos": 105401}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "What, receive him! Now, at once?", "pos": 106375}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Oh, dear me, I assure you there is no need to stand on ceremony with him. He is quite a child, not to say a pathetic-looking creature. He has fits of some sort, and has just arrived from Switzerland, straight from the station, dressed like a German and without a farthing in his pocket. I gave him twenty-five roubles to go on with, and am going to find him some easy place in one of the government offices. I should like you to ply him well with the victuals, my dears, for I should think he must be very hungry.", "pos": 106495}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "You astonish me. Fits, and hungry too! What sort of fits?", "pos": 107044}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Oh, they don’t come on frequently, besides, he’s a regular child, though he seems to be fairly educated. I should like you, if possible, my dears, to put him through his paces a bit, and see what he is good for. I think you should be kind to him; it is a good deed, you know—however, just as you like, of course—but he is a sort of relation, remember, and I thought it might interest you to see the young fellow, seeing that this is so.", "pos": 107139}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Oh, of course, mamma, if we needn’t stand on ceremony with him, we must give the poor fellow something to eat after his journey; especially as he has not the least idea where to go to,", "pos": 107627}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Besides, he’s quite a child; we can entertain him with a little hide-and-seek, in case of need,", "pos": 107855}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Hide-and-seek? What do you mean?", "pos": 107968}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Oh, do stop pretending, mamma. Send him up, father; mother allows.", "pos": 108027}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Only on condition that he has a napkin under his chin at lunch, then, and let Fedor, or Mavra, stand behind him while he eats. Is he quiet when he has these fits? He doesn’t show violence, does he?", "pos": 108202}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "On the contrary, he seems to be very well brought up. His manners are excellent—but here he is himself. Here you are, prince—let me introduce you, the last of the Muishkins, a relative of your own, my dear, or at least of the same name. Receive him kindly, please. They’ll bring in lunch directly, prince; you must stop and have some, but you must excuse me. I’m in a hurry, I must be off—", "pos": 108424}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "We all know where you must be off to!", "pos": 108816}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes, yes—I must hurry away, I’m late! Look here, dears, let him write you something in your albums; you’ve no idea what a wonderful caligraphist he is, wonderful talent! He has just written out ‘Abbot Pafnute signed this’ for me. Well, au revoir!", "pos": 108896}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Stop a minute; where are you off to? Who is this abbot?", "pos": 109145}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes, my dear, it was an old abbot of that name—I must be off to see the count, he’s waiting for me, I’m late—Good-bye! Au revoir, prince!", "pos": 109281}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Oh, yes—I know what count you’re going to see! Now then, what’s all this about?—What abbot—Who’s Pafnute?", "pos": 109459}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Mamma!", "pos": 109674}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Nonsense! Let me alone! Now then, prince, sit down here, no, nearer, come nearer the light! I want to have a good look at you. So, now then, who is this abbot?", "pos": 109749}
{"speaker": "our friend", "text": "Abbot Pafnute,", "pos": 109936}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Pafnute, yes. And who was he?", "pos": 110000}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "The Abbot Pafnute lived in the fourteenth century, he was in charge of one of the monasteries on the Volga, about where our present Kostroma government lies. He went to Oreol and helped in the great matters then going on in the religious world; he signed an edict there, and I have seen a print of his signature; it struck me, so I copied it. When the general asked me, in his study, to write something for him, to show my handwriting, I wrote ‘The Abbot Pafnute signed this,’ in the exact handwriting of the abbot. The general liked it very much, and that’s why he recalled it just now.", "pos": 110167}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Aglaya, make a note of ‘Pafnute,’ or we shall forget him. H’m! and where is this signature?", "pos": 110777}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I think it was left on the general’s table.", "pos": 110871}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Let it be sent for at once!", "pos": 110917}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, I’ll write you a new one in half a minute, if you like!", "pos": 110947}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Of course, mamma! But let’s have lunch now, we are all hungry!", "pos": 111028}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Yes; come along, prince, are you very hungry?", "pos": 111111}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes; I must say that I am pretty hungry, thanks very much.", "pos": 111178}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "H’m! I like to see that you know your manners; and you are by no means such a person as the general thought fit to describe you. Come along; you sit here, opposite to me. I wish to be able to see your face. Alexandra, Adelaida, look after the prince! He doesn’t seem so very ill, does he? I don’t think he requires a napkin under his chin, after all; are you accustomed to having one on, prince?", "pos": 111239}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Formerly, when I was seven years old or so. I believe I wore one; but now I usually hold my napkin on my knee when I eat.", "pos": 111654}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Of course, of course! And about your fits?", "pos": 111778}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Fits? I very seldom have fits nowadays. I don’t know how it may be here, though; they say the climate may be bad for me.", "pos": 111823}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "He talks very well, you know! I really did not expect it at all; in fact, I suppose it was all stuff and nonsense on the general’s part, as usual. Eat away, prince, and tell me where you were born, and where you were brought up. I wish to know all about you, you interest me very much!", "pos": 111986}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Let’s all go to my boudoir, and they shall bring some coffee in there. That’s the room where we all assemble and busy ourselves as we like best. Alexandra, my eldest, here, plays the piano, or reads or sews; Adelaida paints landscapes and portraits (but never finishes any); and Aglaya sits and does nothing. I don’t work too much, either. Here we are, now; sit down, prince, near the fire and talk to us. I want to hear you relate something. I wish to make sure of you first and then tell my old friend, Princess Bielokonski, about you. I wish you to know all the good people and to interest them. Now then, begin!", "pos": 113012}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Mamma, it’s rather a strange order, that!", "pos": 113659}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I should refuse to say a word if I were ordered to tell a story like that!", "pos": 113965}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Why? what’s there strange about it? He has a tongue. Why shouldn’t he tell us something? I want to judge whether he is a good story-teller; anything you like, prince—how you liked Switzerland, what was your first impression, anything. You’ll see, he’ll begin directly and tell us all about it beautifully.", "pos": 114059}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "The impression was forcible—", "pos": 114367}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "There, you see, girls, he has begun, you see.", "pos": 114416}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Well, then, let him talk, mamma. This prince is a great humbug and by no means an idiot,", "pos": 114491}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Oh, I saw that at once. I don’t think it at all nice of him to play a part. What does he wish to gain by it, I wonder?", "pos": 114625}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "My first impression was a very strong one. When they took me away from Russia, I remember I passed through many German towns and looked out of the windows, but did not trouble so much as to ask questions about them. This was after a long series of fits. I always used to fall into a sort of torpid condition after such a series, and lost my memory almost entirely; and though I was not altogether without reason at such times, yet I had no logical power of thought. This would continue for three or four days, and then I would recover myself again. I remember my melancholy was intolerable; I felt inclined to cry; I sat and wondered and wondered uncomfortably; the consciousness that everything was strange weighed terribly upon me; I could understand that it was all foreign and strange. I recollect I awoke from this state for the first time at Basle, one evening; the bray of a donkey aroused me, a donkey in the town market. I saw the donkey and was extremely pleased with it, and from that moment my head seemed to clear.", "pos": 114768}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "A donkey? How strange! Yet it is not strange. Anyone of us might fall in love with a donkey! It happened in mythological times. Go on, prince.", "pos": 115821}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Since that evening I have been specially fond of donkeys. I began to ask questions about them, for I had never seen one before; and I at once came to the conclusion that this must be one of the most useful of animals—strong, willing, patient, cheap; and, thanks to this donkey, I began to like the whole country I was travelling through; and my melancholy passed away.", "pos": 116051}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "All this is very strange and interesting. Now let’s leave the donkey and go on to other matters. What are you laughing at, Aglaya? and you too, Adelaida? The prince told us his experiences very cleverly; he saw the donkey himself, and what have you ever seen? You have never been abroad.", "pos": 116422}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I have seen a donkey though, mamma!", "pos": 116734}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "And I’ve heard one!", "pos": 116785}
{"speaker": "mamma", "text": "Well, it’s too bad of you. You must forgive them, prince; they are good girls. I am very fond of them, though I often have to be scolding them; they are all as silly and mad as march hares.", "pos": 116897}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, why shouldn’t they laugh? I shouldn’t have let the chance go by in their place, I know. But I stick up for the donkey, all the same; he’s a patient, good-natured fellow.", "pos": 117103}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Are you a patient man, prince? I ask out of curiosity,", "pos": 117298}
{"speaker": "the lady", "text": "Oh, that wretched donkey again, I see! I assure you, prince, I was not guilty of the least—", "pos": 117394}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Insinuation? Oh! I assure you, I take your word for it.", "pos": 117506}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "I must say it’s very nice of you to laugh. I see you really are a kind-hearted fellow,", "pos": 117607}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I’m not always kind, though.", "pos": 117716}
{"speaker": "she", "text": "I am kind myself, and always kind too, if you please! and that is my chief fault, for one ought not to be always kind. I am often angry with these girls and their father; but the worst of it is, I am always kindest when I am cross. I was very angry just before you came, and Aglaya there read me a lesson—thanks, Aglaya, dear—come and kiss me—there—that’s enough Now then, go on, prince. Perhaps you can think of something more exciting than about the donkey, eh?", "pos": 117747}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "I must say, again, I can’t understand how you can expect anyone to tell you stories straight away, so. I know I never could!", "pos": 118318}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Yes, but the prince can, because he is clever—cleverer than you are by ten or twenty times, if you like. There, that’s so, prince; and seriously, let’s drop the donkey now—what else did you see abroad, besides the donkey?", "pos": 118462}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Yes, but the prince told us about the donkey very cleverly, all the same. I have always been most interested to hear how people go mad and get well again, and that sort of thing. Especially when it happens suddenly.", "pos": 118686}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Quite so, quite so! I see you can be sensible now and then, Alexandra. You were speaking of Switzerland, prince?", "pos": 118922}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes. We came to Lucerne, and I was taken out in a boat. I felt how lovely it was, but the loveliness weighed upon me somehow or other, and made me feel melancholy.", "pos": 119071}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Why?", "pos": 119237}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I don’t know; I always feel like that when I look at the beauties of nature for the first time; but then, I was ill at that time, of course!", "pos": 119261}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Oh, but I should like to see it! and I don’t know when we shall ever go abroad. I’ve been two years looking out for a good subject for a picture. I’ve done all I know. ‘The North and South I know by heart,’ as our poet observes. Do help me to a subject, prince.", "pos": 119404}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, but I know nothing about painting. It seems to me one only has to look, and paint what one sees.", "pos": 119685}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "But I don’t know how to see!", "pos": 119788}
{"speaker": "the mother", "text": "Nonsense, what rubbish you talk! Not know how to see! Open your eyes and look! If you can’t see here, you won’t see abroad either. Tell us what you saw yourself, prince!", "pos": 119819}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Yes, that’s better, the prince learned to see abroad.", "pos": 120015}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, I hardly know! You see, I only went to restore my health. I don’t know whether I learned to see, exactly. I was very happy, however, nearly all the time.", "pos": 120088}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Happy! you can be happy? Then how can you say you did not learn to see? I should think you could teach us to see!", "pos": 120248}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Oh! do teach us,", "pos": 120380}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh! I can’t do that. I lived almost all the while in one little Swiss village; what can I teach you? At first I was only just not absolutely dull; then my health began to improve—then every day became dearer and more precious to me, and the longer I stayed, the dearer became the time to me; so much so that I could not help observing it; but why this was so, it would be difficult to say.", "pos": 120417}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "So that you didn’t care to go away anywhere else?", "pos": 120842}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well, at first I did; I was restless; I didn’t know however I should manage to support life—you know there are such moments, especially in solitude. There was a waterfall near us, such a lovely thin streak of water, like a thread but white and moving. It fell from a great height, but it looked quite low, and it was half a mile away, though it did not seem fifty paces. I loved to listen to it at night, but it was then that I became so restless. Sometimes I went and climbed the mountain and stood there in the midst of the tall pines, all alone in the terrible silence, with our little village in the distance, and the sky so blue, and the sun so bright, and an old ruined castle on the mountain-side, far away. I used to watch the line where earth and sky met, and longed to go and seek there the key of all mysteries, thinking that I might find there a new life, perhaps some great city where life should be grander and richer—and then it struck me that life may be grand enough even in a prison.", "pos": 120894}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I read that last most praiseworthy thought in my manual, when I was twelve years old,", "pos": 121898}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "All this is pure philosophy. You are a philosopher, prince, and have come here to instruct us in your views.", "pos": 121999}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Perhaps you are right. I think I am a philosopher, perhaps, and who knows, perhaps I do wish to teach my views of things to those I meet with?", "pos": 122127}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Your philosophy is rather like that of an old woman we know, who is rich and yet does nothing but try how little she can spend. She talks of nothing but money all day. Your great philosophical idea of a grand life in a prison and your four happy years in that Swiss village are like this, rather,", "pos": 122300}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "As to life in a prison, of course there may be two opinions. I once heard the story of a man who lived twelve years in a prison—I heard it from the man himself. He was one of the persons under treatment with my professor; he had fits, and attacks of melancholy, then he would weep, and once he tried to commit suicide. His life in prison was sad enough; his only acquaintances were spiders and a tree that grew outside his grating—but I think I had better tell you of another man I met last year. There was a very strange feature in this case, strange because of its extremely rare occurrence. This man had once been brought to the scaffold in company with several others, and had had the sentence of death by shooting passed upon him for some political crime. Twenty minutes later he had been reprieved and some other punishment substituted; but the interval between the two sentences, twenty minutes, or at least a quarter of an hour, had been passed in the certainty that within a few minutes he must die. I was very anxious to hear him speak of his impressions during that dreadful time, and I several times inquired of him as to what he thought and felt. He remembered everything with the most accurate and extraordinary distinctness, and declared that he would never forget a single iota of the experience. About twenty paces from the scaffold, where he had stood to hear the sentence, were three posts, fixed in the ground, to which to fasten the criminals (of whom there were several). The first three criminals were taken to the posts, dressed in long white tunics, with white caps drawn over their faces, so that they could not see the rifles pointed at them. Then a group of soldiers took their stand opposite to each post. My friend was the eighth on the list, and therefore he would have been among the third lot to go up. A priest went about among them with a cross: and there was about five minutes of time left for him to live. He said that those five minutes seemed to him to be a most interminable period, an enormous wealth of time; he seemed to be living, in these minutes, so many lives that there was no need as yet to think of that last moment, so that he made several arrangements, dividing up the time into portions—one for saying farewell to his companions, two minutes for that; then a couple more for thinking over his own life and career and all about himself; and another minute for a last look around. He remembered having divided his time like this quite well. While saying good-bye to his friends he recollected asking one of them some very usual everyday question, and being much interested in the answer. Then having bade farewell, he embarked upon those two minutes which he had allotted to looking into himself; he knew beforehand what he was going to think about. He wished to put it to himself as quickly and clearly as possible, that here was he, a living, thinking man, and that in three minutes he would be nobody; or if somebody or something, then what and where? He thought he would decide this question once for all in these last three minutes. A little way off there stood a church, and its gilded spire glittered in the sun. He remembered staring stubbornly at this spire, and at the rays of light sparkling from it. He could not tear his eyes from these rays of light; he got the idea that these rays were his new nature, and that in three minutes he would become one of them, amalgamated somehow with them. The repugnance to what must ensue almost immediately, and the uncertainty, were dreadful, he said; but worst of all was the idea, ‘What should I do if I were not to die now? What if I were to return to life again? What an eternity of days, and all mine! How I should grudge and count up every minute of it, so as to waste not a single instant!’ He said that this thought weighed so upon him and became such a terrible burden upon his brain that he could not bear it, and wished they would shoot him quickly and have done with it. What should I do if I were not to die now? What if I were to return to life again? What an eternity of days, and all mine! How I should grudge and count up every minute of it, so as to waste not a single instant!", "pos": 122612}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Is that all?", "pos": 126706}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "All? Yes,", "pos": 126735}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "And why did you tell us this?", "pos": 126799}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, I happened to recall it, that’s all! It fitted into the conversation—", "pos": 126831}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "You probably wish to deduce, prince, that moments of time cannot be reckoned by money value, and that sometimes five minutes are worth priceless treasures. All this is very praiseworthy; but may I ask about this friend of yours, who told you the terrible experience of his life? He was reprieved, you say; in other words, they did restore to him that ‘eternity of days.’ What did he do with these riches of time? Did he keep careful account of his minutes?", "pos": 126907}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh no, he didn’t! I asked him myself. He said that he had not lived a bit as he had intended, and had wasted many, and many a minute.", "pos": 127384}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Very well, then there’s an experiment, and the thing is proved; one cannot live and count each moment; say what you like, but one cannot.", "pos": 127520}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That is true. I have thought so myself. And yet, why shouldn’t one do it?", "pos": 127660}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "You think, then, that you could live more wisely than other people?", "pos": 127755}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I have had that idea.", "pos": 127838}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "And you have it still?", "pos": 127862}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes—I have it still. You are not very modest! But how brave you are! 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... You are not angry with me?", "pos": 127887}
{"speaker": "Why should we be angry?", "text": "Why should we be angry?", "pos": 128511}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Only because I seem to be giving you a lecture, all the time! Please don’t be angry with me. I know very well that I have seen less of life than other people, and have less knowledge of it. I must appear to speak strangely sometimes...", "pos": 128549}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "You say you have been happy, and that proves you have lived, not less, but more than other people. Why make all these excuses? 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.", "pos": 128878}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "I can’t understand why you always fly into a temper. I do not understand what you mean. What has your little finger to do with it? The prince talks well, though he is not amusing. He began all right, but now he seems sad.", "pos": 129383}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Never mind, mamma! Prince, I wish you had seen an execution. I should like to ask you a question about that, if you had.", "pos": 129721}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I have seen an execution,", "pos": 129859}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "You have!", "pos": 129904}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "But is there capital punishment where you were?", "pos": 130086}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I saw it at Lyons. Schneider took us there, and as soon as we arrived we came in for that.", "pos": 130152}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Well, and did you like it very much? Was it very edifying and instructive?", "pos": 130245}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, I didn’t like it at all, and was ill after seeing it; but I confess I stared as though my eyes were fixed to the sight. I could not tear them away.", "pos": 130336}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I, too, should have been unable to tear my eyes away.", "pos": 130490}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "They do not at all approve of women going to see an execution there. The women who do go are condemned for it afterwards in the newspapers.", "pos": 130559}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "That is, by contending that it is not a sight for women they admit that it is a sight for men. I congratulate them on the deduction. I suppose you quite agree with them, prince?", "pos": 130701}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Tell us about the execution,", "pos": 130881}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I would much rather not, just now,", "pos": 130929}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "You don’t seem to want to tell us,", "pos": 131025}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No,—the thing is, I was telling all about the execution a little while ago, and— The man-servant, while I was waiting to see the general.", "pos": 131095}
{"speaker": "Our man-servant?", "text": "Our man-servant?", "pos": 131267}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, the one who waits in the entrance hall, a greyish, red-faced man—", "pos": 131320}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "The prince is clearly a democrat,", "pos": 131393}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well, if you could tell Aleksey about it, surely you can tell us too.", "pos": 131446}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "I do so want to hear about it,", "pos": 131518}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Just now, I confess, when you asked me for a subject for a picture, I confess I had serious thoughts of giving you one. I thought of asking you to draw the face of a criminal, one minute before the fall of the guillotine, while the wretched man is still standing on the scaffold, preparatory to placing his neck on the block.", "pos": 131611}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "What, his face? only his face? That would be a strange subject indeed. And what sort of a picture would that make?", "pos": 131939}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, why not? When I was in Basle I saw a picture very much in that style—I should like to tell you about it; I will some time or other; it struck me very forcibly.", "pos": 132115}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Oh, you shall tell us about the Basle picture another time; now we must have all about the execution. Tell us about that face as it appeared to your imagination—how should it be drawn?—just the face alone, do you mean?", "pos": 132281}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It was just a minute before the execution, just at the instant when he stepped off the ladder on to the scaffold. He happened to look in my direction: I saw his eyes and understood all, at once—but how am I to describe it? I do so wish you or somebody else could draw it, you, if possible. I thought at the time what a picture it would make. You must imagine all that went before, of course, all—all. He had lived in the prison for some time and had not expected that the execution would take place for at least a week yet—he had counted on all the formalities and so on taking time; but it so happened that his papers had been got ready quickly. At five o’clock in the morning he was asleep—it was October, and at five in the morning it was cold and dark. The governor of the prison comes in on tip-toe and touches the sleeping man’s shoulder gently. He starts up. ‘What is it?’ he says. ‘The execution is fixed for ten o’clock.’ He was only just awake, and would not believe at first, but began to argue that his papers would not be out for a week, and so on. When he was wide awake and realized the truth, he became very silent and argued no more—so they say; but after a bit he said: ‘It comes very hard on one so suddenly’ and then he was silent again and said nothing. The three or four hours went by, of course, in necessary preparations—the priest, breakfast, (coffee, meat, and some wine they gave him; doesn’t it seem ridiculous?) And yet I believe these people give them a good breakfast out of pure kindness of heart, and believe that they are doing a good action. Then he is dressed, and then begins the procession through the town to the scaffold. I think he, too, must feel that he has an age to live still while they cart him along. Probably he thought, on the way, ‘Oh, I have a long, long time yet. Three streets of life yet! When we’ve passed this street there’ll be that other one; and then that one where the baker’s shop is on the right; and when shall we get there? It’s ages, ages!’ Around him are crowds shouting, yelling—ten thousand faces, twenty thousand eyes. All this has to be endured, and especially the thought: ‘Here are ten thousand men, and not one of them is going to be executed, and yet I am to die.’ Well, all that is preparatory. At the scaffold there is a ladder, and just there he burst into tears—and this was a strong man, and a terribly wicked one, they say! There was a priest with him the whole time, talking; even in the cart as they drove along, he talked and talked. Probably the other heard nothing; he would begin to listen now and then, and at the third word or so he had forgotten all about it. At last he began to mount the steps; his legs were tied, so that he had to take very small steps. The priest, who seemed to be a wise man, had stopped talking now, and only held the cross for the wretched fellow to kiss. At the foot of the ladder he had been pale enough; but when he set foot on the scaffold at the top, his face suddenly became the colour of paper, positively like white notepaper. His legs must have become suddenly feeble and helpless, and he felt a choking in his throat—you know the sudden feeling one has in moments of terrible fear, when one does not lose one’s wits, but is absolutely powerless to move? If some dreadful thing were suddenly to happen; if a house were just about to fall on one;—don’t you know how one would long to sit down and shut one’s eyes and wait, and wait? Well, when this terrible feeling came over him, the priest quickly pressed the cross to his lips, without a word—a little silver cross it was—and he kept on pressing it to the man’s lips every second. And whenever the cross touched his lips, the eyes would open for a moment, and the legs moved once, and he kissed the cross greedily, hurriedly—just as though he were anxious to catch hold of something in case of its being useful to him afterwards, though he could hardly have had any connected religious thoughts at the time. And so up to the very block. How strange that criminals seldom swoon at such a moment! On the contrary, the brain is especially active, and works incessantly—probably hard, hard, hard—like an engine at full pressure. I imagine that various thoughts must beat loud and fast through his head—all unfinished ones, and strange, funny thoughts, very likely!—like this, for instance: ‘That man is looking at me, and he has a wart on his forehead! and the executioner has burst one of his buttons, and the lowest one is all rusty!’ And meanwhile he notices and remembers everything. There is one point that cannot be forgotten, round which everything else dances and turns about; and because of this point he cannot faint, and this lasts until the very final quarter of a second, when the wretched neck is on the block and the victim listens and waits and knows—that’s the point, he knows that he is just now about to die, and listens for the rasp of the iron over his head. If I lay there, I should certainly listen for that grating sound, and hear it, too! There would probably be but the tenth part of an instant left to hear it in, but one would certainly hear it. And imagine, some people declare that when the head flies off it is conscious of having flown off! Just imagine what a thing to realize! Fancy if consciousness were to last for even five seconds! Draw the scaffold so that only the top step of the ladder comes in clearly. The criminal must be just stepping on to it, his face as white as note-paper. The priest is holding the cross to his blue lips, and the criminal kisses it, and knows and sees and understands everything. The cross and the head—there’s your picture; the priest and the executioner, with his two assistants, and a few heads and eyes below. Those might come in as subordinate accessories—a sort of mist. There’s a picture for you.", "pos": 132519}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Certainly that isn’t much like quietism,", "pos": 138525}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Now tell us about your love affairs. You know, you owe us a description of the Basle picture; but first I wish to hear how you fell in love. Don’t deny the fact, for you did, of course. Besides, you stop philosophizing when you are telling about anything.", "pos": 138605}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Why are you ashamed of your stories the moment after you have told them?", "pos": 138964}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "How silly you are!", "pos": 139063}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Yes, that wasn’t a clever remark,", "pos": 139150}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Don’t listen to her, prince; she says that sort of thing out of mischief. Don’t think anything of their nonsense, it means nothing. They love to chaff, but they like you. I can see it in their faces—I know their faces.", "pos": 139224}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I know their faces, too,", "pos": 139445}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "How so?", "pos": 139526}
{"speaker": "What do _you_ know about our faces?", "text": "What do you know about our faces?", "pos": 139568}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I’ll tell you afterwards,", "pos": 139702}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Ah, you want to arouse our curiosity! And how terribly solemn you are about it!", "pos": 139747}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Very well, then if you can read faces so well, you must have been in love. Come now; I’ve guessed—let’s have the secret!", "pos": 139868}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I have not been in love. I have been happy in another way.", "pos": 139991}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "How, how?", "pos": 140107}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well, I’ll tell you. Here you all are, settling yourselves down to listen to me with so much curiosity, that if I do not satisfy you you will probably be angry with me. No, no! I’m only joking! Well, then—they were all children there, and I was always among children and only with children. They were the children of the village in which I lived, and they went to the school there—all of them. I did not teach them, oh no; there was a master for that, one Jules Thibaut. I may have taught them some things, but I was among them just as an outsider, and I passed all four years of my life there among them. I wished for nothing better; I used to tell them everything and hid nothing from them. Their fathers and relations were very angry with me, because the children could do nothing without me at last, and used to throng after me at all times. The schoolmaster was my greatest enemy in the end! I had many enemies, and all because of the children. Even Schneider reproached me. What were they afraid of? One can tell a child everything, anything. I have often been struck by the fact that parents know their children so little. They should not conceal so much from them. How well even little children understand that their parents conceal things from them, because they consider them too young to understand! Children are capable of giving advice in the most important matters. How can one deceive these dear little birds, when they look at one so sweetly and confidingly? I call them birds because there is nothing in the world better than birds! However, most of the people were angry with me about one and the same thing; but Thibaut simply was jealous of me. At first he had wagged his head and wondered how it was that the children understood what I told them so well, and could not learn from him; and he laughed like anything when I replied that neither he nor I could teach them very much, but that they might teach us a good deal. How he could hate me and tell scandalous stories about me, living among children as he did, is what I cannot understand. Children soothe and heal the wounded heart. I remember there was one poor fellow at our professor’s who was being treated for madness, and you have no idea what those children did for him, eventually. I don’t think he was mad, but only terribly unhappy. But I’ll tell you all about him another day. Now I must get on with this story. The children did not love me at first; I was such a sickly, awkward kind of a fellow then—and I know I am ugly. Besides, I was a foreigner. The children used to laugh at me, at first; and they even went so far as to throw stones at me, when they saw me kiss Marie. I only kissed her once in my life—no, no, don’t laugh! It was not a matter of love at all! If only you knew what a miserable creature she was, you would have pitied her, just as I did. She belonged to our village. Her mother was an old, old woman, and they used to sell string and thread, and soap and tobacco, out of the window of their little house, and lived on the pittance they gained by this trade. The old woman was ill and very old, and could hardly move. Marie was her daughter, a girl of twenty, weak and thin and consumptive; but still she did heavy work at the houses around, day by day. Well, one fine day a commercial traveller betrayed her and carried her off; and a week later he deserted her. She came home dirty, draggled, and shoeless; she had walked for a whole week without shoes; she had slept in the fields, and caught a terrible cold; her feet were swollen and sore, and her hands torn and scratched all over. She never had been pretty even before; but her eyes were quiet, innocent, kind eyes.", "pos": 140119}
{"speaker": "Everyone", "text": "Marie tried to sing today!", "pos": 144099}
{"speaker": "Marie's mother", "text": "You have disgraced me,", "pos": 144519}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "When everyone crowded into the room she hid her face in her dishevelled hair and lay cowering on the floor. Everyone looked at her as though she were a piece of dirt off the road. The old men scolded and condemned, and the young ones laughed at her. The women condemned her too, and looked at her contemptuously, just as though she were some loathsome insect.", "pos": 144893}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Her mother allowed all this to go on, and nodded her head and encouraged them. The old woman was very ill at that time, and knew she was dying (she really did die a couple of months later), and though she felt the end approaching she never thought of forgiving her daughter, to the very day of her death. She would not even speak to her. She made her sleep on straw in a shed, and hardly gave her food enough to support life.", "pos": 145254}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Marie was very gentle to her mother, and nursed her, and did everything for her; but the old woman accepted all her services without a word and never showed her the slightest kindness. Marie bore all this; and I could see when I got to know her that she thought it quite right and fitting, considering herself the lowest and meanest of creatures.", "pos": 145681}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "When the old woman took to her bed finally, the other old women in the village sat with her by turns, as the custom is there; and then Marie was quite driven out of the house. They gave her no food at all, and she could not get any work in the village; none would employ her. The men seemed to consider her no longer a woman, they said such dreadful things to her. Sometimes on Sundays, if they were drunk enough, they used to throw her a penny or two, into the mud, and Marie would silently pick up the money. She had began to spit blood at that time.", "pos": 146029}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "At last her rags became so tattered and torn that she was ashamed of appearing in the village any longer. The children used to pelt her with mud; so she begged to be taken on as assistant cowherd, but the cowherd would not have her. Then she took to helping him without leave; and he saw how valuable her assistance was to him, and did not drive her away again; on the contrary, he occasionally gave her the remnants of his dinner, bread and cheese. He considered that he was being very kind. When the mother died, the village parson was not ashamed to hold Marie up to public derision and shame. Marie was standing at the coffin’s head, in all her rags, crying.", "pos": 146583}
{"speaker": "Parson", "text": "There, there is the cause of the death of this venerable woman there she stands before you, and dares not lift her eyes from the ground, because she knows that the finger of God is upon her. Look at her tatters and rags—the badge of those who lose their virtue. Who is she? her daughter!", "pos": 147412}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And just fancy, this infamy pleased them, all of them, nearly. Only the children had altered—for then they were all on my side and had learned to love Marie.", "pos": 147804}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "This is how it was: I had wished to do something for Marie; I longed to give her some money, but I never had a farthing while I was there. But I had a little diamond pin, and this I sold to a travelling pedlar; he gave me eight francs for it—it was worth at least forty.", "pos": 147963}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I long sought to meet Marie alone; and at last I did meet her, on the hillside beyond the village. I gave her the eight francs and asked her to take care of the money because I could get no more; and then I kissed her and said that she was not to suppose I kissed her with any evil motives or because I was in love with her, for that I did so solely out of pity for her, and because from the first I had not accounted her as guilty so much as unfortunate. I longed to console and encourage her somehow, and to assure her that she was not the low, base thing which she and others strove to make out; but I don’t think she understood me. She stood before me, dreadfully ashamed of herself, and with downcast eyes; and when I had finished she kissed my hand. I would have kissed hers, but she drew it away. Just at this moment the whole troop of children saw us. (I found out afterwards that they had long kept a watch upon me.) They all began whistling and clapping their hands, and laughing at us. Marie ran away at once; and when I tried to talk to them, they threw stones at me. All the village heard of it the same day, and Marie’s position became worse than ever. The children would not let her pass now in the streets, but annoyed her and threw dirt at her more than before. They used to run after her—she racing away with her poor feeble lungs panting and gasping, and they pelting her and shouting abuse at her.", "pos": 148235}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Once I had to interfere by force; and after that I took to speaking to them every day and whenever I could. Occasionally they stopped and listened; but they teased Marie all the same.", "pos": 149654}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I told them how unhappy Marie was, and after a while they stopped their abuse of her, and let her go by silently. Little by little we got into the way of conversing together, the children and I. I concealed nothing from them, I told them all. They listened very attentively and soon began to be sorry for Marie. At last some of them took to saying ‘Good-morning’ to her, kindly, when they met her. It is the custom there to salute anyone you meet with ‘Good-morning’ whether acquainted or not. I can imagine how astonished Marie was at these first greetings from the children.", "pos": 149839}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Once two little girls got hold of some food and took it to her, and came back and told me. They said she had burst into tears, and that they loved her very much now. Very soon after that they all became fond of Marie, and at the same time they began to develop the greatest affection for myself. They often came to me and begged me to tell them stories. I think I must have told stories well, for they did so love to hear them. At last I took to reading up interesting things on purpose to pass them on to the little ones, and this went on for all the rest of my time there, three years. Later, when everyone—even Schneider—was angry with me for hiding nothing from the children, I pointed out how foolish it was, for they always knew things, only they learnt them in a way that soiled their minds but not so from me. One has only to remember one’s own childhood to admit the truth of this. But nobody was convinced... It was two weeks before her mother died that I had kissed Marie; and when the clergyman preached that sermon the children were all on my side.", "pos": 150417}
{"speaker": "Children", "text": "Je vous aime, Marie!", "pos": 152114}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "In the evening I used to walk to the waterfall. There was a spot there which was quite closed in and hidden from view by large trees; and to this spot the children used to come to me. They could not bear that their dear Leon should love a poor girl without shoes to her feet and dressed all in rags and tatters. So, would you believe it, they actually clubbed together, somehow, and bought her shoes and stockings, and some linen, and even a dress! I can’t understand how they managed it, but they did it, all together. When I asked them about it they only laughed and shouted, and the little girls clapped their hands and kissed me. I sometimes went to see Marie secretly, too. She had become very ill, and could hardly walk. She still went with the herd, but could not help the herdsman any longer. She used to sit on a stone near, and wait there almost motionless all day, till the herd went home. Her consumption was so advanced, and she was so weak, that she used to sit with closed eyes, breathing heavily. Her face was as thin as a skeleton’s, and sweat used to stand on her white brow in large drops. I always found her sitting just like that. I used to come up quietly to look at her; but Marie would hear me, open her eyes, and tremble violently as she kissed my hands. I did not take my hand away because it made her happy to have it, and so she would sit and cry quietly. Sometimes she tried to speak; but it was very difficult to understand her. She was almost like a madwoman, with excitement and ecstasy, whenever I came. Occasionally the children came with me; when they did so, they would stand some way off and keep guard over us, so as to tell me if anybody came near. This was a great pleasure to them.", "pos": 152359}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "When we left her, Marie used to relapse at once into her old condition, and sit with closed eyes and motionless limbs. One day she could not go out at all, and remained at home all alone in the empty hut; but the children very soon became aware of the fact, and nearly all of them visited her that day as she lay alone and helpless in her miserable bed.", "pos": 154083}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "For two days the children looked after her, and then, when the village people got to know that Marie was really dying, some of the old women came and took it in turns to sit by her and look after her a bit. I think they began to be a little sorry for her in the village at last; at all events they did not interfere with the children any more, on her account.", "pos": 154438}
{"speaker": "Children", "text": "Bon jour, notre bonne Marie!", "pos": 155037}
{"speaker": "Children", "text": "Nous t’aimons, Marie!", "pos": 155677}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "She died very soon; I had thought she would live much longer. The day before her death I went to see her for the last time, just before sunset. I think she recognized me, for she pressed my hand.", "pos": 155701}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Next morning they came and told me that Marie was dead. The children could not be restrained now; they went and covered her coffin with flowers, and put a wreath of lovely blossoms on her head. The pastor did not throw any more shameful words at the poor dead woman; but there were very few people at the funeral. However, when it came to carrying the coffin, all the children rushed up, to carry it themselves. Of course they could not do it alone, but they insisted on helping, and walked alongside and behind, crying.", "pos": 155898}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "They have planted roses all round her grave, and every year they look after the flowers and make Marie’s resting-place as beautiful as they can. I was in ill odour after all this with the parents of the children, and especially with the parson and schoolmaster. Schneider was obliged to promise that I should not meet them and talk to them; but we conversed from a distance by signs, and they used to write me sweet little notes. Afterwards I came closer than ever to those little souls, but even then it was very dear to me, to have them so fond of me.", "pos": 156420}
{"speaker": "Schneider", "text": "You have the form and face of an adult but as regards soul, and character, and perhaps even intelligence, you are a child in the completest sense of the word, and always will be, if you live to be sixty.", "pos": 157194}
{"speaker": "Narrator", "text": "I am going into the world of men. I don’t know much, perhaps, but a new life has begun for me.", "pos": 159047}
{"speaker": "Children", "text": "Hurrah!", "pos": 160566}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I assure you, when I came in here just now and saw your kind faces (I can read faces well) my heart felt light for the first time since that moment of parting. I think I must be one of those who are born to be in luck, for one does not often meet with people whom one feels he can love from the first sight of their faces; and yet, no sooner do I step out of the railway carriage than I happen upon you! I know it is more or less a shamefaced thing to speak of one’s feelings before others; and yet here am I talking like this to you, and am not a bit ashamed or shy. I am an unsociable sort of fellow and shall very likely not come to see you again for some time; but don’t think the worse of me for that. It is not that I do not value your society; and you must never suppose that I have taken offence at anything. You asked me about your faces, and what I could read in them; I will tell you with the greatest pleasure. You, Adelaida Ivanovna, have a very happy face; it is the most sympathetic of the three. Not to speak of your natural beauty, one can look at your face and say to one’s self, ‘She has the face of a kind sister.’ You are simple and merry, but you can see into another’s heart very quickly. That’s what I read in your face. You too, Alexandra Ivanovna, have a very lovely face; but I think you may have some secret sorrow. Your heart is undoubtedly a kind, good one, but you are not merry. There is a certain suspicion of ‘shadow’ in your face, like in that of Holbein’s Madonna in Dresden. So much for your face. Have I guessed right? As for your face, Lizabetha Prokofievna, I not only think, but am perfectly sure, that you are an absolute child—in all, in all, mind, both good and bad—and in spite of your years. Don’t be angry with me for saying so; you know what my feelings for children are. And do not suppose that I am so candid out of pure simplicity of soul. Oh dear no, it is by no means the case! Perhaps I have my own very profound object in view.", "pos": 160612}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Well! We have ‘put him through his paces,’ with a vengeance! My dears, you imagined, I believe, that you were about to patronize this young gentleman, like some poor protégé picked up somewhere, and taken under your magnificent protection. What fools we were, and what a specially big fool is your father! Well done, prince! I assure you the general actually asked me to put you through your paces, and examine you. As to what you said about my face, you are absolutely correct in your judgment. I am a child, and know it. I knew it long before you said so; you have expressed my own thoughts. I think your nature and mine must be extremely alike, and I am very glad of it. We are like two drops of water, only you are a man and I a woman, and I’ve not been to Switzerland, and that is all the difference between us.", "pos": 162749}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Don’t be in a hurry, mother; the prince says that he has some motive behind his simplicity.", "pos": 163568}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Yes, yes, so he does. Oh, don’t you begin bantering him. He is probably a good deal cleverer than all three of you girls put together. We shall see. Only you haven’t told us anything about Aglaya yet, prince; and Aglaya and I are both waiting to hear.", "pos": 163676}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I cannot say anything at present. I’ll tell you afterwards.", "pos": 163966}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Why? Her face is clear enough, isn’t it?", "pos": 164028}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh yes, of course. You are very beautiful, Aglaya Ivanovna, so beautiful that one is afraid to look at you.", "pos": 164071}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Is that all? What about her character?", "pos": 164181}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It is difficult to judge when such beauty is concerned. I have not prepared my judgment. Beauty is a riddle.", "pos": 164247}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "That means that you have set Aglaya a riddle! Guess it, Aglaya! But she’s pretty, prince, isn’t she?", "pos": 164358}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Most wonderfully so. Almost as lovely as Nastasia Philipovna, but quite a different type.", "pos": 164539}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "As lovely as who? As Nastasia Philipovna? Where have you seen Nastasia Philipovna? What Nastasia Philipovna?", "pos": 164672}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Gavrila Ardalionovitch showed the general her portrait just now.", "pos": 164805}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "How so? Did he bring the portrait for my husband?", "pos": 164872}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Only to show it. Nastasia Philipovna gave it to Gavrila Ardalionovitch today, and the latter brought it here to show to the general.", "pos": 164924}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "I must see it! Where is the portrait? If she gave it to him, he must have it; and he is still in the study. He never leaves before four o’clock on Wednesdays. Send for Gavrila Ardalionovitch at once. No, I don’t long to see him so much. Look here, dear prince, be so kind, will you? Just step to the study and fetch this portrait! Say we want to look at it. Please do this for me, will you?", "pos": 165082}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "He is a nice fellow, but a little too simple.", "pos": 165475}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "He is, indeed; almost laughably so at times.", "pos": 165567}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "He got out of it very neatly about our faces, though. He flattered us all round, even mamma.", "pos": 165706}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Nonsense! He did not flatter me. It was I who found his appreciation flattering. I think you are a great deal more foolish than he is. He is simple, of course, but also very knowing. Just like myself.", "pos": 165836}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "How stupid of me to speak of the portrait, and yet, perhaps I was right after all.", "pos": 166039}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh, curse it all. Oh, curse it all; what on earth must you go blabbing for? You know nothing about the thing, and yet—idiot!", "pos": 166584}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I am very sorry; I was not thinking at the time. I merely said that Aglaya was almost as beautiful as Nastasia Philipovna.", "pos": 166772}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Listen, prince, I wish to ask you a great favour, and yet I really don’t know—", "pos": 167170}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I don’t quite like it.", "pos": 168096}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh, but it is absolutely necessary for me. Believe me, if it were not so, I would not ask you; how else am I to get it to her? It is most important, dreadfully important!", "pos": 168141}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well, I will take it then.", "pos": 168496}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "But mind, nobody is to see! And of course I may rely on your word of honour, eh?", "pos": 168525}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I won’t show it to anyone.", "pos": 168636}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "The letter is not sealed—", "pos": 168682}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, I won’t read it.", "pos": 168752}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "One word from her, one word from her, and I may yet be free.", "pos": 168910}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Gavrila Ardalionovitch begged me to give you this.", "pos": 170366}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "What a power!", "pos": 171768}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Whom? What power? Such beauty is real power. With such beauty as that one might overthrow the world.", "pos": 171876}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Ask Gavrila Ardalionovitch to step this way.", "pos": 172221}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Mamma!", "pos": 172302}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "I shall just say two words to him, that’s all. You see, prince, it is all secrets with us, just now—all secrets. It seems to be the etiquette of the house, for some reason or other. Stupid nonsense, and in a matter which ought to be approached with all candour and open-heartedness. There is a marriage being talked of, and I don’t like this marriage—", "pos": 172343}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Mamma, what are you saying?", "pos": 172792}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Well, what, my dear girl? As if you can possibly like it yourself? The heart is the great thing, and the rest is all rubbish—though one must have sense as well. Perhaps sense is really the great thing. Don’t smile like that, Aglaya. I don’t contradict myself. A fool with a heart and no brains is just as unhappy as a fool with brains and no heart. I am one and you are the other, and therefore both of us suffer, both of us are unhappy.", "pos": 172855}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Why are you so unhappy, mother?", "pos": 173295}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "In the first place, because of my carefully brought-up daughters; and as that is the best reason I can give you we need not bother about any other at present. Enough of words, now! We shall see how both of you (I don’t count Aglaya) will manage your business, and whether you, most revered Alexandra Ivanovna, will be happy with your fine mate.", "pos": 173438}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Married? how—what marriage?", "pos": 174035}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Are you about to take a wife? I ask,—if you prefer that expression.", "pos": 174109}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "No, no I—I—no!", "pos": 174179}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "No? You say no, do you? Very well, I shall remember that you told me this Wednesday morning, in answer to my question, that you are not going to be married. What day is it, Wednesday, isn’t it?", "pos": 174513}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Yes, I think so!", "pos": 174709}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Twenty-seventh; very well. Good-bye now; you have a good deal to do, I’m sure, and I must dress and go out. Take your portrait. Give my respects to your unfortunate mother, Nina Alexandrovna. Au revoir, dear prince, come in and see us often, do; and I shall tell old Princess Bielokonski about you. I shall go and see her on purpose. And listen, my dear boy, I feel sure that God has sent you to Petersburg from Switzerland on purpose for me. Maybe you will have other things to do, besides, but you are sent chiefly for my sake, I feel sure of it. God sent you to me! Au revoir! Alexandra, come with me, my dear.", "pos": 174840}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Prince, I am just going home. If you have not changed your mind as to living with us, perhaps you would like to come with me. You don’t know the address, I believe?", "pos": 175608}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Wait a minute, prince, do write something in my album first, will you? Father says you are a most talented caligraphist; I’ll bring you my book in a minute.", "pos": 175821}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Well, au revoir, prince, I must be going too.", "pos": 175999}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "This is your doing, prince. This is your doing, sir! You have been telling them that I am going to be married!", "pos": 176276}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I assure you, you are under a delusion. I did not even know that you were to be married.", "pos": 176498}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "You heard me talking about it, the general and me. You heard me say that everything was to be settled today at Nastasia Philipovna’s, and you went and blurted it out here. You lie if you deny it. Who else could have told them? Devil take it, sir, who could have told them except yourself? Didn’t the old woman as good as hint as much to me?", "pos": 176629}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "If she hinted to you who told her you must know best, of course; but I never said a word about it.", "pos": 176972}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Did you give my note? Is there an answer?", "pos": 177073}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "There, prince, there’s my album. Now choose a page and write me something, will you? There’s a pen, a new one; do you mind a steel one? I have heard that you caligraphists don’t like steel pens.", "pos": 177235}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "One word, just one word from you, and I’m saved.", "pos": 177769}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What shall I write?", "pos": 178383}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I’ll dictate to you. Now then, are you ready? Write, ‘I never condescend to bargain!’ Now put your name and the date. Let me see it. Capital! How beautifully you have written it! Thanks so much. Au revoir, prince. Wait a minute. I want to give you something for a keepsake. Come with me this way, will you? Read this. Oh! I know you haven’t read it, and that you could never be that man’s accomplice. Read it, I wish you to read it.", "pos": 178423}
{"speaker": "G.L.", "text": "My fate is to be decided today you know how. This day I must give my word irrevocably. I have no right to ask your help, and I dare not allow myself to indulge in any hopes; but once you said just one word, and that word lighted up the night of my life, and became the beacon of my days. Say one more such word, and save me from utter ruin. Only tell me, ‘break off the whole thing!’ and I will do so this very day. Oh! what can it cost you to say just this one word? In doing so you will but be giving me a sign of your sympathy for me, and of your pity; only this, only this; nothing more, nothing. I dare not indulge in any hope, because I am unworthy of it. But if you say but this word, I will take up my cross again with joy, and return once more to my battle with poverty. I shall meet the storm and be glad of it; I shall rise up with renewed strength. Send me back then this one word of sympathy, only sympathy, I swear to you; and oh! do not be angry with the audacity of despair, with the drowning man who has dared to make this last effort to save himself from perishing beneath the waters.", "pos": 179169}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "This man assures me. This man assures me, break off everything first", "pos": 180293}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "And what shall I tell him by way of answer?", "pos": 181585}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Nothing—of course! That’s the best answer. Is it the case that you are going to live in his house?", "pos": 181631}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, your father kindly recommended me to him.", "pos": 181732}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Then look out for him, I warn you! He won’t forgive you easily, for taking back the letter.", "pos": 181781}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I’ll just get my parcel and we’ll go,", "pos": 182028}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "The answer—quick—the answer! What did she say? Did you give the letter? How, what? my letter? He never delivered it! I might have guessed it, oh! curse him! Of course she did not understand what I meant, naturally! Why—why—why didn’t you give her the note, you—", "pos": 182285}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Excuse me; I was able to deliver it almost immediately after receiving your commission, and I gave it, too, just as you asked me to. It has come into my hands now because Aglaya Ivanovna has just returned it to me.", "pos": 182691}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "How? When?", "pos": 182908}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "As soon as I finished writing in her album for her, and when she asked me to come out of the room with her (you heard?), we went into the dining-room, and she gave me your letter to read, and then told me to return it.", "pos": 182921}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "To read? to read, and you read it?", "pos": 183142}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, I have just read it.", "pos": 183359}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "And she gave it you to read herself—herself?", "pos": 183387}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, herself; and you may believe me when I tell you that I would not have read it for anything without her permission.", "pos": 183434}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "It’s impossible, she cannot have given it to you to read! You are lying. You read it yourself!", "pos": 183650}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I am telling you the truth, and believe me, I am extremely sorry that the circumstance should have made such an unpleasant impression upon you!", "pos": 183747}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "But, you wretched man, at least she must have said something? There must be some answer from her!", "pos": 183949}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, of course, she did say something!", "pos": 184049}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Out with it then, damn it! Out with it at once!", "pos": 184090}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "As soon as I had finished reading it, she told me that you were fishing for her; that you wished to compromise her so far as to receive some hopes from her, trusting to which hopes you might break with the prospect of receiving a hundred thousand roubles. She said that if you had done this without bargaining with her, if you had broken with the money prospects without trying to force a guarantee out of her first, she might have been your friend. That’s all, I think. Oh no, when I asked her what I was to say, as I took the letter, she replied that ‘no answer is the best answer.’ I think that was it. Forgive me if I do not use her exact expressions. I tell you the sense as I understood it myself.", "pos": 184190}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh! that’s it, is it! She throws my letters out of the window, does she! Oh! and she does not condescend to bargain, while I do, eh? We shall see, we shall see! I shall pay her out for this. But how was it? how was it that you (idiot that you are), were so very confidential a couple of hours after your first meeting with these people? How was that, eh?", "pos": 185022}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That is a thing I cannot undertake to explain,", "pos": 185859}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh! I suppose the present she wished to make to you, when she took you into the dining-room, was her confidence, eh?", "pos": 185969}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I suppose that was it; I cannot explain it otherwise.", "pos": 186088}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "But why, why? Devil take it, what did you do in there? Why did they fancy you? Look here, can’t you remember exactly what you said to them, from the very beginning? Can’t you remember?", "pos": 186144}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, we talked of a great many things. When first I went in we began to speak of Switzerland.", "pos": 186331}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh, the devil take Switzerland!", "pos": 186426}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Then about executions.", "pos": 186460}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Executions?", "pos": 186485}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes—at least about one. Then I told the whole three years’ story of my life, and the history of a poor peasant girl—", "pos": 186499}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh, damn the peasant girl! go on, go on!", "pos": 186618}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Then how Schneider told me about my childish nature, and—", "pos": 186686}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh, curse Schneider and his dirty opinions! Go on.", "pos": 186746}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Then I began to talk about faces, at least about the expressions of faces, and said that Aglaya Ivanovna was nearly as lovely as Nastasia Philipovna. It was then I blurted out about the portrait—", "pos": 186799}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "But you didn’t repeat what you heard in the study? You didn’t repeat that—eh?", "pos": 186997}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, I tell you I did not.", "pos": 187077}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Then how did they—look here! Did Aglaya show my letter to the old lady?", "pos": 187105}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, there I can give you my fullest assurance that she did not. I was there all the while—she had no time to do it!", "pos": 187179}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "But perhaps you may not have observed it, oh, you damned idiot, you! You can’t even describe what went on.", "pos": 187297}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I think I ought to tell you, Gavrila Ardalionovitch, that though I once was so ill that I really was little better than an idiot, yet now I am almost recovered, and that, therefore, it is not altogether pleasant to be called an idiot to my face. Of course your anger is excusable, considering the treatment you have just experienced; but I must remind you that you have twice abused me rather rudely. I do not like this sort of thing, and especially so at the first time of meeting a man, and, therefore, as we happen to be at this moment standing at a crossroad, don’t you think we had better part, you to the left, homewards, and I to the right, here? I have twenty-five roubles, and I shall easily find a lodging.", "pos": 187929}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Do forgive me, prince! For Heaven’s sake, forgive me! You see what a miserable plight I am in, but you hardly know anything of the facts of the case as yet. If you did, I am sure you would forgive me, at least partially. Of course it was inexcusable of me, I know, but—", "pos": 188724}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, dear me, I really do not require such profuse apologies. I quite understand how unpleasant your position is, and that is what made you abuse me. So come along to your house, after all. I shall be delighted—", "pos": 189070}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "I am not going to let him go like this. The fellow has sucked everything out of me, and now he takes off his mask—there’s something more than appears, here we shall see. It shall all be as clear as water by tonight, everything!", "pos": 189314}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Where’s your luggage?", "pos": 195323}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I had a bundle; it’s in the entrance hall.", "pos": 195395}
{"speaker": "Host", "text": "I’ll bring it you directly. We only have a cook and one maid, so I have to help as much as I can. Varia looks after things, generally, and loses her temper over it. Gania says you have only just arrived from Switzerland?", "pos": 195440}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes.", "pos": 195663}
{"speaker": "Host", "text": "Is it jolly there?", "pos": 195670}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Very.", "pos": 195691}
{"speaker": "Host", "text": "Mountains?", "pos": 195699}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes.", "pos": 195712}
{"speaker": "Host", "text": "I’ll go and get your bundle.", "pos": 195719}
{"speaker": "Varvara", "text": "The maid shall bring your bed-linen directly. Have you a portmanteau?", "pos": 195776}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No; a bundle—your brother has just gone to the hall for it.", "pos": 195848}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "There’s nothing there except this. Where did you put it?", "pos": 195910}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh! but that’s all I have,", "pos": 196009}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Ah! I thought perhaps Ferdishenko had taken it.", "pos": 196066}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Don’t talk nonsense,", "pos": 196116}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Oho! you can be nicer than that to me, you know—I’m not Ptitsin!", "pos": 196223}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "You ought to be whipped, Colia, you silly boy. If you want anything please apply to the servant. We dine at half-past four. You can take your dinner with us, or have it in your room, just as you please. Come along, Colia, don’t disturb the prince.", "pos": 196309}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Is father in? Just a couple of words, prince, if you’ll excuse me. Don’t blab over there about what you may see here, or in this house as to all that about Aglaya and me, you know. Things are not altogether pleasant in this establishment—devil take it all! You’ll see. At all events keep your tongue to yourself for today.", "pos": 196615}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I assure you I ‘blabbed’ a great deal less than you seem to suppose,", "pos": 197003}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh well; I caught it quite hot enough today, thanks to you. However, I forgive you.", "pos": 197188}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I think you might fairly remember that I was not in any way bound, I had no reason to be silent about that portrait. You never asked me not to mention it.", "pos": 197274}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Pfu! what a wretched room this is—dark, and the window looking into the yard. Your coming to our house is, in no respect, opportune. However, it’s not my affair. I don’t keep the lodgings.", "pos": 197431}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Ferdishenko,", "pos": 198731}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Very well, what next?", "pos": 198811}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "A lodger here,", "pos": 198881}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Do you wish to make acquaintance?", "pos": 198938}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Ah! Got any money?", "pos": 198992}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Not much.", "pos": 199168}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "How much?", "pos": 199180}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Twenty-five roubles.", "pos": 199192}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Let’s see it. How strange that it should have browned so. These twenty-five rouble notes brown in a most extraordinary way, while other notes often grow paler. Take it. I came here to warn you. In the first place, don’t lend me any money, for I shall certainly ask you to.", "pos": 199215}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Very well.", "pos": 199764}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Shall you pay here?", "pos": 199777}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes, I intend to.", "pos": 199799}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Oh! I don’t intend to. Thanks. I live here, next door to you; you noticed a room, did you? Don’t come to me very often; I shall see you here quite often enough. Have you seen the general?", "pos": 199819}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No.", "pos": 200009}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Nor heard him?", "pos": 200015}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No; of course not.", "pos": 200032}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Well, you’ll both hear and see him soon; he even tries to borrow money from me. Avis au lecteur. Good-bye; do you think a man can possibly live with a name like Ferdishenko?", "pos": 200053}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Why not?", "pos": 200229}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Good-bye.", "pos": 200240}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "‘Tis he, ‘tis he! As though he were alive once more. I heard the familiar name—the dear familiar name—and, oh! how it reminded me of the irrevocable past—Prince Muishkin, I believe?", "pos": 201446}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Exactly so.", "pos": 201682}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "General Ivolgin—retired and unfortunate. May I ask your Christian and generic names?", "pos": 201696}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Lef Nicolaievitch.", "pos": 201783}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "So, so—the son of my old, I may say my childhood’s friend, Nicolai Petrovitch.", "pos": 201804}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "My father’s name was Nicolai Lvovitch.", "pos": 201885}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Lvovitch. I carried you in my arms as a baby,", "pos": 201926}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Really?", "pos": 202260}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Why, it’s twenty years since my father died.", "pos": 202288}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Yes, yes—twenty years and three months. We were educated together; I went straight into the army, and he—", "pos": 202335}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "My father went into the army, too. He was a sub-lieutenant in the Vasiliefsky regiment.", "pos": 202443}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "No, sir—in the Bielomirsky; he changed into the latter shortly before his death. I was at his bedside when he died, and gave him my blessing for eternity. Your mother—", "pos": 202533}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "She died a few months later, from a cold,", "pos": 202756}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Oh, not cold—believe an old man—not from a cold, but from grief for her prince. Oh—your mother, your mother! heigh-ho! Youth—youth! Your father and I—old friends as we were—nearly murdered each other for her sake.", "pos": 202817}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I was passionately in love with her when she was engaged—engaged to my friend. The prince noticed the fact and was furious. He came and woke me at seven o’clock one morning. I rise and dress in amazement; silence on both sides. I understand it all. He takes a couple of pistols out of his pocket—across a handkerchief—without witnesses. Why invite witnesses when both of us would be walking in eternity in a couple of minutes? The pistols are loaded; we stretch the handkerchief and stand opposite one another. We aim the pistols at each other’s hearts. Suddenly tears start to our eyes, our hands shake; we weep, we embrace—the battle is one of self-sacrifice now! The prince shouts, ‘She is yours;’ I cry, ‘She is yours—’ in a word, in a word—You’ve come to live with us, hey?", "pos": 203078}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes—yes—for a while, I think,", "pos": 203859}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Prince, mother begs you to come to her,", "pos": 203913}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "As the true friend of your father, I wish to say a few words to you. I have suffered—there was a catastrophe. I suffered without a trial; I had no trial. Nina Alexandrovna my wife, is an excellent woman, so is my daughter Varvara. We have to let lodgings because we are poor—a dreadful, unheard-of come-down for us—for me, who should have been a governor-general; but we are very glad to have you, at all events. Meanwhile there is a tragedy in the house. Yes, a marriage is being arranged—a marriage between a questionable woman and a young fellow who might be a flunkey. They wish to bring this woman into the house where my wife and daughter reside, but while I live and breathe she shall never enter my doors. I shall lie at the threshold, and she shall trample me underfoot if she does. I hardly talk to Gania now, and avoid him as much as I can. I warn you of this beforehand, but you cannot fail to observe it. But you are the son of my old friend, and I hope—", "pos": 204128}
{"speaker": "Nina Alexandrovna", "text": "Prince, be so kind as to come to me for a moment in the drawing-room,", "pos": 205156}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Imagine, my dear, it turns out that I have nursed the prince on my knee in the old days.", "pos": 205283}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I don’t remember any Nicolai Lvovitch. Was that your father?", "pos": 205918}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes, but he died at Elizabethgrad, not at Tver,", "pos": 206009}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "So Pavlicheff told me.", "pos": 206092}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "No, Tver,", "pos": 206117}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You knew Pavlicheff then?", "pos": 206297}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Oh, yes—a wonderful fellow; but I was present myself. I gave him my blessing.", "pos": 206325}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "My father was just about to be tried when he died,", "pos": 206405}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "although I never knew of what he was accused. He died in hospital.", "pos": 206475}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Oh! it was the Kolpakoff business, and of course he would have been acquitted.", "pos": 206544}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes? Do you know that for a fact?", "pos": 206625}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I should think so indeed! The court-martial came to no decision. It was a mysterious, an impossible business, one might say! Captain Larionoff, commander of the company, had died; his command was handed over to the prince for the moment. Very well. This soldier, Kolpakoff, stole some leather from one of his comrades, intending to sell it, and spent the money on drink. Well! The prince—you understand that what follows took place in the presence of the sergeant-major, and a corporal—the prince rated Kolpakoff soundly, and threatened to have him flogged. Well, Kolpakoff went back to the barracks, lay down on a camp bedstead, and in a quarter of an hour was dead: you quite understand? It was, as I said, a strange, almost impossible, affair. In due course Kolpakoff was buried; the prince wrote his report, the deceased’s name was removed from the roll. All as it should be, is it not? But exactly three months later at the inspection of the brigade, the man Kolpakoff was found in the third company of the second battalion of infantry, Novozemlianski division, just as if nothing had happened!", "pos": 206731}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What?", "pos": 207853}
{"speaker": "Nina Alexandrovna", "text": "It did not occur—it’s a mistake! Mon mari se trompe,", "pos": 207895}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "My dear, ‘se trompe’ is easily said. Do you remember any case at all like it? Everybody was at their wits’ end. I should be the first to say ‘qu’on se trompe,’ but unfortunately I was an eye-witness, and was also on the commission of inquiry. Everything proved that it was really he, the very same soldier Kolpakoff who had been given the usual military funeral to the sound of the drum. It is of course a most curious case—nearly an impossible one. I recognize that... but—", "pos": 208056}
{"speaker": "Varvara", "text": "Father, your dinner is ready,", "pos": 208533}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Very glad, I’m particularly hungry. Yes, yes, a strange coincidence—almost a psychological— Coming, coming,", "pos": 208626}
{"speaker": "Nina Alexandrovna", "text": "You will have to excuse very much in my husband, if you stay with us, but he will not disturb you often. He dines alone. Everyone has his little peculiarities, you know, and some people perhaps have more than those who are most pointed at and laughed at. One thing I must beg of you—if my husband applies to you for payment for board and lodging, tell him that you have already paid me. Of course anything paid by you to the general would be as fully settled as if paid to me, so far as you are concerned; but I wish it to be so, if you please, for convenience’ sake. What is it, Varia?", "pos": 208865}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "It’s a present from herself to him, the question is to be finally decided this evening.", "pos": 209725}
{"speaker": "Nina Alexandrovna", "text": "This evening! Then it’s all settled, of course, and there’s no hope left to us. She has anticipated her answer by the present of her portrait. Did he show it you himself?", "pos": 209829}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "You know we have hardly spoken to each other for a whole month. Ptitsin told me all about it; and the photo was lying under the table, and I picked it up.", "pos": 210109}
{"speaker": "Nina Alexandrovna", "text": "Prince. I wanted to inquire whether you have known my son long? I think he said that you had only arrived today from somewhere. I did not ask about Gania out of curiosity. I wish to know how much you know about him, because he said just now that we need not stand on ceremony with you. What, exactly, does that mean?", "pos": 210266}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Is it today, Gania? Is what today? Oh. I see, you are here, that explains it! Is it a disease, or what, that you can’t hold your tongue? Look here, understand once for all, prince—", "pos": 211204}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "I am to blame in this, Gania—no one else. It’s better so, you know, Gania—especially as, from one point of view, the matter may be considered as settled,", "pos": 211526}
{"speaker": "Nina Alexandrovna", "text": "If it’s all settled, Gania, then of course Mr. Ptitsin is right. Don’t frown. You need not worry yourself, Gania; I shall ask you no questions. You need not tell me anything you don’t like. I assure you I have quite submitted to your will. You are still suspicious, I see, and do not believe me; but you may be quite at your ease. There shall be no more tears, nor questions—not from my side, at all events. All I wish is that you may be happy, you know that. I have submitted to my fate; but my heart will always be with you, whether we remain united, or whether we part. Of course I only answer for myself—you can hardly expect your sister—", "pos": 211963}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "My sister again. Look here, mother, I have already given you my word that I shall always respect you fully and absolutely, and so shall everyone else in this house, be it who it may, who shall cross this threshold. I was not at all afraid for myself, Gania, as you know well. It was not for my own sake that I have been so anxious and worried all this time! They say it is all to be settled to-day. What is to be settled? She has promised to tell me tonight at her own house whether she consents or not,", "pos": 212921}
{"speaker": "Nina Alexandrovna", "text": "We have been silent on this subject for three weeks, and it was better so; and now I will only ask you one question. How can she give her consent and make you a present of her portrait when you do not love her? How can such a—such a—", "pos": 213584}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Practised hand—eh?", "pos": 213839}
{"speaker": "Nina Alexandrovna", "text": "I was not going to express myself so. But how could you so blind her?", "pos": 213860}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "There you are, mother, you are always like that. You begin by promising that there are to be no reproaches or insinuations or questions, and here you are beginning them at once. We had better drop the subject—we had, really. I shall never leave you, mother; any other man would cut and run from such a sister as this. See how she is looking at me at this moment! Besides, how do you know that I am blinding Nastasia Philipovna? As for Varia, I don’t care—she can do just as she pleases. There, that’s quite enough!", "pos": 214087}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "I have said already that the moment she comes in I go out, and I shall keep my word,", "pos": 214761}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Out of obstinacy You haven’t married, either, thanks to your obstinacy. Oh, you needn’t frown at me, Varvara! You can go at once for all I care; I am sick enough of your company. What, you are going to leave us are you, too?", "pos": 214864}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "If you are too lazy to mend your bell, you should at least wait in the hall to let people in when they rattle the bell handle. There, now, you’ve dropped my fur cloak—dummy! Now then—announce me, quick! Now then, where are you taking my cloak to? Ha, ha, ha! Are you mad? Why, what an idiot it is! Go on, do! Whom are you going to announce?", "pos": 216218}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Nastasia Philipovna,", "pos": 217253}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "And how do you know that? I have never seen you before! Go on, announce me—what’s that noise?", "pos": 217297}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "They are quarrelling,", "pos": 217421}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Nastasia Philipovna!", "pos": 218117}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "At last I’ve stormed the citadel! Why do you tie up your bell? What are you looking so upset about? Introduce me, please!", "pos": 219102}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Where’s your study? and where are the—the lodgers? You do take in lodgers, don’t you? Why, where are you going to squeeze lodgers in here? Don’t you use a study? Does this sort of thing pay?", "pos": 219979}
{"speaker": "Nina Alexandrovna", "text": "Well, it is troublesome, rather, but I suppose it will ‘pay’ pretty well. We have only just begun, however—", "pos": 220315}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "What a face! My goodness, what a face you have on at this moment!", "pos": 220544}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Drink some water, and don’t look like that!", "pos": 221146}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Why, are you a doctor, prince, or what? I declare you quite frightened me! Nastasia Philipovna, let me introduce this interesting character to you—though I have only known him myself since the morning.", "pos": 221982}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Prince? He a Prince? Why, I took him for the footman, just now, and sent him in to announce me! Ha, ha, ha, isn’t that good!", "pos": 222270}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Not bad that, not bad at all! se non è vero—", "pos": 222397}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "I rather think I pitched into you, too, didn’t I? Forgive me—do! Who is he, did you say? What prince? Muishkin?", "pos": 222466}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "He is a lodger of ours,", "pos": 222609}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "An idiot!", "pos": 222657}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Tell me, why didn’t you put me right when I made such a dreadful mistake just now?", "pos": 222807}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I was astonished, seeing you so suddenly—", "pos": 223120}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "How did you know who I was? Where had you seen me before? And why were you so struck dumb at the sight of me? What was there so overwhelming about me?", "pos": 223185}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Oho! ho, ho, ho! Now then, prince! My word, what things I would say if I had such a chance as that! My goodness, prince—go on!", "pos": 223338}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "So should I, in your place, I’ve no doubt! Your portrait struck me very forcibly this morning; then I was talking about you to the Epanchins; and then, in the train, before I reached Petersburg, Parfen Rogojin told me a good deal about you; and at the very moment that I opened the door to you I happened to be thinking of you, when—there you stood before me!", "pos": 223488}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "And how did you recognize me?", "pos": 223924}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "From the portrait!", "pos": 223956}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "What else?", "pos": 223977}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I seemed to imagine you exactly as you are—I seemed to have seen you somewhere.", "pos": 223990}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Where—where?", "pos": 224072}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I seem to have seen your eyes somewhere; but it cannot be! I have not seen you—I never was here before. I may have dreamed of you, I don’t know.", "pos": 224087}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Bravo, prince!", "pos": 224435}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Ardalion Alexandrovitch Ivolgin, an old soldier, unfortunate, and the father of this family; but happy in the hope of including in that family so exquisite—", "pos": 226645}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I have heard that my son—", "pos": 227727}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Your son, indeed! A nice papa you are! You might have come to see me anyhow, without compromising anyone. Do you hide yourself, or does your son hide you?", "pos": 227786}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "The children of the nineteenth century, and their parents—", "pos": 227943}
{"speaker": "Nina Alexandrovna", "text": "Nastasia Philipovna, will you excuse the general for a moment? Someone is inquiring for him,", "pos": 228030}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Excuse him? Oh no, I have wished to see him too long for that. Why, what business can he have? He has retired, hasn’t he? You won’t leave me, general, will you?", "pos": 228196}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I give you my word that he shall come and see you—but he—he needs rest just now.", "pos": 228359}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "General, they say you require rest,", "pos": 228442}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "My dear, my dear!", "pos": 228665}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Won’t you leave the room, mamma? No, Varia, I shall sit it out to the end.", "pos": 228771}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Can’t you get him out of the room, somehow? Do, please. Curse that Gania!", "pos": 229260}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Oh yes, I knew General Epanchin well, he and Prince Nicolai Ivanovitch Muishkin—whose son I have this day embraced after an absence of twenty years—and I, were three inseparables. Alas one is in the grave, torn to pieces by calumnies and bullets; another is now before you, still battling with calumnies and bullets—", "pos": 229418}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Bullets?", "pos": 229782}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Yes, here in my chest. I received them at the siege of Kars, and I feel them in bad weather now. And as to the third of our trio, Epanchin, of course after that little affair with the poodle in the railway carriage, it was all up between us.", "pos": 229809}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Poodle? What was that? And in a railway carriage? Dear me,", "pos": 230053}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, just a silly, little occurrence, really not worth telling, about Princess Bielokonski’s governess, Miss Smith, and—oh, it is really not worth telling!", "pos": 230189}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "No, no, we must have it!", "pos": 230346}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Yes, of course. C’est du nouveau.", "pos": 230397}
{"speaker": "Nina Alexandrovitch", "text": "Ardalion,", "pos": 230453}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Papa, you are wanted!", "pos": 230505}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Well, it is a silly little story, in a few words. A couple of years ago, soon after the new railway was opened, I had to go somewhere or other on business. Well, I took a first-class ticket, sat down, and began to smoke, or rather continued to smoke, for I had lighted up before. I was alone in the carriage. Smoking is not allowed, but is not prohibited either; it is half allowed—so to speak, winked at. I had the window open. Suddenly, just before the whistle, in came two ladies with a little poodle, and sat down opposite to me; not bad-looking women; one was in light blue, the other in black silk. The poodle, a beauty with a silver collar, lay on light blue’s knee. They looked haughtily about, and talked English together. I took no notice, just went on smoking. I observed that the ladies were getting angry—over my cigar, doubtless. One looked at me through her tortoise-shell eyeglass.", "pos": 230542}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I took no notice, because they never said a word. If they didn’t like the cigar, why couldn’t they say so? Not a word, not a hint! Suddenly, and without the very slightest suspicion of warning, ‘light blue’ seizes my cigar from between my fingers, and, wheugh! out of the window with it! Well, on flew the train, and I sat bewildered, and the young woman, tall and fair, and rather red in the face, too red, glared at me with flashing eyes.", "pos": 231473}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I didn’t say a word, but with extreme courtesy, I may say with most refined courtesy, I reached my finger and thumb over towards the poodle, took it up delicately by the nape of the neck, and chucked it out of the window, after the cigar. The train went flying on, and the poodle’s yells were lost in the distance.", "pos": 231915}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Oh, you naughty man!", "pos": 232232}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Bravo!", "pos": 232317}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Bravo!", "pos": 232451}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "And I was right, truly right, for if cigars are forbidden in railway carriages, poodles are much more so.", "pos": 232460}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Well, and what did the lady do?", "pos": 232616}
{"speaker": "Ivolgin", "text": "She—ah, that’s where all the mischief of it lies! Without a word, as it were, of warning, she slapped me on the cheek! An extraordinary woman!", "pos": 232679}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And you?", "pos": 232853}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I lost my head!", "pos": 233025}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Did you hit her?", "pos": 233043}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "No, oh no!—there was a great flare-up, but I didn’t hit her! I had to struggle a little, purely to defend myself; but the very devil was in the business. It turned out that ‘light blue’ was an Englishwoman, governess or something, at Princess Bielokonski’s, and the other woman was one of the old-maid princesses Bielokonski. Well, everybody knows what great friends the princess and Mrs. Epanchin are, so there was a pretty kettle of fish. All the Bielokonskis went into mourning for the poodle. Six princesses in tears, and the Englishwoman shrieking! Of course I wrote an apology, and called, but they would not receive either me or my apology, and the Epanchins cut me, too!", "pos": 233062}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "But wait. How is it that, five or six days since, I read exactly the same story in the paper, as happening between a Frenchman and an English girl? The cigar was snatched away exactly as you describe, and the poodle was chucked out of the window after it. The slapping came off, too, as in your case; and the girl’s dress was light blue!", "pos": 233744}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I assure you, that exactly the same thing happened to myself!", "pos": 234355}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "I remembered there was some quarrel between father and Miss Smith, the Bielokonski’s governess,", "pos": 234439}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "How very curious, point for point the same anecdote, and happening at different ends of Europe! Even the light blue dress the same. I must really send you the paper.", "pos": 234549}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "You must observe, that my experience was two years earlier.", "pos": 234752}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Ah! that’s it, no doubt!", "pos": 234838}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Father, will you hear a word from me outside!", "pos": 234907}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Ah! here he is, the Judas! How d’ye do, Gania, you old blackguard?", "pos": 235754}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes, that’s the man!", "pos": 235876}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Hallo, Gania, you blackguard! You didn’t expect Rogojin, eh? I suppose it is true, then! So that’s the end of it! Now you, sir, will you answer me or not? Now then, you— What, you here too, prince? Still in your gaiters, eh?", "pos": 237351}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Excuse me, sirs, but what does all this mean? You are not in a stable, gentlemen, though you may think it—my mother and sister are present.", "pos": 238780}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Yes, I see your mother and sister,", "pos": 239051}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "At all events, I must request you to step into the salon, and then I shall inquire—", "pos": 239198}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "What, he doesn’t know me! He doesn’t recognize Rogojin!", "pos": 239352}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I have met you somewhere, I believe, but—", "pos": 239492}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Met me somewhere, pfu! Why, it’s only three months since I lost two hundred roubles of my father’s money to you, at cards. The old fellow died before he found out. Ptitsin knows all about it. Why, I’ve only to pull out a three-rouble note and show it to you, and you’d crawl on your hands and knees to the other end of the town for it; that’s the sort of man you are. Why, I’ve come now, at this moment, to buy you up! Oh, you needn’t think that because I wear these boots I have no money. I have lots of money, my beauty,—enough to buy up you and all yours together. So I shall, if I like to! I’ll buy you up! I will! Oh, Nastasia Philipovna! don’t turn me out! Say one word, do! Are you going to marry this man, or not?", "pos": 239536}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Certainly not; what are you thinking of? What could have induced you to ask such a question?", "pos": 240712}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "No? No? You are not going to, after all? And they told me—oh, Nastasia Philipovna—they said you had promised to marry him, him! As if you could do it!—him—pooh! I don’t mind saying it to everyone—I’d buy him off for a hundred roubles, any day pfu! Give him a thousand, or three if he likes, poor devil, and he’d cut and run the day before his wedding, and leave his bride to me! Wouldn’t you, Gania, you blackguard? You’d take three thousand, wouldn’t you? Here’s the money! Look, I’ve come on purpose to pay you off and get your receipt, formally. I said I’d buy you up, and so I will.", "pos": 240889}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Get out of this, you drunken beast!", "pos": 241530}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "You’re right, clerk, you’re right, tipsy spirit—you’re right! Nastasia Philipovna, here are eighteen thousand roubles, and—and you shall have more—.", "pos": 241756}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "No—no—no!", "pos": 242164}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "No, you fool—you don’t know whom you are dealing with—and it appears I am a fool, too! Oh, curse it all! What a fool I was to listen to you!", "pos": 242331}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Eighteen thousand roubles, for me? Why, you declare yourself a fool at once,", "pos": 242663}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Forty thousand, then—forty thousand roubles instead of eighteen! Ptitsin and another have promised to find me forty thousand roubles by seven o’clock tonight. Forty thousand roubles—paid down on the nail!", "pos": 242884}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Very well then, a hundred thousand! a hundred thousand! paid this very day. Ptitsin! find it for me. A good share shall stick to your fingers—come!", "pos": 243504}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "You are mad! You’re drunk—the police will be sent for if you don’t look out. Think where you are.", "pos": 243654}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Yes, he’s boasting like a drunkard,", "pos": 243817}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I do not boast! You shall have a hundred thousand, this very day. Ptitsin, get the money, you gay usurer! Take what you like for it, but get it by the evening! I’ll show that I’m in earnest!", "pos": 243921}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Come, come; what’s all this?", "pos": 244177}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Halloa! what’s this now? You come along with me, old fellow! You shall have as much to drink as you like.", "pos": 244399}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Oh, it’s too horrible!", "pos": 244526}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Surely there must be someone among all of you here who will turn this shameless creature out of the room?", "pos": 244603}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "That’s me, I suppose. I’m the shameless creature! Dear me, and I came—like a fool, as I am—to invite them over to my house for the evening! Look how your sister treats me, Gavrila Ardalionovitch.", "pos": 244775}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "What have you done?", "pos": 245264}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "What have I done? Where are you dragging me to? Do you wish me to beg pardon of this creature because she has come here to insult our mother and disgrace the whole household, you low, base wretch?", "pos": 245444}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "There’s a girl for you! Mr. Ptitsin, I congratulate you on your choice.", "pos": 245902}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Enough—enough!", "pos": 246196}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Are you going to cross my path for ever, damn you!", "pos": 246285}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Very well—never mind about me; but I shall not allow you to strike her! Oh! how ashamed you will be of this afterwards! It’s nothing, it’s nothing!", "pos": 246686}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Yes, he will be ashamed! You will be properly ashamed of yourself for having injured such a—such a sheep Prince, my dear fellow, leave this and come away with me. I’ll show you how Rogojin shows his affection for his friends.", "pos": 247244}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "I really think I must have seen him somewhere!", "pos": 247940}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, aren’t you ashamed of yourself—aren’t you ashamed? Are you really the sort of woman you are trying to represent yourself to be? Is it possible?", "pos": 248020}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "He guessed quite right. I am not that sort of woman,", "pos": 248592}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Don’t come with me. Au revoir, till the evening—do you hear? Au revoir! Au revoir!", "pos": 249147}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "You’ve lost the game, Gania", "pos": 249643}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "You were quite right to go away! The row will rage there worse than ever now; and it’s like this every day with us—and all through that Nastasia Philipovna.", "pos": 249994}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You have so many sources of trouble here, Colia,", "pos": 250164}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Yes, indeed, and it is all our own fault. But I have a great friend who is much worse off even than we are. Would you like to know him?", "pos": 250232}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, very much. Is he one of your school-fellows?", "pos": 250370}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Well, not exactly. I will tell you all about him some day.... What do you think of Nastasia Philipovna? She is beautiful, isn’t she? I had never seen her before, though I had a great wish to do so. She fascinated me. I could forgive Gania if he were to marry her for love, but for money! Oh dear! that is horrible!", "pos": 250422}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, your brother does not attract me much.", "pos": 250739}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "I am not surprised at that. After what you... But I do hate that way of looking at things! Because some fool, or a rogue pretending to be a fool, strikes a man, that man is to be dishonoured for his whole life, unless he wipes out the disgrace with blood, or makes his assailant beg forgiveness on his knees! I think that so very absurd and tyrannical. Lermontoff’s Bal Masque is based on that idea—a stupid and unnatural one, in my opinion; but he was hardly more than a child when he wrote it. I like your sister very much. Did you see how she spat in Gania’s face! Varia is afraid of no one. But you did not follow her example, and yet I am sure it was not through cowardice. Here she comes! Speak of a wolf and you see his tail! I felt sure that she would come. She is very generous, though of course she has her faults.", "pos": 250785}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "This is not the place for you. Go to father. Is he plaguing you, prince?", "pos": 251648}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Not in the least; on the contrary, he interests me.", "pos": 251735}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Scolding as usual, Varia! It is the worst thing about her. After all, I believe father may have started off with Rogojin. No doubt he is sorry now. Perhaps I had better go and see what he is doing,", "pos": 251789}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Thank God, I have got mother away, and put her to bed without another scene! Gania is worried—and ashamed—not without reason! What a spectacle! I have come to thank you once more, prince, and to ask you if you knew Nastasia Philipovna before?", "pos": 252015}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, I have never known her.", "pos": 252260}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Then what did you mean, when you said straight out to her that she was not really ‘like that’? You guessed right, I fancy. It is quite possible she was not herself at the moment, though I cannot fathom her meaning. Evidently she meant to hurt and insult us. I have heard curious tales about her before now, but if she came to invite us to her house, why did she behave so to my mother? Ptitsin knows her very well; he says he could not understand her today. With Rogojin, too! No one with a spark of self-respect could have talked like that in the house of her... Mother is extremely vexed on your account, too...", "pos": 252290}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That is nothing!", "pos": 252905}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "But how meek she was when you spoke to her!", "pos": 252958}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Meek! What do you mean?", "pos": 253004}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "You told her it was a shame for her to behave so, and her manner changed at once; she was like another person. You have some influence over her, prince,", "pos": 253030}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Prince. I was a blackguard. Forgive me! Oh, come, forgive me, forgive me! If you like, I’ll kiss your hand. There!", "pos": 253416}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I never, never thought you were like that. I thought you—you weren’t capable of—", "pos": 253801}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Of what? Apologizing, eh? And where on earth did I get the idea that you were an idiot? You always observe what other people pass by unnoticed; one could talk sense to you, but—", "pos": 253924}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Here is another to whom you should apologize,", "pos": 254104}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "No, no! they are all enemies! I’ve tried them often enough, believe me,", "pos": 254188}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "But if I beg you to make it up?", "pos": 254315}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "And you’ll go to Nastasia Philipovna’s this evening—", "pos": 254361}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "If you insist: but, judge for yourself, can I go, ought I to go?", "pos": 254416}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "But she is not that sort of woman, I tell you! She was only acting.", "pos": 254483}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "I know that—I know that; but what a part to play! And think what she must take you for, Gania! I know she kissed mother’s hand, and all that, but she laughed at you, all the same. All this is not good enough for seventy-five thousand roubles, my dear boy. You are capable of honourable feelings still, and that’s why I am talking to you so. Oh! do take care what you are doing! Don’t you know yourself that it will end badly, Gania?", "pos": 254576}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "There, they are all like that, just as if I do not know all about it much better than they do.", "pos": 255080}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "If you know it so well, why do you choose all this worry for the sake of the seventy-five thousand, which, you confess, does not cover it?", "pos": 255273}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "I didn’t mean that, but while we are upon the subject, let me hear your opinion. Is all this worry worth seventy-five thousand or not?", "pos": 255450}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Certainly not.", "pos": 255601}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Of course! And it would be a disgrace to marry so, eh?", "pos": 255618}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "A great disgrace.", "pos": 255675}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh, well, then you may know that I shall certainly do it, now. I shall certainly marry her. I was not quite sure of myself before, but now I am. Don’t say a word: I know what you want to tell me—", "pos": 255695}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No. I was only going to say that what surprises me most of all is your extraordinary confidence.", "pos": 255893}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "How so? What in?", "pos": 255992}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That Nastasia Philipovna will accept you, and that the question is as good as settled; and secondly, that even if she did, you would be able to pocket the money. Of course, I know very little about it, but that’s my view. When a man marries for money it often happens that the wife keeps the money in her own hands.", "pos": 256011}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Of course, you don’t know all; but, I assure you, you needn’t be afraid, it won’t be like that in our case. There are circumstances. And as to her answer to me, there’s no doubt about that. Why should you suppose she will refuse me?", "pos": 256329}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, I only judge by what I see. Varvara Ardalionovna said just now—", "pos": 256596}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh she—they don’t know anything about it! Nastasia was only chaffing Rogojin. I was alarmed at first, but I have thought better of it now; she was simply laughing at him. She looks on me as a fool because I show that I meant her money, and doesn’t realize that there are other men who would deceive her in far worse fashion. I’m not going to pretend anything, and you’ll see she’ll marry me, all right. If she likes to live quietly, so she shall; but if she gives me any of her nonsense, I shall leave her at once, but I shall keep the money. I’m not going to look a fool; that’s the first thing, not to look a fool.", "pos": 256666}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "But Nastasia Philipovna seems to me to be such a sensible woman, and, as such, why should she run blindly into this business? That’s what puzzles me so,", "pos": 257285}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "You don’t know all, you see; I tell you there are things—and besides, I’m sure that she is persuaded that I love her to distraction, and I give you my word I have a strong suspicion that she loves me, too—in her own way, of course. She thinks she will be able to make a sort of slave of me all my life; but I shall prepare a little surprise for her. I don’t know whether I ought to be confidential with you, prince; but, I assure you, you are the only decent fellow I have come across. I have not spoken so sincerely as I am doing at this moment for years. There are uncommonly few honest people about, prince; there isn’t one honester than Ptitsin, he’s the best of the lot. Are you laughing? You don’t know, perhaps, that blackguards like honest people, and being one myself I like you. Why am I a blackguard? Tell me honestly, now. They all call me a blackguard because of her, and I have got into the way of thinking myself one. That’s what is so bad about the business.", "pos": 257457}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I for one shall never think you a blackguard again. I confess I had a poor opinion of you at first, but I have been so joyfully surprised about you just now; it’s a good lesson for me. I shall never judge again without a thorough trial. I see now that you are not only not a blackguard, but are not even quite spoiled. I see that you are quite an ordinary man, not original in the least degree, but rather weak.", "pos": 258434}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Has my father asked you for money?", "pos": 259006}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No.", "pos": 259066}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Don’t give it to him if he does. Fancy, he was a decent, respectable man once! He was received in the best society; he was not always the liar he is now. Of course, wine is at the bottom of it all; but he is a good deal worse than an innocent liar now. Do you know that he keeps a mistress? I can’t understand how mother is so long-suffering. Did he tell you the story of the siege of Kars? Or perhaps the one about his grey horse that talked? He loves to enlarge on these absurd histories. Why are you looking at me like that?", "pos": 259072}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I am surprised to see you laugh in that way, like a child. You came to make friends with me again just now, and you said, ‘I will kiss your hand, if you like,’ just as a child would have said it. And then, all at once you are talking of this mad project—of these seventy-five thousand roubles! It all seems so absurd and impossible.", "pos": 259688}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Well, what conclusion have you reached?", "pos": 260023}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That you are rushing madly into the undertaking, and that you would do well to think it over again. It is more than possible that Varvara Ardalionovna is right.", "pos": 260065}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Ah! now you begin to moralize! I know that I am only a child, very well. That is proved by my having this conversation with you. It is not for money only, prince, that I am rushing into this affair. If I reckoned on that I should certainly be deceived, for I am still too weak in mind and character. I am obeying a passion, an impulse perhaps, because I have but one aim, one that overmasters all else. You imagine that once I am in possession of these seventy-five thousand roubles, I shall rush to buy a carriage... No, I shall go on wearing the old overcoat I have worn for three years, and I shall give up my club. I shall follow the example of men who have made their fortunes. When Ptitsin was seventeen he slept in the street, he sold pen-knives, and began with a copeck; now he has sixty thousand roubles, but to get them, what has he not done? Well, I shall be spared such a hard beginning, and shall start with a little capital. In fifteen years people will say, ‘Look, that’s Ivolgin, the king of the Jews!’ You say that I have no originality. Now mark this, prince—there is nothing so offensive to a man of our time and race than to be told that he is wanting in originality, that he is weak in character, has no particular talent, and is, in short, an ordinary person. You have not even done me the honour of looking upon me as a rogue. Do you know, I could have knocked you down for that just now! You wounded me more cruelly than Epanchin, who thinks me capable of selling him my wife! Observe, it was a perfectly gratuitous idea on his part, seeing there has never been any discussion of it between us! This has exasperated me, and I am determined to make a fortune! I will do it! Once I am rich, I shall be a genius, an extremely original man. One of the vilest and most hateful things connected with money is that it can buy even talent; and will do so as long as the world lasts. You will say that this is childish—or romantic. Well, that will be all the better for me, but the thing shall be done. I will carry it through. He laughs most, who laughs last. Why does Epanchin insult me? Simply because, socially, I am a nobody. However, enough for the present. Colia has put his nose in to tell us dinner is ready, twice. I’m dining out. I shall come and talk to you now and then; you shall be comfortable enough with us. They are sure to make you one of the family. I think you and I will either be great friends or enemies. Look here now, supposing I had kissed your hand just now, as I offered to do in all sincerity, should I have hated you for it afterwards?", "pos": 260228}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Certainly, but not always. You would not have been able to keep it up, and would have ended by forgiving me,", "pos": 262925}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oho, how careful one has to be with you, prince! Haven’t you put a drop of poison in that remark now, eh? By the way—ha, ha, ha!—I forgot to ask, was I right in believing that you were a good deal struck yourself with Nastasia Philipovna.", "pos": 263110}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Ye-yes.", "pos": 263351}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Are you in love with her?", "pos": 263361}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "N-no.", "pos": 263389}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "And yet you flush up as red as a rosebud! Come—it’s all right. I’m not going to laugh at you. Do you know she is a very virtuous woman? Believe it or not, as you like. You think she and Totski—not a bit of it, not a bit of it! Not for ever so long! Au revoir!", "pos": 263397}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I don’t want any dinner, thanks, Colia. I had too good a lunch at General Epanchin’s.", "pos": 263813}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "It’s only a couple of yards. He’s sitting there over his bottle—and how they can give him credit, I cannot understand. Don’t tell mother I brought you the note, prince; I have sworn not to do it a thousand times, but I’m always so sorry for him. Don’t stand on ceremony, give him some trifle, and let that end it.", "pos": 264132}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Come along, Colia, I want to see your father. I have an idea. I have not got a ten-rouble note, but here is a twenty-five. Change it and give me back the fifteen, or I shall be left without a farthing myself.", "pos": 264472}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Oh, of course, of course; and you quite understand that I—", "pos": 265177}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes; and I have another request to make, general. Have you ever been at Nastasia Philipovna’s?", "pos": 265238}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I? I? Do you mean me? Often, my friend, often! I only pretended I had not in order to avoid a painful subject. You saw today, you were a witness, that I did all that a kind, an indulgent father could do. Now a father of altogether another type shall step into the scene. You shall see; the old soldier shall lay bare this intrigue, or a shameless woman will force her way into a respectable and noble family.", "pos": 265335}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, quite so. I wished to ask you whether you could show me the way to Nastasia Philipovna’s tonight. I must go; I have business with her; I was not invited but I was introduced. Anyhow I am ready to trespass the laws of propriety if only I can get in somehow or other.", "pos": 265746}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "My dear young friend, you have hit on my very idea. It was not for this rubbish I asked you to come over here it was to invite your alliance in the campaign against Nastasia Philipovna tonight. How well it sounds, ‘General Ivolgin and Prince Muishkin.’ That’ll fetch her, I think, eh? Capital! We’ll go at nine; there’s time yet.", "pos": 266019}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Where does she live?", "pos": 266402}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Oh, a long way off, near the Great Theatre, just in the square there—It won’t be a large party.", "pos": 266425}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Do you see those brightly-lighted windows? Many of my old comrades-in-arms live about here, and I, who served longer, and suffered more than any of them, am walking on foot to the house of a woman of rather questionable reputation! A man, look you, who has thirteen bullets on his breast!... You don’t believe it? Well, I can assure you it was entirely on my account that Pirogoff telegraphed to Paris, and left Sebastopol at the greatest risk during the siege. Nelaton, the Tuileries surgeon, demanded a safe conduct, in the name of science, into the besieged city in order to attend my wounds. The government knows all about it. ‘That’s the Ivolgin with thirteen bullets in him!’ That’s how they speak of me.... Do you see that house, prince? One of my old friends lives on the first floor, with his large family. In this and five other houses, three overlooking Nevsky, two in the Morskaya, are all that remain of my personal friends. Nina Alexandrovna gave them up long ago, but I keep in touch with them still... I may say I find refreshment in this little coterie, in thus meeting my old acquaintances and subordinates, who worship me still, in spite of all. General Sokolovitch (by the way, I have not called on him lately, or seen Anna Fedorovna)... You know, my dear prince, when a person does not receive company himself, he gives up going to other people’s houses involuntarily. And yet... well... you look as if you didn’t believe me.... Well now, why should I not present the son of my old friend and companion to this delightful family—General Ivolgin and Prince Muishkin? You will see a lovely girl—what am I saying—a lovely girl? No, indeed, two, three! Ornaments of this city and of society: beauty, education, culture—the woman question—poetry—everything! Added to which is the fact that each one will have a dot of at least eighty thousand roubles. No bad thing, eh?... In a word I absolutely must introduce you to them: it is a duty, an obligation. General Ivolgin and Prince Muishkin. Tableau! At once? Now? You must have forgotten... No, I have forgotten nothing. Come! This is the house—up this magnificent staircase. I am surprised not to see the porter, but .... it is a holiday... and the man has gone off... Drunken fool! Why have they not got rid of him? Sokolovitch owes all the happiness he has had in the service and in his private life to me, and me alone, but... here we are.", "pos": 268142}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "You have made a mistake, general. Koulakoff... Koulakoff means nothing. This is Sokolovitch’s flat, and I am ringing at his door.... What do I care for Koulakoff?... Here comes someone to open. What a pity! What a pity! It’s just my luck! When your master and mistress return, my man, tell them that General Ivolgin and Prince Muishkin desired to present themselves, and that they were extremely sorry, excessively grieved... Alexandra Michailovna out, too! How disappointing! Would you believe it, I am always so unfortunate! May I most respectfully ask you to present my compliments to Alexandra Michailovna, and remind her... tell her, that with my whole heart I wish for her what she wished for herself on Thursday evening, while she was listening to Chopin’s Ballade. She will remember. I wish it with all sincerity. General Ivolgin and Prince Muishkin! You know I am a bit of a poet. Have you noticed it? The poetic soul, you know. But after all... after all I believe we made a mistake this time! I remember that the Sokolovitch’s live in another house, and what is more, they are just now in Moscow. Yes, I certainly was at fault. However, it is of no consequence.", "pos": 271302}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Just tell me, may I count still on your assistance? Or shall I go on alone to see Nastasia Philipovna?", "pos": 273445}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Count on my assistance? Go alone? How can you ask me that question, when it is a matter on which the fate of my family so largely depends? You don’t know Ivolgin, my friend. To trust Ivolgin is to trust a rock; that’s how the first squadron I commanded spoke of me. ‘Depend upon Ivolgin,’ said they all, ‘he is as steady as a rock.’ But, excuse me, I must just call at a house on our way, a house where I have found consolation and help in all my trials for years.", "pos": 273578}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You are going home?", "pos": 274045}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "No... I wish... to visit Madame Terentieff, the widow of Captain Terentieff, my old subordinate and friend. She helps me to keep up my courage, and to bear the trials of my domestic life, and as I have an extra burden on my mind today...", "pos": 274067}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It seems to me, that I was foolish to trouble you just now. However, at present you... Good-bye!", "pos": 274307}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Indeed, you must not go away like that, young man, you must not! My friend here is a widow, the mother of a family; her words come straight from her heart, and find an echo in mine. A visit to her is merely an affair of a few minutes; I am quite at home in her house. I will have a wash, and dress, and then we can drive to the Grand Theatre. Make up your mind to spend the evening with me.... We are just there—that’s the house... Why, Colia! you here! Well, is Marfa Borisovna at home or have you only just come?", "pos": 274432}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Oh no! I have been here a long while. I am keeping Hippolyte company. He is worse, and has been in bed all day. I came down to buy some cards. Marfa Borisovna expects you. But what a state you are in, father! Well, let us go in. You intend to introduce the prince?", "pos": 274970}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Yes, my boy. I wish to present him: General Ivolgin and Prince Muishkin! But what’s the matter?... what?... How is Marfa Borisovna?", "pos": 275791}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "You know, father, you would have done much better not to come at all! She is ready to eat you up! You have not shown yourself since the day before yesterday and she is expecting the money. Why did you promise her any? You are always the same! Well, now you will have to get out of it as best you can.", "pos": 275925}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I will wait here. I should like to surprise her. ....", "pos": 276378}
{"speaker": "Marfa Borisovna", "text": "There he is, that wicked, mean wretch! I knew it was he! My heart misgave me!", "pos": 276893}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Come, let us go in—it’s all right,", "pos": 277025}
{"speaker": "Marfa Borisovna", "text": "Are you not ashamed? Are you not ashamed? You barbarian! You tyrant! You have robbed me of all I possessed—you have sucked my bones to the marrow. How long shall I be your victim? Shameless, dishonourable man!", "pos": 277399}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Marfa Borisovna! Marfa Borisovna! Here is... the Prince Muishkin! General Ivolgin and Prince Muishkin,", "pos": 277611}
{"speaker": "Marfa Borisovna", "text": "Would you believe, would you believe that that man has not even spared my orphan children? He has stolen everything I possessed, sold everything, pawned everything; he has left me nothing—nothing! What am I to do with your IOU’s, you cunning, unscrupulous rogue? Answer, devourer! answer, heart of stone! How shall I feed my orphans? with what shall I nourish them? And now he has come, he is drunk! He can scarcely stand. How, oh how, have I offended the Almighty, that He should bring this curse upon me! Answer, you worthless villain, answer!", "pos": 277752}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Here are twenty-five roubles, Marfa Borisovna... it is all that I can give... and I owe even these to the prince’s generosity—my noble friend. I have been cruelly deceived. Such is... life... Now... Excuse me, I am very weak. I am faint; excuse me! Lenotchka... a cushion... my dear!", "pos": 278405}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I am very glad indeed to have met you here, Colia. Can you do something for me? I must see Nastasia Philipovna, and I asked Ardalion Alexandrovitch just now to take me to her house, but he has gone to sleep, as you see. Will you show me the way, for I do not know the street? I have the address, though; it is close to the Grand Theatre.", "pos": 279466}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Nastasia Philipovna? She does not live there, and to tell you the truth my father has never been to her house! It is strange that you should have depended on him! She lives near Wladimir Street, at the Five Corners, and it is quite close by. Will you go directly? It is just half-past nine. I will show you the way with pleasure. I should have liked to have taken you to see Hippolyte. He is the eldest son of the lady you met just now, and was in the next room. He is ill, and has been in bed all day. But he is rather strange, and extremely sensitive, and I thought he might be upset considering the circumstances in which you came... Somehow it touches me less, as it concerns my father, while it is his mother. That, of course, makes a great difference. What is a terrible disgrace to a woman, does not disgrace a man, at least not in the same way. Perhaps public opinion is wrong in condemning one sex, and excusing the other. Hippolyte is an extremely clever boy, but so prejudiced. He is really a slave to his opinions.", "pos": 279825}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Do you say he is consumptive?", "pos": 280988}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Yes. It really would be happier for him to die young. If I were in his place I should certainly long for death. He is unhappy about his brother and sisters, the children you saw. If it were possible, if we only had a little money, we should leave our respective families, and live together in a little apartment of our own. It is our dream. But, do you know, when I was talking over your affair with him, he was angry, and said that anyone who did not call out a man who had given him a blow was a coward. He is very irritable to-day, and I left off arguing the matter with him. So Nastasia Philipovna has invited you to go and see her?", "pos": 281020}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "To tell the truth, she has not.", "pos": 281659}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Then how do you come to be going there? and... and are you going to her ‘At Home’ in that costume?", "pos": 281693}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I don’t know, really, whether I shall be allowed in at all. If she will receive me, so much the better. If not, the matter is ended. As to my clothes—what can I do?", "pos": 281881}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Are you going there for some particular reason, or only as a way of getting into her society, and that of her friends?", "pos": 282048}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, I have really an object in going... That is, I am going on business it is difficult to explain, but...", "pos": 282169}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Well, whether you go on business or not is your affair, I do not want to know. The only important thing, in my eyes, is that you should not be going there simply for the pleasure of spending your evening in such company—cocottes, generals, usurers! If that were the case I should despise and laugh at you. There are terribly few honest people here, and hardly any whom one can respect, although people put on airs—Varia especially! Have you noticed, prince, how many adventurers there are nowadays? Especially here, in our dear Russia. How it has happened I never can understand. There used to be a certain amount of solidity in all things, but now what happens? Everything is exposed to the public gaze, veils are thrown back, every wound is probed by careless fingers. We are for ever present at an orgy of scandalous revelations. Parents blush when they remember their old-fashioned morality. At Moscow lately a father was heard urging his son to stop at nothing—at nothing, mind you!—to get money! The press seized upon the story, of course, and now it is public property. Look at my father, the general! See what he is, and yet, I assure you, he is an honest man! Only... he drinks too much, and his morals are not all we could desire. Yes, that’s true! I pity him, to tell the truth, but I dare not say so, because everybody would laugh at me—but I do pity him! And who are the really clever men, after all? Money-grubbers, every one of them, from the first to the last. Hippolyte finds excuses for money-lending, and says it is a necessity. He talks about the economic movement, and the ebb and flow of capital; the devil knows what he means. It makes me angry to hear him talk so, but he is soured by his troubles. Just imagine—the general keeps his mother—but she lends him money! She lends it for a week or ten days at very high interest! Isn’t it disgusting? And then, you would hardly believe it, but my mother—Nina Alexandrovna—helps Hippolyte in all sorts of ways, sends him money and clothes. She even goes as far as helping the children, through Hippolyte, because their mother cares nothing about them, and Varia does the same.", "pos": 282278}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well, just now you said there were no honest nor good people about, that there were only money-grubbers—and here they are quite close at hand, these honest and good people, your mother and Varia! I think there is a good deal of moral strength in helping people in such circumstances.", "pos": 284424}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Varia does it from pride, and likes showing off, and giving herself airs. As to my mother, I really do admire her—yes, and honour her. Hippolyte, hardened as he is, feels it. He laughed at first, and thought it vulgar of her—but now, he is sometimes quite touched and overcome by her kindness. H’m! You call that being strong and good? I will remember that! Gania knows nothing about it. He would say that it was encouraging vice.", "pos": 284710}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Ah, Gania knows nothing about it? It seems there are many things that Gania does not know,", "pos": 285143}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Do you know, I like you very much indeed, prince? I shall never forget about this afternoon.", "pos": 285295}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I like you too, Colia.", "pos": 285390}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Listen to me! You are going to live here, are you not? I mean to get something to do directly, and earn money. Then shall we three live together? You, and I, and Hippolyte? We will hire a flat, and let the general come and visit us. What do you say?", "pos": 285415}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It would be very pleasant. But we must see. I am really rather worried just now. What! are we there already? Is that the house? What a long flight of steps! And there’s a porter! Well, Colia I don’t know what will come of it all.", "pos": 285681}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "You must tell me all about it tomorrow! Don’t be afraid. I wish you success; we agree so entirely that I can do so, although I do not understand why you are here. Good-bye! Now I will rush back and tell Hippolyte all about our plans and proposals! But as to your getting in—don’t be in the least afraid. You will see her. She is so original about everything. It’s the first floor. The porter will show you.", "pos": 285987}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Don’t ruin yourself by marrying this man. He does not love you, he only loves your money. He told me so himself, and so did Aglaya Ivanovna, and I have come on purpose to warn you", "pos": 286966}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Of course,", "pos": 292597}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Especially as he asked himself,", "pos": 292866}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "What’s that got to do with it?", "pos": 292918}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Why, he must pay toll for his entrance,", "pos": 292995}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "H’m! Prince Muishkin is not Ferdishenko,", "pos": 293059}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Oh general, spare Ferdishenko! I have special privileges.", "pos": 293263}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "What do you mean by special privileges?", "pos": 293353}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Once before I had the honour of stating them to the company. I will repeat the explanation to-day for your excellency’s benefit. You see, excellency, all the world is witty and clever except myself. I am neither. As a kind of compensation I am allowed to tell the truth, for it is a well-known fact that only stupid people tell ‘the truth.’ Added to this, I am a spiteful man, just because I am not clever. If I am offended or injured I bear it quite patiently until the man injuring me meets with some misfortune. Then I remember, and take my revenge. I return the injury sevenfold, as Ivan Petrovitch Ptitsin says. (Of course he never does so himself.) Excellency, no doubt you recollect Kryloff’s fable, ‘The Lion and the Ass’? Well now, that’s you and I. That fable was written precisely for us.", "pos": 293395}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "You seem to be talking nonsense again, Ferdishenko,", "pos": 294197}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "What is the matter, excellency? I know how to keep my place. When I said just now that we, you and I, were the lion and the ass of Kryloff’s fable, of course it is understood that I take the role of the ass. Your excellency is the lion of which the fable remarks: ‘A mighty lion, terror of the woods, Was shorn of his great prowess by old age.’ And I, your excellency, am the ass.", "pos": 294272}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "I am of your opinion on that last point,", "pos": 294655}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "The prince will begin by singing us a fashionable ditty,", "pos": 295743}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "I don’t think so, Ferdishenko; please be quiet. I was so sorry to have forgotten to ask you to come, when I saw you, and I am delighted to be able to thank you personally now, and to express my pleasure at your resolution.", "pos": 295892}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Don’t apologize, you spoil the whole originality of the thing. I think what they say about you must be true, that you are so original.—So you think me perfection, do you?", "pos": 297085}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes.", "pos": 297285}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "H’m! Well, you may be a good reader of riddles but you are wrong there, at all events. I’ll remind you of this, tonight.", "pos": 297292}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Dear me, there’s nothing so very curious about the prince dropping in, after all,", "pos": 297667}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "It’s quite a clear case. I have watched the prince almost all day, ever since the moment when he first saw Nastasia Philipovna’s portrait, at General Epanchin’s. I remember thinking at the time what I am now pretty sure of; and what, I may say in passing, the prince confessed to myself.", "pos": 297773}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I did not confess anything to you. I only answered your question.", "pos": 298222}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Bravo! That’s frank, at any rate!", "pos": 298319}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Oh prince, prince! I never should have thought it of you; And I imagined you a philosopher! Oh, you silent fellows!", "pos": 298408}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Judging from the fact that the prince blushed at this innocent joke, like a young girl, I should think that he must, as an honourable man, harbour the noblest intentions,", "pos": 298551}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Gentlemen, wouldn’t you like a little champagne now? I have it all ready; it will cheer us up—do now—no ceremony!", "pos": 299162}
{"speaker": "Actress", "text": "You seem to be a little feverish tonight,", "pos": 300163}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Yes; I feel quite ill. I have been obliged to put on this shawl—I feel so cold,", "pos": 300225}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "Had we not better allow our hostess to retire?", "pos": 300431}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Not at all, gentlemen, not at all! Your presence is absolutely necessary to me tonight,", "pos": 300509}
{"speaker": "Actress", "text": "Let’s play at some game!", "pos": 300903}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "I know a new and most delightful game,", "pos": 300953}
{"speaker": "Actress", "text": "What is it?", "pos": 301012}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Well, when we tried it we were a party of people, like this, for instance; and somebody proposed that each of us, without leaving his place at the table, should relate something about himself. It had to be something that he really and honestly considered the very worst action he had ever committed in his life. But he was to be honest—that was the chief point! He wasn’t to be allowed to lie.", "pos": 301045}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "What an extraordinary idea!", "pos": 301441}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "That’s the beauty of it, general!", "pos": 301489}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "It’s a funny notion, and yet quite natural—it’s only a new way of boasting.", "pos": 301525}
{"speaker": "Actress", "text": "Why, it would be a game to cry over—not to laugh at!", "pos": 301675}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Did it succeed? Come, let’s try it, let’s try it; we really are not quite so jolly as we might be—let’s try it! We may like it; it’s original, at all events!", "pos": 301748}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Yes, it’s a good idea—come along—the men begin. Of course no one need tell a story if he prefers to be disobliging. We must draw lots! Throw your slips of paper, gentlemen, into this hat, and the prince shall draw for turns. It’s a very simple game; all you have to do is to tell the story of the worst action of your life. It’s as simple as anything. I’ll prompt anyone who forgets the rules!", "pos": 301937}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And supposing it’s something that one—one can’t speak about before ladies?", "pos": 303058}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Why, then of course, you won’t say anything about it. As if there are not plenty of sins to your score without the need of those!", "pos": 303172}
{"speaker": "the actress", "text": "But I really don’t know which of my actions is the worst,", "pos": 303322}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Ladies are exempted if they like.", "pos": 303407}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "And how are you to know that one isn’t lying? And if one lies the whole point of the game is lost,", "pos": 303443}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Oh, but think how delightful to hear how one’s friends lie! Besides you needn’t be afraid, Gania; everybody knows what your worst action is without the need of any lying on your part. Only think, gentlemen, only think with what eyes we shall observe one another tomorrow, after our tales have been told!", "pos": 303556}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "But surely this is a joke, Nastasia Philipovna? You don’t really mean us to play this game.", "pos": 303910}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Whoever is afraid of wolves had better not go into the wood,", "pos": 304020}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "But, pardon me, Mr. Ferdishenko, is it possible to make a game out of this kind of thing? I assure you it can’t be a success.", "pos": 304107}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "And why not? Why, the last time I simply told straight off about how I stole three roubles.", "pos": 304285}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "Perhaps so; but it is hardly possible that you told it so that it seemed like truth, or so that you were believed. And, as Gavrila Ardalionovitch has said, the least suggestion of a falsehood takes all point out of the game. It seems to me that sincerity, on the other hand, is only possible if combined with a kind of bad taste that would be utterly out of place here.", "pos": 304379}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "How subtle you are, Afanasy Ivanovitch! You astonish me You will remark, gentlemen, that in saying that I could not recount the story of my theft so as to be believed, Afanasy Ivanovitch has very ingeniously implied that I am not capable of thieving—(it would have been bad taste to say so openly); and all the time he is probably firmly convinced, in his own mind, that I am very well capable of it! But now, gentlemen, to business! Put in your slips, ladies and gentlemen—is yours in, Mr. Totski? So—then we are all ready; now prince, draw, please. Oh, dear! oh, dear! I did so hope the prince would come out first, and then the general. Well, gentlemen, I suppose I must set a good example! What vexes me much is that I am such an insignificant creature that it matters nothing to anybody whether I have done bad actions or not! Besides, which am I to choose? It’s an embarras de richesse. Shall I tell how I became a thief on one occasion only, to convince Afanasy Ivanovitch that it is possible to steal without being a thief?", "pos": 304751}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Do go on, Ferdishenko, and don’t make unnecessary preface, or you’ll never finish,", "pos": 306028}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "I have no wit, Nastasia Philipovna, and therefore I talk too much, perhaps. Were I as witty, now, as Mr. Totski or the general, I should probably have sat silent all the evening, as they have. Now, prince, what do you think?—are there not far more thieves than honest men in this world? Don’t you think we may say there does not exist a single person so honest that he has never stolen anything whatever in his life?", "pos": 306472}
{"speaker": "lively actress", "text": "What a silly idea. Of course it is not the case. I have never stolen anything, for one.", "pos": 306912}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "H’m! very well, Daria Alexeyevna; you have not stolen anything—agreed. But how about the prince, now—look how he is blushing!", "pos": 307022}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I think you are partially right, but you exaggerate,", "pos": 307150}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Ferdishenko—either tell us your story, or be quiet, and mind your own business. You exhaust all patience,", "pos": 307291}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Immediately, immediately! As for my story, gentlemen, it is too stupid and absurd to tell you. I assure you I am not a thief, and yet I have stolen; I cannot explain why. It was at Semeon Ivanovitch Ishenka’s country house, one Sunday. He had a dinner party. After dinner the men stayed at the table over their wine. It struck me to ask the daughter of the house to play something on the piano; so I passed through the corner room to join the ladies. In that room, on Maria Ivanovna’s writing-table, I observed a three-rouble note. She must have taken it out for some purpose, and left it lying there. There was no one about. I took up the note and put it in my pocket; why, I can’t say. I don’t know what possessed me to do it, but it was done, and I went quickly back to the dining-room and reseated myself at the dinner-table. I sat and waited there in a great state of excitement. I talked hard, and told lots of stories, and laughed like mad; then I joined the ladies. In half an hour or so the loss was discovered, and the servants were being put under examination. Daria, the housemaid was suspected. I exhibited the greatest interest and sympathy, and I remember that poor Daria quite lost her head, and that I began assuring her, before everyone, that I would guarantee her forgiveness on the part of her mistress, if she would confess her guilt. They all stared at the girl, and I remember a wonderful attraction in the reflection that here was I sermonizing away, with the money in my own pocket all the while. I went and spent the three roubles that very evening at a restaurant. I went in and asked for a bottle of Lafite, and drank it up; I wanted to be rid of the money. I did not feel much remorse either then or afterwards; but I would not repeat the performance—believe it or not as you please. There—that’s all.", "pos": 307453}
{"speaker": "lively actress", "text": "Only, of course that’s not nearly your worst action,", "pos": 309289}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "That was a psychological phenomenon, not an action,", "pos": 309396}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "And what about the maid? Oh, she was turned out next day, of course. It’s a very strict household, there!", "pos": 309467}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "I should think so, rather! I was not going to return and confess next day,", "pos": 309653}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "How mean you were!", "pos": 309853}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Bah! you wish to hear a man tell of his worst actions, and you expect the story to come out goody-goody! One’s worst actions always are mean. We shall see what the general has to say for himself now. All is not gold that glitters, you know; and because a man keeps his carriage he need not be specially virtuous, I assure you, all sorts of people keep carriages. And by what means?", "pos": 309889}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "Had we not better end this game?", "pos": 310683}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "It’s my turn, but I plead exemption,", "pos": 310732}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "You don’t care to oblige us?", "pos": 310785}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "I cannot, I assure you. I confess I do not understand how anyone can play this game.", "pos": 310832}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Then, general, it’s your turn, and if you refuse, the whole game will fall through, which will disappoint me very much, for I was looking forward to relating a certain ‘page of my own life.’ I am only waiting for you and Afanasy Ivanovitch to have your turns, for I require the support of your example,", "pos": 310919}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Oh, if you put it in that way, I’m ready to tell the whole story of my life, but I must confess that I prepared a little story in anticipation of my turn. I, like everyone else, have committed certain not altogether graceful actions, so to speak, during the course of my life. But the strangest thing of all in my case is, that I should consider the little anecdote which I am now about to give you as a confession of the worst of my ‘bad actions.’ It is thirty-five years since it all happened, and yet I cannot to this very day recall the circumstances without, as it were, a sudden pang at the heart. It was a silly affair—I was an ensign at the time. You know ensigns—their blood is boiling water, their circumstances generally penurious. Well, I had a servant Nikifor who used to do everything for me in my quarters, economized and managed for me, and even laid hands on anything he could find (belonging to other people), in order to augment our household goods; but a faithful, honest fellow all the same. I was strict, but just by nature. At that time we were stationed in a small town. I was quartered at an old widow’s house, a lieutenant’s widow of eighty years of age. She lived in a wretched little wooden house, and had not even a servant, so poor was she. Her relations had all died off—her husband was dead and buried forty years since; and a niece, who had lived with her and bullied her up to three years ago, was dead too; so that she was quite alone. Well, I was precious dull with her, especially as she was so childish that there was nothing to be got out of her. Eventually, she stole a fowl of mine; the business is a mystery to this day; but it could have been no one but herself. I requested to be quartered somewhere else, and was shifted to the other end of the town, to the house of a merchant with a large family, and a long beard, as I remember him. Nikifor and I were delighted to go; but the old lady was not pleased at our departure. Well, a day or two afterwards, when I returned from drill, Nikifor says to me: ‘We oughtn’t to have left our tureen with the old lady, I’ve nothing to serve the soup in.’ I asked how it came about that the tureen had been left. Nikifor explained that the old lady refused to give it up, because, she said, we had broken her bowl, and she must have our tureen in place of it; she had declared that I had so arranged the matter with herself. This baseness on her part of course aroused my young blood to fever heat; I jumped up, and away I flew. I arrived at the old woman’s house beside myself. She was sitting in a corner all alone, leaning her face on her hand. I fell on her like a clap of thunder. ‘You old wretch!’ I yelled and all that sort of thing, in real Russian style. Well, when I began cursing at her, a strange thing happened. I looked at her, and she stared back with her eyes starting out of her head, but she did not say a word. She seemed to sway about as she sat, and looked and looked at me in the strangest way. Well, I soon stopped swearing and looked closer at her, asked her questions, but not a word could I get out of her. The flies were buzzing about the room and only this sound broke the silence; the sun was setting outside; I didn’t know what to make of it, so I went away. Before I reached home I was met and summoned to the major’s, so that it was some while before I actually got there. When I came in, Nikifor met me. ‘Have you heard, sir, that our old lady is dead?’ ‘dead, when?’ ‘Oh, an hour and a half ago.’ That meant nothing more nor less than that she was dying at the moment when I pounced on her and began abusing her. This produced a great effect upon me. I used to dream of the poor old woman at nights. I really am not superstitious, but two days after, I went to her funeral, and as time went on I thought more and more about her. I said to myself, ‘This woman, this human being, lived to a great age. She had children, a husband and family, friends and relations; her household was busy and cheerful; she was surrounded by smiling faces; and then suddenly they are gone, and she is left alone like a solitary fly... like a fly, cursed with the burden of her age. At last, God calls her to Himself. At sunset, on a lovely summer’s evening, my little old woman passes away—a thought, you will notice, which offers much food for reflection—and behold! instead of tears and prayers to start her on her last journey, she has insults and jeers from a young ensign, who stands before her with his hands in his pockets, making a terrible row about a soup tureen!’ Of course I was to blame, and even now that I have time to look back at it calmly, I pity the poor old thing no less. I repeat that I wonder at myself, for after all I was not really responsible. Why did she take it into her head to die at that moment? But the more I thought of it, the more I felt the weight of it upon my mind; and I never got quite rid of the impression until I put a couple of old women into an almshouse and kept them there at my own expense. There, that’s all. I repeat I dare say I have committed many a grievous sin in my day; but I cannot help always looking back upon this as the worst action I have ever perpetrated.", "pos": 311277}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "H’m! and instead of a bad action, your excellency has detailed one of your noblest deeds. Ferdishenko is ‘done.’", "pos": 316758}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Dear me, general, I really never imagined you had such a good heart.", "pos": 316893}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "What simplifies the duty before me considerably, in my opinion, is that I am bound to recall and relate the very worst action of my life. In such circumstances there can, of course, be no doubt. One’s conscience very soon informs one what is the proper narrative to tell. I admit, that among the many silly and thoughtless actions of my life, the memory of one comes prominently forward and reminds me that it lay long like a stone on my heart. Some twenty years since, I paid a visit to Platon Ordintzeff at his country-house. He had just been elected marshal of the nobility, and had come there with his young wife for the winter holidays. Anfisa Alexeyevna’s birthday came off just then, too, and there were two balls arranged. At that time Dumas-fils’ beautiful work, La Dame aux Camélias—a novel which I consider imperishable—had just come into fashion. In the provinces all the ladies were in raptures over it, those who had read it, at least. Camellias were all the fashion. Everyone inquired for them, everybody wanted them; and a grand lot of camellias are to be got in a country town—as you all know—and two balls to provide for! Poor Peter Volhofskoi was desperately in love with Anfisa Alexeyevna. I don’t know whether there was anything—I mean I don’t know whether he could possibly have indulged in any hope. The poor fellow was beside himself to get her a bouquet of camellias. Countess Sotski and Sophia Bespalova, as everyone knew, were coming with white camellia bouquets. Anfisa wished for red ones, for effect. Well, her husband Platon was driven desperate to find some. And the day before the ball, Anfisa’s rival snapped up the only red camellias to be had in the place, from under Platon’s nose, and Platon—wretched man—was done for. Now if Peter had only been able to step in at this moment with a red bouquet, his little hopes might have made gigantic strides. A woman’s gratitude under such circumstances would have been boundless—but it was practically an impossibility. The night before the ball I met Peter, looking radiant. ‘What is it?’ I ask. ‘I’ve found them, Eureka!’ ‘No! where, where?’ ‘At Ekshaisk (a little town fifteen miles off) there’s a rich old merchant, who keeps a lot of canaries, has no children, and he and his wife are devoted to flowers. He’s got some camellias.’ ‘And what if he won’t let you have them?’ ‘I’ll go on my knees and implore till I get them. I won’t go away.’ ‘When shall you start?’ ‘Tomorrow morning at five o’clock.’ ‘Go on,’ I said, ‘and good luck to you.’ I was glad for the poor fellow, and went home. But an idea got hold of me somehow. I don’t know how. It was nearly two in the morning. I rang the bell and ordered the coachman to be waked up and sent to me. He came. I gave him a tip of fifteen roubles, and told him to get the carriage ready at once. In half an hour it was at the door. I got in and off we went. By five I drew up at the Ekshaisky inn. I waited there till dawn, and soon after six I was off, and at the old merchant Trepalaf’s.", "pos": 317632}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "Camellias! father, save me, save me, let me have some camellias!", "pos": 320669}
{"speaker": "the old gentleman", "text": "Not a bit of it. I won’t.", "pos": 320808}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "Don’t say so, don’t—think what you’re doing! it’s a matter of life and death!", "pos": 320872}
{"speaker": "the old gentleman", "text": "If that’s the case, take them. No, no! don’t insult me that way.", "pos": 320963}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "Oh, if that’s the case, give it to the village hospital,", "pos": 321210}
{"speaker": "the old gentleman", "text": "Ah, that’s quite a different matter; that’s good of you and generous. I’ll pay it in there for you with pleasure.", "pos": 321276}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "cussedness", "pos": 322242}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "You were right, Totski, it is a dull game and a stupid one. I’ll just tell my story, as I promised, and then we’ll play cards.", "pos": 322725}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Yes, but let’s have the story first!", "pos": 322871}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Prince, here are my old friends, Totski and General Epanchin, who wish to marry me off. Tell me what you think. Shall I marry or not? As you decide, so shall it be.", "pos": 322929}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Marry whom?", "pos": 323291}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Gavrila Ardalionovitch Ivolgin,", "pos": 323332}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "N-no! don’t marry him!", "pos": 323563}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "So be it, then. Gavrila Ardalionovitch, you hear the prince’s decision? Take it as my decision; and let that be the end of the matter for good and all.", "pos": 323645}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "Nastasia Philipovna!", "pos": 323834}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Nastasia Philipovna!", "pos": 323891}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "But—recollect, Nastasia Philipovna, you gave a promise, quite a free one, and—and you might have spared us this. I am confused and bewildered, I know; but, in a word, at such a moment, and before company, and all so-so-irregular, finishing off a game with a serious matter like this, a matter of honour, and of heart, and—", "pos": 324190}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "I don’t follow you, Afanasy Ivanovitch; you are losing your head. In the first place, what do you mean by ‘before company’? Isn’t the company good enough for you? And what’s all that about ‘a game’? I wished to tell my little story, and I told it! Don’t you like it? You heard what I said to the prince? ‘As you decide, so it shall be!’ If he had said ‘yes,’ I should have given my consent! But he said ‘no,’ so I refused. Here was my whole life hanging on his one word! Surely I was serious enough?", "pos": 324535}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "The prince! What on earth has the prince got to do with it? Who the deuce is the prince?", "pos": 325037}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "The prince has this to do with it—that I see in him for the first time in all my life, a man endowed with real truthfulness of spirit, and I trust him. He trusted me at first sight, and I trust him!", "pos": 325186}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "It only remains for me, then, to thank Nastasia Philipovna for the great delicacy with which she has treated me. That is my plain duty, of course; but the prince—what has he to do in the matter?", "pos": 325387}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "I see what you are driving at. You imply that the prince is after the seventy-five thousand roubles—I quite understand you. Mr. Totski, I forgot to say, ‘Take your seventy-five thousand roubles’—I don’t want them. I let you go free for nothing—take your freedom! You must need it. Nine years and three months’ captivity is enough for anybody. Tomorrow I shall start afresh—today I am a free agent for the first time in my life. General, you must take your pearls back, too—give them to your wife—here they are! Tomorrow I shall leave this flat altogether, and then there’ll be no more of these pleasant little social gatherings, ladies and gentlemen.", "pos": 325641}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Ah, ah! here’s the climax at last, at half-past twelve! Sit down, gentlemen, I beg you. Something is about to happen.", "pos": 326919}
{"speaker": "Katia", "text": "Goodness knows what it means, ma’am. There is a whole collection of men come—all tipsy—and want to see you. They say that ‘it’s Rogojin, and she knows all about it.’", "pos": 327365}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "It’s all right, Katia, let them all in at once.", "pos": 327545}
{"speaker": "Katia", "text": "Surely not all, ma’am? They seem so disorderly—it’s dreadful to see them.", "pos": 327595}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Yes all, Katia, all—every one of them. Let them in, or they’ll come in whether you like or no. Listen! what a noise they are making! Perhaps you are offended, gentlemen, that I should receive such guests in your presence? I am very sorry, and ask your forgiveness, but it cannot be helped—and I should be very grateful if you could all stay and witness this climax. However, just as you please, of course.", "pos": 327671}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Ah, general! I was forgetting! If I had only foreseen this unpleasantness! I won’t insist on keeping you against your will, although I should have liked you to be beside me now. In any case, I am most grateful to you for your visit, and flattering attention... but if you are afraid...", "pos": 330374}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Excuse me, Nastasia Philipovna. To whom are you speaking? I have remained until now simply because of my devotion to you, and as for danger, I am only afraid that the carpets may be ruined, and the furniture smashed!... You should shut the door on the lot, in my opinion. But I confess that I am extremely curious to see how it ends. Rogojin! What do you think about it? Is she mad? I mean mad in the medical sense of the word .... eh?", "pos": 330675}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "I’ve always said she was predisposed to it. Perhaps it is a fever!", "pos": 331239}
{"speaker": "Katia", "text": "What is that?", "pos": 336815}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "A hundred thousand,", "pos": 336919}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Oh! so he kept his word—there’s a man for you! Well, sit down, please—take that chair. I shall have something to say to you presently. Who are all these with you? The same party? Let them come in and sit down. There’s room on that sofa, there are some chairs and there’s another sofa! Well, why don’t they sit down?", "pos": 336982}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Look at that!", "pos": 337815}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "This, gentlemen, is a hundred thousand roubles, here, in this dirty parcel. This afternoon Rogojin yelled, like a madman, that he would bring me a hundred thousand in the evening, and I have been waiting for him all the while. He was bargaining for me, you know; first he offered me eighteen thousand; then he rose to forty, and then to a hundred thousand. And he has kept his word, see! My goodness, how white he is! All this happened this afternoon, at Gania’s. I had gone to pay his mother a visit—my future family, you know! And his sister said to my very face, surely somebody will turn this shameless creature out. After which she spat in her brother Gania’s face—a girl of character, that!", "pos": 338394}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Nastasia Philipovna!", "pos": 339156}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Well, what, general? Not quite good form, eh? Oh, nonsense! Here have I been sitting in my box at the French theatre for the last five years like a statue of inaccessible virtue, and kept out of the way of all admirers, like a silly little idiot! Now, there’s this man, who comes and pays down his hundred thousand on the table, before you all, in spite of my five years of innocence and proud virtue, and I dare be sworn he has his sledge outside waiting to carry me off. He values me at a hundred thousand! I see you are still angry with me, Gania! Why, surely you never really wished to take me into your family? me, Rogojin’s mistress! What did the prince say just now?", "pos": 339275}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I never said you were Rogojin’s mistress—you are not!", "pos": 339951}
{"speaker": "Actress", "text": "Nastasia Philipovna, dear soul! do be calm, dear! If it annoys you so—all this—do go away and rest! Of course you would never go with this wretched fellow, in spite of his hundred thousand roubles! Take his money and kick him out of the house; that’s the way to treat him and the likes of him! Upon my word, if it were my business, I’d soon clear them all out!", "pos": 340046}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "I was not angry when I spoke; I wasn’t reproaching Gania. I don’t know how it was that I ever could have indulged the whim of entering an honest family like his. I saw his mother—and kissed her hand, too. I came and stirred up all that fuss, Gania, this afternoon, on purpose to see how much you could swallow—you surprised me, my friend—you did, indeed. Surely you could not marry a woman who accepts pearls like those you knew the general was going to give me, on the very eve of her marriage? And Rogojin! Why, in your own house and before your own brother and sister, he bargained with me! Yet you could come here and expect to be betrothed to me before you left the house! You almost brought your sister, too. Surely what Rogojin said about you is not really true: that you would crawl all the way to the other end of the town, on hands and knees, for three roubles?", "pos": 340586}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Yes, he would!", "pos": 341460}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "H’m! and he receives a good salary, I’m told. Well, what should you get but disgrace and misery if you took a wife you hated into your family (for I know very well that you do hate me)? No, no! I believe now that a man like you would murder anyone for money—sharpen a razor and come up behind his best friend and cut his throat like a sheep—I’ve read of such people. Everyone seems money-mad nowadays. No, no! I may be shameless, but you are far worse. I don’t say a word about that other—", "pos": 341540}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Nastasia Philipovna, is this really you? You, once so refined and delicate of speech. Oh, what a tongue! What dreadful things you are saying", "pos": 342032}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "I am intoxicated, general. I am having a day out, you know—it’s my birthday! I have long looked forward to this happy occasion. Daria Alexeyevna, you see that nosegay-man, that Monsieur aux Camelias, sitting there laughing at us?", "pos": 342229}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "I am not laughing, Nastasia Philipovna; I am only listening with all my attention,", "pos": 342461}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Well, why have I worried him, for five years, and never let him go free? Is he worth it? He is only just what he ought to be—nothing particular. He thinks I am to blame, too. He gave me my education, kept me like a countess. Money—my word! What a lot of money he spent over me! And he tried to find me an honest husband first, and then this Gania, here. And what do you think? All these five years I did not live with him, and yet I took his money, and considered I was quite justified. You say, take the hundred thousand and kick that man out. It is true, it is an abominable business, as you say. I might have married long ago, not Gania—Oh, no!—but that would have been abominable too. Would you believe it, I had some thoughts of marrying Totski, four years ago! I meant mischief, I confess—but I could have had him, I give you my word; he asked me himself. But I thought, no! it’s not worthwhile to take such advantage of him. No! I had better go on to the streets, or accept Rogojin, or become a washerwoman or something—for I have nothing of my own, you know. I shall go away and leave everything behind, to the last rag—he shall have it all back. And who would take me without anything? Ask Gania, there, whether he would. Why, even Ferdishenko wouldn’t have me!", "pos": 342573}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "No, Ferdishenko would not; he is a candid fellow, Nastasia Philipovna. But the prince would. You sit here making complaints, but just look at the prince. I’ve been observing him for a long while.", "pos": 343848}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Is that true?", "pos": 344121}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Quite true,", "pos": 344148}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "You’ll take me as I am, with nothing?", "pos": 344184}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I will, Nastasia Philipovna.", "pos": 344224}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Here’s a pretty business! However, it might have been expected of him.", "pos": 344255}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Here’s another alternative for me, and he does it out of pure kindness of heart. I know him. I’ve found a benefactor. Perhaps, though, what they say about him may be true—that he’s an—we know what. And what shall you live on, if you are really so madly in love with Rogojin’s mistress, that you are ready to marry her—eh?", "pos": 344438}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I take you as a good, honest woman, Nastasia Philipovna—not as Rogojin’s mistress.", "pos": 344813}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Who? I?—good and honest?", "pos": 344898}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, you.", "pos": 344925}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Oh, you get those ideas out of novels, you know. Times are changed now, dear prince; the world sees things as they really are. That’s all nonsense. Besides, how can you marry? You need a nurse, not a wife.", "pos": 344937}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I know nothing, Nastasia Philipovna. I have seen nothing. You are right so far; but I consider that you would be honouring me, and not I you. I am a nobody. You have suffered, you have passed through hell and emerged pure, and that is very much. Why do you shame yourself by desiring to go with Rogojin? You are delirious. You have returned to Mr. Totski his seventy-five thousand roubles, and declared that you will leave this house and all that is in it, which is a line of conduct that not one person here would imitate. Nastasia Philipovna, I love you! I would die for you. I shall never let any man say one word against you, Nastasia Philipovna! and if we are poor, I can work for both. But perhaps we shall not be poor; we may be very rich, Nastasia Philipovna. I don’t know for certain, and I’m sorry to say I haven’t had an opportunity of finding out all day; but I received a letter from Moscow, while I was in Switzerland, from a Mr. Salaskin, and he acquaints me with the fact that I am entitled to a very large inheritance. This letter—", "pos": 345277}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Is he raving? Are we really in a mad-house?", "pos": 346674}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "I think you said, prince, that your letter was from Salaskin? Salaskin is a very eminent man, indeed, in his own world; he is a wonderfully clever solicitor, and if he really tells you this, I think you may be pretty sure that he is right. It so happens, luckily, that I know his handwriting, for I have lately had business with him. If you would allow me to see it, I should perhaps be able to tell you.", "pos": 346792}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It’s good business,", "pos": 347815}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "You will receive, without the slightest trouble, by the last will and testament of your aunt, a very large sum of money indeed.", "pos": 347914}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Impossible!", "pos": 348044}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Hurrah! Hurrah for the last of the Muishkins!", "pos": 349603}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "My goodness me! and I gave him twenty-five roubles this morning as though he were a beggar. Well, I congratulate you, I congratulate you!", "pos": 349689}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "So I am really a princess, this is an unexpected climax, after all. I didn’t expect this. What are you all standing up for, gentlemen? Sit down; congratulate me and the prince! Ferdishenko, just step out and order some more champagne, will you? Katia, Pasha, come here! I’m going to be married, did you hear? To the prince. He has a million and a half of roubles; he is Prince Muishkin, and has asked me to marry him. Here, prince, come and sit by me; and here comes the wine. Now then, ladies and gentlemen, where are your congratulations?", "pos": 351107}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Hurrah!", "pos": 351848}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Prince, my dear fellow, do remember what you are about,", "pos": 352123}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "No, no, general! You had better look out! I am the princess now, you know. The prince won’t let you insult me. Afanasy Ivanovitch, why don’t you congratulate me? I shall be able to sit at table with your new wife, now. Aha! you see what I gain by marrying a prince! A million and a half, and a prince, and an idiot into the bargain, they say. What better could I wish for? Life is only just about to commence for me in earnest. Rogojin, you are a little too late. Away with your paper parcel! I’m going to marry the prince; I’m richer than you are now.", "pos": 352323}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Surrender her, for God’s sake!", "pos": 353077}
{"speaker": "Daria Alexeyevna", "text": "What? Surrender her to you? To a fellow who comes and bargains for a wife like a moujik! The prince wishes to marry her, and you—", "pos": 353164}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "So do I, so do I! This moment, if I could! I’d give every farthing I have to do it.", "pos": 353322}
{"speaker": "Daria Alexeyevna", "text": "You drunken moujik. You ought to be kicked out of the place.", "pos": 353408}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Do you hear, prince? Do you hear how this moujik of a fellow goes on bargaining for your bride?", "pos": 353545}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "He is drunk, and he loves you very much.", "pos": 353671}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Won’t you be ashamed, afterwards, to reflect that your wife very nearly ran away with Rogojin?", "pos": 353742}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, you were raving, you were in a fever; you are still half delirious.", "pos": 353839}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "And won’t you be ashamed when they tell you, afterwards, that your wife lived at Totski’s expense so many years?", "pos": 353913}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No; I shall not be ashamed of that. You did not so live by your own will.", "pos": 354028}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "And you’ll never reproach me with it?", "pos": 354104}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Never.", "pos": 354144}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Take care, don’t commit yourself for a whole lifetime.", "pos": 354153}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Nastasia Philipovna. I said before that I shall esteem your consent to be my wife as a great honour to myself, and shall consider that it is you who will honour me, not I you, by our marriage. You laughed at these words, and others around us laughed as well; I heard them. Very likely I expressed myself funnily, and I may have looked funny, but, for all that, I believe I understand where honour lies, and what I said was but the literal truth. You were about to ruin yourself just now, irrevocably; you would never have forgiven yourself for so doing afterwards; and yet, you are absolutely blameless. It is impossible that your life should be altogether ruined at your age. What matter that Rogojin came bargaining here, and that Gavrila Ardalionovitch would have deceived you if he could? Why do you continually remind us of these facts? I assure you once more that very few could find it in them to act as you have acted this day. As for your wish to go with Rogojin, that was simply the idea of a delirious and suffering brain. You are still quite feverish; you ought to be in bed, not here. You know quite well that if you had gone with Rogojin, you would have become a washer-woman next day, rather than stay with him. You are proud, Nastasia Philipovna, and perhaps you have really suffered so much that you imagine yourself to be a desperately guilty woman. You require a great deal of petting and looking after, Nastasia Philipovna, and I will do this. I saw your portrait this morning, and it seemed quite a familiar face to me; it seemed to me that the portrait-face was calling to me for help. I—I shall respect you all my life, Nastasia Philipovna,", "pos": 354210}
{"speaker": "Daria Alexeyevna", "text": "That’s a kind-hearted man, if you like,", "pos": 356372}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "A refined man, but—lost,", "pos": 356474}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Thank you, prince; no one has ever spoken to me like that before. Men have always bargained for me, before this; and not a single respectable man has ever proposed to marry me. Do you hear, Afanasy Ivanovitch? What do you think of what the prince has just been saying? It was almost immodest, wasn’t it? You, Rogojin, wait a moment, don’t go yet! I see you don’t intend to move however. Perhaps I may go with you yet. Where did you mean to take me to?", "pos": 356665}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "To Ekaterinhof,", "pos": 357148}
{"speaker": "Daria Alexeyevna", "text": "What are you thinking of, my dear Nastasia? What are you saying? You are not going mad, are you?", "pos": 357318}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "You thought I should accept this good child’s invitation to ruin him, did you? That’s Totski’s way, not mine. He’s fond of children. Come along, Rogojin, get your money ready! We won’t talk about marrying just at this moment, but let’s see the money at all events. Come! I may not marry you, either. I don’t know. I suppose you thought you’d keep the money, if I did! Ha, ha, ha! nonsense! I have no sense of shame left. I tell you I have been Totski’s concubine. Prince, you must marry Aglaya Ivanovna, not Nastasia Philipovna, or this fellow Ferdishenko will always be pointing the finger of scorn at you. You aren’t afraid, I know; but I should always be afraid that I had ruined you, and that you would reproach me for it. As for what you say about my doing you honour by marrying you—well, Totski can tell you all about that. You had your eye on Aglaya, Gania, you know you had; and you might have married her if you had not come bargaining. You are all like this. You should choose, once for all, between disreputable women, and respectable ones, or you are sure to get mixed. Look at the general, how he’s staring at me!", "pos": 357521}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "This is too horrible,", "pos": 358664}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "I am very proud, in spite of what I am. You called me ‘perfection’ just now, prince. A nice sort of perfection to throw up a prince and a million and a half of roubles in order to be able to boast of the fact afterwards! What sort of a wife should I make for you, after all I have said? Afanasy Ivanovitch, do you observe I have really and truly thrown away a million of roubles? And you thought that I should consider your wretched seventy-five thousand, with Gania thrown in for a husband, a paradise of bliss! Take your seventy-five thousand back, sir; you did not reach the hundred thousand. Rogojin cut a better dash than you did. I’ll console Gania myself; I have an idea about that. But now I must be off! I’ve been in prison for ten years. I’m free at last! Well, Rogojin, what are you waiting for? Let’s get ready and go.", "pos": 358794}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Come along! Hey! all of you fellows! Wine! Round with it! Fill the glasses! Get away! Get away, she’s mine, everything’s mine! She’s a queen, get away!", "pos": 359644}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Get out, keep your distance!", "pos": 360455}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "I’m not yours yet. I may kick you out for all you know I haven’t taken your money yet; there it all is on the table. Here, give me over that packet! Is there a hundred thousand roubles in that one packet? Pfu! what abominable stuff it looks! Oh! nonsense, Daria Alexeyevna; you surely did not expect me to ruin him? Fancy him nursing me! Why, he needs a nurse himself! The general, there, will be his nurse now, you’ll see. Here, prince, look here! Your bride is accepting money. What a disreputable woman she must be! And you wished to marry her! What are you crying about? Is it a bitter dose? Never mind, you shall laugh yet. Trust to time. It’s far better to think twice of it now than afterwards. Oh! you mustn’t cry like that! There’s Katia crying, too. What is it, Katia, dear? I shall leave you and Pasha a lot of things, I’ve laid them out for you already; but good-bye, now. I made an honest girl like you serve a low woman like myself. It’s better so, prince, it is indeed. You’d begin to despise me afterwards—we should never be happy. Oh! you needn’t swear, prince, I shan’t believe you, you know. How foolish it would be, too! No, no; we’d better say good-bye and part friends. I am a bit of a dreamer myself, and I used to dream of you once. Very often during those five years down at his estate I used to dream and think, and I always imagined just such a good, honest, foolish fellow as you, one who should come and say to me: ‘You are an innocent woman, Nastasia Philipovna, and I adore you.’ I dreamt of you often. I used to think so much down there that I nearly went mad; and then this fellow here would come down. He would stay a couple of months out of the twelve, and disgrace and insult and deprave me, and then go; so that I longed to drown myself in the pond a thousand times over; but I did not dare do it. I hadn’t the heart, and now—well, are you ready, Rogojin?", "pos": 360555}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Ready—keep your distance, all of you!", "pos": 362568}
{"speaker": "Several of his friends", "text": "We’re all ready. The troikas are at the door, bells and all.", "pos": 362608}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Gania, I have an idea. I wish to recompense you—why should you lose all? Rogojin, would he crawl for three roubles as far as the Vassiliostrof?", "pos": 362755}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Oh, wouldn’t he just!", "pos": 362901}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Well, look here, Gania. I wish to look into your heart once more, for the last time. You’ve worried me for the last three months—now it’s my turn. Do you see this packet? It contains a hundred thousand roubles. Now, I’m going to throw it into the fire, here—before all these witnesses. As soon as the fire catches hold of it, you put your hands into the fire and pick it out—without gloves, you know. You must have bare hands, and you must turn your sleeves up. Pull it out, I say, and it’s all yours. You may burn your fingers a little, of course; but then it’s a hundred thousand roubles, remember—it won’t take you long to lay hold of it and snatch it out. I shall so much admire you if you put your hands into the fire for my money. All here present may be witnesses that the whole packet of money is yours if you get it out. If you don’t get it out, it shall burn. I will let no one else come; away—get away, all of you—it’s my money! Rogojin has bought me with it. Is it my money, Rogojin?", "pos": 362925}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Yes, my queen; it’s your own money, my joy.", "pos": 363923}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Get away then, all of you. I shall do as I like with my own—don’t meddle! Ferdishenko, make up the fire, quick!", "pos": 363969}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Nastasia Philipovna, I can’t; my hands won’t obey me,", "pos": 364083}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Nonsense. She’s mad—she’s mad!", "pos": 364199}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Oughtn’t-oughtn’t we to secure her? or shall we send for the authorities? Why, she’s mad, isn’t she—isn’t she, eh?", "pos": 364463}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "N-no, I hardly think she is actually mad,", "pos": 364626}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "She’s mad surely, isn’t she?", "pos": 364809}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "I told you she wasn’t an ordinary woman,", "pos": 364872}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Oh, but, positively, you know—a hundred thousand roubles!", "pos": 364962}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "My lady! my sovereign! it’s a hundred thousand roubles, it is indeed, I packed it up myself, I saw the money! My queen, let me get into the fire after it—say the word—I’ll put my whole grey head into the fire for it! I have a poor lame wife and thirteen children. My father died of starvation last week. Nastasia Philipovna, Nastasia Philipovna!", "pos": 365415}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Away, out of the way! Make room, all of you! Gania, what are you standing there for? Don’t stand on ceremony. Put in your hand! There’s your whole happiness smouldering away, look! Quick!", "pos": 365953}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Hey! look at it, it’ll burn in another minute or two! You’ll hang yourself afterwards, you know, if it does! I’m not joking.", "pos": 367013}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Nastasia Philipovna!", "pos": 367571}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Burning for nothing,", "pos": 369128}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Katia-Pasha! Bring him some water! It’s all his—the whole packet is for him, do you hear—all of you? He restrained himself, and didn’t go after it; so his self-respect is greater than his thirst for money. All right—he’ll come to directly—he must have the packet or he’ll cut his throat afterwards. There! He’s coming to himself. General, Totski, all of you, did you hear me? The money is all Gania’s. I give it to him, fully conscious of my action, as recompense for—well, for anything he thinks best. Tell him so. Let it lie here beside him. Off we go, Rogojin! Goodbye, prince. I have seen a man for the first time in my life. Goodbye, Afanasy Ivanovitch—and thanks! Are you really throwing us all over, little mother? Where, where are you going to? And on your birthday, too! I am going out into the world, Katia; perhaps I shall be a laundress. I don’t know. No more of Afanasy Ivanovitch, anyhow. Give him my respects. Don’t think badly of me, girls.", "pos": 369167}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Prince, prince! recollect yourself! Drop her, prince! You see what sort of a woman she is. I am speaking to you like a father.", "pos": 371164}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "I’m sorry, really sorry. She’s a ruined woman. Mad! mad! However, the prince is not for Nastasia Philipovna now,—perhaps it’s as well.", "pos": 371956}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "Do you know, Totski, this is all very like what they say goes on among the Japanese? The offended party there, they say, marches off to his insulter and says to him, ‘You insulted me, so I have come to rip myself open before your eyes;’ and with these words he does actually rip his stomach open before his enemy, and considers, doubtless, that he is having all possible and necessary satisfaction and revenge. There are strange characters in the world, sir!", "pos": 372232}
{"speaker": "Totski", "text": "H’m! and you think there was something of this sort here, do you? Dear me—a very remarkable comparison, you know! But you must have observed, my dear Ptitsin, that I did all I possibly could. I could do no more than I did. And you must admit that there are some rare qualities in this woman. I felt I could not speak in that Bedlam, or I should have been tempted to cry out, when she reproached me, that she herself was my best justification. Such a woman could make anyone forget all reason—everything! Even that moujik, Rogojin, you saw, brought her a hundred thousand roubles! Of course, all that happened tonight was ephemeral, fantastic, unseemly—yet it lacked neither colour nor originality. My God! What might not have been made of such a character combined with such beauty! Yet in spite of all efforts—in spite of all education, even—all those gifts are wasted! She is an uncut diamond.... I have often said so.", "pos": 372709}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "cruelly mistaken in the prince! it was an unalterable characteristic of hers to be mistaken in people. We have had enough of mistakes. I shall be more careful in future!", "pos": 375070}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "that queer young prince.", "pos": 381459}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "being mistaken in people", "pos": 382294}
{"speaker": "Mrs. General", "text": "ready to cross herself with both hands", "pos": 386031}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Such a fortune! and such a good, easy-going fellow! Oh, well, he’s lost to us for good, now.", "pos": 386158}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "unbounded trust in the nobility of the human heart. Trust in anyone after this! Have the least confidence in man or woman!", "pos": 389573}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "mishap,", "pos": 390414}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "pull his ears,", "pos": 391097}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "was candid and no flatterer", "pos": 391835}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "was a tyrant, he would never set foot in her house again. had orders to deliver it to her privately.", "pos": 392260}
{"speaker": "Pr. L. Muishkin", "text": "Once you did me the honour of giving me your confidence. Perhaps you have quite forgotten me now! How is it that I am writing to you? I do not know; but I am conscious of an irresistible desire to remind you of my existence, especially you. How many times I have needed all three of you; but only you have dwelt always in my mind’s eye. I need you—I need you very much. I will not write about myself. I have nothing to tell you. But I long for you to be happy. Are you happy? That is all I wished to say to you—Your brother, Pr. L. Muishkin.", "pos": 393007}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Shall I show it to anyone?", "pos": 393739}
{"speaker": "Pr. L. Muishkin", "text": "DEAR COLIA,—Please be so kind as to give the enclosed sealed letter to Aglaya Ivanovna. Keep well—Ever your loving, Pr. L. Muishkin.", "pos": 394835}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "It seems absurd to trust a little pepper-box like you,", "pos": 394971}
{"speaker": "Cook", "text": "He is in there,", "pos": 397442}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Pardon to show respect!... he-he!", "pos": 399320}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You are quite wrong...", "pos": 399356}
{"speaker": "The boy", "text": "He has gone to get his coat,", "pos": 399587}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "How annoying! I thought... Tell me, is he...", "pos": 399632}
{"speaker": "The young man on the sofa", "text": "You think he is drunk? Not in the least. He’s only had three or four small glasses, perhaps five; but what is that? The usual thing!", "pos": 399703}
{"speaker": "The girl", "text": "He never drinks much in the morning; if you have come to talk business with him, do it now. It is the best time. He sometimes comes back drunk in the evening; but just now he passes the greater part of the evening in tears, and reads passages of Holy Scripture aloud, because our mother died five weeks ago.", "pos": 400006}
{"speaker": "The youth on the divan", "text": "I bet he is trying to cheat you, and is thinking how best to do it.", "pos": 400411}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Five weeks!", "pos": 400534}
{"speaker": "The girl", "text": "But why wear a coat in holes, when your new one is hanging behind the door? Did you not see it?", "pos": 400607}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Hold your tongue, dragon-fly!", "pos": 400723}
{"speaker": "The girl", "text": "Are you trying to frighten me? I am not Tania, you know, and I don’t intend to run away. Look, you are waking Lubotchka, and she will have convulsions again. Why do you shout like that?", "pos": 400859}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Well, well! I won’t again. God bless her! God bless her! This little creature is my daughter Luboff. My wife, Helena, died—at her birth; and this is my big daughter Vera, in mourning, as you see; and this, this, oh, this,", "pos": 401047}
{"speaker": "The other", "text": "Well, go on! never mind me!", "pos": 401567}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Excellency! Have you read that account of the murder of the Zemarin family, in the newspaper?", "pos": 401634}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes,", "pos": 401763}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Well, that is the murderer! It is he—in fact—", "pos": 401805}
{"speaker": "The visitor", "text": "What do you mean?", "pos": 401853}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I am speaking allegorically, of course; but he will be the murderer of a Zemarin family in the future. He is getting ready. ... He is a traitor! a conspirator! A monster! a slanderer! Ought I to treat him as a nephew, the son of my sister Anisia?", "pos": 401892}
{"speaker": "The young man on the sofa", "text": "Oh! do be quiet! You must be drunk! He has taken it into his head to play the lawyer, prince, and he practices speechifying, and is always repeating his eloquent pleadings to his children. And who do you think was his last client? An old woman who had been robbed of five hundred roubles, her all, by some rogue of a usurer, besought him to take up her case, instead of which he defended the usurer himself, a Jew named Zeidler, because this Jew promised to give him fifty roubles....", "pos": 402395}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "It was to be fifty if I won the case, only five if I lost,", "pos": 402882}
{"speaker": "The young man on the sofa", "text": "Most learned judge! picture this unhappy man, crippled by age and infirmities, who gains his living by honourable toil—picture him, I repeat, robbed of his all, of his last mouthful; remember, I entreat you, the words of that learned legislator, “Let mercy and justice alike rule the courts of law.” Colia tells me you are the cleverest man he has ever known....", "pos": 403218}
{"speaker": "The uncle", "text": "The cleverest in the world,", "pos": 403949}
{"speaker": "The young man on the sofa", "text": "I do not pay much attention to that opinion. Colia is very fond of you, but he, is flattering you. I can assure you I have no intention of flattering you, or anyone else, but at least you have some common-sense. Well, will you judge between us? Shall we ask the prince to act as arbitrator?", "pos": 404010}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I am so glad you chanced to come here, prince. I agree,", "pos": 404395}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What is it all about?", "pos": 404595}
{"speaker": "The young man on the sofa", "text": "I will tell you all the story. I am his nephew; he did speak the truth there, although he is generally telling lies. I am at the University, and have not yet finished my course. I mean to do so, and I shall, for I have a determined character. I must, however, find something to do for the present, and therefore I have got employment on the railway at twenty-four roubles a month. I admit that my uncle has helped me once or twice before. Well, I had twenty roubles in my pocket, and I gambled them away. Can you believe that I should be so low, so base, as to lose money in that way?", "pos": 404797}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "And the man who won it is a rogue, a rogue whom you ought not to have paid!", "pos": 405384}
{"speaker": "The young man on the sofa", "text": "Yes, he is a rogue, but I was obliged to pay him. As to his being a rogue, he is assuredly that, and I am not saying it because he beat you. He is an ex-lieutenant, prince, dismissed from the service, a teacher of boxing, and one of Rogojin’s followers. They are all lounging about the pavements now that Rogojin has turned them off. Of course, the worst of it is that, knowing he was a rascal, and a card-sharper, I none the less played palki with him, and risked my last rouble. To tell the truth, I thought to myself, ‘If I lose, I will go to my uncle, and I am sure he will not refuse to help me.’ Now that was base—cowardly and base!", "pos": 405478}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "cowardly and base.", "pos": 406182}
{"speaker": "The young man on the sofa", "text": "He is delighted! I came to him here and told him everything: I acted honourably, for I did not excuse myself. I spoke most severely of my conduct, as everyone here can witness. But I must smarten myself up before I take up my new post, for I am really like a tramp. Just look at my boots! I cannot possibly appear like this, and if I am not at the bureau at the time appointed, the job will be given to someone else; and I shall have to try for another. Now I only beg for fifteen roubles, and I give my word that I will never ask him for anything again. I am also ready to promise to repay my debt in three months’ time, and I will keep my word, even if I have to live on bread and water. My salary will amount to seventy-five roubles in three months. The sum I now ask, added to what I have borrowed already, will make a total of about thirty-five roubles, so you see I shall have enough to pay him and confound him! if he wants interest, he shall have that, too! Haven’t I always paid back the money he lent me before? Why should he be so mean now? He grudges my having paid that lieutenant; there can be no other reason! That’s the kind he is—a dog in the manger!", "pos": 406317}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "And he won’t go away!", "pos": 407487}
{"speaker": "The young man on the sofa", "text": "I have told you already, that I will not go away until I have got what I ask. Why are you smiling, prince? You look as if you disapproved of me.", "pos": 407581}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I am not smiling, but I really think you are in the wrong, somewhat,", "pos": 407728}
{"speaker": "The young man on the sofa", "text": "Don’t shuffle! Say plainly that you think that I am quite wrong, without any ‘somewhat’! Why ‘somewhat’?", "pos": 407830}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I will say you are quite wrong, if you wish.", "pos": 407937}
{"speaker": "The young man on the sofa", "text": "If I wish! That’s good, I must say! Do you think I am deceived as to the flagrant impropriety of my conduct? I am quite aware that his money is his own, and that my action—is much like an attempt at extortion. But you-you don’t know what life is! If people don’t learn by experience, they never understand. They must be taught. My intentions are perfectly honest; on my conscience he will lose nothing, and I will pay back the money with interest. Added to which he has had the moral satisfaction of seeing me disgraced. What does he want more? and what is he good for if he never helps anyone? Look what he does himself! just ask him about his dealings with others, how he deceives people! How did he manage to buy this house? You may cut off my head if he has not let you in for something—and if he is not trying to cheat you again. You are smiling. You don’t believe me?", "pos": 407984}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It seems to me that all this has nothing to do with your affairs,", "pos": 408860}
{"speaker": "The young man on the sofa", "text": "I have lain here now for three days, and I have seen a lot! Fancy! he suspects his daughter, that angel, that orphan, my cousin—he suspects her, and every evening he searches her room, to see if she has a lover hidden in it! He comes here too on tiptoe, creeping softly—oh, so softly—and looks under the sofa—my bed, you know. He is mad with suspicion, and sees a thief in every corner. He runs about all night long; he was up at least seven times last night, to satisfy himself that the windows and doors were barred, and to peep into the oven. That man who appears in court for scoundrels, rushes in here in the night and prays, lying prostrate, banging his head on the ground by the half-hour—and for whom do you think he prays? Who are the sinners figuring in his drunken petitions? I have heard him with my own ears praying for the repose of the soul of the Countess du Barry! Colia heard it too. He is as mad as a March hare!", "pos": 408949}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "You hear how he slanders me, prince. I may be a drunkard, an evil-doer, a thief, but at least I can say one thing for myself. He does not know—how should he, mocker that he is?—that when he came into the world it was I who washed him, and dressed him in his swathing-bands, for my sister Anisia had lost her husband, and was in great poverty. I was very little better off than she, but I sat up night after night with her, and nursed both mother and child; I used to go downstairs and steal wood for them from the house-porter. How often did I sing him to sleep when I was half dead with hunger! In short, I was more than a father to him, and now—now he jeers at me! Even if I did cross myself, and pray for the repose of the soul of the Comtesse du Barry, what does it matter? Three days ago, for the first time in my life, I read her biography in an historical dictionary. Do you know who she was? You there! Speak! do you know?", "pos": 409922}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Of course no one knows anything about her but you,", "pos": 410930}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "She was a Countess who rose from shame to reign like a Queen. An Empress wrote to her, with her own hand, as ‘Ma chère cousine.’ At a lever-du-roi one morning (do you know what a lever-du-roi was?)—a Cardinal, a Papal legate, offered to put on her stockings; a high and holy person like that looked on it as an honour! Did you know this? I see by your expression that you did not! Well, how did she die? Answer!", "pos": 411034}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh! do stop—you are too absurd!", "pos": 411448}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "This is how she died. After all this honour and glory, after having been almost a Queen, she was guillotined by that butcher, Samson. She was quite innocent, but it had to be done, for the satisfaction of the fishwives of Paris. She was so terrified, that she did not understand what was happening. But when Samson seized her head, and pushed her under the knife with his foot, she cried out: ‘Wait a moment! wait a moment, monsieur!’ Well, because of that moment of bitter suffering, perhaps the Saviour will pardon her other faults, for one cannot imagine a greater agony. As I read the story my heart bled for her. And what does it matter to you, little worm, if I implored the Divine mercy for her, great sinner as she was, as I said my evening prayer? I might have done it because I doubted if anyone had ever crossed himself for her sake before. It may be that in the other world she will rejoice to think that a sinner like herself has cried to heaven for the salvation of her soul. Why are you laughing? You believe nothing, atheist! And your story was not even correct! If you had listened to what I was saying, you would have heard that I did not only pray for the Comtesse du Barry. I said, ‘Oh Lord! give rest to the soul of that great sinner, the Comtesse du Barry, and to all unhappy ones like her.’ You see that is quite a different thing, for how many sinners there are, how many women, who have passed through the trials of this life, are now suffering and groaning in purgatory! I prayed for you, too, in spite of your insolence and impudence, also for your fellows, as it seems that you claim to know how I pray...", "pos": 411482}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh! that’s enough in all conscience! Pray for whom you choose, and the devil take them and you! We have a scholar here; you did not know that, prince?", "pos": 413118}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "He reads all sorts of books and memoirs now.", "pos": 413299}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "At any rate, your uncle has a kind heart,", "pos": 413346}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, now you are going to praise him! He will be set up! He puts his hand on his heart, and he is delighted! I never said he was a man without heart, but he is a rascal—that’s the pity of it. And then, he is addicted to drink, and his mind is unhinged, like that of most people who have taken more than is good for them for years. He loves his children—oh, I know that well enough! He respected my aunt, his late wife... and he even has a sort of affection for me. He has remembered me in his will.", "pos": 413495}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I shall leave you nothing!", "pos": 413995}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Listen to me, Lebedeff. I know by experience that when you choose, you can be business-like... I have very little time to spare, and if you... By the way—excuse me—what is your Christian name? I have forgotten it.", "pos": 414053}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Ti-Ti-Timofey.", "pos": 414342}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "And?", "pos": 414359}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Lukianovitch.", "pos": 414366}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "He is telling lies!", "pos": 414419}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Even now he cannot speak the truth. He is not called Timofey Lukianovitch, prince, but Lukian Timofeyovitch. Now do tell us why you must needs lie about it? Lukian or Timofey, it is all the same to you, and what difference can it make to the prince? He tells lies without the least necessity, simply by force of habit, I assure you.", "pos": 414459}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Is that true?", "pos": 414794}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "My name really is Lukian Timofeyovitch. To humble myself,", "pos": 414839}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What on earth do you mean? Oh I if only I knew where Colia was at this moment!", "pos": 415050}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh! no, no!", "pos": 415228}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Colia spent the night here, and this morning went after his father, whom you let out of prison by paying his debts—Heaven only knows why! Yesterday the general promised to come and lodge here, but he did not appear. Most probably he slept at the hotel close by. No doubt Colia is there, unless he has gone to Pavlofsk to see the Epanchins. He had a little money, and was intending to go there yesterday. He must be either at the hotel or at Pavlofsk.", "pos": 415268}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "At Pavlofsk! He is at Pavlofsk, undoubtedly! But come—let us go into the garden—we will have coffee there....", "pos": 415721}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I knew nothing about your home before,", "pos": 416391}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Poor orphans,", "pos": 416500}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well! Ah! yes! You know why I came, Lebedeff. Your letter brought me. Speak! Tell me all about it. I think I understand, Lukian Timofeyovitch: you were not sure that I should come. You did not think I should start at the first word from you, and you merely wrote to relieve your conscience. However, you see now that I have come, and I have had enough of trickery. Give up serving, or trying to serve, two masters. Rogojin has been here these three weeks. Have you managed to sell her to him as you did before? Tell me the truth.", "pos": 416791}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "He discovered everything, the monster... himself......", "pos": 417501}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Don’t abuse him; though I dare say you have something to complain of....", "pos": 417558}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "He beat me, he thrashed me unmercifully! He set a dog on me in Moscow, a bloodhound, a terrible beast that chased me all down the street.", "pos": 417633}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You seem to take me for a child, Lebedeff. Tell me, is it a fact that she left him while they were in Moscow?", "pos": 417804}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Yes, it is a fact, and this time, let me tell you, on the very eve of their marriage! It was a question of minutes when she slipped off to Petersburg. She came to me directly she arrived—‘Save me, Lukian! find me some refuge, and say nothing to the prince!’ She is afraid of you, even more than she is of him, and in that she shows her wisdom!", "pos": 417916}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "And now it is you who have brought them together again?", "pos": 418335}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Excellency, how could I, how could I prevent it?", "pos": 418393}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That will do. I can find out for myself. Only tell me, where is she now? At his house? With him?", "pos": 418444}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh no! Certainly not! ‘I am free,’ she says; you know how she insists on that point. ‘I am entirely free.’ She repeats it over and over again. She is living in Petersburgskaia, with my sister-in-law, as I told you in my letter.", "pos": 418543}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "She is there at this moment?", "pos": 418773}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Yes, unless she has gone to Pavlofsk: the fine weather may have tempted her, perhaps, into the country, with Daria Alexeyevna. ‘I am quite free,’ she says. Only yesterday she boasted of her freedom to Nicolai Ardalionovitch—a bad sign,", "pos": 418804}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Colia goes to see her often, does he not?", "pos": 419067}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "He is a strange boy, thoughtless, and inclined to be indiscreet.", "pos": 419111}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Is it long since you saw her?", "pos": 419178}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I go to see her every day, every day.", "pos": 419210}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Then you were there yesterday?", "pos": 419250}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "N-no: I have not been these three last days.", "pos": 419283}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It is a pity you have taken too much wine, Lebedeff I want to ask you something... but...", "pos": 419330}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "All right! all right! I am not drunk,", "pos": 419422}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Tell me, how was she when you left her?", "pos": 419502}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "She is a woman who is seeking...", "pos": 419544}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Seeking?", "pos": 419579}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "She seems always to be searching about, as if she had lost something. The mere idea of her coming marriage disgusts her; she looks on it as an insult. She cares as much for him as for a piece of orange-peel—not more. Yet I am much mistaken if she does not look on him with fear and trembling. She forbids his name to be mentioned before her, and they only meet when unavoidable. He understands, well enough! But it must be gone through. She is restless, mocking, deceitful, violent....", "pos": 419590}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Deceitful and violent?", "pos": 420078}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Yes, violent. I can give you a proof of it. A few days ago she tried to pull my hair because I said something that annoyed her. I tried to soothe her by reading the Apocalypse aloud.", "pos": 420103}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What?", "pos": 420288}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "By reading the Apocalypse. The lady has a restless imagination, he-he! She has a liking for conversation on serious subjects, of any kind; in fact they please her so much, that it flatters her to discuss them. Now for fifteen years at least I have studied the Apocalypse, and she agrees with me in thinking that the present is the epoch represented by the third horse, the black one whose rider holds a measure in his hand. It seems to me that everything is ruled by measure in our century; all men are clamouring for their rights; ‘a measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny.’ But, added to this, men desire freedom of mind and body, a pure heart, a healthy life, and all God’s good gifts. Now by pleading their rights alone, they will never attain all this, so the white horse, with his rider Death, comes next, and is followed by Hell. We talked about this matter when we met, and it impressed her very much.", "pos": 420352}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Do you believe all this?", "pos": 421296}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I both believe it and explain it. I am but a poor creature, a beggar, an atom in the scale of humanity. Who has the least respect for Lebedeff? He is a target for all the world, the butt of any fool who chooses to kick him. But in interpreting revelation I am the equal of anyone, great as he may be! Such is the power of the mind and the spirit. I have made a lordly personage tremble, as he sat in his armchair... only by talking to him of things concerning the spirit. Two years ago, on Easter Eve, His Excellency Nil Alexeyovitch, whose subordinate I was then, wished to hear what I had to say, and sent a message by Peter Zakkaritch to ask me to go to his private room. ‘They tell me you expound the prophecies relating to Antichrist,’ said he, when we were alone. ‘Is that so?’ ‘Yes,’ I answered unhesitatingly, and I began to give some comments on the Apostle’s allegorical vision. At first he smiled, but when we reached the numerical computations and correspondences, he trembled, and turned pale. Then he begged me to close the book, and sent me away, promising to put my name on the reward list. That took place as I said on the eve of Easter, and eight days later his soul returned to God.", "pos": 421375}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What?", "pos": 422579}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "It is the truth. One evening after dinner he stumbled as he stepped out of his carriage. He fell, and struck his head on the curb, and died immediately. He was seventy-three years of age, and had a red face, and white hair; he deluged himself with scent, and was always smiling like a child. Peter Zakkaritch recalled my interview with him, and said, ‘you foretold his death.’ You are not interested?", "pos": 422587}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I am not very well, and my head aches. Doubtless the effect of the journey,", "pos": 423121}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "You should go into the country. You see, I am going into the country myself in three days, with my children and belongings. The little one is delicate; she needs change of air; and during our absence this house will be done up. I am going to Pavlofsk.", "pos": 423229}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You are going to Pavlofsk too? Everybody seems to be going there. Have you a house in that neighbourhood?", "pos": 423560}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I don’t know of many people going to Pavlofsk, and as for the house, Ivan Ptitsin has let me one of his villas rather cheaply. It is a pleasant place, lying on a hill surrounded by trees, and one can live there for a mere song. There is good music to be heard, so no wonder it is popular. I shall stay in the lodge. As to the villa itself...", "pos": 423696}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Have you let it?", "pos": 424040}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "N-no—not exactly.", "pos": 424059}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Let it to me,", "pos": 424079}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I will think it over. You shall lose nothing!", "pos": 424824}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "But if you... I could... if... if you please, prince, tell you something on the subject which would interest you, I am sure.", "pos": 424916}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Daria Alexeyevna also has a villa at Pavlofsk.", "pos": 425151}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Well? A certain person is very friendly with her, and intends to visit her pretty often. Aglaya Ivanovna...", "pos": 425200}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh stop, Lebedeff! That... that has nothing to do with me. I should like to know when you are going to start. The sooner the better as far as I am concerned, for I am at an hotel.", "pos": 425322}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Well, leave your hotel at once and come here; then we can all go together to Pavlofsk the day after tomorrow.", "pos": 425662}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I will think about it,", "pos": 425774}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That is the house, I’m sure of it.", "pos": 427128}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "House of Rogojin, hereditary and honourable citizen.", "pos": 428213}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Parfen! perhaps my visit is ill-timed. I—I can go away again if you like,", "pos": 429135}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "No, no; it’s all right, come in,", "pos": 429254}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "What are you staring at me like that for? Sit down.", "pos": 430075}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Parfen, tell me honestly, did you know that I was coming to Petersburg or no?", "pos": 430169}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Oh, I supposed you were coming, and I was right in my supposition, you see; but how was I to know that you would come today?", "pos": 430260}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "And if you had known that I was coming today, why be so irritated about it?", "pos": 430518}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Why did you ask me?", "pos": 430625}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Because when I jumped out of the train this morning, two eyes glared at me just as yours did a moment since.", "pos": 430647}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Ha! and whose eyes may they have been?", "pos": 430758}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I don’t know; I thought it was a hallucination. I often have hallucinations nowadays. I feel just as I did five years ago when my fits were about to come on.", "pos": 430874}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Well, perhaps it was a hallucination, I don’t know. Shall you go abroad again then? Do you remember how we came up in the train from Pskoff together? You and your cloak and leggings, eh?", "pos": 431034}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Have you quite taken up your quarters here?", "pos": 431608}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Yes, I’m at home. Where else should I go to?", "pos": 431671}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "We haven’t met for some time. Meanwhile I have heard things about you which I should not have believed to be possible.", "pos": 431718}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "What of that? People will say anything,", "pos": 431839}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "At all events, you’ve disbanded your troop—and you are living in your own house instead of being fast and loose about the place; that’s all very good. Is this house all yours, or joint property?", "pos": 431901}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "It is my mother’s. You get to her apartments by that passage.", "pos": 432098}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Where’s your brother?", "pos": 432162}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "In the other wing.", "pos": 432186}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Is he married?", "pos": 432207}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Widower. Why do you want to know all this?", "pos": 432224}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I guessed which was your house from a hundred yards off,", "pos": 432479}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Why so?", "pos": 432563}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I don’t quite know. Your house has the aspect of yourself and all your family; it bears the stamp of the Rogojin life; but ask me why I think so, and I can tell you nothing. It is nonsense, of course. I am nervous about this kind of thing troubling me so much. I had never before imagined what sort of a house you would live in, and yet no sooner did I set eyes on this one than I said to myself that it must be yours.", "pos": 432573}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Really!", "pos": 432994}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That is your father, is it not?", "pos": 433950}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Yes, it is,", "pos": 434002}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Was he one of the Old Believers?", "pos": 434154}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "No, he went to church, but to tell the truth he really preferred the old religion. This was his study and is now mine. Why did you ask if he were an Old Believer?", "pos": 434189}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Are you going to be married here?", "pos": 434354}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Ye-yes!", "pos": 434390}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Soon?", "pos": 434454}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "You know yourself it does not depend on me.", "pos": 434462}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Parfen, I am not your enemy, and I do not intend to oppose your intentions in any way. I repeat this to you now just as I said it to you once before on a very similar occasion. When you were arranging for your projected marriage in Moscow, I did not interfere with you—you know I did not. That first time she fled to me from you, from the very altar almost, and begged me to ‘save her from you.’ Afterwards she ran away from me again, and you found her and arranged your marriage with her once more; and now, I hear, she has run away from you and come to Petersburg. Is it true? Lebedeff wrote me to this effect, and that’s why I came here. That you had once more arranged matters with Nastasia Philipovna I only learned last night in the train from a friend of yours, Zaleshoff—if you wish to know. I confess I came here with an object. I wished to persuade Nastasia to go abroad for her health; she requires it. Both mind and body need a change badly. I did not intend to take her abroad myself. I was going to arrange for her to go without me. Now I tell you honestly, Parfen, if it is true that all is made up between you, I will not so much as set eyes upon her, and I will never even come to see you again. You know quite well that I am telling the truth, because I have always been frank with you. I have never concealed my own opinion from you. I have always told you that I consider a marriage between you and her would be ruin to her. You would also be ruined, and perhaps even more hopelessly. If this marriage were to be broken off again, I admit I should be greatly pleased; but at the same time I have not the slightest intention of trying to part you. You may be quite easy in your mind, and you need not suspect me. You know yourself whether I was ever really your rival or not, even when she ran away and came to me. There, you are laughing at me—I know why you laugh. It is perfectly true that we lived apart from one another all the time, in different towns. I told you before that I did not love her with love, but with pity! You said then that you understood me; did you really understand me or not? What hatred there is in your eyes at this moment! I came to relieve your mind, because you are dear to me also. I love you very much, Parfen; and now I shall go away and never come back again. Goodbye.", "pos": 434508}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Stay a little. I haven’t seen you for a long time. When you are not with me I hate you, Lef Nicolaievitch. I have loathed you every day of these three months since I last saw you. By heaven I have! I could have poisoned you at any minute. Now, you have been with me but a quarter of an hour, and all my malice seems to have melted away, and you are as dear to me as ever. Stay here a little longer.", "pos": 436853}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "When I am with you you trust me; but as soon as my back is turned you suspect me,", "pos": 437412}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I trust your voice, when I hear you speak. I quite understand that you and I cannot be put on a level, of course.", "pos": 437554}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why did you add that?—There! Now you are cross again,", "pos": 437670}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "We were not asked, you see. We were made different, with different tastes and feelings, without being consulted. You say you love her with pity. I have no pity for her. She hates me—that’s the plain truth of the matter. I dream of her every night, and always that she is laughing at me with another man. And so she does laugh at me. She thinks no more of marrying me than if she were changing her shoe. Would you believe it, I haven’t seen her for five days, and I daren’t go near her. She asks me what I come for, as if she were not content with having disgraced me—", "pos": 437754}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Disgraced you! How?", "pos": 438324}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Just as though you didn’t know! Why, she ran away from me, and went to you. You admitted it yourself, just now.", "pos": 438346}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "But surely you do not believe that she...", "pos": 438460}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "That she did not disgrace me at Moscow with that officer, Zemtuznikoff? I know for certain she did, after having fixed our marriage-day herself!", "pos": 438504}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Impossible!", "pos": 438651}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I know it for a fact. It is not like her, you say? My friend, that’s absurd. Perhaps such an act would horrify her, if she were with you, but it is quite different where I am concerned. She looks on me as vermin. Her affair with Keller was simply to make a laughing-stock of me. You don’t know what a fool she made of me in Moscow; and the money I spent over her! The money! the money!", "pos": 438683}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "And you can marry her now, Parfen! What will come of it all?", "pos": 439107}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I haven’t been to see her for five days. I’m afraid of being turned out. She says she’s still her own mistress, and may turn me off altogether, and go abroad. She told me this herself. I think she often does it merely to frighten me. She is always laughing at me, for some reason or other; but at other times she’s angry, and won’t say a word, and that’s what I’m afraid of. I took her a shawl one day, the like of which she might never have seen, although she did live in luxury and she gave it away to her maid, Katia. Sometimes when I can keep away no longer, I steal past the house on the sly, and once I watched at the gate till dawn—I thought something was going on—and she saw me from the window. She asked me what I should do if I found she had deceived me. I said, ‘You know well enough.’", "pos": 439303}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What did she know?", "pos": 440187}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "How was I to tell? I did my best to catch her tripping in Moscow, but did not succeed. However, I caught hold of her one day, and said: ‘You are engaged to be married into a respectable family, and do you know what sort of a woman you are? That’s the sort of woman you are,’ I said.", "pos": 440226}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You told her that?", "pos": 440551}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Yes.", "pos": 440572}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well, go on.", "pos": 440579}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "She said, ‘I wouldn’t even have you for a footman now, much less for a husband.’ ‘I shan’t leave the house,’ I said, ‘so it doesn’t matter.’ ‘Then I shall call somebody and have you kicked out,’ she cried. So then I rushed at her, and beat her till she was bruised all over.", "pos": 440594}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Impossible!", "pos": 440871}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I tell you it’s true. Then for a day and a half I neither slept, nor ate, nor drank, and would not leave her. I knelt at her feet: ‘I shall die here,’ I said, ‘if you don’t forgive me; and if you have me turned out, I shall drown myself; because, what should I be without you now?’ She was like a madwoman all that day; now she would cry; now she would threaten me with a knife; now she would abuse me. She called in Zaleshoff and Keller, and showed me to them, shamed me in their presence. ‘Let’s all go to the theatre,’ she says, ‘and leave him here if he won’t go—it’s not my business. They’ll give you some tea, Parfen Semeonovitch, while I am away, for you must be hungry.’ She came back from the theatre alone. ‘Those cowards wouldn’t come,’ she said. ‘They are afraid of you, and tried to frighten me, too. “He won’t go away as he came,” they said, “he’ll cut your throat—see if he doesn’t.” Now, I shall go to my bedroom, and I shall not even lock my door, just to show you how much I am afraid of you. You must be shown that once for all. Did you have tea?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘and I don’t intend to.’ ‘Ha, ha! you are playing off your pride against your stomach! That sort of heroism doesn’t sit well on you,’ she said. With that she did as she had said she would; she went to bed, and did not lock her door. In the morning she came out. ‘Are you quite mad?’ she said, sharply. ‘Why, you’ll die of hunger like this.’ ‘Forgive me,’ I said. ‘No, I won’t, and I won’t marry you. I’ve said it. Surely you haven’t sat in this chair all night without sleeping?’ ‘I didn’t sleep,’ I said. ‘H’m! how sensible of you. And are you going to have no breakfast or dinner today?’ ‘I told you I wouldn’t. Forgive me!’ ‘You’ve no idea how unbecoming this sort of thing is to you,’ she said, ‘it’s like putting a saddle on a cow’s back. Do you think you are frightening me? My word, what a dreadful thing that you should sit here and eat no food! How terribly frightened I am!’ She wasn’t angry long, and didn’t seem to remember my offence at all. I was surprised, for she is a vindictive, resentful woman—but then I thought that perhaps she despised me too much to feel any resentment against me. And that’s the truth.", "pos": 440911}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Do you know who the Pope of Rome is?", "pos": 443208}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I’ve heard of him,", "pos": 443247}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "I suppose you’ve read the Universal History, Parfen Semeonovitch, haven’t you?", "pos": 443276}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I’ve learned nothing at all,", "pos": 443368}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Then I’ll lend it to you to read. You must know there was a Roman Pope once, and he was very angry with a certain Emperor; so the Emperor came and neither ate nor drank, but knelt before the Pope’s palace till he should be forgiven. And what sort of vows do you think that Emperor was making during all those days on his knees? Stop, I’ll read it to you! You don’t mean to say you don’t approve of the poem, Parfen Semeonovitch,", "pos": 443407}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "All you have read out is perfectly true,", "pos": 443969}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Aha!", "pos": 444019}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "you admit it’s true, do you? And you are making vows to yourself that if I marry you, you will remind me of all this, and take it out of me.", "pos": 444036}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I don’t know,", "pos": 444179}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "perhaps I was thinking like that, and perhaps I was not. I’m not thinking of anything just now.", "pos": 444202}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What are your thoughts, then?", "pos": 444300}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I’m thinking that when you rise from your chair and go past me, I watch you, and follow you with my eyes; if your dress does but rustle, my heart sinks; if you leave the room, I remember every little word and action, and what your voice sounded like, and what you said. I thought of nothing all last night, but sat here listening to your sleeping breath, and heard you move a little, twice.", "pos": 444332}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And as for your attack upon me,", "pos": 444725}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I suppose you never once thought of that?", "pos": 444769}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Perhaps I did think of it, and perhaps not,", "pos": 444813}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And what if I don’t either forgive you or marry, you?", "pos": 444866}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I tell you I shall go and drown myself.", "pos": 444922}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "H’m!", "pos": 444964}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I suppose you’d murder me before you drowned yourself, though!", "pos": 445047}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I will marry you, Parfen Semeonovitch,", "pos": 445202}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "not because I’m frightened of you, but because it’s all the same to me how I ruin myself. And how can I do it better? Sit down; they’ll bring you some dinner directly. And if I do marry you, I’ll be a faithful wife to you—you need not doubt that.", "pos": 445252}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "At all events, you are not a flunkey; at first, I thought you were no better than a flunkey.", "pos": 445535}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I’m not going to renounce you altogether, but I wish to put off the wedding a bit longer yet—just as long as I like—for I am still my own mistress; so you may wait, if you like.", "pos": 445824}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What do you think of it yourself?", "pos": 446101}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I’ll tell you what!", "pos": 446441}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I can’t understand your yielding her to me like this; I don’t understand it. Have you given up loving her altogether? At first you suffered badly—I know it—I saw it. Besides, why did you come post-haste after us? Out of pity, eh? He, he, he!", "pos": 446505}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Do you think I am deceiving you?", "pos": 446786}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No! I trust you—but I can’t understand. It seems to me that your pity is greater than my love.", "pos": 446839}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Your love is mingled with hatred, and therefore, when your love passes, there will be the greater misery,", "pos": 447042}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I tell you this, Parfen—", "pos": 447167}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What! that I’ll cut her throat, you mean?", "pos": 447194}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You’ll hate her afterwards for all your present love, and for all the torment you are suffering on her account now. What seems to me the most extraordinary thing is, that she can again consent to marry you, after all that has passed between you. When I heard the news yesterday, I could hardly bring myself to believe it. Why, she has run twice from you, from the very altar rails, as it were. She must have some presentiment of evil. What can she want with you now? Your money? Nonsense! Besides, I should think you must have made a fairly large hole in your fortune already. Surely it is not because she is so very anxious to find a husband? She could find many a one besides yourself. Anyone would be better than you, because you will murder her, and I feel sure she must know that but too well by now. Is it because you love her so passionately? Indeed, that may be it. I have heard that there are women who want just that kind of love... but still...", "pos": 447260}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What are you grinning at my father’s portrait again for?", "pos": 448251}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I smiled because the idea came into my head that if it were not for this unhappy passion of yours you might have, and would have, become just such a man as your father, and that very quickly, too. You’d have settled down in this house of yours with some silent and obedient wife. You would have spoken rarely, trusted no one, heeded no one, and thought of nothing but making money.", "pos": 448415}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Laugh away! She said exactly the same, almost word for word, when she saw my father’s portrait. It’s remarkable how entirely you and she are at one now-a-days.", "pos": 448799}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What, has she been here?", "pos": 448961}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes! She looked long at the portrait and asked all about my father. ‘You’d be just such another,’ she said at last, and laughed. ‘You have such strong passions, Parfen,’ she said, ‘that they’d have taken you to Siberia in no time if you had not, luckily, intelligence as well. For you have a good deal of intelligence.’ (She said this—believe it or not. The first time I ever heard anything of that sort from her.) ‘You’d soon have thrown up all this rowdyism that you indulge in now, and you’d have settled down to quiet, steady money-making, because you have little education; and here you’d have stayed just like your father before you. And you’d have loved your money so that you’d amass not two million, like him, but ten million; and you’d have died of hunger on your money bags to finish up with, for you carry everything to extremes.’ There, that’s exactly word for word as she said it to me. She never talked to me like that before. She always talks nonsense and laughs when she’s with me. We went all over this old house together. ‘I shall change all this,’ I said, ‘or else I’ll buy a new house for the wedding.’ ‘No, no!’ she said, ‘don’t touch anything; leave it all as it is; I shall live with your mother when I marry you.’", "pos": 449021}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Give your blessing to this lady, mother, she’s going to be my wife.", "pos": 450623}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "She must have suffered terribly, hasn’t she?", "pos": 450746}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What! have you begun to read Russian history?", "pos": 450843}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "That’s good,", "pos": 451027}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "you go on like that, reading books. I’ll make you a list myself of the books you ought to read first—shall I?", "pos": 451052}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I’m very, very glad to hear of this, Parfen,", "pos": 451295}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Who knows? Maybe God will yet bring you near to one another.", "pos": 451378}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Never, never!", "pos": 451441}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Look here, Parfen; if you love her so much, surely you must be anxious to earn her respect? And if you do so wish, surely you may hope to? I said just now that I considered it extraordinary that she could still be ready to marry you. Well, though I cannot yet understand it, I feel sure she must have some good reason, or she wouldn’t do it. She is sure of your love; but besides that, she must attribute something else to you—some good qualities, otherwise the thing would not be. What you have just said confirms my words. You say yourself that she found it possible to speak to you quite differently from her usual manner. You are suspicious, you know, and jealous, therefore when anything annoying happens to you, you exaggerate its significance. Of course, of course, she does not think so ill of you as you say. Why, if she did, she would simply be walking to death by drowning or by the knife, with her eyes wide open, when she married you. It is impossible! As if anybody would go to their death deliberately!", "pos": 451483}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "How dreadfully you look at me, Parfen!", "pos": 452616}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Water or the knife?", "pos": 452699}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Ha, ha—that’s exactly why she is going to marry me, because she knows for certain that the knife awaits her. Prince, can it be that you don’t even yet see what’s at the root of it all?", "pos": 452747}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I don’t understand you.", "pos": 452934}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Perhaps he really doesn’t understand me! They do say that you are a—you know what! She loves another—there, you can understand that much! Just as I love her, exactly so she loves another man. And that other man is—do you know who? It’s you. There—you didn’t know that, eh?", "pos": 452960}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I?", "pos": 453235}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You, you! She has loved you ever since that day, her birthday! Only she thinks she cannot marry you, because it would be the ruin of you. ‘Everybody knows what sort of a woman I am,’ she says. She told me all this herself, to my very face! She’s afraid of disgracing and ruining you, she says, but it doesn’t matter about me. She can marry me all right! Notice how much consideration she shows for me!", "pos": 453240}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "But why did she run away to me, and then again from me to—", "pos": 453644}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "From you to me? Ha, ha! that’s nothing! Why, she always acts as though she were in a delirium now-a-days! Either she says, ‘Come on, I’ll marry you! Let’s have the wedding quickly!’ and fixes the day, and seems in a hurry for it, and when it begins to come near she feels frightened; or else some other idea gets into her head—goodness knows! you’ve seen her—you know how she goes on—laughing and crying and raving! There’s nothing extraordinary about her having run away from you! She ran away because she found out how dearly she loved you. She could not bear to be near you. You said just now that I had found her at Moscow, when she ran away from you. I didn’t do anything of the sort; she came to me herself, straight from you. ‘Name the day—I’m ready!’ she said. ‘Let’s have some champagne, and go and hear the gipsies sing!’ I tell you she’d have thrown herself into the water long ago if it were not for me! She doesn’t do it because I am, perhaps, even more dreadful to her than the water! She’s marrying me out of spite; if she marries me, I tell you, it will be for spite!", "pos": 453705}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "But how do you, how can you—", "pos": 454791}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Why don’t you finish your sentence? Shall I tell you what you were thinking to yourself just then? You were thinking, ‘How can she marry him after this? How can it possibly be permitted?’ Oh, I know what you were thinking about!", "pos": 454881}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I didn’t come here for that purpose, Parfen. That was not in my mind—", "pos": 455112}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "That may be! Perhaps you didn’t come with the idea, but the idea is certainly there now! Ha, ha! well, that’s enough! What are you upset about? Didn’t you really know it all before? You astonish me!", "pos": 455184}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "All this is mere jealousy—it is some malady of yours, Parfen! You exaggerate everything,", "pos": 455385}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What are you doing?", "pos": 455515}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Let go of it!", "pos": 455537}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I seemed to know it—I felt it, when I was coming back to Petersburg,", "pos": 455737}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I did not want to come, I wished to forget all this, to uproot it from my memory altogether! Well, good-bye—what is the matter?", "pos": 455830}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Do you cut your pages with it, or what?", "pos": 456438}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes.", "pos": 456614}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It’s a garden knife, isn’t it?", "pos": 456621}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes. Can’t one cut pages with a garden knife?", "pos": 456654}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It’s quite new.", "pos": 456702}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, what of that? Can’t I buy a new knife if I like?", "pos": 456720}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Why, what an idea!", "pos": 456927}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I didn’t mean to ask you any of these questions; I was thinking of something quite different! But my head is heavy, and I seem so absent-minded nowadays! Well, good-bye—I can’t remember what I wanted to say—good-bye!", "pos": 456957}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Not that way,", "pos": 457176}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "There, I’ve forgotten that too!", "pos": 457206}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "This way—come along—I’ll show you.", "pos": 457240}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "My father picked up all these pictures very cheap at auctions, and so on,", "pos": 457830}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "they are all rubbish, except the one over the door, and that is valuable. A man offered five hundred roubles for it last week.", "pos": 457915}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes—that’s a copy of a Holbein,", "pos": 458044}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "and a good copy, too, so far as I am able to judge. I saw the picture abroad, and could not forget it—what’s the matter?", "pos": 458116}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Lef Nicolaievitch,", "pos": 458540}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I have long wished to ask you, do you believe in God?", "pos": 458642}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "How strangely you speak, and how odd you look!", "pos": 458698}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I like looking at that picture,", "pos": 458778}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "That picture! That picture!", "pos": 458903}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Why, a man’s faith might be ruined by looking at that picture!", "pos": 458974}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "So it is!", "pos": 459039}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Good-bye!", "pos": 459800}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Good-bye,", "pos": 459851}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "As to faith,", "pos": 459976}
{"speaker": "The peasant", "text": "God forgive me, for Christ’s sake!", "pos": 461534}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Oh, I like that! That beats anything! One is an absolute unbeliever; the other is such a thorough-going believer that he murders his friend to the tune of a prayer! Oh, prince, prince, that’s too good for anything! You can’t have invented it. It’s the best thing I’ve heard!", "pos": 461798}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Next morning I went out for a stroll through the town,", "pos": 462120}
{"speaker": "The soldier", "text": "Buy my silver cross, sir! You shall have it for fourpence—it’s real silver.", "pos": 462393}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I will wait awhile before I condemn this Judas. Only God knows what may be hidden in the hearts of drunkards. What is it, my good woman?", "pos": 463025}
{"speaker": "The poor woman", "text": "Exactly as is a mother’s joy when her baby smiles for the first time into her eyes, so is God’s joy when one of His children turns and prays to Him for the first time, with all his heart!", "pos": 463538}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Listen, Parfen; you put a question to me just now. This is my reply. The essence of religious feeling has nothing to do with reason, or atheism, or crime, or acts of any kind—it has nothing to do with these things—and never had. There is something besides all this, something which the arguments of the atheists can never touch. But the principal thing, and the conclusion of my argument, is that this is most clearly seen in the heart of a Russian. This is a conviction which I have gained while I have been in this Russia of ours. Yes, Parfen! there is work to be done; there is work to be done in this Russian world! Remember what talks we used to have in Moscow! And I never wished to come here at all; and I never thought to meet you like this, Parfen! Well, well—good-bye—good-bye! God be with you!", "pos": 464181}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Lef Nicolaievitch! Have you got that cross you bought from the soldier with you?", "pos": 465019}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, I have,", "pos": 465158}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Show it me, will you? Give it to me,", "pos": 465203}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why? do you—", "pos": 465387}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I’ll wear it; and you shall have mine. I’ll take it off at once.", "pos": 465459}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You wish to exchange crosses? Very well, Parfen, if that’s the case, I’m glad enough—that makes us brothers, you know.", "pos": 465526}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Come!", "pos": 466131}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Mother, here is my great friend, Prince Muishkin; we have exchanged crosses; he was like a real brother to me at Moscow at one time, and did a great deal for me. Bless him, mother, as you would bless your own son. Wait a moment, let me arrange your hands for you. There, come along, Lef Nicolaievitch; that’s all I brought you here for. She understood nothing of what I said to her, and did not know what I wanted her to do, and yet she blessed you; that shows she wished to do so herself. Well, goodbye; it’s time you went, and I must go too.", "pos": 467427}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well, let me at least embrace you and say goodbye, you strange fellow!", "pos": 468320}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Don’t be afraid, though I have taken your cross, I shall not murder you for your watch. Well, take her! It’s Fate! She’s yours. I surrender her.... Remember Rogojin!", "pos": 468677}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I am not to blame for all this,", "pos": 470524}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "These moments, short as they are, when I feel such extreme consciousness of myself, and consequently more of life than at other times, are due only to the disease—to the sudden rupture of normal conditions. Therefore they are not really a higher kind of life, but a lower. What matter though it be only disease, an abnormal tension of the brain, if when I recall and analyze the moment, it seems to have been one of harmony and beauty in the highest degree—an instant of deepest sensation, overflowing with unbounded joy and rapture, ecstatic devotion, and completest life?", "pos": 474349}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I would give my whole life for this one instant,", "pos": 475750}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I feel then. I feel then as if I understood those amazing words—‘There shall be no more time.’ There shall be no more time. No doubt the epileptic Mahomet refers to that same moment when he says that he visited all the dwellings of Allah, in less time than was needed to empty his pitcher of water. He told me I had been a brother to him. He said so today, for the first time.", "pos": 476418}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "However, it was something to move on and know where he was going.", "pos": 478319}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "God knows what he may really be; in a country with which one is unfamiliar it is difficult to understand the people one meets. But what am I thinking. Can he really have committed that crime? Did he kill those six persons? I seem to be confusing things... how strange it all is.... My head goes round... And Lebedeff’s daughter—how sympathetic and charming her face was as she held the child in her arms! What an innocent look and child-like laugh she had! It is curious that I had forgotten her until now. I expect Lebedeff adores her—and I really believe, when I think of it, that as sure as two and two make four, he is fond of that nephew, too!", "pos": 479497}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It is a crime on my part to imagine anything so base, with such cynical frankness.", "pos": 481251}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "your pity is greater than my love,", "pos": 483206}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You need not be afraid, I quite understand.", "pos": 486190}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Well, whose eyes were they?", "pos": 487399}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Whose eyes are they?", "pos": 487622}
{"speaker": "A wicked demon", "text": "Rogojin has been spying upon you and watching you all the morning in a frenzy of desperation. When he finds you have not gone to Pavlofsk—a terrible discovery for him—he will surely go at once to that house in Petersburg Side, and watch for you there, although only this morning you gave your word of honour not to see her, and swore that you had not come to Petersburg for that purpose.", "pos": 487977}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Speak if you dare, and tell me, what is the presentiment? Put it into words, speak out clearly and distinctly. Oh, miserable coward that I am! How shall I ever look this man in the face again? My God, what a day! And what a nightmare, what a nightmare! What a regular old woman I am today. I believe in every foolish presentiment that comes into my head. I am a coward, a wretched coward. Why should not Rogojin have as many knives on his table as he chooses? What could it have to do with me?", "pos": 489864}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "In a minute or two I shall know all,", "pos": 492329}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Parfen! I won’t believe it.", "pos": 493521}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "They will lose all respect if they are allowed to be so free and easy; besides it is not proper for them,", "pos": 498980}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why on earth not? Really, you know, you are making yourself a nuisance, by keeping guard over me like this. I get bored all by myself; I have told you so over and over again, and you get on my nerves more than ever by waving your hands and creeping in and out in the mysterious way you do.", "pos": 499157}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Do you think yourself my master, that you try to keep me under lock and key like this? In the country, at least, I intend to be free, and you may make up your mind that I mean to see whom I like, and go where I please.", "pos": 500501}
{"speaker": "clerk", "text": "Why, of course,", "pos": 500753}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well, Lukian Timofeyovitch, have you brought the little cupboard that you had at the head of your bed with you here?", "pos": 500863}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "No, I left it where it was.", "pos": 500982}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Impossible!", "pos": 501012}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "It cannot be moved; you would have to pull the wall down, it is so firmly fixed.", "pos": 501026}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Perhaps you have one like it here?", "pos": 501109}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I have one that is even better, much better; that is really why I bought this house.", "pos": 501146}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Ah! What visitor did you turn away from my door, about an hour ago?", "pos": 501233}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "The-the general. I would not let him in; there is no need for him to visit you, prince... I have the deepest esteem for him, he is a—a great man. You don’t believe it? Well, you will see, and yet, most excellent prince, you had much better not receive him.", "pos": 501303}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "May I ask why? and also why you walk about on tiptoe and always seem as if you were going to whisper a secret in my ear whenever you come near me?", "pos": 501562}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I am vile, vile; I know it! But will not the general be too hospitable for you?", "pos": 501711}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Too hospitable?", "pos": 501851}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Yes. First, he proposes to come and live in my house. Well and good; but he sticks at nothing; he immediately makes himself one of the family. We have talked over our respective relations several times, and discovered that we are connected by marriage. It seems also that you are a sort of nephew on his mother’s side; he was explaining it to me again only yesterday. If you are his nephew, it follows that I must also be a relation of yours, most excellent prince. Never mind about that, it is only a foible; but just now he assured me that all his life, from the day he was made an ensign to the 11th of last June, he has entertained at least two hundred guests at his table every day. Finally, he went so far as to say that they never rose from the table; they dined, supped, and had tea, for fifteen hours at a stretch. This went on for thirty years without a break; there was barely time to change the table-cloth; directly one person left, another took his place. On feast-days he entertained as many as three hundred guests, and they numbered seven hundred on the thousandth anniversary of the foundation of the Russian Empire. It amounts to a passion with him; it makes one uneasy to hear of it. It is terrible to have to entertain people who do things on such a scale. That is why I wonder whether such a man is not too hospitable for you and me.", "pos": 501869}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "But you seem to be on the best of terms with him?", "pos": 503227}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Quite fraternal—I look upon it as a joke. Let us be brothers-in-law, it is all the same to me,—rather an honour than not. But in spite of the two hundred guests and the thousandth anniversary of the Russian Empire, I can see that he is a very remarkable man. I am quite sincere. You said just now that I always looked as if I was going to tell you a secret; you are right. I have a secret to tell you: a certain person has just let me know that she is very anxious for a secret interview with you.", "pos": 503279}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why should it be secret? Not at all; I will call on her myself tomorrow.", "pos": 503779}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "No, oh no! if she is afraid, it is not for the reason you think. By the way, do you know that the monster comes every day to inquire after your health?", "pos": 503854}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You call him a monster so often that it makes me suspicious.", "pos": 504043}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "You must have no suspicions, none whatever. I only want you to know that the person in question is not afraid of him, but of something quite, quite different.", "pos": 504106}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What on earth is she afraid of, then? Tell me plainly, without any more beating about the bush,", "pos": 504292}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Ah that is the secret,", "pos": 504455}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Whose secret?", "pos": 504509}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Yours. You forbade me yourself to mention it before you, most excellent prince. She is afraid of Aglaya Ivanovna.", "pos": 504525}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Really, Lebedeff, I must leave your house. Where are Gavrila Ardalionovitch and the Ptitsins? Are they here? Have you chased them away, too?", "pos": 504830}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "They are coming, they are coming; and the general as well. I will open all the doors; I will call all my daughters, all of them, this very minute. Shall I call the Ptitsins, and Gavrila Ardalionovitch? Shall I let the general in?", "pos": 504973}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why not? Let in anyone who wants to see me. I assure you, Lebedeff, you have misunderstood my position from the very first; you have been wrong all along. I have not the slightest reason to hide myself from anyone,", "pos": 505508}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Mamma is cross because the prince hasn’t turned up,", "pos": 507123}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "it was not his fault.", "pos": 507210}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "He idles about here the whole day long, one can’t get rid of him; and then when he is wanted he does not come. He might have sent a line if he did not wish to inconvenience himself.", "pos": 507522}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Very well then, stay at home, and a good thing too, for Evgenie Pavlovitch is coming down and there will be no one at home to receive him.", "pos": 508349}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Just wait a while, my boy! don’t be too certain of your triumph. I must admit, prince, I was a little put out to see you up and about like this—I expected to find you in bed; but I give you my word, I was only annoyed for an instant, before I collected my thoughts properly. I am always wiser on second thoughts, and I dare say you are the same. I assure you I am as glad to see you well as though you were my own son,—yes, and more; and if you don’t believe me the more shame to you, and it’s not my fault. But that spiteful boy delights in playing all sorts of tricks. You are his patron, it seems. Well, I warn you that one fine morning I shall deprive myself of the pleasure of his further acquaintance.", "pos": 510156}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "What have I done wrong now? What was the good of telling you that the prince was nearly well again? You would not have believed me; it was so much more interesting to picture him on his death-bed.", "pos": 511120}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "How long do you remain here, prince?", "pos": 511334}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "All the summer, and perhaps longer.", "pos": 511396}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "You are alone, aren’t you,—not married?", "pos": 511434}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, I’m not married!", "pos": 511476}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Oh, you needn’t laugh! These things do happen, you know! Now then—why didn’t you come to us? We have a wing quite empty. But just as you like, of course. Do you lease it from him?—this fellow, I mean. And why does he always wriggle so? Is he mad?", "pos": 511571}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, he...", "pos": 512292}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Perhaps he is drunk? Your company is rather peculiar. But what a pretty girl! Who is she?", "pos": 512304}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "That is Lebedeff’s daughter—Vera Lukianovna.", "pos": 512447}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Indeed? She looks very sweet. I should like to make her acquaintance.", "pos": 512494}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Orphans, poor orphans! The child she carries is an orphan, too. She is Vera’s sister, my daughter Luboff. The day this babe was born, six weeks ago, my wife died, by the will of God Almighty.... Yes... Vera takes her mother’s place, though she is but her sister... nothing more... nothing more...", "pos": 512667}
{"speaker": "lady", "text": "And you! You are nothing more than a fool, if you’ll excuse me! Well! well! you know that yourself, I expect,", "pos": 512998}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "It is the truth,", "pos": 513157}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Oh, Mr. Lebedeff, I am told you lecture on the Apocalypse. Is it true?", "pos": 513210}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Yes, that is so... for the last fifteen years.", "pos": 513297}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I have heard of you, and I think read of you in the newspapers.", "pos": 513346}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "No, that was another commentator, whom the papers named. He is dead, however, and I have taken his place,", "pos": 513412}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "We are neighbours, so will you be so kind as to come over one day and explain the Apocalypse to me? I do not understand it in the least.", "pos": 513551}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Allow me to warn you, that he is the greatest charlatan on earth. No doubt there are pleasures and amusements peculiar to the country, and to listen to a pretended student holding forth on the book of the Revelations may be as good as any other. It may even be original. But... you seem to be looking at me with some surprise—may I introduce myself—General Ivolgin—I carried you in my arms as a baby—", "pos": 513705}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Delighted, I’m sure. I am acquainted with Varvara Ardalionovna and Nina Alexandrovna.", "pos": 514233}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "You are deviating from the truth, sir, as usual! you never carried her in your life!", "pos": 514565}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "You have forgotten, mother. He really did carry me about,—in Tver, you know. I was six years old, I remember. He made me a bow and arrow, and I shot a pigeon. Don’t you remember shooting a pigeon, you and I, one day?", "pos": 514699}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Yes, and he made me a cardboard helmet, and a little wooden sword—I remember!", "pos": 514943}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Yes, I remember too! You quarrelled about the wounded pigeon, and Adelaida was put in the corner, and stood there with her helmet and sword and all.", "pos": 515038}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I remember—I remember it all! I was captain then. You were such a lovely little thing—Nina Alexandrovna!—Gania, listen! I was received then by General Epanchin.", "pos": 515682}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Yes, and look what you have come to now! However, I see you have not quite drunk your better feelings away. But you’ve broken your wife’s heart, sir—and instead of looking after your children, you have spent your time in public-houses and debtors’ prisons! Go away, my friend, stand in some corner and weep, and bemoan your fallen dignity, and perhaps God will forgive you yet! Go, go! I’m serious! There’s nothing so favourable for repentance as to think of the past with feelings of remorse! Ardalion Alexandrovitch, wait a moment, we are all sinners! When you feel that your conscience reproaches you a little less, come over to me and we’ll have a talk about the past! I dare say I am fifty times more of a sinner than you are! And now go, go, good-bye, you had better not stay here!", "pos": 515857}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Don’t go after him just now, Colia, or he’ll be vexed, and the benefit of this moment will be lost!", "pos": 517020}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Quite true! Much better to go in half an hour or so", "pos": 517180}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "That’s what comes of telling the truth for once in one’s life! It reduced him to tears.", "pos": 517255}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Come, come! the less you say about it the better—to judge from all I have heard about you!", "pos": 517362}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "That was Gavrila Ardalionovitch, who just went out, wasn’t it?", "pos": 518241}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, it was,", "pos": 518388}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I hardly knew him; he is much changed, and for the better!", "pos": 518420}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I am very glad,", "pos": 518481}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "He has been very ill,", "pos": 518516}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "How has he changed for the better? I don’t see any change for the better! What’s better in him? Where did you get that idea from? what’s better?", "pos": 518553}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "There’s nothing better than the ‘poor knight’!", "pos": 518723}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "I quite agree with you there!", "pos": 518832}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "So do I,", "pos": 518890}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "What poor knight? What nonsense you are all talking! What do you mean by poor knight?", "pos": 518926}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "It’s not the first time this urchin, your favourite, has shown his impudence by twisting other people’s words,", "pos": 519159}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "He’s always twisting round what one says. A month ago you were turning over the pages of your Don Quixote, and suddenly called out ‘there is nothing better than the poor knight.’ I don’t know whom you were referring to, of course, whether to Don Quixote, or Evgenie Pavlovitch, or someone else, but you certainly said these words, and afterwards there was a long conversation...", "pos": 519828}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "You are inclined to go a little too far, my good boy, with your guesses,", "pos": 520278}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "But it’s not I alone. They all talked about it, and they do still. Why, just now Prince S. and Adelaida Ivanovna declared that they upheld ‘the poor knight’; so evidently there does exist a ‘poor knight’; and if it were not for Adelaida Ivanovna, we should have known long ago who the ‘poor knight’ was.", "pos": 520402}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Why, how am I to blame?", "pos": 520723}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "You wouldn’t draw his portrait for us, that’s why you are to blame! Aglaya Ivanovna asked you to draw his portrait, and gave you the whole subject of the picture. She invented it herself; and you wouldn’t.", "pos": 520774}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "What was I to draw? According to the lines she quoted: From his face he never lifted That eternal mask of steel.", "pos": 520982}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "What sort of a face was I to draw? I couldn’t draw a mask.", "pos": 521100}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "I don’t know what you are driving at; what mask do you mean? Well, have you finished your silly joke? and am I to be told what this ‘poor knight’ means, or is it a solemn secret which cannot be approached lightly?", "pos": 521161}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "It’s simply that there is a Russian poem, a strange thing, without beginning or end, and all about a ‘poor knight.’ A month or so ago, we were all talking and laughing, and looking up a subject for one of Adelaida’s pictures—you know it is the principal business of this family to find subjects for Adelaida’s pictures. Well, we happened upon this ‘poor knight.’ I don’t remember who thought of it first—", "pos": 521699}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Aglaya Ivanovna did,", "pos": 522175}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "Very likely—I don’t recollect. Some of us laughed at the subject; some liked it; but she declared that, in order to make a picture of the gentleman, she must first see his face. We then began to think over all our friends’ faces to see if any of them would do, and none suited us, and so the matter stood; that’s all. I don’t know why Nicolai Ardalionovitch has brought up the joke now. What was appropriate and funny then, has quite lost all interest by this time.", "pos": 522210}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Probably there’s some new silliness about it,", "pos": 522700}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "There is no silliness about it at all—only the profoundest respect,", "pos": 522783}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "‘Profoundest respect!’ What nonsense! First, insane giggling, and then, all of a sudden, a display of ‘profoundest respect.’ Why respect? Tell me at once, why have you suddenly developed this ‘profound respect,’ eh?", "pos": 523177}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Because, in the poem the knight is described as a man capable of living up to an ideal all his life. That sort of thing is not to be found every day among the men of our times. In the poem it is not stated exactly what the ideal was, but it was evidently some vision, some revelation of pure Beauty, and the knight wore round his neck, instead of a scarf, a rosary. A device—A. N. B.—the meaning of which is not explained, was inscribed on his shield—", "pos": 523394}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "No, A. N. D.", "pos": 523874}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I say A. N. B., and so it shall be! Anyway, the ‘poor knight’ did not care what his lady was, or what she did. He had chosen his ideal, and he was bound to serve her, and break lances for her, and acknowledge her as the ideal of pure Beauty, whatever she might say or do afterwards. If she had taken to stealing, he would have championed her just the same. I think the poet desired to embody in this one picture the whole spirit of medieval chivalry and the platonic love of a pure and high-souled knight. Of course it’s all an ideal, and in the ‘poor knight’ that spirit reached the utmost limit of asceticism. He is a Don Quixote, only serious and not comical. I used not to understand him, and laughed at him, but now I love the ‘poor knight,’ and respect his actions.", "pos": 523907}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Pooh! he was a fool, and his actions were the actions of a fool, and as for you, young woman, you ought to know better. At all events, you are not to talk like that again. What poem is it? Recite it! I want to hear this poem! I have hated poetry all my life. Prince, you must excuse this nonsense. We neither of us like this sort of thing! Be patient!", "pos": 524819}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Once there came a vision glorious, Mystic, dreadful, wondrous fair; Burned itself into his spirit, And abode for ever there! Never more—from that sweet moment— Gazéd he on womankind; He was dumb to love and wooing And to all their graces blind. Full of love for that sweet vision, Brave and pure he took the field; With his blood he stained the letters N. P. B. upon his shield. ‘Lumen caeli, sancta Rosa!’ Shouting on the foe he fell, And like thunder rang his war-cry O’er the cowering infidel. Then within his distant castle, Home returned, he dreamed his days— Silent, sad,—and when death took him He was mad, the legend says.", "pos": 528269}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "How beautiful that is! Whose is it?", "pos": 530556}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Pushkin’s, mama, of course! Don’t disgrace us all by showing your ignorance,", "pos": 530642}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "As soon as we reach home give it to me to read.", "pos": 530736}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "I don’t think we have a copy of Pushkin in the house. There are a couple of torn volumes somewhere; they have been lying about from time immemorial,", "pos": 530786}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Send Feodor or Alexey up by the very first train to buy a copy, then.—Aglaya, come here—kiss me, dear, you recited beautifully! but, if you were sincere I am sorry for you. If it was a joke, I do not approve of the feelings which prompted you to do it, and in any case you would have done far better not to recite it at all. Do you understand?—Now come along, young woman; we’ve sat here too long. I’ll speak to you about this another time.", "pos": 530956}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "I caught him up on the way to your house. He had heard that we were all here.", "pos": 531551}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Yes, and I heard that you were here, too, and since I had long promised myself the pleasure of seeking not only your acquaintance but your friendship, I did not wish to waste time, but came straight on. I am sorry to hear that you are unwell.", "pos": 531655}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, but I’m quite well now, thank you, and very glad to make your acquaintance. Prince S. has often spoken to me about you,", "pos": 531928}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "He has astonished me. I nearly fell down with surprise. I could hardly believe my eyes when I met him in Petersburg just now. Why this haste? That’s what I want to know. He has always said himself that there is no need to break windows.", "pos": 532933}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "I have only retired for a time. For a few months; at most for a year.", "pos": 533537}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "But there is no necessity for you to retire at all, as far as I know.", "pos": 533630}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "I want to go and look after my country estates. You advised me to do that yourself. And then I wish to go abroad.", "pos": 533728}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "There must be more in it than appears,", "pos": 534058}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "I see the ‘poor knight’ has come on the scene again,", "pos": 534119}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "But not now! It is too late to send to town for a Pushkin now. It is much too late, I say! I have told you so at least a hundred times.", "pos": 534507}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Yes, it is really much too late to send to town now. I am sure the shops are shut in Petersburg; it is past eight o’clock,", "pos": 534685}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "We have done without him so far. Surely we can wait until to-morrow.", "pos": 534921}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Besides, it is quite unusual, almost improper, for people in our position to take any interest in literature. Ask Evgenie Pavlovitch if I am not right. It is much more fashionable to drive a waggonette with red wheels.", "pos": 535028}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "You got that from some magazine, Colia,", "pos": 535263}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "He gets most of his conversation in that way. He borrows whole phrases from the reviews. I have long had the pleasure of knowing both Nicholai Ardalionovitch and his conversational methods, but this time he was not repeating something he had read; he was alluding, no doubt, to my yellow waggonette, which has, or had, red wheels. But I have exchanged it, so you are rather behind the times, Colia.", "pos": 535324}
{"speaker": "Vera", "text": "What is it? Papa told me to offer it to you.", "pos": 536115}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "What? Impossible!", "pos": 536220}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Not as a present, not as a present! I should not have taken the liberty. It is our own Pushkin, our family copy, Annenkoff’s edition; it could not be bought now. I beg to suggest, with great respect, that your excellency should buy it, and thus quench the noble literary thirst which is consuming you at this moment,", "pos": 536265}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Oh! if you will sell it, very good—and thank you. You shall not be a loser! But for goodness’ sake, don’t twist about like that, sir! I have heard of you; they tell me you are a very learned person. We must have a talk one of these days. You will bring me the books yourself?", "pos": 536676}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "With the greatest respect... and... and veneration,", "pos": 536954}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Well, bring them, with or without respect, provided always you do not drop them on the way; but on the condition, that you do not cross my threshold. I do not intend to receive you today. You may send your daughter Vera at once, if you like. I am much pleased with her.", "pos": 537057}
{"speaker": "Vera", "text": "Why don’t you tell him about them? They will come in, whether you announce them or not, and they are beginning to make a row. Lef Nicolaievitch, four men are here asking for you. They have waited some time, and are beginning to make a fuss, and papa will not bring them in.", "pos": 537370}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Who are these people?", "pos": 537723}
{"speaker": "Vera", "text": "They say that they have come on business, and they are the kind of men, who, if you do not see them here, will follow you about the street. It would be better to receive them, and then you will get rid of them. Gavrila Ardalionovitch and Ptitsin are both there, trying to make them hear reason.", "pos": 537764}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Pavlicheff’s son! It is not worth while! There is no necessity to see them, and it would be most unpleasant for your excellency. They do not deserve...", "pos": 538061}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What? Pavlicheff’s son! I know... I know—but I entrusted this matter to Gavrila Ardalionovitch. He told me...", "pos": 538233}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "This is most interesting!", "pos": 538646}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "It will be well, if you put an end to this affair yourself at once: but you must allow us to be your witnesses. They want to throw mud at you, prince, and you must be triumphantly vindicated. I give you joy beforehand!", "pos": 539235}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "And I also wish for justice to be done, once for all, about this impudent claim. Deal with them promptly, prince, and don’t spare them! I am sick of hearing about the affair, and many a quarrel I have had in your cause. But I confess I am anxious to see what happens, so do make them come out here, and we will remain. You have heard people talking about it, no doubt?", "pos": 539468}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "Of course. I have heard it spoken about at your house, and I am anxious to see these young men! They are Nihilists, are they not? No, they are not Nihilists,", "pos": 539896}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "This is another lot—a special group. According to my nephew they are more advanced even than the Nihilists. You are quite wrong, excellency, if you think that your presence will intimidate them; nothing intimidates them. Educated men, learned men even, are to be found among Nihilists; these go further, in that they are men of action. The movement is, properly speaking, a derivative from Nihilism—though they are only known indirectly, and by hearsay, for they never advertise their doings in the papers. They go straight to the point. For them, it is not a question of showing that Pushkin is stupid, or that Russia must be torn in pieces. No; but if they have a great desire for anything, they believe they have a right to get it even at the cost of the lives, say, of eight persons. They are checked by no obstacles. In fact, prince, I should not advise you...", "pos": 540116}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You are slandering them, Lebedeff. You are always thinking about your nephew’s conduct. Don’t believe him, Lizabetha Prokofievna. I can assure you Gorsky and Daniloff are exceptions—and that these are only... mistaken. However, I do not care about receiving them here, in public. Excuse me, Lizabetha Prokofievna. They are coming, and you can see them, and then I will take them away. Please come in, gentlemen!", "pos": 541062}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "He is for me, undoubtedly!", "pos": 542026}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I did not expect you, gentlemen. I have been ill until to-day. A month ago. I put your business into Gavrila Ardalionovitch Ivolgin’s hands, as I told you then. I do not in the least object to having a personal interview... but you will agree with me that this is hardly the time... I propose that we go into another room, if you will not keep me long... As you see, I have friends here, and believe me...", "pos": 545511}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff's nephew", "text": "allow me to tell you that you might have treated us rather more politely, and not have kept us waiting at least two hours...", "pos": 546090}
{"speaker": "Antip Burdovsky", "text": "No doubt... and I... is that acting like a prince? And you... you may be a general! But I... I am not your valet! And I... I...", "pos": 546216}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "It was a princely action!", "pos": 546551}
{"speaker": "the boxer", "text": "If anyone had treated me so. I mean to say that if I had been in Burdovsky’s place...I...", "pos": 546598}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Gentlemen, I did not know you were there; I have only just been informed, I assure you,", "pos": 546712}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff's nephew", "text": "We are not afraid of your friends, prince, for we are within our rights.", "pos": 546821}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "What right have you... by what right do you demand us to submit this matter, about Burdovsky... to the judgment of your friends? We know only too well what the judgment of your friends will be!...", "pos": 546973}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "If you, if you prefer not to speak here, I offer again to go into another room with you... and as to your waiting to see me, I repeat that I only this instant heard...", "pos": 547350}
{"speaker": "Burdovsky", "text": "Well, you have no right, you have no right, no right at all!... Your friends indeed!...", "pos": 547552}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Lef Nicolaievitch! read this at once, this very moment! It is about this business.", "pos": 547960}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Would it not be better to peruse it alone... later,", "pos": 548447}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "No, no, read it—read it at once directly, and aloud, aloud! Read it aloud, so that everyone may hear it!", "pos": 548530}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Oh, I don’t know what this means", "pos": 554651}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Let him go on reading at all costs!", "pos": 554812}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Prince, if the reading is stopped, you and I will quarrel.", "pos": 554939}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "But while our young millionaire dwelt as it were in the Empyrean, something new occurred. One fine morning a man called upon him, calm and severe of aspect, distinguished, but plainly dressed. Politely, but in dignified terms, as befitted his errand, he briefly explained the motive for his visit. He was a lawyer of enlightened views; his client was a young man who had consulted him in confidence. This young man was no other than the son of P——, though he bears another name. In his youth P——, the sensualist, had seduced a young girl, poor but respectable. She was a serf, but had received a European education. Finding that a child was expected, he hastened her marriage with a man of noble character who had loved her for a long time. He helped the young couple for a time, but he was soon obliged to give up, for the high-minded husband refused to accept anything from him. Soon the careless nobleman forgot all about his former mistress and the child she had borne him; then, as we know, he died intestate. P——’s son, born after his mother’s marriage, found a true father in the generous man whose name he bore. But when he also died, the orphan was left to provide for himself, his mother now being an invalid who had lost the use of her limbs. Leaving her in a distant province, he came to the capital in search of pupils. By dint of daily toil he earned enough to enable him to follow the college courses, and at last to enter the university. But what can one earn by teaching the children of Russian merchants at ten copecks a lesson, especially with an invalid mother to keep? Even her death did not much diminish the hardships of the young man’s struggle for existence. Now this is the question: how, in the name of justice, should our scion have argued the case? Our readers will think, no doubt, that he would say to himself: ‘P—— showered benefits upon me all my life; he spent tens of thousands of roubles to educate me, to provide me with governesses, and to keep me under treatment in Switzerland. Now I am a millionaire, and P——’s son, a noble young man who is not responsible for the faults of his careless and forgetful father, is wearing himself out giving ill-paid lessons. According to justice, all that was done for me ought to have been done for him. The enormous sums spent upon me were not really mine; they came to me by an error of blind Fortune, when they ought to have gone to P——’s son. They should have gone to benefit him, not me, in whom P—— interested himself by a mere caprice, instead of doing his duty as a father. If I wished to behave nobly, justly, and with delicacy, I ought to bestow half my fortune upon the son of my benefactor; but as economy is my favourite virtue, and I know this is not a case in which the law can intervene, I will not give up half my millions. But it would be too openly vile, too flagrantly infamous, if I did not at least restore to P——’s son the tens of thousands of roubles spent in curing my idiocy. This is simply a case of conscience and of strict justice. Whatever would have become of me if P—— had not looked after my education, and had taken care of his own son instead of me?’", "pos": 555076}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, gentlemen, our scions of the nobility do not reason thus. The lawyer, who had taken up the matter purely out of friendship to the young man, and almost against his will, invoked every consideration of justice, delicacy, honour, and even plain figures; in vain, the ex-patient of the Swiss lunatic asylum was inflexible. All this might pass, but the sequel is absolutely unpardonable, and not to be excused by any interesting malady. This millionaire, having but just discarded the old gaiters of his professor, could not even understand that the noble young man slaving away at his lessons was not asking for charitable help, but for his rightful due, though the debt was not a legal one; that, correctly speaking, he was not asking for anything, but it was merely his friends who had thought fit to bestir themselves on his behalf. With the cool insolence of a bloated capitalist, secure in his millions, he majestically drew a banknote for fifty roubles from his pocket-book and sent it to the noble young man as a humiliating piece of charity. You can hardly believe it, gentlemen! You are scandalized and disgusted; you cry out in indignation! But that is what he did! Needless to say, the money was returned, or rather flung back in his face. The case is not within the province of the law, it must be referred to the tribunal of public opinion; this is what we now do, guaranteeing the truth of all the details which we have related.", "pos": 558238}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "The devil knows what it means,", "pos": 561035}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "May I ask your reason for such an insulting supposition, sir?", "pos": 561179}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You will admit yourself, general, that for an honourable man, if the author is an honourable man, that is an—an insult,", "pos": 561280}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "In the first place, it is not for you to address me as ‘sir,’ and, in the second place, I refuse to give you any explanation,", "pos": 561473}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Gentlemen, gentlemen, let me speak at last,", "pos": 561878}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Please let us understand one another. I say nothing about the article, gentlemen, except that every word is false; I say this because you know it as well as I do. It is shameful. I should be surprised if any one of you could have written it.", "pos": 561964}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "I did not know of its existence till this moment. I do not approve of it.", "pos": 562208}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff's nephew", "text": "I knew it had been written, but I would not have advised its publication, because it is premature.", "pos": 562306}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I knew it, but I have a right. I... I...", "pos": 562433}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What! Did you write all that yourself? Is it possible?", "pos": 562511}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff's nephew", "text": "One might dispute your right to ask such questions,", "pos": 562622}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I was only surprised that Mr. Burdovsky should have—however, this is what I have to say. Since you had already given the matter publicity, why did you object just now, when I began to speak of it to my friends?", "pos": 562704}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "At last!", "pos": 562917}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Prince, you are forgetting that if you consented to receive and hear them, it was only because of your kind heart which has no equal, for they had not the least right to demand it, especially as you had placed the matter in the hands of Gavrila Ardalionovitch, which was also extremely kind of you. You are also forgetting, most excellent prince, that you are with friends, a select company; you cannot sacrifice them to these gentlemen, and it is only for you to have them turned out this instant. As the master of the house I shall have great pleasure ....", "pos": 563070}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Quite right!", "pos": 563631}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "That will do, Lebedeff, that will do—", "pos": 563686}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff's nephew", "text": "Excuse me, prince, excuse me, but now that will not do. The matter must be clearly stated, for it is obviously not properly understood. They are calling in some legal chicanery, and upon that ground they are threatening to turn us out of the house! Really, prince, do you think we are such fools as not to be aware that this matter does not come within the law, and that legally we cannot claim a rouble from you? But we are also aware that if actual law is not on our side, human law is for us, natural law, the law of common-sense and conscience, which is no less binding upon every noble and honest man—that is, every man of sane judgment—because it is not to be found in miserable legal codes. If we come here without fear of being turned out (as was threatened just now) because of the imperative tone of our demand, and the unseemliness of such a visit at this late hour (though it was not late when we arrived, we were kept waiting in your anteroom), if, I say, we came in without fear, it is just because we expected to find you a man of sense; I mean, a man of honour and conscience. It is quite true that we did not present ourselves humbly, like your flatterers and parasites, but holding up our heads as befits independent men. We present no petition, but a proud and free demand (note it well, we do not beseech, we demand!). We ask you fairly and squarely in a dignified manner. Do you believe that in this affair of Burdovsky you have right on your side? Do you admit that Pavlicheff overwhelmed you with benefits, and perhaps saved your life? If you admit it (which we take for granted), do you intend, now that you are a millionaire, and do you not think it in conformity with justice, to indemnify Burdovsky? Yes or no? If it is yes, or, in other words, if you possess what you call honour and conscience, and we more justly call common-sense, then accede to our demand, and the matter is at an end. Give us satisfaction, without entreaties or thanks from us; do not expect thanks from us, for what you do will be done not for our sake, but for the sake of justice. If you refuse to satisfy us, that is, if your answer is no, we will go away at once, and there will be an end of the matter. But we will tell you to your face before the present company that you are a man of vulgar and undeveloped mind; we will openly deny you the right to speak in future of your honour and conscience, for you have not paid the fair price of such a right. I have no more to say—I have put the question before you. Now turn us out if you dare. You can do it; force is on your side. But remember that we do not beseech, we demand! We do not beseech, we demand!", "pos": 563788}
{"speaker": "Burdovsky", "text": "We demand, we demand, we demand, we do not beseech,", "pos": 566579}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "In my opinion, Mr. Doktorenko, you are quite right in at least half of what you say. I would go further and say that you are altogether right, and that I quite agree with you, if there were not something lacking in your speech. I cannot undertake to say precisely what it is, but you have certainly omitted something, and you cannot be quite just while there is something lacking. But let us put that aside and return to the point. Tell me what induced you to publish this article. Every word of it is a calumny, and I think, gentlemen, that you have been guilty of a mean action.", "pos": 567070}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Allow me—", "pos": 567695}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Sir—", "pos": 567707}
{"speaker": "the visitors", "text": "What? What? What?", "pos": 567714}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "As to the article. I have told you already that we none of us approve of it! There is the writer. I quite admit that he has written it in his old regimental manner, with an equal disregard for style and decency. I know he is a cross between a fool and an adventurer; I make no bones about telling him so to his face every day. But after all he is half justified; publicity is the lawful right of every man; consequently, Burdovsky is not excepted. Let him answer for his own blunders. As to the objection which I made just now in the name of all, to the presence of your friends, I think I ought to explain, gentlemen, that I only did so to assert our rights, though we really wished to have witnesses; we had agreed unanimously upon the point before we came in. We do not care who your witnesses may be, or whether they are your friends or not. As they cannot fail to recognize Burdovsky’s right (seeing that it is mathematically demonstrable), it is just as well that the witnesses should be your friends. The truth will only be more plainly evident.", "pos": 567788}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff's nephew", "text": "It is quite true; we had agreed upon that point,", "pos": 568938}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "If that is the case, why did you begin by making such a fuss about it?", "pos": 569030}
{"speaker": "Boxer", "text": "As to the article, prince, I admit that I wrote it, in spite of the severe criticism of my poor friend, in whom I always overlook many things because of his unfortunate state of health. But I wrote and published it in the form of a letter, in the paper of a friend. I showed it to no one but Burdovsky, and I did not read it all through, even to him. He immediately gave me permission to publish it, but you will admit that I might have done so without his consent. Publicity is a noble, beneficent, and universal right. I hope, prince, that you are too progressive to deny this?", "pos": 569264}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I deny nothing, but you must confess that your article—", "pos": 569846}
{"speaker": "Boxer", "text": "Is a bit thick, you mean? Well, in a way that is in the public interest; you will admit that yourself, and after all one cannot overlook a blatant fact. So much the worse for the guilty parties, but the public welfare must come before everything. As to certain inaccuracies and figures of speech, so to speak, you will also admit that the motive, aim, and intention, are the chief thing. It is a question, above all, of making a wholesome example; the individual case can be examined afterwards; and as to the style—well, the thing was meant to be humorous, so to speak, and, after all, everybody writes like that; you must admit it yourself! Ha, ha!", "pos": 569904}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "But, gentlemen, I assure you that you are quite astray. You have published this article upon the supposition that I would never consent to satisfy Mr. Burdovsky. Acting on that conviction, you have tried to intimidate me by this publication and to be revenged for my supposed refusal. But what did you know of my intentions? It may be that I have resolved to satisfy Mr. Burdovsky’s claim. I now declare openly, in the presence of these witnesses, that I will do so.", "pos": 570557}
{"speaker": "Boxer", "text": "The noble and intelligent word of an intelligent and most noble man, at last!", "pos": 571050}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Good God!", "pos": 571151}
{"speaker": "general", "text": "This is intolerable,", "pos": 571210}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Allow me, gentlemen, allow me. I will explain matters to you. Five weeks ago I received a visit from Tchebaroff, your agent, Mr. Burdovsky. You have given a very flattering description of him in your article, Mr. Keller,", "pos": 571254}
{"speaker": "Burdovsky", "text": "You have no right.... I am not simple,", "pos": 571783}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff's nephew", "text": "You have no sort of right to suppose such things,", "pos": 571860}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "It is most offensive! it is an insulting suggestion, false, and most ill-timed.", "pos": 571959}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I beg your pardon, gentlemen; please excuse me. I thought absolute frankness on both sides would be best, but have it your own way. I told Tchebaroff that, as I was not in Petersburg, I would commission a friend to look into the matter without delay, and that I would let you know, Mr. Burdovsky. Gentlemen, I have no hesitation in telling you that it was the fact of Tchebaroff’s intervention that made me suspect a fraud. Oh! do not take offence at my words, gentlemen, for Heaven’s sake do not be so touchy!", "pos": 572063}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff's nephew", "text": "You are shockingly naive, prince,", "pos": 572969}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Besides, though you are a prince and a millionaire, and even though you may really be simple and good-hearted, you can hardly be outside the general law,", "pos": 573046}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Perhaps not; it is very possible, though I do not know what general law you allude to. I will go on—only please do not take offence without good cause. I assure you I do not mean to offend you in the least. Really, it is impossible to speak three words sincerely without your flying into a rage! At first I was amazed when Tchebaroff told me that Pavlicheff had a son, and that he was in such a miserable position. Pavlicheff was my benefactor, and my father’s friend. Oh, Mr. Keller, why does your article impute things to my father without the slightest foundation? He never squandered the funds of his company nor ill-treated his subordinates, I am absolutely certain of it; I cannot imagine how you could bring yourself to write such a calumny! But your assertions concerning Pavlicheff are absolutely intolerable! You do not scruple to make a libertine of that noble man; you call him a sensualist as coolly as if you were speaking the truth, and yet it would not be possible to find a chaster man. He was even a scholar of note, and in correspondence with several celebrated scientists, and spent large sums in the interests of science. As to his kind heart and his good actions, you were right indeed when you said that I was almost an idiot at that time, and could hardly understand anything—(I could speak and understand Russian, though),—but now I can appreciate what I remember—", "pos": 573229}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Excuse me, is not this rather sentimental? You said you wished to come to the point; please remember that it is after nine o’clock.", "pos": 574675}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Very well, gentlemen—very well. At first I received the news with mistrust, then I said to myself that I might be mistaken, and that Pavlicheff might possibly have had a son. But I was absolutely amazed at the readiness with which the son had revealed the secret of his birth at the expense of his mother’s honour. For Tchebaroff had already menaced me with publicity in our interview....", "pos": 574809}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff's nephew", "text": "What nonsense!", "pos": 575222}
{"speaker": "Burdovsky", "text": "You have no right—you have no right!", "pos": 575280}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "The son is not responsible for the misdeeds of his father; and the mother is not to blame,", "pos": 575336}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That seems to me all the more reason for sparing her,", "pos": 575459}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff's nephew", "text": "Prince, you are not only simple, but your simplicity is almost past the limit,", "pos": 575540}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "But what right had you?", "pos": 575669}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "None—none whatever. I admit you are right there, but it was involuntary, and I immediately said to myself that my personal feelings had nothing to do with it,—that if I thought it right to satisfy the demands of Mr. Burdovsky, out of respect for the memory of Pavlicheff, I ought to do so in any case, whether I esteemed Mr. Burdovsky or not. I only mentioned this, gentlemen, because it seemed so unnatural to me for a son to betray his mother’s secret in such a way. In short, that is what convinced me that Tchebaroff must be a rogue, and that he had induced Mr. Burdovsky to attempt this fraud.", "pos": 575763}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "But this is intolerable!", "pos": 576364}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Gentlemen, I supposed from this that poor Mr. Burdovsky must be a simple-minded man, quite defenceless, and an easy tool in the hands of rogues. That is why I thought it my duty to try and help him as ‘Pavlicheff’s son’; in the first place by rescuing him from the influence of Tchebaroff, and secondly by making myself his friend. I have resolved to give him ten thousand roubles; that is about the sum which I calculate that Pavlicheff must have spent on me.", "pos": 576448}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "What, only ten thousand!", "pos": 576911}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff's nephew", "text": "Well, prince, your arithmetic is not up to much, or else you are mighty clever at it, though you affect the air of a simpleton,", "pos": 576955}
{"speaker": "Burdovsky", "text": "I will not accept ten thousand roubles,", "pos": 577109}
{"speaker": "Boxer", "text": "Take it for the present; we can see about more later on.", "pos": 577297}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Look here, Mr. Muishkin, please understand that we are not fools, nor idiots, as your guests seem to imagine; these ladies who look upon us with such scorn, and especially this fine gentleman", "pos": 577377}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Really, really, gentlemen, you are misunderstanding me again. In the first place, Mr. Keller, you have greatly overestimated my fortune in your article. I am far from being a millionaire. I have barely a tenth of what you suppose. Secondly, my treatment in Switzerland was very far from costing tens of thousands of roubles. Schneider received six hundred roubles a year, and he was only paid for the first three years. As to the pretty governesses whom Pavlicheff is supposed to have brought from Paris, they only exist in Mr. Keller’s imagination; it is another calumny. According to my calculations, the sum spent on me was very considerably under ten thousand roubles, but I decided on that sum, and you must admit that in paying a debt I could not offer Mr. Burdovsky more, however kindly disposed I might be towards him; delicacy forbids it; I should seem to be offering him charity instead of rightful payment. I don’t know how you cannot see that, gentlemen! Besides, I had no intention of leaving the matter there. I meant to intervene amicably later on and help to improve poor Mr. Burdovsky’s position. It is clear that he has been deceived, or he would never have agreed to anything so vile as the scandalous revelations about his mother in Mr. Keller’s article. But, gentlemen, why are you getting angry again? Are we never to come to an understanding? Well, the event has proved me right! I have just seen with my own eyes the proof that my conjecture was correct!", "pos": 577733}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What do you mean? What are you convinced of?", "pos": 579354}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "In the first place, I have had the opportunity of getting a correct idea of Mr. Burdovsky. I see what he is for myself. He is an innocent man, deceived by everyone! A defenceless victim, who deserves indulgence! Secondly, Gavrila Ardalionovitch, in whose hands I had placed the matter, had his first interview with me barely an hour ago. I had not heard from him for some time, as I was away, and have been ill for three days since my return to St. Petersburg. He tells me that he has exposed the designs of Tchebaroff and has proof that justifies my opinion of him. I know, gentlemen, that many people think me an idiot. Counting upon my reputation as a man whose purse-strings are easily loosened, Tchebaroff thought it would be a simple matter to fleece me, especially by trading on my gratitude to Pavlicheff. But the main point is—listen, gentlemen, let me finish!—the main point is that Mr. Burdovsky is not Pavlicheff’s son at all. Gavrila Ardalionovitch has just told me of his discovery, and assures me that he has positive proofs. Well, what do you think of that? It is scarcely credible, even after all the tricks that have been played upon me. Please note that we have positive proofs! I can hardly believe it myself, I assure you; I do not yet believe it; I am still doubtful, because Gavrila Ardalionovitch has not had time to go into details; but there can be no further doubt that Tchebaroff is a rogue! He has deceived poor Mr. Burdovsky, and all of you, gentlemen, who have come forward so nobly to support your friend—(he evidently needs support, I quite see that!). He has abused your credulity and involved you all in an attempted fraud, for when all is said and done this claim is nothing else!", "pos": 579424}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What! a fraud? What, he is not Pavlicheff’s son? Impossible!", "pos": 581143}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Certainly it is a fraud! Since Mr. Burdovsky is not Pavlicheff’s son, his claim is neither more nor less than attempted fraud (supposing, of course, that he had known the truth), but the fact is that he has been deceived. I insist on this point in order to justify him; I repeat that his simple-mindedness makes him worthy of pity, and that he cannot stand alone; otherwise he would have behaved like a scoundrel in this matter. But I feel certain that he does not understand it! I was just the same myself before I went to Switzerland; I stammered incoherently; one tries to express oneself and cannot. I understand that. I am all the better able to pity Mr. Burdovsky, because I know from experience what it is to be like that, and so I have a right to speak. Well, though there is no such person as ‘Pavlicheff’s son,’ and it is all nothing but a humbug, yet I will keep to my decision, and I am prepared to give up ten thousand roubles in memory of Pavlicheff. Before Mr. Burdovsky made this claim, I proposed to found a school with this money, in memory of my benefactor, but I shall honour his memory quite as well by giving the ten thousand roubles to Mr. Burdovsky, because, though he was not Pavlicheff’s son, he was treated almost as though he were. That is what gave a rogue the opportunity of deceiving him; he really did think himself Pavlicheff’s son. Listen, gentlemen; this matter must be settled; keep calm; do not get angry; and sit down! Gavrila Ardalionovitch will explain everything to you at once, and I confess that I am very anxious to hear all the details myself. He says that he has even been to Pskoff to see your mother, Mr. Burdovsky; she is not dead, as the article which was just read to us makes out. Sit down, gentlemen, sit down!", "pos": 581338}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You will not deny, I am sure,", "pos": 584490}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "You will not deny, seriously, that you were born just two years after your mother’s legal marriage to Mr. Burdovsky, your father. Nothing would be easier than to prove the date of your birth from well-known facts; we can only look on Mr. Keller’s version as a work of imagination, and one, moreover, extremely offensive both to you and your mother. Of course he distorted the truth in order to strengthen your claim, and to serve your interests. Mr. Keller said that he previously consulted you about his article in the paper, but did not read it to you as a whole. Certainly he could not have read that passage...", "pos": 584643}
{"speaker": "the boxer", "text": "As a matter of fact, I did not read it, but its contents had been given me on unimpeachable authority, and I...", "pos": 585259}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Excuse me, Mr. Keller. Allow me to speak. I assure you your article shall be mentioned in its proper place, and you can then explain everything, but for the moment I would rather not anticipate. Quite accidentally, with the help of my sister, Varvara Ardalionovna Ptitsin, I obtained from one of her intimate friends, Madame Zoubkoff, a letter written to her twenty-five years ago, by Nicolai Andreevitch Pavlicheff, then abroad. After getting into communication with this lady, I went by her advice to Timofei Fedorovitch Viazovkin, a retired colonel, and one of Pavlicheff’s oldest friends. He gave me two more letters written by the latter when he was still in foreign parts. These three documents, their dates, and the facts mentioned in them, prove in the most undeniable manner, that eighteen months before your birth, Nicolai Andreevitch went abroad, where he remained for three consecutive years. Your mother, as you are well aware, has never been out of Russia.... It is too late to read the letters now; I am content to state the fact. But if you desire it, come to me tomorrow morning, bring witnesses and writing experts with you, and I will prove the absolute truth of my story. From that moment the question will be decided.", "pos": 585398}
{"speaker": "Burdovsky", "text": "If that is true. I have been deceived, grossly deceived, but not by Tchebaroff: and for a long time past, a long time. I do not wish for experts, not I, nor to go to see you. I believe you. I give it up.... But I refuse the ten thousand roubles. Good-bye.", "pos": 586799}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Wait five minutes more, Mr. Burdovsky. I have more to say. Some rather curious and important facts have come to light, and it is absolutely necessary, in my opinion, that you should hear them. You will not regret, I fancy, to have the whole matter thoroughly cleared up.", "pos": 587068}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, Antip!", "pos": 587820}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I did say to you the other day—the day before yesterday—that perhaps you were not really Pavlicheff’s son!", "pos": 587864}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Now, that is a valuable piece of information, Mr. Keller. However that may be, I have private information which convinces me that Mr. Burdovsky, though doubtless aware of the date of his birth, knew nothing at all about Pavlicheff’s sojourn abroad. Indeed, he passed the greater part of his life out of Russia, returning at intervals for short visits. The journey in question is in itself too unimportant for his friends to recollect it after more than twenty years; and of course Mr. Burdovsky could have known nothing about it, for he was not born. As the event has proved, it was not impossible to find evidence of his absence, though I must confess that chance has helped me in a quest which might very well have come to nothing. It was really almost impossible for Burdovsky or Tchebaroff to discover these facts, even if it had entered their heads to try. Naturally they never dreamt...", "pos": 588027}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Allow me, Mr. Ivolgin. What is the good of all this rigmarole? Pardon me. All is now clear, and we acknowledge the truth of your main point. Why go into these tedious details? You wish perhaps to boast of the cleverness of your investigation, to cry up your talents as detective? Or perhaps your intention is to excuse Burdovsky, by proving that he took up the matter in ignorance? Well, I consider that extremely impudent on your part! You ought to know that Burdovsky has no need of being excused or justified by you or anyone else! It is an insult! The affair is quite painful enough for him without that. Will nothing make you understand?", "pos": 588988}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Enough! enough! Mr. Terentieff. Don’t excite yourself; you seem very ill, and I am sorry for that. I am almost done, but there are a few facts to which I must briefly refer, as I am convinced that they ought to be clearly explained once for all.... I merely wish to state, for the information of all concerned, that the reason for Mr. Pavlicheff’s interest in your mother, Mr. Burdovsky, was simply that she was the sister of a serf-girl with whom he was deeply in love in his youth, and whom most certainly he would have married but for her sudden death. I have proofs that this circumstance is almost, if not quite, forgotten. I may add that when your mother was about ten years old, Pavlicheff took her under his care, gave her a good education, and later, a considerable dowry. His relations were alarmed, and feared he might go so far as to marry her, but she gave her hand to a young land-surveyor named Burdovsky when she reached the age of twenty. I can even say definitely that it was a marriage of affection. After his wedding your father gave up his occupation as land-surveyor, and with his wife’s dowry of fifteen thousand roubles went in for commercial speculations. As he had had no experience, he was cheated on all sides, and took to drink in order to forget his troubles. He shortened his life by his excesses, and eight years after his marriage he died. Your mother says herself that she was left in the direst poverty, and would have died of starvation had it not been for Pavlicheff, who generously allowed her a yearly pension of six hundred roubles. Many people recall his extreme fondness for you as a little boy. Your mother confirms this, and agrees with others in thinking that he loved you the more because you were a sickly child, stammering in your speech, and almost deformed—for it is known that all his life Nicolai Andreevitch had a partiality for unfortunates of every kind, especially children. In my opinion this is most important. I may add that I discovered yet another fact, the last on which I employed my detective powers. Seeing how fond Pavlicheff was of you,—it was thanks to him you went to school, and also had the advantage of special teachers—his relations and servants grew to believe that you were his son, and that your father had been betrayed by his wife. I may point out that this idea was only accredited generally during the last years of Pavlicheff’s life, when his next-of-kin were trembling about the succession, when the earlier story was quite forgotten, and when all opportunity for discovering the truth had seemingly passed away. No doubt you, Mr. Burdovsky, heard this conjecture, and did not hesitate to accept it as true. I have had the honour of making your mother’s acquaintance, and I find that she knows all about these reports. What she does not know is that you, her son, should have listened to them so complaisantly. I found your respected mother at Pskoff, ill and in deep poverty, as she has been ever since the death of your benefactor. She told me with tears of gratitude how you had supported her; she expects much of you, and believes fervently in your future success...", "pos": 589654}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, this is unbearable!", "pos": 592900}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What is the good of all this romancing?", "pos": 592962}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "It is revolting and unseemly!", "pos": 593004}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "What is the good of it? Well, firstly, because now perhaps Mr. Burdovsky is quite convinced that Mr. Pavlicheff’s love for him came simply from generosity of soul, and not from paternal duty. It was most necessary to impress this fact upon his mind, considering that he approved of the article written by Mr. Keller. I speak thus because I look on you, Mr. Burdovsky, as an honourable man. Secondly, it appears that there was no intention of cheating in this case, even on the part of Tchebaroff. I wish to say this quite plainly, because the prince hinted a while ago that I too thought it an attempt at robbery and extortion. On the contrary, everyone has been quite sincere in the matter, and although Tchebaroff may be somewhat of a rogue, in this business he has acted simply as any sharp lawyer would do under the circumstances. He looked at it as a case that might bring him in a lot of money, and he did not calculate badly; because on the one hand he speculated on the generosity of the prince, and his gratitude to the late Mr. Pavlicheff, and on the other to his chivalrous ideas as to the obligations of honour and conscience. As to Mr. Burdovsky, allowing for his principles, we may acknowledge that he engaged in the business with very little personal aim in view. At the instigation of Tchebaroff and his other friends, he decided to make the attempt in the service of truth, progress, and humanity. In short, the conclusion may be drawn that, in spite of all appearances, Mr. Burdovsky is a man of irreproachable character, and thus the prince can all the more readily offer him his friendship, and the assistance of which he spoke just now...", "pos": 593118}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Hush! hush! Gavrila Ardalionovitch!", "pos": 594840}
{"speaker": "Burdovsky", "text": "I said, and I have repeated it over and over again, that I did not want the money. I will not take it... why...I will not... I am going away!", "pos": 594925}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "There’s the money!... How dare you?... The money!", "pos": 595369}
{"speaker": "Doktorenko", "text": "Those are the two hundred and fifty roubles you dared to send him as a charity, by the hands of Tchebaroff,", "pos": 595421}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "The article in the newspaper put it at fifty!", "pos": 595553}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I beg your pardon. I have done you a great wrong, but I did not send you that money as a charity, believe me. And now I am again to blame. I offended you just now. I spoke of swindling... but I did not apply that to you. I was deceived .... I said you were... afflicted... like me... But you are not like me... you give lessons... you support your mother. I said you had dishonoured your mother, but you love her. She says so herself... I did not know... Gavrila Ardalionovitch did not tell me that... Forgive me! I dared to offer you ten thousand roubles, but I was wrong. I ought to have done it differently, and now... there is no way of doing it, for you despise me...", "pos": 595614}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "I declare, this is a lunatic asylum!", "pos": 596431}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Of course it is a lunatic asylum!", "pos": 596499}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff's nephew", "text": "Well, prince, to do you justice, you certainly know how to make the most of your—let us call it infirmity, for the sake of politeness; you have set about offering your money and friendship in such a way that no self-respecting man could possibly accept them. This is an excess of ingenuousness or of malice—you ought to know better than anyone which word best fits the case.", "pos": 596874}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Allow me, gentlemen, there are only a hundred roubles here, not two hundred and fifty. I point this out, prince, to prevent misunderstanding.", "pos": 597251}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Never mind, never mind,", "pos": 597478}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "But we do mind,", "pos": 597551}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Prince, your ‘never mind’ is an insult to us. We have nothing to hide; our actions can bear daylight. It is true that there are only a hundred roubles instead of two hundred and fifty, but it is all the same.", "pos": 597604}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Why, no, it is hardly the same,", "pos": 597815}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff's nephew", "text": "Don’t interrupt, we are not such fools as you think, Mr. Lawyer. Of course there is a difference between a hundred roubles and two hundred and fifty, but in this case the principle is the main point, and that a hundred and fifty roubles are missing is only a side issue. The point to be emphasized is that Burdovsky will not accept your highness’s charity; he flings it back in your face, and it scarcely matters if there are a hundred roubles or two hundred and fifty. Burdovsky has refused ten thousand roubles; you heard him. He would not have returned even a hundred roubles if he was dishonest! The hundred and fifty roubles were paid to Tchebaroff for his travelling expenses. You may jeer at our stupidity and at our inexperience in business matters; you have done all you could already to make us look ridiculous; but do not dare to call us dishonest. The four of us will club together every day to repay the hundred and fifty roubles to the prince, if we have to pay it in instalments of a rouble at a time, but we will repay it, with interest. Burdovsky is poor, he has no millions. After his journey to see the prince Tchebaroff sent in his bill. We counted on winning... Who would not have done the same in such a case?", "pos": 597917}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "Who indeed?", "pos": 599186}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "I shall certainly go mad, if I stay here!", "pos": 599220}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "It reminds me, of the famous plea of a certain lawyer who lately defended a man for murdering six people in order to rob them. He excused his client on the score of poverty. ‘It is quite natural,’ he said in conclusion, ‘considering the state of misery he was in, that he should have thought of murdering these six people; which of you, gentlemen, would not have done the same in his place?’", "pos": 599293}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Enough, we have had enough of this balderdash!", "pos": 599724}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Be quiet, Ivan Fedorovitch! Leave me alone! Why do you offer me your arm now? You had not sense enough to take me away before. You are my husband, you are a father, it was your duty to drag me away by force, if in my folly I refused to obey you and go quietly. You might at least have thought of your daughters. We can find our way out now without your help. Here is shame enough for a year! Wait a moment ‘till I thank the prince! Thank you, prince, for the entertainment you have given us! It was most amusing to hear these young men... It is vile, vile! A chaos, a scandal, worse than a nightmare! Is it possible that there can be many such people on earth? Be quiet, Aglaya! Be quiet, Alexandra! It is none of your business! Don’t fuss round me like that, Evgenie Pavlovitch; you exasperate me! So, my dear,” she cried, addressing the prince, “you go so far as to beg their pardon! He says, ‘Forgive me for offering you a fortune.’ And you, you mountebank, what are you laughing at?” she cried, turning suddenly on Lebedeff’s nephew. “‘We refuse ten thousand roubles; we do not beseech, we demand!’ As if he did not know that this idiot will call on them tomorrow to renew his offers of money and friendship. You will, won’t you? You will? Come, will you, or won’t you?", "pos": 600385}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I shall,", "pos": 601684}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "You hear him! You count upon it, too. You are as sure of him now as if you had the money in your pocket. And there you are playing the swaggerer to throw dust in our eyes! No, my dear sir, you may take other people in! I can see through all your airs and graces, I see your game!", "pos": 601734}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Lizabetha Prokofievna!", "pos": 602058}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "Come, Lizabetha Prokofievna, it is quite time for us to be going, we will take the prince with us,", "pos": 602105}
{"speaker": "Doktorenko", "text": "Chaos and scandal are to be found everywhere, madame,", "pos": 602513}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Not like this! Nothing like the spectacle you have just given us, sir. Leave me alone, will you? No, Evgenie Pavlovitch, if, as you said yourself just now, a lawyer said in open court that he found it quite natural that a man should murder six people because he was in misery, the world must be coming to an end. I had not heard of it before. Now I understand everything. And this stutterer, won’t he turn out a murderer? I bet he will! He will have none of your money, possibly, he will refuse it because his conscience will not allow him to accept it, but he will go murdering you by night and walking off with your cashbox, with a clear conscience! He does not call it a dishonest action but ‘the impulse of a noble despair’; ‘a negation’; or the devil knows what! Bah! everything is upside down, everyone walks head downwards. A young girl, brought up at home, suddenly jumps into a cab in the middle of the street, saying: ‘Good-bye, mother, I married Karlitch, or Ivanitch, the other day!’ And you think it quite right? You call such conduct estimable and natural? The ‘woman question’? Look here, the other day that whippersnapper told me that this was the whole meaning of the ‘woman question.’ But even supposing that your mother is a fool, you are none the less, bound to treat her with humanity. Why did you come here tonight so insolently? ‘Give us our rights, but don’t dare to speak in our presence. Show us every mark of deepest respect, while we treat you like the scum of the earth.’ The miscreants have written a tissue of calumny in their article, and these are the men who seek for truth, and do battle for the right! ‘We do not beseech, we demand, you will get no thanks from us, because you will be acting to satisfy your own conscience!’ What morality! But, good heavens! if you declare that the prince’s generosity will, excite no gratitude in you, he might answer that he is not, bound to be grateful to Pavlicheff, who also was only satisfying his own conscience. But you counted on the prince’s, gratitude towards Pavlicheff; you never lent him any money; he owes you nothing; then what were you counting upon if not on his gratitude? And if you appeal to that sentiment in others, why should you expect to be exempted from it? They are mad! They say society is savage and inhuman because it despises a young girl who has been seduced. But if you call society inhuman you imply that the young girl is made to suffer by its censure. How then, can you hold her up to the scorn of society in the newspapers without realizing that you are making her suffering, still greater? Madmen! Vain fools! They don’t believe in God, they don’t believe in Christ! But you are so eaten up by pride and vanity, that you will end by devouring each other—that is my prophecy! Is not this absurd? Is it not monstrous chaos? And after all this, that shameless creature will go and beg their pardon! Are there many people like you? What are you smiling at? Because I am not ashamed to disgrace myself before you?—Yes, I am disgraced—it can’t be helped now! But don’t you jeer at me, you scum! He is almost at his last gasp, yet he corrupts others. You, have got hold of this lad— you, have turned his head, you have taught him to be an atheist, you don’t believe in God, and you are not too old to be whipped, sir! A plague upon you! And so, Prince Lef Nicolaievitch, you will call on them tomorrow, will you?", "pos": 602634}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes.", "pos": 606424}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Then I will never speak to you again. And you will call on that atheist? How dare you grin at me like that?", "pos": 606431}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Mother, this is disgraceful!", "pos": 606844}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Do not distress yourself, Aglaya Ivanovitch, your mother knows that one cannot strike a dying man. I am ready to explain why I was laughing. I shall be delighted if you will let me—", "pos": 607023}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "He is dying, yet he will not stop holding forth! Why do you talk? You ought to go home to bed.", "pos": 607327}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "So I will. As soon as I get home I will go to bed at once; and I know I shall be dead in a fortnight; Botkine told me so himself last week. That is why I should like to say a few farewell words, if you will let me.", "pos": 607552}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "But you must be mad! It is ridiculous! You should take care of yourself; what is the use of holding a conversation now? Go home to bed, do!", "pos": 607794}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "When I do go to bed I shall never get up again. I meant to take to my bed yesterday and stay there till I died, but as my legs can still carry me, I put it off for two days, so as to come here with them to-day—but I am very tired.", "pos": 607967}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Oh, sit down, sit down, why are you standing?", "pos": 608232}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Thank you. Sit opposite to me, and let us talk. We must have a talk now, Lizabetha Prokofievna; I am very anxious for it. Remember that today, for the last time, I am out in the air, and in the company of my fellow-men, and that in a fortnight I shall certainly be no longer in this world. So, in a way, this is my farewell to nature and to men. I am not very sentimental, but do you know, I am quite glad that all this has happened at Pavlofsk, where at least one can see a green tree.", "pos": 608345}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "But why talk now? You are quite feverish. Just now you would not stop shouting, and now you can hardly breathe. You are gasping.", "pos": 608882}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "I shall have time to rest. Why will you not grant my last wish? Do you know, Lizabetha Prokofievna, that I have dreamed of meeting you for a long while? I had often heard of you from Colia; he is almost the only person who still comes to see me. You are an original and eccentric woman; I have seen that for myself—Do you know, I have even been rather fond of you?", "pos": 609069}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Good heavens! And I very nearly struck him!", "pos": 609436}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "You were prevented by Aglaya Ivanovna. I think I am not mistaken? That is your daughter, Aglaya Ivanovna? She is so beautiful that I recognized her directly, although I had never seen her before. Let me, at least, look on beauty for the last time in my life. You are here with the prince, and your husband, and a large company. Why should you refuse to gratify my last wish?", "pos": 609482}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Give me a chair! Colia, you must go home with him, and tomorrow I will come my self.", "pos": 609887}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Will you let me ask the prince for a cup of tea?... I am exhausted. Do you know what you might do, Lizabetha Prokofievna? I think you wanted to take the prince home with you for tea. Stay here, and let us spend the evening together. I am sure the prince will give us all some tea. Forgive me for being so free and easy—but I know you are kind, and the prince is kind, too. In fact, we are all good-natured people—it is really quite comical.", "pos": 610089}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "It is quite true. Talk, but not too loud, and don’t excite yourself. You have made me sorry for you. Prince, you don’t deserve that I should stay and have tea with you, yet I will, all the same, but I won’t apologize. I apologize to nobody! Nobody! It is absurd! However, forgive me, prince, if I blew you up—that is, if you like, of course. But please don’t let me keep anyone. I can come home alone quite well.", "pos": 610617}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Just look, Lizabetha Prokofievna, these china cups are supposed to be extremely valuable. Lebedeff always keeps them locked up in his china-cupboard; they were part of his wife’s dowry. Yet he has brought them out tonight—in your honour, of course! He is so pleased—", "pos": 612679}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "There, he is feeling embarrassed; I expected as much. It is a bad sign; what do you think? Now, out of spite, he will come out with something so outrageous that even Lizabetha Prokofievna will not be able to stand it. You do not care if he does? Neither do I; in fact, I should be glad, merely as a proper punishment for our dear Lizabetha Prokofievna. I am very anxious that she should get it, without delay, and I shall stay till she does. You seem feverish.", "pos": 613057}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Never mind; by-and-by; yes, I am not feeling well,", "pos": 613647}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "You don’t believe it? I don’t wonder, but the prince will have no difficulty in believing it; he will not be at all surprised.", "pos": 613797}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Do you hear, prince—do you hear that?", "pos": 613968}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "He declares that your humbug of a landlord revised this gentleman’s article—the article that was read aloud just now—in which you got such a charming dressing-down.", "pos": 614153}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Why don’t you say something?", "pos": 614368}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well. I can see now that he did.", "pos": 614447}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Is it true?", "pos": 614544}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Absolutely, your excellency,", "pos": 614577}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "He actually seems to boast of it!", "pos": 614746}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I am base—base!", "pos": 614793}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "What do I care if you are base or not? He thinks he has only to say, ‘I am base,’ and there is an end of it. As to you, prince, are you not ashamed?—I repeat, are you not ashamed, to mix with such riff-raff? I will never forgive you!", "pos": 614872}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "The prince will forgive me!", "pos": 615108}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "It was only out of generosity, madame, and because I would not betray a friend in an awkward position, that I did not mention this revision before; though you heard him yourself threatening to kick us down the steps. To clear the matter up, I declare now that I did have recourse to his assistance, and that I paid him six roubles for it. But I did not ask him to correct my style; I simply went to him for information concerning the facts, of which I was ignorant to a great extent, and which he was competent to give. The story of the gaiters, the appetite in the Swiss professor’s house, the substitution of fifty roubles for two hundred and fifty—all such details, in fact, were got from him. I paid him six roubles for them; but he did not correct the style.", "pos": 615248}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I must state that I only revised the first part of the article, but we fell out in the middle over one idea, so I never corrected the second part. Therefore I cannot be held responsible for the numerous grammatical blunders in it.", "pos": 616045}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "That is all he thinks of!", "pos": 616367}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Yesterday morning, we had an interview which we all gave our word of honour to keep secret.", "pos": 616502}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "The very time when he was cringing before you and making protestations of devotion! Oh, the mean wretches! I will have nothing to do with your Pushkin, and your daughter shall not set foot in my house! Well, sir, I suppose you wanted to make me look ridiculous?", "pos": 616610}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Heaven forbid! But I am more than ever struck by your eccentricity, Lizabetha Prokofievna. I admit that I told you of Lebedeff’s duplicity, on purpose. I knew the effect it would have on you,—on you alone, for the prince will forgive him. He has probably forgiven him already, and is racking his brains to find some excuse for him—is not that the truth, prince? I have heard many things of the kind about you...they delighted me... I have learned to hold you in the highest esteem. I might have been surprised (though I admit I know nothing of the world), not only that you should have stayed on just now in the company of such people as myself and my friends, who are not of your class, but that you should let these... young ladies listen to such a scandalous affair, though no doubt novel-reading has taught them all there is to know. I may be mistaken; I hardly know what I am saying; but surely no one but you would have stayed to please a whippersnapper (yes, a whippersnapper; I admit it) to spend the evening and take part in everything—only to be ashamed of it tomorrow. (I know I express myself badly.) I admire and appreciate it all extremely, though the expression on the face of his excellency, your husband, shows that he thinks it very improper. He-he!", "pos": 616987}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "He has lost his breath now! Come, my dear boy, that is quite enough—let us make an end of this.", "pos": 618937}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Let me remark in my turn, sir, that my wife is here as the guest of Prince Lef Nicolaievitch, our friend and neighbour, and that in any case, young man, it is not for you to pass judgment on the conduct of Lizabetha Prokofievna, or to make remarks aloud in my presence concerning what feelings you think may be read in my face. Yes, my wife stayed here, more out of amazement than anything else. Everyone can understand that a collection of such strange young men would attract the attention of a person interested in contemporary life. I stayed myself, just as I sometimes stop to look on in the street when I see something that may be regarded as-as-as-", "pos": 619185}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "As a curiosity,", "pos": 619934}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "That is exactly the word I wanted, a curiosity. However, the most astonishing and, if I may so express myself, the most painful, thing in this matter, is that you cannot even understand, young man, that Lizabetha Prokofievna, only stayed with you because you are ill,—if you really are dying—moved by the pity awakened by your plaintive appeal, and that her name, character, and social position place her above all risk of contamination. Lizabetha Prokofievna! if you are coming, we will say goodnight to the prince, and—", "pos": 620058}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Thank you for the lesson, general,", "pos": 620657}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Two minutes more, if you please, dear Ivan Fedorovitch, it seems to me that he is in a fever and delirious; you can see by his eyes what a state he is in; it is impossible to let him go back to Petersburg tonight. Can you put him up, Lef Nicolaievitch? I hope you are not bored, dear prince. Alexandra, my dear, come here! Your hair is coming down.", "pos": 620763}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "I thought you were capable of development. Yes, that is what I meant to say. Here is Burdovsky, sincerely anxious to protect his mother; is not that so? And he himself is the cause of her disgrace. The prince is anxious to help Burdovsky and offers him friendship and a large sum of money, in the sincerity of his heart. And here they stand like two sworn enemies—ha, ha, ha! You all hate Burdovsky because his behaviour with regard to his mother is shocking and repugnant to you; do you not? Is not that true? Is it not true? You all have a passion for beauty and distinction in outward forms; that is all you care for, isn’t it? I have suspected for a long time that you cared for nothing else! Well, let me tell you that perhaps there is not one of you who loved your mother as Burdovsky loved his. As to you, prince, I know that you have sent money secretly to Burdovsky’s mother through Gania. Well, I bet now, that Burdovsky will accuse you of indelicacy, and reproach you with a want of respect for his mother! Yes, that is quite certain! Ha, ha, ha!", "pos": 621329}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Come, that is enough! That is all now; you have no more to say? Now go to bed; you are burning with fever. Good heavens, he is going to begin again!", "pos": 622630}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "You are laughing, I think? Why do you keep laughing at me?", "pos": 622868}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "I only want to know, Mr. Hippolyte—excuse me, I forget your surname.", "pos": 623005}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Mr. Terentieff,", "pos": 623076}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Oh yes, Mr. Terentieff. Thank you prince. I heard it just now, but had forgotten it. I want to know, Mr. Terentieff, if what I have heard about you is true. It seems you are convinced that if you could speak to the people from a window for a quarter of an hour, you could make them all adopt your views and follow you?", "pos": 623111}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "I may have said so. Yes, I certainly said so. What of it?", "pos": 623432}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Nothing. I was only seeking further information, to put the finishing touch.", "pos": 623626}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Well, have you finished? Make haste, sir; it is time he went to bed. Have you more to say?", "pos": 623810}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Yes, I have a little more. It seems to me that all you and your friends have said, Mr. Terentieff, and all you have just put forward with such undeniable talent, may be summed up in the triumph of right above all, independent of everything else, to the exclusion of everything else; perhaps even before having discovered what constitutes the right. I may be mistaken?", "pos": 623964}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "You are certainly mistaken; I do not even understand you. What else?", "pos": 624375}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "I have nearly finished. I will only remark that from these premises one could conclude that might is right—I mean the right of the clenched fist, and of personal inclination. Indeed, the world has often come to that conclusion. Prudhon upheld that might is right. In the American War some of the most advanced Liberals took sides with the planters on the score that the blacks were an inferior race to the whites, and that might was the right of the white race.", "pos": 624560}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Well?", "pos": 625054}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "You mean, no doubt, that you do not deny that might is right?", "pos": 625062}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "What then?", "pos": 625126}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "You are at least logical. I would only point out that from the right of might, to the right of tigers and crocodiles, or even Daniloff and Gorsky, is but a step.", "pos": 625139}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "I know nothing about that; what else? well? what else?", "pos": 625303}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Why, nothing else; that is all.", "pos": 625488}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "However, I bear you no grudge,", "pos": 625522}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "I can but thank you, for your kindness in letting me speak, for I have often noticed that our Liberals never allow other people to have an opinion of their own, and immediately answer their opponents with abuse, if they do not have recourse to arguments of a still more unpleasant nature.", "pos": 625802}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "What you say is quite true,", "pos": 626144}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Come, sir, that will do; you weary me,", "pos": 626330}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "It is time for me to go. I have detained you... I wanted to tell you everything... I thought you all... for the last time... it was a whim... Well, good-bye. You think it is easy for me to say good-bye to you? Ha, ha! Excellency, I have the honour of inviting you to my funeral; that is, if you will deign to honour it with your presence. I invite you all, gentlemen, as well as the general. Do you know that I came here to see those trees? It is not ridiculous, is it? Say that it is not ridiculous! Ah! you have not gone! You kept on laughing just now, because I thought of speaking to the people from the window for a quarter of an hour. But I am not eighteen, you know; lying on that bed, and looking out of that window, I have thought of all sorts of things for such a long time that... a dead man has no age, you know. I was saying that to myself only last week, when I was awake in the night. Do you know what you fear most? You fear our sincerity more than anything, although you despise us! The idea crossed my mind that night... You thought I was making fun of you just now, Lizabetha Prokofievna? No, the idea of mockery was far from me; I only meant to praise you. Colia told me the prince called you a child—very well—but let me see, I had something else to say... Ah, yes—you were going away just now, and I thought to myself: ‘I shall never see these people again—never again! This is the last time I shall see the trees, too. I shall see nothing after this but the red brick wall of Meyer’s house opposite my window. Tell them about it—try to tell them,’ I thought. ‘Here is a beautiful young girl—you are a dead man; make them understand that. Tell them that a dead man may say anything—and Mrs. Grundy will not be angry—ha-ha! You are not laughing? But you know I get so many queer ideas, lying there in bed. I have grown convinced that nature is full of mockery—you called me an atheist just now, but you know this nature... why are you laughing again? You are very cruel! I have not corrupted Colia,", "pos": 626498}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Nobody here is laughing at you. Calm yourself. You shall see a new doctor tomorrow; the other was mistaken; but sit down, do not stand like that! You are delirious— Oh, what shall we do with him", "pos": 629913}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "I... you. You cannot tell how I... he always spoke so enthusiastically of you, Colia here; I liked his enthusiasm. I was not corrupting him! But I must leave him, too—I wanted to leave them all—there was not one of them—not one! I wanted to be a man of action—I had a right to be. Oh! what a lot of things I wanted! Now I want nothing; I renounce all my wants; I swore to myself that I would want nothing; let them seek the truth without me! Yes, nature is full of mockery! Why does she create the choicest beings only to mock at them? The only human being who is recognized as perfect, when nature showed him to mankind, was given the mission to say things which have caused the shedding of so much blood that it would have drowned mankind if it had all been shed at once! Oh! it is better for me to die! I should tell some dreadful lie too; nature would so contrive it! I have corrupted nobody. I wanted to live for the happiness of all men, to find and spread the truth. I used to look out of my window at the wall of Meyer’s house, and say to myself that if I could speak for a quarter of an hour I would convince the whole world, and now for once in my life I have come into contact with... you—if not with the others! And what is the result? Nothing! The sole result is that you despise me! Therefore I must be a fool, I am useless, it is time I disappeared! And I shall leave not even a memory! Not a sound, not a trace, not a single deed! I have not spread a single truth!... Do not laugh at the fool! Forget him! Forget him forever! I beseech you, do not be so cruel as to remember! Do you know that if I were not consumptive, I would kill myself?", "pos": 630386}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Oh! what on earth are we to do with him? Come, come, come! There, you must not cry, that will do. You are a good child! God will forgive you, because you knew no better. Come now, be a man! You know presently you will be ashamed.", "pos": 632263}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "I have little brothers and sisters, over there, poor avid innocent. She will corrupt them! You are a saint! You are a child yourself—save them! Snatch them from that... she is... it is shameful! Oh! help them! God will repay you a hundredfold. For the love of God, for the love of Christ!", "pos": 632666}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Speak, Ivan Fedorovitch! What are we to do? Please break your majestic silence! I tell you, if you cannot come to some decision, I will stay here all night myself. You have tyrannized over me enough, you autocrat!", "pos": 632957}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "My dear, it seems to me that a sick-nurse would be of more use here than an excitable person like you. Perhaps it would be as well to get some sober, reliable man for the night. In any case we must consult the prince, and leave the patient to rest at once. Tomorrow we can see what can be done for him.", "pos": 633748}
{"speaker": "Doktorenko", "text": "It is nearly midnight; we are going. Will he come with us, or is he to stay here?", "pos": 634073}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You can stay with him if you like. There is plenty of room here.", "pos": 634197}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "Excellency, if you want a reliable man for the night, I am ready to sacrifice myself for my friend—such a soul as he has! I have long thought him a great man, excellency! My article showed my lack of education, but when he criticizes he scatters pearls!", "pos": 634358}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I shall be delighted if he will stay; it would certainly be difficult for him to get back to Petersburg,", "pos": 634704}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "But you are half asleep, are you not? If you don’t want him, I will take him back to my house! Why, good gracious! He can hardly stand up himself! What is it? Are you ill?", "pos": 634887}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "There! that is what I feared! It was inevitable!", "pos": 635995}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Ah! that is what you feared! It was inevitable, you say! Well, let me tell you that if I hate anyone here—I hate you all, but you, you, with your jesuitical soul, your soul of sickly sweetness, idiot, beneficent millionaire—I hate you worse than anything or anyone on earth! I saw through you and hated you long ago; from the day I first heard of you. I hated you with my whole heart. You have contrived all this! You have driven me into this state! You have made a dying man disgrace himself. You, you, you are the cause of my abject cowardice! I would kill you if I remained alive! I do not want your benefits; I will accept none from anyone; do you hear? Not from any one! I want nothing! I was delirious, do not dare to triumph! I curse every one of you, once for all!", "pos": 636167}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "He is ashamed of his tears! It was inevitable. Ah! what a wonderful man the prince is! He read his very soul.", "pos": 637034}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Thanks, prince, many thanks, eccentric friend of the family, for the pleasant evening you have provided for us. I am sure you are quite pleased that you have managed to mix us up with your extraordinary affairs. It is quite enough, dear family friend; thank you for giving us an opportunity of getting to know you so well.", "pos": 637539}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Really, prince, I hardly expected after—after all our friendly intercourse—and you see, Lizabetha Prokofievna—", "pos": 638141}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Papa, how can you?", "pos": 638254}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "If you do not turn those dreadful people out of the house this very instant, I shall hate you all my life—all my life!", "pos": 638458}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, how much longer is this going to last, Ivan Fedorovitch? What do you think? Shall I soon be delivered from these odious youths?", "pos": 638824}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "My dear, I am quite ready; naturally... the prince.", "pos": 638960}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "What I expected has happened! But I am sorry, you poor fellow, that you should have had to suffer for it,", "pos": 639336}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Evgenie Pavlovitch! Is that you?", "pos": 640075}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, I am glad I’ve found you at last! I’ve sent to town for you twice today myself! My messengers have been searching for you everywhere!", "pos": 640201}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "There’s news!", "pos": 640630}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You need not be anxious about Kupferof’s IOU’s—Rogojin has bought them up. I persuaded him to!—I dare say we shall settle Biscup too, so it’s all right, you see! Au revoir, tomorrow! And don’t worry!", "pos": 640659}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "The woman’s mad! I don’t know what she’s talking about! What IOU’s? Who is she? Prince, tell me the truth; do you know what all this means?", "pos": 640915}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I know nothing whatever about it! No? No!", "pos": 641392}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Well, nor do I! I haven’t the slightest knowledge of any such IOU’s as she mentioned, I swear I haven’t—What’s the matter, are you fainting?", "pos": 641512}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, no—no—I’m all right, I assure you!", "pos": 641701}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "Oh yes, by-the-by, do you happen to know, my dear Lef Nicolaievitch, who that lady was who called out to Evgenie Pavlovitch last night, from the carriage?", "pos": 644084}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It was Nastasia Philipovna, didn’t you know that? I cannot tell you who her companion was.", "pos": 644252}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "But what on earth did she mean? I assure you it is a real riddle to me—to me, and to others, too!", "pos": 644364}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "She spoke of some bills of Evgenie Pavlovitch’s, which Rogojin had bought up from someone; and implied that Rogojin would not press him.", "pos": 644532}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "Oh, I heard that much, my dear fellow! But the thing is so impossibly absurd! A man of property like Evgenie to give IOU’s to a money-lender, and to be worried about them! It is ridiculous. Besides, he cannot possibly be on such intimate terms with Nastasia Philipovna as she gave us to understand; that’s the principal part of the mystery! He has given me his word that he knows nothing whatever about the matter, and of course I believe him. Well, the question is, my dear prince, do you know anything about it? Has any sort of suspicion of the meaning of it come across you?", "pos": 644698}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, I know nothing whatever about it. I assure you I had nothing at all to do with it.", "pos": 645278}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "Oh, prince, how strange you have become! I assure you, I hardly know you for your old self. How can you suppose that I ever suggested you could have had a finger in such a business? But you are not quite yourself today, I can see.", "pos": 645367}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What do you mean, though, 'by such a business'? I don’t see any particular ‘business’ about it at all!", "pos": 645640}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "Oh, undoubtedly, this person wished somehow, and for some reason, to do Evgenie Pavlovitch a bad turn, by attributing to him—before witnesses—qualities which he neither has nor can have,", "pos": 645763}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Then it was not simply a matter of bills? It was not as she said?", "pos": 646121}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "But I ask you, my dear sir, how can there be anything in common between Evgenie Pavlovitch, and—her, and again Rogojin? I tell you he is a man of immense wealth—as I know for a fact; and he has further expectations from his uncle. Simply Nastasia Philipovna—", "pos": 646236}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Then at all events he knows her!", "pos": 646582}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "Oh, that may be. He may have known her some time ago—two or three years, at least. He used to know Totski. But it is impossible that there should be any intimacy between them. She has not even been in the place—many people don’t even know that she has returned from Moscow! I have only observed her carriage about for the last three days or so.", "pos": 646664}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "It’s a lovely carriage,", "pos": 647011}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes, it was a beautiful turn-out, certainly!", "pos": 647052}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "As for yesterday’s episode, of course it was pre-arranged.", "pos": 652157}
{"speaker": "Varvara Ardalionovna", "text": "Lizabetha Prokofievna is in a really fiendish temper today, but the most curious thing is that Aglaya has quarrelled with her whole family; not only with her father and mother, but with her sisters also. It is not a good sign.", "pos": 653257}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "Could you imagine such a thing?", "pos": 655613}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Listen to me, Keller. If I were in your place, I should not acknowledge that unless it were absolutely necessary for some reason. But perhaps you are making yourself out to be worse than you are, purposely?", "pos": 655656}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "I should tell it to no one but yourself, prince, and I only name it now as a help to my soul’s evolution. When I die, that secret will die with me! But, excellency, if you knew, if you only had the least idea, how difficult it is to get money nowadays! Where to find it is the question. Ask for a loan, the answer is always the same: ‘Give us gold, jewels, or diamonds, and it will be quite easy.’ Exactly what one has not got! Can you picture that to yourself? I got angry at last, and said, ‘I suppose you would accept emeralds?’ ‘Certainly, we accept emeralds with pleasure. Yes!’ ‘Well, that’s all right,’ said I. ‘Go to the devil, you den of thieves!’ And with that I seized my hat, and walked out.", "pos": 655888}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Had you any emeralds?", "pos": 656594}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "What? I have emeralds? Oh, prince! with what simplicity, with what almost pastoral simplicity, you look upon life!", "pos": 656635}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "One point in your favour is that you seem to have a child-like mind, and extreme truthfulness. Do you know that that atones for much?", "pos": 657627}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "I am assuredly noble-minded, and chivalrous to a degree! But, do you know, this nobility of mind exists in a dream, if one may put it so? It never appears in practice or deed. Now, why is that? I can never understand.", "pos": 657790}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Do not despair. I think we may say without fear of deceiving ourselves, that you have now given a fairly exact account of your life. I, at least, think it would be impossible to add much to what you have just told me.", "pos": 658040}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "Impossible? Oh prince, how little you really seem to understand human nature!", "pos": 658260}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Is there really much more to be added?", "pos": 658374}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What did I want? Well, to begin with, it is good to meet a man like you. It is a pleasure to talk over my faults with you. I know you for one of the best of men... and then... then...", "pos": 658558}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Then you wanted me to lend you money?", "pos": 658823}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, prince, that’s enough to knock me down! It astounds me! Here you are, as simple and innocent as a knight of the golden age, and yet... yet... you read a man’s soul like a psychologist! Now, do explain it to me, prince, because I... I really do not understand!... Of course, my aim was to borrow money all along, and you... you asked the question as if there was nothing blameable in it—as if you thought it quite natural.", "pos": 659020}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes... from you it is quite natural.", "pos": 659450}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And you are not offended?", "pos": 659489}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, just listen, prince. I remained here last evening, partly because I have a great admiration for the French archbishop Bourdaloue. I enjoyed a discussion over him till three o’clock in the morning, with Lebedeff; and then... then—I swear by all I hold sacred that I am telling you the truth—then I wished to develop my soul in this frank and heartfelt confession to you. This was my thought as I was sobbing myself to sleep at dawn. Just as I was losing consciousness, tears in my soul, tears on my face (I remember how I lay there sobbing), an idea from hell struck me. ‘Why not, after confessing, borrow money from him?’ You see, this confession was a kind of masterstroke; I intended to use it as a means to your good grace and favour—and then—then I meant to walk off with a hundred and fifty roubles. Now, do you not call that base?", "pos": 659545}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It is hardly an exact statement of the case,", "pos": 660390}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You have confused your motives and ideas, as I need scarcely say too often happens to myself. I can assure you, Keller, I reproach myself bitterly for it sometimes. When you were talking just now I seemed to be listening to something about myself. At times I have imagined that all men were the same,", "pos": 660463}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "and that consoled me in a certain degree, for a double motive is a thing most difficult to fight against. I have tried, and I know. God knows whence they arise, these ideas that you speak of as base. I fear these double motives more than ever just now, but I am not your judge, and in my opinion it is going too far to give the name of baseness to it—what do you think? You were going to employ your tears as a ruse in order to borrow money, but you also say—in fact, you have sworn to the fact—that independently of this your confession was made with an honourable motive. As for the money, you want it for drink, do you not? After your confession, that is weakness, of course; but, after all, how can anyone give up a bad habit at a moment’s notice? It is impossible. What can we do? It is best, I think, to leave the matter to your own conscience. How does it seem to you?", "pos": 660849}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, how anybody can call you an idiot after that, is more than I can understand!", "pos": 661864}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Bourdaloue, the archbishop, would not have spared a man like me,", "pos": 661996}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "but you, you have judged me with humanity. To show how grateful I am, and as a punishment, I will not accept a hundred and fifty roubles. Give me twenty-five—that will be enough; it is all I really need, for a fortnight at least. I will not ask you for more for a fortnight. I should like to have given Agatha a present, but she does not really deserve it. Oh, my dear prince, God bless you!", "pos": 662081}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You are unjust; I found him sincerely repentant,", "pos": 662701}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What is the good of repentance like that? It is the same exactly as mine yesterday, when I said, ‘I am base, I am base,’—words, and nothing more!", "pos": 662801}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Then they were only words on your part? I thought, on the contrary...", "pos": 662949}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, I don’t mind telling you the truth—you only! Because you see through a man somehow. Words and actions, truth and falsehood, are all jumbled up together in me, and yet I am perfectly sincere. I feel the deepest repentance, believe it or not, as you choose; but words and lies come out in the infernal craving to get the better of other people. It is always there—the notion of cheating people, and of using my repentant tears to my own advantage! I assure you this is the truth, prince! I would not tell any other man for the world! He would laugh and jeer at me—but you, you judge a man humanely.", "pos": 663021}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why, Keller said the same thing to me nearly word for word a few minutes ago! And you both seem inclined to boast about it! You astonish me, but I think he is more sincere than you, for you make a regular trade of it. Oh, don’t put on that pathetic expression, and don’t put your hand on your heart! Have you anything to say to me? You have not come for nothing... I have been waiting all day for you, because I want to ask you a question; and, for once in your life, please tell me the truth at once. Had you anything to do with that affair of the carriage yesterday? I see you had something to do with it.", "pos": 663626}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Indirectly, quite indirectly! I am speaking the truth—I am indeed! I merely told a certain person that I had people in my house, and that such and such personages might be found among them. It is not my intrigue! It was engineered by other people, and is, properly speaking, rather a fantasy than an intrigue!", "pos": 664377}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "But what is it all about? Tell me, for Heaven’s sake! Cannot you understand how nearly it touches me? Why are they blackening Evgenie Pavlovitch’s reputation?", "pos": 664865}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Prince! Excellency! You won’t let me tell you the whole truth; I have tried to explain; more than once I have begun, but you have not allowed me to go on...", "pos": 665064}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Very well! Tell me the truth,", "pos": 665325}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Aglaya Ivanovna...", "pos": 665378}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Be silent! At once! It is impossible and absurd! All that has been invented by you, or fools like you! Let me never hear you say a word again on that subject!", "pos": 665425}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "There’s the deuce and all going on there! First of all about the row last night, and I think there must be something new as well, though I didn’t like to ask. Not a word about you, prince, the whole time! The most interesting fact was that Aglaya had been quarrelling with her people about Gania. Colia did not know any details, except that it had been a terrible quarrel! Also Evgenie Pavlovitch had called, and met with an excellent reception all round. And another curious thing: Mrs. Epanchin was so angry that she called Varia to her—Varia was talking to the girls—and turned her out of the house ‘once for all’ she said. I heard it from Varia herself—Mrs. Epanchin was quite polite, but firm; and when Varia said good-bye to the girls, she told them nothing about it, and they didn’t know they were saying goodbye for the last time. I’m sorry for Varia, and for Gania too; he isn’t half a bad fellow, in spite of his faults, and I shall never forgive myself for not liking him before! I don’t know whether I ought to continue to go to the Epanchins’ now. I like to be quite independent of others, and of other people’s quarrels if I can; but I must think over it.", "pos": 665971}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I don’t think you need break your heart over Gania, for if what you say is true, he must be considered dangerous in the Epanchin household, and if so, certain hopes of his must have been encouraged.", "pos": 667172}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "What? What hopes? you surely don’t mean Aglaya?—oh, no!— You’re a dreadful sceptic, prince. I have observed of late that you have grown sceptical about everything. You don’t seem to believe in people as you did, and are always attributing motives and so on—am I using the word ‘sceptic’ in its proper sense?", "pos": 667392}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I believe so; but I’m not sure.", "pos": 667761}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Well, I’ll change it, right or wrong; I’ll say that you are not sceptical, but jealous. There! you are deadly jealous of Gania, over a certain proud damsel! Come!", "pos": 667795}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "In the first place, my dear prince, don’t be angry with me. I would have come to see you yesterday, but I didn’t know how Lizabetha Prokofievna would take it. My dear fellow, my house is simply a hell just now, a sort of sphinx has taken up its abode there. We live in an atmosphere of riddles; I can’t make head or tail of anything. As for you, I feel sure you are the least to blame of any of us, though you certainly have been the cause of a good deal of trouble. You see, it’s all very pleasant to be a philanthropist; but it can be carried too far. Of course I admire kind-heartedness, and I esteem my wife, but— It is plain to me, that you are not in it at all, but perhaps you had better not come to our house for a little while. I ask you in the friendliest manner, mind; just till the wind changes again. As for Evgenie Pavlovitch, the whole thing is a calumny, a dirty calumny. It is simply a plot, an intrigue, to upset our plans and to stir up a quarrel. You see, prince, I’ll tell you privately, Evgenie and ourselves have not said a word yet, we have no formal understanding, we are in no way bound on either side, but the word may be said very soon, don’t you see, very soon, and all this is most injurious, and is meant to be so. Why? I’m sure I can’t tell you. She’s an extraordinary woman, you see, an eccentric woman; I tell you I am so frightened of that woman that I can’t sleep. What a carriage that was, and where did it come from, eh? I declare, I was base enough to suspect Evgenie at first; but it seems certain that that cannot be the case, and if so, why is she interfering here? That’s the riddle, what does she want? Is it to keep Evgenie to herself? But, my dear fellow, I swear to you, I swear he doesn’t even know her, and as for those bills, why, the whole thing is an invention! And the familiarity of the woman! It’s quite clear we must treat the impudent creature’s attempt with disdain, and redouble our courtesy towards Evgenie. I told my wife so. Now I’ll tell you my secret conviction. I’m certain that she’s doing this to revenge herself on me, on account of the past, though I assure you that all the time I was blameless. I blush at the very idea. And now she turns up again like this, when I thought she had finally disappeared! Where’s Rogojin all this time? I thought she was Mrs. Rogojin, long ago.", "pos": 668685}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "And, well, Heaven preserve him, of course—but Evgenie gets his money, don’t you see? But, for all this, I’m uncomfortable, I don’t know why. There’s something in the air, I feel there’s something nasty in the air, like a bat, and I’m by no means comfortable.", "pos": 671804}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "In the first place, don’t dare to suppose, that I am going to apologize. Nonsense! You were entirely to blame. Were you to blame, or not?", "pos": 672351}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, certainly not, no more than yourself, though at first I thought I was.", "pos": 672534}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Oh, very well, let’s sit down, at all events, for I don’t intend to stand up all day. And remember, if you say, one word about ‘mischievous urchins,’ I shall go away and break with you altogether. Now then, did you, or did you not, send a letter to Aglaya, a couple of months or so ago, about Easter-tide?", "pos": 672611}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes!", "pos": 672919}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "What for? What was your object? Show me the letter.", "pos": 672926}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I have not got the letter. If anyone has it, if it still exists, Aglaya Ivanovna must have it.", "pos": 673052}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "No finessing, please. What did you write about?", "pos": 673237}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I am not finessing, and I am not in the least afraid of telling you; but I don’t see the slightest reason why I should not have written.", "pos": 673287}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Be quiet, you can talk afterwards! What was the letter about? Why are you blushing?", "pos": 673426}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I don’t understand your thoughts, Lizabetha Prokofievna; but I can see that the fact of my having written is for some reason repugnant to you. You must admit that I have a perfect right to refuse to answer your questions; but, in order to show you that I am neither ashamed of the letter, nor sorry that I wrote it, and that I am not in the least inclined to blush about it I will repeat the substance of my letter, for I think I know it almost by heart.", "pos": 673553}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "My goodness, what utter twaddle, and what may all this nonsense have signified, pray? If it had any meaning at all!", "pos": 674136}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I really don’t absolutely know myself; I know my feeling was very sincere. I had moments at that time full of life and hope.", "pos": 674329}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "What sort of hope?", "pos": 674456}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It is difficult to explain, but certainly not the hopes you have in your mind. Hopes—well, in a word, hopes for the future, and a feeling of joy that there, at all events, I was not entirely a stranger and a foreigner. I felt an ecstasy in being in my native land once more; and one sunny morning I took up a pen and wrote her that letter, but why to her, I don’t quite know. Sometimes one longs to have a friend near, and I evidently felt the need of one then,", "pos": 674477}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Are you in love with her?", "pos": 674971}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "N-no! I wrote to her as to a sister; I signed myself her brother.", "pos": 674999}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Oh yes, of course, on purpose! I quite understand.", "pos": 675067}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It is very painful to me to answer these questions, Lizabetha Prokofievna.", "pos": 675120}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "I dare say it is; but that’s no affair of mine. Now then, assure me truly as before Heaven, are you lying to me or not?", "pos": 675197}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, I am not lying.", "pos": 675319}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Are you telling the truth when you say you are not in love?", "pos": 675341}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I believe it is the absolute truth.", "pos": 675403}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "‘I believe,’ indeed! Did that mischievous urchin give it to her?", "pos": 675442}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I asked Nicolai Ardalionovitch...", "pos": 675508}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "The urchin! the urchin! I do not want to know if it were Nicolai Ardalionovitch! The urchin!", "pos": 675544}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Nicolai Ardalionovitch...", "pos": 675694}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "The urchin, I tell you!", "pos": 675722}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, it was not the urchin: it was Nicolai Ardalionovitch,", "pos": 675748}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Well, all right! All right, my dear! I shall put that down to your account. Well!—and what’s the meaning of the ‘poor knight,’ eh?", "pos": 675868}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I don’t know in the least; I wasn’t present when the joke was made. It is a joke. I suppose, and that’s all.", "pos": 676072}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Well, that’s a comfort, at all events. You don’t suppose she could take any interest in you, do you? Why, she called you an ‘idiot’ herself.", "pos": 676183}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I think you might have spared me that,", "pos": 676326}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Don’t be angry; she is a wilful, mad, spoilt girl. If she likes a person she will pitch into him, and chaff him. I used to be just such another. But for all that you needn’t flatter yourself, my boy; she is not for you. I don’t believe it, and it is not to be. I tell you so at once, so that you may take proper precautions. Now, I want to hear you swear that you are not married to that woman?", "pos": 676423}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Lizabetha Prokofievna, what are you thinking of?", "pos": 676820}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Why? You very nearly were, anyhow.", "pos": 676930}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes—I nearly was,", "pos": 676967}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Well then, have you come here for her? Are you in love with her? With that creature?", "pos": 677027}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I did not come to marry at all,", "pos": 677114}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Is there anything you hold sacred?", "pos": 677168}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "There is.", "pos": 677205}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Then swear by it that you did not come here to marry her!", "pos": 677217}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I’ll swear it by whatever you please.", "pos": 677277}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "I believe you. You may kiss me; I breathe freely at last. But you must know, my dear friend, Aglaya does not love you, and she shall never be your wife while I am out of my grave. So be warned in time. Do you hear me?", "pos": 677317}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes, I hear.", "pos": 677537}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "I have waited for you with the greatest impatience (not that you were worth it). Every night I have drenched my pillow with tears, not for you, my friend, not for you, don’t flatter yourself! I have my own grief, always the same, always the same. But I’ll tell you why I have been awaiting you so impatiently, because I believe that Providence itself sent you to be a friend and a brother to me. I haven’t a friend in the world except Princess Bielokonski, and she is growing as stupid as a sheep from old age. Now then, tell me, yes or no? Do you know why she called out from her carriage the other night?", "pos": 677622}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I give you my word of honour that I had nothing to do with the matter and know nothing about it.", "pos": 678231}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Very well, I believe you. I have my own ideas about it. Up to yesterday morning I thought it was really Evgenie Pavlovitch who was to blame; now I cannot help agreeing with the others. But why he was made such a fool of I cannot understand. However, he is not going to marry Aglaya, I can tell you that. He may be a very excellent fellow, but—so it shall be. I was not at all sure of accepting him before, but now I have quite made up my mind that I won’t have him. ‘Put me in my coffin first and then into my grave, and then you may marry my daughter to whomsoever you please,’ so I said to the general this very morning. You see how I trust you, my boy.", "pos": 678330}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes, I see and understand.", "pos": 678988}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Do you know anything about Gavrila Ardalionovitch?", "pos": 679160}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh yes, I know a good deal.", "pos": 679232}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Did you know he had communications with Aglaya?", "pos": 679262}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, I didn’t,", "pos": 679312}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You say Gavrila Ardalionovitch has private communications with Aglaya?—Impossible!", "pos": 679389}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Only quite lately. His sister has been working like a rat to clear the way for him all the winter.", "pos": 679474}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I don’t believe it!", "pos": 679575}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Had it been so I should have known long ago.", "pos": 679644}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Oh, of course, yes; he would have come and wept out his secret on your bosom. Oh, you simpleton—you simpleton! Anyone can deceive you and take you in like a—like a,—aren’t you ashamed to trust him? Can’t you see that he humbugs you just as much as ever he pleases?", "pos": 679691}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I know very well that he does deceive me occasionally, and he knows that I know it, but—", "pos": 679958}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "And that’s why you trust him, eh? So I should have supposed. Good Lord, was there ever such a man as you? Tfu! and are you aware, sir, that this Gania, or his sister Varia, have brought her into correspondence with Nastasia Philipovna?", "pos": 680089}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Brought whom?", "pos": 680327}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Aglaya.", "pos": 680359}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I don’t believe it! It’s impossible! What object could they have?", "pos": 680369}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Nor do I believe it, in spite of the proofs. The girl is self-willed and fantastic, and insane! She’s wicked, wicked! I’ll repeat it for a thousand years that she’s wicked; they all are, just now, all my daughters, even that ‘wet hen’ Alexandra. And yet I don’t believe it. Because I don’t choose to believe it, perhaps; but I don’t. Why haven’t you been? Why didn’t you come near us all these three days, eh?", "pos": 680484}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Everybody takes you in and deceives you; you went to town yesterday. I dare swear you went down on your knees to that rogue, and begged him to accept your ten thousand roubles!", "pos": 681002}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I never thought of doing any such thing. I have not seen him, and he is not a rogue, in my opinion. I have had a letter from him.", "pos": 681181}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Show it me!", "pos": 681313}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "How extremely stupid! It was not worth the trouble of reading. Why are you smiling?", "pos": 682166}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Confess that you are pleased to have read it.", "pos": 682308}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "What! Pleased with all that nonsense! Why, cannot you see that they are all infatuated with pride and vanity?", "pos": 682356}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "He has acknowledged himself to be in the wrong. Don’t you see that the greater his vanity, the more difficult this admission must have been on his part? Oh, what a little child you are, Lizabetha Prokofievna!", "pos": 682468}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Are you tempting me to box your ears for you, or what?", "pos": 682679}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Not at all. I am only proving that you are glad about the letter. Why conceal your real feelings? You always like to do it.", "pos": 682736}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Never come near my house again! Don’t let me see as much as a shadow of you about the place! Do you hear?", "pos": 682862}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh yes, and in three days you’ll come and invite me yourself. Aren’t you ashamed now? These are your best feelings; you are only tormenting yourself.", "pos": 683009}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "I’ll die before I invite you! I shall forget your very name! I’ve forgotten it already!", "pos": 683161}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "But I’m forbidden your house as it is, without your added threats!", "pos": 683281}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "What? Who forbade you?", "pos": 683378}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Who forbade you?", "pos": 683561}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Aglaya Ivanovna told me— When? Speak—quick!", "pos": 683611}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "She sent to say, yesterday morning, that I was never to dare to come near the house again.", "pos": 683659}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "What did she send? Whom? Was it that boy? Was it a message?—quick!", "pos": 683794}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I had a note,", "pos": 683863}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Where is it? Give it here, at once.", "pos": 683896}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "PRINCE LEF NICOLAIEVITCH,—If you think fit, after all that has passed, to honour our house with a visit, I can assure you you will not find me among the number of those who are in any way delighted to see you.", "pos": 684054}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Aglaya Epanchin.", "pos": 684265}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Quick—come along! Come along with me this moment!", "pos": 684414}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "But you declared I wasn’t—", "pos": 684521}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Don’t be a simpleton. You behave just as though you weren’t a man at all. Come on! I shall see, now, with my own eyes. I shall see all.", "pos": 684550}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, let me get my hat, at least.", "pos": 684688}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Here’s your miserable hat. He couldn’t even choose a respectable shape for his hat! Come on! She did that because I took your part and said you ought to have come—little vixen!—else she would never have sent you that silly note. It’s a most improper note, I call it; most improper for such an intelligent, well-brought-up girl to write. H’m! I dare say she was annoyed that you didn’t come; but she ought to have known that one can’t write like that to an idiot like you, for you’d be sure to take it literally. What are you listening for? She wants a clown like you—she hasn’t seen one for some time—to play with. That’s why she is anxious for you to come to the house. And right glad I am that she’ll make a thorough good fool of you. You deserve it; and she can do it—oh! she can, indeed!—as well as most people.", "pos": 684725}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It is to annoy their mother; that is their one aim in life; it can be nothing else. The fact is it is all of a piece with these modern ideas, that wretched woman’s question! Six months ago Aglaya took a fancy to cut off her magnificent hair. Why, even I, when I was young, had nothing like it! The scissors were in her hand, and I had to go down on my knees and implore her... She did it, I know, from sheer mischief, to spite her mother, for she is a naughty, capricious girl, a real spoiled child spiteful and mischievous to a degree! And then Alexandra wanted to shave her head, not from caprice or mischief, but, like a little fool, simply because Aglaya persuaded her she would sleep better without her hair, and not suffer from headache! And how many suitors have they not had during the last five years! Excellent offers, too! What more do they want? Why don’t they get married? For no other reason than to vex their mother—none—none!", "pos": 689582}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What is the matter with her? Is she a Nihilist, or simply a fool?", "pos": 691646}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "She is so calm; nothing rouses her—though wet hens are not always calm! Oh! I can’t understand it!", "pos": 691955}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "H’m! she is as stupid as a fool! A veritable ‘wet hen’! Nothing excites her; and yet she is not happy; some days it makes one miserable only to look at her! Why is she unhappy, I wonder?", "pos": 693086}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "She needs a husband!", "pos": 693508}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "God forbid that he should share your ideas, Ivan Fedorovitch! Or that he should be as gross and churlish as you! She is exactly like me—my image in everything. A tyrant! A real little demon! A Nihilist! Eccentric, senseless and mischievous! Good Lord, how unhappy she will be!", "pos": 693531}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "How dared they, how dared they write that hateful anonymous letter informing me that Aglaya is in communication with Nastasia Philipovna? How dared they so much as think of such a thing? I should die with shame if I thought there was a particle of truth in it, or if I were to show the letter to Aglaya herself! Who dares play these jokes upon us, the Epanchins? Why didn’t we go to the Yelagin instead of coming down here? I told you we had better go to the Yelagin this summer, Ivan Fedorovitch. It’s all your fault. I dare say it was that Varia who sent the letter. It’s all Ivan Fedorovitch. That woman is doing it all for him, I know she is, to show she can make a fool of him now just as she did when he used to give her pearls. But after all is said, we are mixed up in it. Your daughters are mixed up in it, Ivan Fedorovitch; young ladies in society, young ladies at an age to be married; they were present, they heard everything there was to hear. They were mixed up with that other scene, too, with those dreadful youths. You must be pleased to remember they heard it all. I cannot forgive that wretched prince. I never shall forgive him! And why, if you please, has Aglaya had an attack of nerves for these last three days? Why has she all but quarrelled with her sisters, even with Alexandra—whom she respects so much that she always kisses her hands as though she were her mother? What are all these riddles of hers that we have to guess? What has Gavrila Ardalionovitch to do with it? Why did she take upon herself to champion him this morning, and burst into tears over it? Why is there an allusion to that cursed ‘poor knight’ in the anonymous letter? And why did I rush off to him just now like a lunatic, and drag him back here? I do believe I’ve gone mad at last. What on earth have I done now? To talk to a young man about my daughter’s secrets—and secrets having to do with himself, too! Thank goodness, he’s an idiot, and a friend of the house! Surely Aglaya hasn’t fallen in love with such a gaby! What an idea! Pfu! we ought all to be put under glass cases—myself first of all—and be shown off as curiosities, at ten copecks a peep! I shall never forgive you for all this, Ivan Fedorovitch—never! Look at her now. Why doesn’t she make fun of him? She said she would, and she doesn’t. Look there! She stares at him with all her eyes, and doesn’t move; and yet she told him not to come. He looks pale enough; and that abominable chatterbox, Evgenie Pavlovitch, monopolizes the whole of the conversation. Nobody else can get a word in. I could soon find out all about everything if I could only change the subject.", "pos": 695687}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Excuse me. I don’t say a word against liberalism. Liberalism is not a sin, it is a necessary part of a great whole, which whole would collapse and fall to pieces without it. Liberalism has just as much right to exist as has the most moral conservatism; but I am attacking Russian liberalism; and I attack it for the simple reason that a Russian liberal is not a Russian liberal, he is a non-Russian liberal. Show me a real Russian liberal, and I’ll kiss him before you all, with pleasure.", "pos": 700233}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "If he cared to kiss you, that is,", "pos": 700762}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "I was saying just now, before you came in, prince, that there has been nothing national up to now, about our liberalism, and nothing the liberals do, or have done, is in the least degree national. They are drawn from two classes only, the old landowning class, and clerical families—", "pos": 701237}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "How, nothing that they have done is Russian?", "pos": 701523}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "It may be Russian, but it is not national. Our liberals are not Russian, nor are our conservatives, and you may be sure that the nation does not recognize anything that has been done by the landed gentry, or by the seminarists, or what is to be done either.", "pos": 701586}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "Come, that’s good! How can you maintain such a paradox? If you are serious, that is. I cannot allow such a statement about the landed proprietors to pass unchallenged. Why, you are a landed proprietor yourself!", "pos": 701846}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "I suppose you’ll say there is nothing national about our literature either?", "pos": 702082}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Well, I am not a great authority on literary questions, but I certainly do hold that Russian literature is not Russian, except perhaps Lomonosoff, Pouschkin and Gogol.", "pos": 702176}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "In the first place, that is a considerable admission, and in the second place, one of the above was a peasant, and the other two were both landed proprietors!", "pos": 702346}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Quite so, but don’t be in such a hurry! For since it has been the part of these three men, and only these three, to say something absolutely their own, not borrowed, so by this very fact these three men become really national. If any Russian shall have done or said anything really and absolutely original, he is to be called national from that moment, though he may not be able to talk the Russian language; still he is a national Russian. I consider that an axiom. But we were not speaking of literature; we began by discussing the socialists. Very well then, I insist that there does not exist one single Russian socialist. There does not, and there has never existed such a one, because all socialists are derived from the two classes—the landed proprietors, and the seminarists. All our eminent socialists are merely old liberals of the class of landed proprietors, men who were liberals in the days of serfdom. Why do you laugh? Give me their books, give me their studies, their memoirs, and though I am not a literary critic, yet I will prove as clear as day that every chapter and every word of their writings has been the work of a former landed proprietor of the old school. You’ll find that all their raptures, all their generous transports are proprietary, all their woes and their tears, proprietary; all proprietary or seminarist! You are laughing again, and you, prince, are smiling too. Don’t you agree with me?", "pos": 702507}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "I cannot tell you on the instant whether I agree with you or not. But, I assure you, I am listening to you with extreme gratification.", "pos": 704008}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "I’ll just tell you one fact, ladies and gentlemen, a fact, the discovery of which, I believe, I may claim to have made by myself alone. At all events, no other has ever said or written a word about it; and in this fact is expressed the whole essence of Russian liberalism of the sort which I am now considering. In the first place, what is liberalism, speaking generally, but an attack (whether mistaken or reasonable, is quite another question) upon the existing order of things? Is this so? Yes. Very well. Then my ‘fact’ consists in this, that Russian liberalism is not an attack upon the existing order of things, but an attack upon the very essence of things themselves—indeed, on the things themselves; not an attack on the Russian order of things, but on Russia itself. My Russian liberal goes so far as to reject Russia; that is, he hates and strikes his own mother. Every misfortune and mishap of the mother-country fills him with mirth, and even with ecstasy. He hates the national customs, Russian history, and everything. If he has a justification, it is that he does not know what he is doing, and believes that his hatred of Russia is the grandest and most profitable kind of liberalism. (You will often find a liberal who is applauded and esteemed by his fellows, but who is in reality the dreariest, blindest, dullest of conservatives, and is not aware of the fact.) This hatred for Russia has been mistaken by some of our ‘Russian liberals’ for sincere love of their country, and they boast that they see better than their neighbours what real love of one’s country should consist in. But of late they have grown, more candid and are ashamed of the expression ‘love of country,’ and have annihilated the very spirit of the words as something injurious and petty and undignified. This is the truth, and I hold by it; but at the same time it is a phenomenon which has not been repeated at any other time or place; and therefore, though I hold to it as a fact, yet I recognize that it is an accidental phenomenon, and may likely enough pass away. There can be no such thing anywhere else as a liberal who really hates his country; and how is this fact to be explained among us? By my original statement that a Russian liberal is not a Russian liberal—that’s the only explanation that I can see.", "pos": 704504}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "I take all that you have said as a joke,", "pos": 707010}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "I have not seen all kinds of liberals, and cannot, therefore, set myself up as a judge, but I have heard all you have said with indignation. You have taken some accidental case and twisted it into a universal law, which is unjust.", "pos": 707079}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Accidental case! Do you consider it an accidental case, prince?", "pos": 707330}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I must also admit, that I have not seen much, or been very far into the question; but I cannot help thinking that you are more or less right, and that Russian liberalism—that phase of it which you are considering, at least—really is sometimes inclined to hate Russia itself, and not only its existing order of things in general. Of course this is only partially the truth; you cannot lay down the law for all...", "pos": 707423}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Why, how strange! You didn’t answer me seriously, surely, did you?", "pos": 708715}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Did not you ask me the question seriously", "pos": 708801}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Evgenie Pavlovitch turns everything and everybody he can lay hold of to ridicule. You should hear the things he says sometimes, apparently in perfect seriousness.", "pos": 708940}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "In my opinion the conversation has been a painful one throughout, and we ought never to have begun it. We were all going for a walk—", "pos": 709105}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Come along then, it’s a glorious evening. But, to prove that this time I was speaking absolutely seriously, and especially to prove this to the prince (for you, prince, have interested me exceedingly, and I swear to you that I am not quite such an ass as I like to appear sometimes, although I am rather an ass, I admit), and—well, ladies and gentlemen, will you allow me to put just one more question to the prince, out of pure curiosity? It shall be the last. This question came into my mind a couple of hours since (you see, prince, I do think seriously at times), and I made my own decision upon it; now I wish to hear what the prince will say to it. We have just used the expression ‘accidental case.’ This is a significant phrase; we often hear it. Well, not long since everyone was talking and reading about that terrible murder of six people on the part of a—young fellow, and of the extraordinary speech of the counsel for the defence, who observed that in the poverty-stricken condition of the criminal it must have come naturally into his head to kill these six people. I do not quote his words, but that is the sense of them, or something very like it. Now, in my opinion, the barrister who put forward this extraordinary plea was probably absolutely convinced that he was stating the most liberal, the most humane, the most enlightened view of the case that could possibly be brought forward in these days. Now, was this distortion, this capacity for a perverted way of viewing things, a special or accidental case, or is such a general rule?", "pos": 709258}
{"speaker": "Alexandra and Adelaida", "text": "A special case—accidental, of course!", "pos": 710859}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "Let me remind you once more, Evgenie, that your joke is getting a little threadbare.", "pos": 710929}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "What do you think about it, prince? What do you think—was it a special or a usual case—the rule, or an exception? I confess I put the question especially for you.", "pos": 711034}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, I don’t think it was a special case,", "pos": 711312}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "My dear fellow! don’t you see that he is chaffing you? He is simply laughing at you, and wants to make game of you.", "pos": 711393}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I thought Evgenie Pavlovitch was talking seriously,", "pos": 711551}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "My dear prince, remember what you and I were saying two or three months ago. We spoke of the fact that in our newly opened Law Courts one could already lay one’s finger upon so many talented and remarkable young barristers. How pleased you were with the state of things as we found it, and how glad I was to observe your delight! We both said it was a matter to be proud of; but this clumsy defence that Evgenie mentions, this strange argument can, of course, only be an accidental case—one in a thousand!", "pos": 711676}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I only wished to say that this ‘distortion,’ as Evgenie Pavlovitch expressed it, is met with very often, and is far more the general rule than the exception, unfortunately for Russia. So much so, that if this distortion were not the general rule, perhaps these dreadful crimes would be less frequent.", "pos": 712329}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "Dreadful crimes? But I can assure you that crimes just as dreadful, and probably more horrible, have occurred before our times, and at all times, and not only here in Russia, but everywhere else as well. And in my opinion it is not at all likely that such murders will cease to occur for a very long time to come. The only difference is that in former times there was less publicity, while now everyone talks and writes freely about such things—which fact gives the impression that such crimes have only now sprung into existence. That is where your mistake lies—an extremely natural mistake, I assure you, my dear fellow!", "pos": 712632}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I know that there were just as many, and just as terrible, crimes before our times. Not long since I visited a convict prison and made acquaintance with some of the criminals. There were some even more dreadful criminals than this one we have been speaking of—men who have murdered a dozen of their fellow-creatures, and feel no remorse whatever. But what I especially noticed was this, that the very most hopeless and remorseless murderer—however hardened a criminal he may be—still knows that he is a criminal; that is, he is conscious that he has acted wickedly, though he may feel no remorse whatever. And they were all like this. Those of whom Evgenie Pavlovitch has spoken, do not admit that they are criminals at all; they think they had a right to do what they did, and that they were even doing a good deed, perhaps. I consider there is the greatest difference between the two cases. And recollect—it was a youth, at the particular age which is most helplessly susceptible to the distortion of ideas!", "pos": 713272}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "What are you looking so surprised about, my friend? Did you suppose he was stupider than yourself, and was incapable of forming his own opinions, or what?", "pos": 714651}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "No! Oh no! Not at all! But—how is it, prince, that you—(excuse the question, will you?)—if you are capable of observing and seeing things as you evidently do, how is it that you saw nothing distorted or perverted in that claim upon your property, which you acknowledged a day or two since; and which was full of arguments founded upon the most distorted views of right and wrong?", "pos": 714841}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "I’ll tell you what, my friend, here are we all sitting here and imagining we are very clever, and perhaps laughing at the prince, some of us, and meanwhile he has received a letter this very day in which that same claimant renounces his claim, and begs the prince’s pardon. There! we don’t often get that sort of letter; and yet we are not ashamed to walk with our noses in the air before him.", "pos": 715239}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "And Hippolyte has come down here to stay,", "pos": 715671}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What! has he arrived?", "pos": 715737}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Yes, I brought him down from town just after you had left the house.", "pos": 715791}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "There now! It’s just like him. I dare swear that you went up to town yesterday on purpose to get the little wretch to do you the great honour of coming to stay at your house. You did go up to town, you know you did—you said so yourself! Now then, did you, or did you not, go down on your knees and beg him to come, confess!", "pos": 715862}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "No, he didn’t, for I saw it all myself. On the contrary, Hippolyte kissed his hand twice and thanked him; and all the prince said was that he thought Hippolyte might feel better here in the country!", "pos": 716321}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Don’t, Colia,—what is the use of saying all that?", "pos": 716536}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "He is all right and taking a nap after the journey. He is very happy to be here; but I think perhaps it would be better if you let him alone for today,—he is very sensitive now that he is so ill—and he might be embarrassed if you show him too much attention at first. He is decidedly better today, and says he has not felt so well for the last six months, and has coughed much less, too.", "pos": 716732}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "It seems to me, Mr. Colia, that you were very foolish to bring your young friend down—if he is the same consumptive boy who wept so profusely, and invited us all to his own funeral. He talked so eloquently about the blank wall outside his bedroom window, that I’m sure he will never support life here without it.", "pos": 717435}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "he will quarrel with you, and be off,", "pos": 717819}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Yes, I remember he boasted about the blank wall in an extraordinary way, and I feel that without that blank wall he will never be able to die eloquently; and he does so long to die eloquently!", "pos": 718007}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, you must forgive him the blank wall. He has come down to see a few trees now, poor fellow.", "pos": 718223}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Oh, I forgive him with all my heart; you may tell him so if you like,", "pos": 718348}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I don’t think you should take it quite like that. I think it is more a case of his forgiving you.", "pos": 718437}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Forgiving me! why so? What have I done to need his forgiveness?", "pos": 718612}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "If you don’t understand, then—but of course, you do understand. He wished—he wished to bless you all round and to have your blessing—before he died—that’s all.", "pos": 718678}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "My dear prince, you will not easily find heaven on earth, and yet you seem to expect to. Heaven is a difficult thing to find anywhere, prince; far more difficult than appears to that good heart of yours. Better stop this conversation, or we shall all be growing quite disturbed in our minds, and—", "pos": 718917}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Let’s go and hear the band, then,", "pos": 719216}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Evgenie Pavlovitch, be assured that I esteem you as a generous and honourable man, in spite of everything. Be assured of that.", "pos": 719412}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "I wouldn’t mind betting, prince, that you did not in the least mean to say that, and very likely you meant to address someone else altogether. What is it? Are you feeling unwell or anything?", "pos": 719887}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Very likely, extremely likely, and you must be a very close observer to detect the fact that perhaps I did not intend to come up to you at all. Don’t remind me of what I have done or said. Don’t! I am very much ashamed of myself, I—", "pos": 720092}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Why, what have you done? I don’t understand you.", "pos": 720403}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I see you are ashamed of me, Evgenie Pavlovitch; you are blushing for me; that’s a sign of a good heart. Don’t be afraid; I shall go away directly.", "pos": 720454}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "What’s the matter with him? Do his fits begin like that?", "pos": 720604}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, no, Lizabetha Prokofievna, take no notice of me. I am not going to have a fit. I will go away directly; but I know I am afflicted. I was twenty-four years an invalid, you see—the first twenty-four years of my life—so take all I do and say as the sayings and actions of an invalid. I’m going away directly, I really am—don’t be afraid. I am not blushing, for I don’t think I need blush about it, need I? But I see that I am out of place in society—society is better without me. It’s not vanity, I assure you. I have thought over it all these last three days, and I have made up my mind that I ought to unbosom myself candidly before you at the first opportunity. There are certain things, certain great ideas, which I must not so much as approach, as Prince S. has just reminded me, or I shall make you all laugh. I have no sense of proportion, I know; my words and gestures do not express my ideas—they are a humiliation and abasement of the ideas, and therefore, I have no right—and I am too sensitive. Still, I believe I am beloved in this household, and esteemed far more than I deserve. But I can’t help knowing that after twenty-four years of illness there must be some trace left, so that it is impossible for people to refrain from laughing at me sometimes; don’t you think so?", "pos": 720735}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Why do you say all this here? Why do you talk like this to them? There is not one of them all who is worthy of these words of yours. Not one of them is worth your little finger, not one of them has heart or head to compare with yours! You are more honest than all, and better, nobler, kinder, wiser than all. There are some here who are unworthy to bend and pick up the handkerchief you have just dropped. Why do you humiliate yourself like this, and place yourself lower than these people? Why do you debase yourself before them? Why have you no pride?", "pos": 722310}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "My God! Who would ever have believed this?", "pos": 723067}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Hurrah for the ‘poor knight’!", "pos": 723153}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Be quiet! How dare they laugh at me in your house? Why does everyone, everyone worry and torment me? Why have they all been bullying me these three days about you, prince? I will not marry you—never, and under no circumstances! Know that once and for all; as if anyone could marry an absurd creature like you! Just look in the glass and see what you look like, this very moment! Why, why do they torment me and say I am going to marry you? You must know it; you are in the plot with them!", "pos": 723198}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "No one ever tormented you on the subject,", "pos": 723850}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "No one ever thought of such a thing! There has never been a word said about it!", "pos": 723921}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Who has been annoying her? Who has been tormenting the child? Who could have said such a thing to her? Is she raving?", "pos": 724020}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Every one of them has been saying it—every one of them—all these three days! And I will never, never marry him!", "pos": 724217}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I have never asked you to marry me, Aglaya Ivanovna!", "pos": 724465}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "What? What’s that?", "pos": 724550}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I meant to say—I only meant to say, I merely meant to explain to Aglaya Ivanovna—to have the honour to explain, as it were—that I had no intention—never had—to ask the honour of her hand. I assure you I am not guilty, Aglaya Ivanovna, I am not, indeed. I never did wish to—I never thought of it at all—and never shall—you’ll see it yourself—you may be quite assured of it. Some wicked person has been maligning me to you; but it’s all right. Don’t worry about it.", "pos": 724655}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, thank God—thank God!", "pos": 725730}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Come along, let’s go out for a walk! We’ll all go together, and the prince must absolutely go with us. You needn’t go away, you dear good fellow! Isn’t he a dear, Aglaya? Isn’t he, mother? I must really give him a kiss for—for his explanation to Aglaya just now. Mother, dear, I may kiss him, mayn’t I? Aglaya, may I kiss your prince?", "pos": 726145}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Prince, you must walk with me. May he, mother? This young cavalier, who won’t have me? You said you would never have me, didn’t you, prince? No—no, not like that; that’s not the way to give your arm. Don’t you know how to give your arm to a lady yet? There—so. Now, come along, you and I will lead the way. Would you like to lead the way with me alone, tête-à-tête?", "pos": 726819}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Look to the right! Look closer. Do you see that bench, in the park there, just by those three big trees—that green bench? Do you like the position of it? Sometimes of a morning early, at seven o’clock, when all the rest are still asleep, I come out and sit there alone. Now, go away, I don’t wish to have your arm any longer; or perhaps, better, continue to give me your arm, and walk along beside me, but don’t speak a word to me. I wish to think by myself.", "pos": 728895}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Why do you look at me like that, prince? I’m afraid of you! You look as though you were just going to put out your hand and touch my face to see if it’s real! Doesn’t he, Evgenie Pavlovitch—doesn’t he look like that? Idiot!", "pos": 733556}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "My goodness—surely she is not in love with such a—surely she isn’t mad!", "pos": 734346}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "It’s all a joke, mamma; it’s just a joke like the ‘poor knight’—nothing more whatever, I assure you! She is chaffing him—making a fool of him, after her own private fashion, that’s all! But she carries it just a little too far—she is a regular little actress. How she frightened us just now—didn’t she?—and all for a lark!", "pos": 734461}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Well, it’s lucky she has happened upon an idiot, then, that’s all I can say!", "pos": 734820}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "What’s the matter?", "pos": 741244}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "What a—", "pos": 741868}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Why, I declare, here he is! The man one can’t find with all one’s messengers sent about the place, sitting just under one’s nose, exactly where one never thought of looking! I thought you were sure to be at your uncle’s by this time. What! don’t you know about it yet? He doesn’t know—imagine that! Why, he’s shot himself. Your uncle shot himself this very morning. I was told at two this afternoon. Half the town must know it by now. They say there are three hundred and fifty thousand roubles, government money, missing; some say five hundred thousand. And I was under the impression that he would leave you a fortune! He’s whistled it all away. A most depraved old gentleman, really! Well, ta, ta!—bonne chance! Surely you intend to be off there, don’t you? Ha, ha! You’ve retired from the army in good time, I see! Plain clothes! Well done, sly rogue! Nonsense! I see—you knew it all before—I dare say you knew all about it yesterday-", "pos": 742215}
{"speaker": "young officer", "text": "She ought to be whipped—that’s the only way to deal with creatures like that—she ought to be whipped!", "pos": 744240}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "Keller is my name, sir; ex-lieutenant. If you will accept me as champion of the fair sex, I am at your disposal. English boxing has no secrets from me. I sympathize with you for the insult you have received, but I can’t permit you to raise your hand against a woman in public. If you prefer to meet me—as would be more fitting to your rank—in some other manner, of course you understand me, captain.", "pos": 745550}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Tfu! look what the fellow got! Look at the blood on his cheek! Ha, ha!", "pos": 746388}
{"speaker": "the officer", "text": "Prince Muishkin, I believe? The gentleman to whom I had the honour of being introduced?", "pos": 746753}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "She is mad, insane—I assure you, she is mad,", "pos": 746843}
{"speaker": "the officer", "text": "I cannot boast of any such knowledge, of course, but I wished to know your name.", "pos": 746990}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I wanted to see how the farce would end.", "pos": 748275}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "who was the uncle they were talking about, and what was it that had happened in Petersburg?", "pos": 749873}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "making inquiries, of course it was all nonsense.", "pos": 750023}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "Oh, of course,", "pos": 750085}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "walking much too fast to be pleasant.", "pos": 750242}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "What are you doing there? Would you like some tea? I’ll order some,", "pos": 751958}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "N-no thanks, I don’t know—", "pos": 752449}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Don’t know! How can you not know? By-the-by, look here—if someone were to challenge you to a duel, what should you do? I wished to ask you this—some time ago—", "pos": 752478}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why? Nobody would ever challenge me to a duel!", "pos": 752639}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "But if they were to, would you be dreadfully frightened?", "pos": 752688}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I dare say I should be—much alarmed!", "pos": 752747}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Seriously? Then are you a coward?", "pos": 752786}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "N-no!—I don’t think so. A coward is a man who is afraid and runs away; the man who is frightened but does not run away, is not quite a coward,", "pos": 752822}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "And you wouldn’t run away?", "pos": 753023}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No—I don’t think I should run away,", "pos": 753052}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Though I am a woman, I should certainly not run away for anything. However, I see you are laughing at me and twisting your face up as usual in order to make yourself look more interesting. Now tell me, they generally shoot at twenty paces, don’t they? At ten, sometimes? I suppose if at ten they must be either wounded or killed, mustn’t they?", "pos": 753159}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I don’t think they often kill each other at duels.", "pos": 753548}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "They killed Pushkin that way.", "pos": 753601}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That may have been an accident.", "pos": 753633}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Not a bit of it; it was a duel to the death, and he was killed.", "pos": 753667}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "The bullet struck so low down that probably his antagonist would never have aimed at that part of him—people never do; he would have aimed at his chest or head; so that probably the bullet hit him accidentally. I have been told this by competent authorities.", "pos": 753733}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Well, a soldier once told me that they were always ordered to aim at the middle of the body. So you see they don’t aim at the chest or head; they aim lower on purpose. I asked some officer about this afterwards, and he said it was perfectly true.", "pos": 753994}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That is probably when they fire from a long distance.", "pos": 754243}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Can you shoot at all?", "pos": 754299}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, I have never shot in my life.", "pos": 754323}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Can’t you even load a pistol?", "pos": 754359}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No! That is, I understand how it’s done, of course, but I have never done it.", "pos": 754391}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Then, you don’t know how, for it is a matter that needs practice. Now listen and learn; in the first place buy good powder, not damp (they say it mustn’t be at all damp, but very dry), some fine kind it is—you must ask for pistol powder, not the stuff they load cannons with. They say one makes the bullets oneself, somehow or other. Have you got a pistol?", "pos": 754471}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No—and I don’t want one,", "pos": 754830}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Oh, what nonsense! You must buy one. French or English are the best, they say. Then take a little powder, about a thimbleful, or perhaps two, and pour it into the barrel. Better put plenty. Then push in a bit of felt (it must be felt, for some reason or other); you can easily get a bit off some old mattress, or off a door; it’s used to keep the cold out. Well, when you have pushed the felt down, put the bullet in; do you hear now? The bullet last and the powder first, not the other way, or the pistol won’t shoot. What are you laughing at? I wish you to buy a pistol and practise every day, and you must learn to hit a mark for certain; will you?", "pos": 754884}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Ah! Lef Nicolaievitch, it’s you, is it? Where are you off to now? Come along with me; I want to say a word or two to you.", "pos": 756229}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Au revoir, then!", "pos": 756444}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "How strange everyone, yourself included, has become of late. I was telling you that I cannot in the least understand Lizabetha Prokofievna’s ideas and agitations. She is in hysterics up there, and moans and says that we have been ‘shamed and disgraced.’ How? Why? When? By whom? I confess that I am very much to blame myself; I do not conceal the fact; but the conduct, the outrageous behaviour of this woman, must really be kept within limits, by the police if necessary, and I am just on my way now to talk the question over and make some arrangements. It can all be managed quietly and gently, even kindly, and without the slightest fuss or scandal. I foresee that the future is pregnant with events, and that there is much that needs explanation. There is intrigue in the wind; but if on one side nothing is known, on the other side nothing will be explained. If I have heard nothing about it, nor have you, nor he, nor she—who has heard about it, I should like to know? How can all this be explained except by the fact that half of it is mirage or moonshine, or some hallucination of that sort?", "pos": 757643}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "She is insane,", "pos": 758756}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "I too had that idea, and I slept in peace. But now I see that their opinion is more correct. I do not believe in the theory of madness! The woman has no common sense; but she is not only not insane, she is artful to a degree. Her outburst of this evening about Evgenie’s uncle proves that conclusively. It was villainous, simply jesuitical, and it was all for some special purpose.", "pos": 758872}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What about Evgenie’s uncle?", "pos": 759256}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "My goodness, Lef Nicolaievitch, why, you can’t have heard a single word I said! Look at me, I’m still trembling all over with the dreadful shock! It is that that kept me in town so late. Evgenie Pavlovitch’s uncle—", "pos": 759286}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well?", "pos": 759503}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Shot himself this morning, at seven o’clock. A respected, eminent old man of seventy; and exactly point for point as she described it; a sum of money, a considerable sum of government money, missing!", "pos": 759529}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why, how could she—", "pos": 759731}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "What, know of it? Ha, ha, ha! Why, there was a whole crowd round her the moment she appeared on the scenes here. You know what sort of people surround her nowadays, and solicit the honour of her ‘acquaintance.’ Of course she might easily have heard the news from someone coming from town. All Petersburg, if not all Pavlofsk, knows it by now. Look at the slyness of her observation about Evgenie’s uniform! I mean, her remark that he had retired just in time! There’s a venomous hint for you, if you like! No, no! there’s no insanity there! Of course I refuse to believe that Evgenie Pavlovitch could have known beforehand of the catastrophe; that is, that at such and such a day at seven o’clock, and all that; but he might well have had a presentiment of the truth. And I—all of us—Prince S. and everybody, believed that he was to inherit a large fortune from this uncle. It’s dreadful, horrible! Mind, I don’t suspect Evgenie of anything, be quite clear on that point; but the thing is a little suspicious, nevertheless. Prince S. can’t get over it. Altogether it is a very extraordinary combination of circumstances.", "pos": 759753}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What suspicion attaches to Evgenie Pavlovitch?", "pos": 760876}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Oh, none at all! He has behaved very well indeed. I didn’t mean to drop any sort of hint. His own fortune is intact, I believe. Lizabetha Prokofievna, of course, refuses to listen to anything. That’s the worst of it all, these family catastrophes or quarrels, or whatever you like to call them. You know, prince, you are a friend of the family, so I don’t mind telling you; it now appears that Evgenie Pavlovitch proposed to Aglaya a month ago, and was refused.", "pos": 760925}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Impossible!", "pos": 761389}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Why? Do you know anything about it? Look here, maybe I have been letting the cat out of the bag too freely with you, if so, it is because you are—that sort of man, you know! Perhaps you have some special information?", "pos": 761421}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I know nothing about Evgenie Pavlovitch!", "pos": 761721}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Nor do I! They always try to bury me underground when there’s anything going on; they don’t seem to reflect that it is unpleasant to a man to be treated so! I won’t stand it! We have just had a terrible scene!—mind, I speak to you as I would to my own son! Aglaya laughs at her mother. Her sisters guessed about Evgenie having proposed and been rejected, and told Lizabetha. I tell you, my dear fellow, Aglaya is such an extraordinary, such a self-willed, fantastical little creature, you wouldn’t believe it! Every high quality, every brilliant trait of heart and mind, are to be found in her, and, with it all, so much caprice and mockery, such wild fancies—indeed, a little devil! She has just been laughing at her mother to her very face, and at her sisters, and at Prince S., and everybody—and of course she always laughs at me! You know I love the child—I love her even when she laughs at me, and I believe the wild little creature has a special fondness for me for that very reason. She is fonder of me than any of the others. I dare swear she has had a good laugh at you before now! You were having a quiet talk just now, I observed, after all the thunder and lightning upstairs. She was sitting with you just as though there had been no row at all.", "pos": 761781}
{"speaker": "the general", "text": "My dear good Prince Lef Nicolaievitch,", "pos": 763143}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Tomorrow morning, I shall be at the green bench in the park at seven, and shall wait there for you. I have made up my mind to speak to you about a most important matter which closely concerns yourself.", "pos": 765362}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "P.S.—I trust that you will not show this note to anyone. Though I am ashamed of giving you such instructions, I feel that I must do so, considering what you are. I therefore write the words, and blush for your simple character.", "pos": 765565}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "P.P.S.—It is the same green bench that I showed you before. There! aren’t you ashamed of yourself? I felt that it was necessary to repeat even that information.", "pos": 765794}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "I was watching for you, prince,", "pos": 766345}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Is that you, Keller?", "pos": 766400}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "Yes, I’ve been looking for you. I waited for you at the Epanchins’ house, but of course I could not come in. I dogged you from behind as you walked along with the general. Well, prince, here is Keller, absolutely at your service—command him!—ready to sacrifice himself—even to die in case of need.", "pos": 766453}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "But—why?", "pos": 766753}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "Oh, why?—Of course you’ll be challenged! That was young Lieutenant Moloftsoff. I know him, or rather of him; he won’t pass an insult. He will take no notice of Rogojin and myself, and, therefore, you are the only one left to account for. You’ll have to pay the piper, prince. He has been asking about you, and undoubtedly his friend will call on you tomorrow—perhaps he is at your house already. If you would do me the honour to have me for a second, prince, I should be happy. That’s why I have been looking for you now.", "pos": 766764}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Duel! You’ve come to talk about a duel, too! Yes, and he gave me a fearful dig in the chest. What are we to fight about? I shall beg his pardon, that’s all. But if we must fight—we’ll fight! Let him have a shot at me, by all means; I should rather like it. Ha, ha, ha! I know how to load a pistol now; do you know how to load a pistol, Keller? First, you have to buy the powder, you know; it mustn’t be wet, and it mustn’t be that coarse stuff that they load cannons with—it must be pistol powder. Then you pour the powder in, and get hold of a bit of felt from some door, and then shove the bullet in. But don’t shove the bullet in before the powder, because the thing wouldn’t go off—do you hear, Keller, the thing wouldn’t go off! Ha, ha, ha! Isn’t that a grand reason, Keller, my friend, eh? Do you know, my dear fellow, I really must kiss you, and embrace you, this very moment. Ha, ha! How was it you so suddenly popped up in front of me as you did? Come to my house as soon as you can, and we’ll have some champagne. We’ll all get drunk! Do you know I have a dozen of champagne in Lebedeff’s cellar? Lebedeff sold them to me the day after I arrived. I took the lot. We’ll invite everybody! Are you going to do any sleeping tonight?", "pos": 767288}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "As much as usual, prince—why?", "pos": 768912}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Pleasant dreams then—ha, ha!", "pos": 768944}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Fever, probably,", "pos": 769221}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "for the man is all nerves, and this business has been a little too much for him. He is not afraid, that’s clear; that sort never funks! H’m! champagne! That was an interesting item of news, at all events!—Twelve bottles! Dear me, that’s a very respectable little stock indeed! I bet anything Lebedeff lent somebody money on deposit of this dozen of champagne. Hum! he’s a nice fellow, is this prince! I like this sort of man. Well, I needn’t be wasting time here, and if it’s a case of champagne, why—there’s no time like the present!", "pos": 769260}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I knew you’d be wandering about somewhere here. I didn’t have to look for you very long,", "pos": 773545}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "How did you—find me here?", "pos": 774387}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Keller told me (I found him at your place) that you were in the park. ‘Of course he is!’ I thought.", "pos": 774466}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why so?", "pos": 774568}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I received your letter, Lef Nicolaievitch—what’s the good of all that?—It’s no use, you know. I’ve come to you from her,—she bade me tell you that she must see you, she has something to say to you. She told me to find you today.", "pos": 774642}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I’ll come tomorrow. Now I’m going home—are you coming to my house?", "pos": 774873}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Why should I? I’ve given you the message.—Goodbye!", "pos": 774942}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Won’t you come?", "pos": 774995}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "What an extraordinary man you are! I wonder at you!", "pos": 775049}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why do you hate me so? You know yourself that all you suspected is quite unfounded. I felt you were still angry with me, though. Do you know why? Because you tried to kill me—that’s why you can’t shake off your wrath against me. I tell you that I only remember the Parfen Rogojin with whom I exchanged crosses, and vowed brotherhood. I wrote you this in yesterday’s letter, in order that you might forget all that madness on your part, and that you might not feel called to talk about it when we met. Why do you avoid me? Why do you hold your hand back from me? I tell you again, I consider all that has passed a delirium, an insane dream. I can understand all you did, and all you felt that day, as if it were myself. What you were then imagining was not the case, and could never be the case. Why, then, should there be anger between us?", "pos": 775134}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "You don’t know what anger is! No, it is impossible for me to come to your house again,", "pos": 776003}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why? Do you hate me so much as all that?", "pos": 776237}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I don’t love you, Lef Nicolaievitch, and, therefore, what would be the use of my coming to see you? You are just like a child—you want a plaything, and it must be taken out and given you—and then you don’t know how to work it. You are simply repeating all you said in your letter, and what’s the use? Of course I believe every word you say, and I know perfectly well that you neither did or ever can deceive me in any way, and yet, I don’t love you. You write that you’ve forgotten everything, and only remember your brother Parfen, with whom you exchanged crosses, and that you don’t remember anything about the Rogojin who aimed a knife at your throat. What do you know about my feelings, eh? Here you are holding out your brotherly forgiveness to me for a thing that I have perhaps never repented of in the slightest degree. I did not think of it again all that evening; all my thoughts were centred on something else—", "pos": 776280}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Not think of it again? Of course you didn’t! And I dare swear that you came straight away down here to Pavlofsk to listen to the music and dog her about in the crowd, and stare at her, just as you did today. There’s nothing surprising in that! If you hadn’t been in that condition of mind that you could think of nothing but one subject, you would, probably, never have raised your knife against me. I had a presentiment of what you would do, that day, ever since I saw you first in the morning. Do you know yourself what you looked like? I knew you would try to murder me even at the very moment when we exchanged crosses. What did you take me to your mother for? Did you think to stay your hand by doing so? Perhaps you did not put your thoughts into words, but you and I were thinking the same thing, or feeling the same thing looming over us, at the same moment. What should you think of me now if you had not raised your knife to me—the knife which God averted from my throat? I would have been guilty of suspecting you all the same—and you would have intended the murder all the same; therefore we should have been mutually guilty in any case. Come, don’t frown; you needn’t laugh at me, either. You say you haven’t ‘repented.’ Repented! You probably couldn’t, if you were to try; you dislike me too much for that. Why, if I were an angel of light, and as innocent before you as a babe, you would still loathe me if you believed that she loved me, instead of loving yourself. That’s jealousy—that is the real jealousy. But do you know what I have been thinking out during this last week, Parfen? I’ll tell you. What if she loves you now better than anyone? And what if she torments you because she loves you, and in proportion to her love for you, so she torments you the more? She won’t tell you this, of course; you must have eyes to see. Why do you suppose she consents to marry you? She must have a reason, and that reason she will tell you some day. Some women desire the kind of love you give her, and she is probably one of these. Your love and your wild nature impress her. Do you know that a woman is capable of driving a man crazy almost, with her cruelties and mockeries, and feels not one single pang of regret, because she looks at him and says to herself, ‘There! I’ll torment this man nearly into his grave, and then, oh! how I’ll compensate him for it all with my love!’", "pos": 777238}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Why, prince, I declare you must have had a taste of this sort of thing yourself—haven’t you? I have heard tell of something of the kind, you know; is it true?", "pos": 779712}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What? What can you have heard?", "pos": 779873}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Why, I’ve not only heard of it; I see it for myself. When have you ever spoken like that before? It wasn’t like yourself, prince. Why, if I hadn’t heard this report about you, I should never have come all this way into the park—at midnight, too!", "pos": 780116}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I don’t understand you in the least, Parfen.", "pos": 780375}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Oh, she told me all about it long ago, and tonight I saw for myself. I saw you at the music, you know, and whom you were sitting with. She swore to me yesterday, and again today, that you are madly in love with Aglaya Ivanovna. But that’s all the same to me, prince, and it’s not my affair at all; for if you have ceased to love her, she has not ceased to love you. You know, of course, that she wants to marry you to that girl? She’s sworn to it! Ha, ha! She says to me, ‘Until then I won’t marry you. When they go to church, we’ll go too—and not before.’ What on earth does she mean by it? I don’t know, and I never did. Either she loves you without limits or—yet, if she loves you, why does she wish to marry you to another girl? She says, ‘I want to see him happy,’ which is to say—she loves you.", "pos": 780421}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I wrote, and I say to you once more, that she is not in her right mind,", "pos": 781224}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Goodness knows—you may be wrong there! At all events, she named the day this evening, as we left the gardens. ‘In three weeks,’ says she, ‘and perhaps sooner, we shall be married.’ She swore to it, took off her cross and kissed it. So it all depends upon you now, prince, You see! Ha, ha!", "pos": 781367}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That’s all madness. What you say about me, Parfen, never can and never will be. Tomorrow, I shall come and see you—", "pos": 781658}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "How can she be mad,", "pos": 781776}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "when she is sane enough for other people and only mad for you? How can she write letters to her, if she’s mad? If she were insane they would observe it in her letters.", "pos": 781819}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What letters?", "pos": 781989}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "She writes to her—and the girl reads the letters. Haven’t you heard?—You are sure to hear; she’s sure to show you the letters herself.", "pos": 782031}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I won’t believe this!", "pos": 782168}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Why, prince, you’ve only gone a few steps along this road, I perceive. You are evidently a mere beginner. Wait a bit! Before long, you’ll have your own detectives, you’ll watch day and night, and you’ll know every little thing that goes on there—that is, if—", "pos": 782210}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Drop that subject, Rogojin, and never mention it again. And listen: as I have sat here, and talked, and listened, it has suddenly struck me that tomorrow is my birthday. It must be about twelve o’clock, now; come home with me—do, and we’ll see the day in! We’ll have some wine, and you shall wish me—I don’t know what—but you, especially you, must wish me a good wish, and I shall wish you full happiness in return. Otherwise, hand me my cross back again. You didn’t return it to me next day. Haven’t you got it on now?", "pos": 782471}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes, I have,", "pos": 782993}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Come along, then. I don’t wish to meet my new year without you—my new life, I should say, for a new life is beginning for me. Did you know, Parfen, that a new life had begun for me?", "pos": 783022}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I see for myself that it is so—and I shall tell her. But you are not quite yourself, Lef Nicolaievitch.", "pos": 783206}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I have waited for you on purpose, and am very glad to see you arrive so happy,", "pos": 787247}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "And how do you know that I am ‘so happy’? I can see it by your face! Say ‘how do you do’ to the others, and come and sit down here, quick—I’ve been waiting for you!", "pos": 787425}
{"speaker": "Burdovsky", "text": "written nonsense", "pos": 788010}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "I have a couple of words to say to you, and those on a very important matter; let’s go aside for a minute or two.", "pos": 788197}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Just a couple of words!", "pos": 788325}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Do you remember Ferdishenko? Where have you dropped from?", "pos": 788634}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "He is sorry for his sins now, prince. He did not want to let you know he was here; he was hidden over there in the corner,—but he repents now, he feels his guilt.", "pos": 788724}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Delighted, I’m sure!—I’ll come back directly, gentlemen,—sit down there with the others, please,—excuse me one moment,", "pos": 789062}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "You are very gay here, and I have had quite a pleasant half-hour while I waited for you. Now then, my dear Lef Nicolaievitch, this is what’s the matter. I’ve arranged it all with Moloftsoff, and have just come in to relieve your mind on that score. You need be under no apprehensions. He was very sensible, as he should be, of course, for I think he was entirely to blame himself.", "pos": 789255}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What Moloftsoff?", "pos": 789658}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "The young fellow whose arms you held, don’t you know? He was so wild with you that he was going to send a friend to you tomorrow morning.", "pos": 789677}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What nonsense!", "pos": 789817}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Of course it is nonsense, and in nonsense it would have ended, doubtless; but you know these fellows, they—", "pos": 789834}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Excuse me, but I think you must have something else that you wished to speak about, Evgenie Pavlovitch?", "pos": 789944}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Of course, I have! You see, my dear fellow, tomorrow, very early in the morning, I must be off to town about this unfortunate business (my uncle, you know!). Just imagine, my dear sir, it is all true—word for word—and, of course, everybody knew it excepting myself. All this has been such a blow to me that I have not managed to call in at the Epanchins’. Tomorrow I shall not see them either, because I shall be in town. I may not be here for three days or more; in a word, my affairs are a little out of gear. But though my town business is, of course, most pressing, still I determined not to go away until I had seen you, and had a clear understanding with you upon certain points; and that without loss of time. I will wait now, if you will allow me, until the company departs; I may just as well, for I have nowhere else to go to, and I shall certainly not do any sleeping tonight; I’m far too excited. And finally, I must confess that, though I know it is bad form to pursue a man in this way, I have come to beg your friendship, my dear prince. You are an unusual sort of a person; you don’t lie at every step, as some men do; in fact, you don’t lie at all, and there is a matter in which I need a true and sincere friend, for I really may claim to be among the number of bona fide unfortunates just now.", "pos": 790050}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "But the trouble is, that goodness only knows when this party will break up. Hadn’t we better stroll into the park? I’ll excuse myself, there’s no danger of their going away.", "pos": 791411}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "No, no! I have my reasons for wishing them not to suspect us of being engaged in any specially important conversation. There are gentry present who are a little too much interested in us. You are not aware of that perhaps, prince? It will be a great deal better if they see that we are friendly just in an ordinary way. They’ll all go in a couple of hours, and then I’ll ask you to give me twenty minutes—half an hour at most.", "pos": 791643}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "By all means! I assure you I am delighted—you need not have entered into all these explanations. As for your remarks about friendship with me—thanks, very much indeed. You must excuse my being a little absent this evening. Do you know, I cannot somehow be attentive to anything just now?", "pos": 792072}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "I see, I see,", "pos": 792362}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What do you see?", "pos": 792461}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "I don’t want you to suspect that I have simply come here to deceive you and pump information out of you!", "pos": 792507}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, but I haven’t the slightest doubt that you did come to pump me, and I dare say you are quite prepared to deceive me too, so far as that goes. But what of that? I’m not afraid of you; besides, you’ll hardly believe it, I feel as though I really didn’t care a scrap one way or the other, just now!—And—and—and as you are a capital fellow, I am convinced of that, I dare say we really shall end by being good friends. I like you very much Evgenie Pavlovitch; I consider you a very good fellow indeed.", "pos": 792696}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Well, in any case, you are a most delightful man to have to deal with, be the business what it may. Come along now, I’ll drink a glass to your health. I’m charmed to have entered into alliance with you. By-the-by, has this young Hippolyte come down to stay with you?", "pos": 793246}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes.", "pos": 793557}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "He’s not going to die at once, I should think, is he?", "pos": 793564}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why?", "pos": 793620}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Oh, I don’t know. I’ve been half an hour here with him, and he—", "pos": 793627}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Do you know I am specially glad that today is your birthday!", "pos": 794723}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why?", "pos": 794803}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "You’ll soon see. D’you know I had a feeling that there would be a lot of people here tonight? It’s not the first time that my presentiments have been fulfilled. I wish I had known it was your birthday, I’d have brought you a present—perhaps I have got a present for you! Who knows? Ha, ha! How long is it now before daylight?", "pos": 794810}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "Not a couple of hours,", "pos": 795138}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What’s the good of daylight now? One can read all night in the open air without it,", "pos": 795199}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "The good of it! Well, I want just to see a ray of the sun. Can one drink to the sun’s health, do you think, prince?", "pos": 795299}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, I dare say one can; but you had better be calm and lie down, Hippolyte—that’s much more important.", "pos": 795435}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "You are always preaching about resting; you are a regular nurse to me, prince. As soon as the sun begins to ‘resound’ in the sky—what poet said that? ‘The sun resounded in the sky.’ It is beautiful, though there’s no sense in it!—then we will go to bed. Lebedeff, tell me, is the sun the source of life? What does the source, or ‘spring,’ of life really mean in the Apocalypse? You have heard of the ‘Star that is called Wormwood,’ prince?", "pos": 795540}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I have heard that Lebedeff explains it as the railroads that cover Europe like a net.", "pos": 795982}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "No! Allow me, that is not what we are discussing! Allow me! With these gentlemen... all these gentlemen, on certain points... that is... It is not right! Half an hour ago, prince, it was agreed among us that no one should interrupt, no one should laugh, that each person was to express his thoughts freely; and then at the end, when everyone had spoken, objections might be made, even by the atheists. We chose the general as president. Now without some such rule and order, anyone might be shouted down, even in the loftiest and most profound thought....", "pos": 796119}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Go on! Go on! Nobody is going to interrupt you!", "pos": 797046}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Speak, but keep to the point!", "pos": 797118}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What is this ‘star’?", "pos": 797150}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I have no idea,", "pos": 797188}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "I love these arguments, prince. Scientific and political. Do you know, I simply adore reading the accounts of the debates in the English parliament. Not that the discussions themselves interest me; I am not a politician, you know; but it delights me to see how they address each other ‘the noble lord who agrees with me,’ ‘my honourable opponent who astonished Europe with his proposal,’ ‘the noble viscount sitting opposite’—all these expressions, all this parliamentarism of a free people, has an enormous attraction for me. It fascinates me, prince. I have always been an artist in the depths of my soul, I assure you, Evgenie Pavlovitch.", "pos": 797263}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Do you mean to say, do you mean to say that railways are accursed inventions, that they are a source of ruin to humanity, a poison poured upon the earth to corrupt the springs of life?", "pos": 798064}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Not the railways, oh dear, no! Considered alone, the railways will not pollute the springs of life, but as a whole they are accursed. The whole tendency of our latest centuries, in its scientific and materialistic aspect, is most probably accursed.", "pos": 798529}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Is it certainly accursed?... or do you only mean it might be? That is an important point,", "pos": 798855}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "It is accursed, certainly accursed!", "pos": 798972}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "Don’t go so fast, Lebedeff; you are much milder in the morning,", "pos": 799041}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "But, on the other hand, more frank in the evening! In the evening sincere and frank. More candid, more exact, more honest, more honourable, and... although I may show you my weak side, I challenge you all; you atheists, for instance! How are you going to save the world? How find a straight road of progress, you men of science, of industry, of cooperation, of trades unions, and all the rest? How are you going to save it, I say? By what? By credit? What is credit? To what will credit lead you?", "pos": 799130}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "You are too inquisitive,", "pos": 799661}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, anyone who does not interest himself in questions such as this is, in my opinion, a mere fashionable dummy.", "pos": 799717}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "But it will lead at least to solidarity, and balance of interests,", "pos": 799833}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "You will reach that with nothing to help you but credit? Without recourse to any moral principle, having for your foundation only individual selfishness, and the satisfaction of material desires? Universal peace, and the happiness of mankind as a whole, being the result! Is it really so that I may understand you, sir?", "pos": 799916}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "But the universal necessity of living, of drinking, of eating—in short, the whole scientific conviction that this necessity can only be satisfied by universal co-operation and the solidarity of interests—is, it seems to me, a strong enough idea to serve as a basis, so to speak, and a ‘spring of life,’ for humanity in future centuries. The necessity of eating and drinking, that is to say, solely the instinct of self-preservation... Is not that enough? The instinct of self-preservation is the normal law of humanity...", "pos": 800238}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Who told you that?", "pos": 800818}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It is a law, doubtless, but a law neither more nor less normal than that of destruction, even self-destruction. Is it possible that the whole normal law of humanity is contained in this sentiment of self-preservation?", "pos": 800868}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Ah!", "pos": 801088}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "That is an artful and traitorous idea. A smart notion, thrown out as an apple of discord. But it is just. You are a scoffer, a man of the world, a cavalry officer, and, though not without brains, you do not realize how profound is your thought, nor how true. Yes, the laws of self-preservation and of self-destruction are equally powerful in this world. The devil will hold his empire over humanity until a limit of time which is still unknown. You laugh? You do not believe in the devil? Scepticism as to the devil is a French idea, and it is also a frivolous idea. Do you know who the devil is? Do you know his name? Although you don’t know his name you make a mockery of his form, following the example of Voltaire. You sneer at his hoofs, at his tail, at his horns—all of them the produce of your imagination! In reality the devil is a great and terrible spirit, with neither hoofs, nor tail, nor horns; it is you who have endowed him with these attributes! But... he is not the question just now!", "pos": 801740}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "How do you know he is not the question now?", "pos": 802769}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Another excellent idea, and worth considering! But, again, that is not the question. The question at this moment is whether we have not weakened ‘the springs of life’ by the extension...", "pos": 802855}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Of railways?", "pos": 803064}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Not railways, properly speaking, presumptuous youth, but the general tendency of which railways may be considered as the outward expression and symbol. We hurry and push and hustle, for the good of humanity! ‘The world is becoming too noisy, too commercial!’ groans some solitary thinker. ‘Undoubtedly it is, but the noise of waggons bearing bread to starving humanity is of more value than tranquillity of soul,’ replies another triumphantly, and passes on with an air of pride. As for me, I don’t believe in these waggons bringing bread to humanity. For, founded on no moral principle, these may well, even in the act of carrying bread to humanity, coldly exclude a considerable portion of humanity from enjoying it; that has been seen more than once.", "pos": 803101}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What, these waggons may coldly exclude?", "pos": 803857}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "That has been seen already. Malthus was a friend of humanity, but, with ill-founded moral principles, the friend of humanity is the devourer of humanity, without mentioning his pride; for, touch the vanity of one of these numberless philanthropists, and to avenge his self-esteem, he will be ready at once to set fire to the whole globe; and to tell the truth, we are all more or less like that. I, perhaps, might be the first to set a light to the fuel, and then run away. But, again, I must repeat, that is not the question.", "pos": 803917}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What is it then, for goodness’ sake?", "pos": 804509}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "He is boring us!", "pos": 804548}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "The question is connected with the following anecdote of past times; for I am obliged to relate a story. In our times, and in our country, which I hope you love as much as I do, for as far as I am concerned, I am ready to shed the last drop of my blood...", "pos": 804567}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Go on! Go on!", "pos": 804824}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "In our dear country, as indeed in the whole of Europe, a famine visits humanity about four times a century, as far as I can remember; once in every twenty-five years. I won’t swear to this being the exact figure, but anyhow they have become comparatively rare.", "pos": 804840}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Comparatively to what?", "pos": 805103}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "To the twelfth century, and those immediately preceding and following it. We are told by historians that widespread famines occurred in those days every two or three years, and such was the condition of things that men actually had recourse to cannibalism, in secret, of course. One of these cannibals, who had reached a good age, declared of his own free will that during the course of his long and miserable life he had personally killed and eaten, in the most profound secrecy, sixty monks, not to mention several children; the number of the latter he thought was about six, an insignificant total when compared with the enormous mass of ecclesiastics consumed by him. As to adults, laymen that is to say, he had never touched them.", "pos": 805128}
{"speaker": "president", "text": "That’s impossible! I am often discussing subjects of this nature with him, gentlemen, but for the most part he talks nonsense enough to make one deaf: this story has no pretence of being true.", "pos": 805910}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "General, remember the siege of Kars! And you, gentlemen, I assure you my anecdote is the naked truth. I may remark that reality, although it is governed by invariable law, has at times a resemblance to falsehood. In fact, the truer a thing is the less true it sounds.", "pos": 806137}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "But could anyone possibly eat sixty monks?", "pos": 806407}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "It is quite clear that he did not eat them all at once, but in a space of fifteen or twenty years: from that point of view the thing is comprehensible and natural...", "pos": 806485}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Natural?", "pos": 806653}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "And natural. Besides, a Catholic monk is by nature excessively curious; it would be quite easy therefore to entice him into a wood, or some secret place, on false pretences, and there to deal with him as said. But I do not dispute in the least that the number of persons consumed appears to denote a spice of greediness.", "pos": 806664}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It is perhaps true, gentlemen. It is true that there were frequent famines at that time, gentlemen. I have often heard of them, though I do not know much history. But it seems to me that it must have been so. When I was in Switzerland I used to look with astonishment at the many ruins of feudal castles perched on the top of steep and rocky heights, half a mile at least above sea-level, so that to reach them one had to climb many miles of stony tracks. A castle, as you know, is, a kind of mountain of stones—a dreadful, almost an impossible, labour! Doubtless the builders were all poor men, vassals, and had to pay heavy taxes, and to keep up the priesthood. How, then, could they provide for themselves, and when had they time to plough and sow their fields? The greater number must, literally, have died of starvation. I have sometimes asked myself how it was that these communities were not utterly swept off the face of the earth, and how they could possibly survive. Lebedeff is not mistaken, in my opinion, when he says that there were cannibals in those days, perhaps in considerable numbers; but I do not understand why he should have dragged in the monks, nor what he means by that.", "pos": 807032}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "It is undoubtedly because, in the twelfth century, monks were the only people one could eat; they were the fat, among many lean,", "pos": 808693}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "A brilliant idea, and most true! for he never even touched the laity. Sixty monks, and not a single layman! It is a terrible idea, but it is historic, it is statistic; it is indeed one of those facts which enables an intelligent historian to reconstruct the physiognomy of a special epoch, for it brings out this further point with mathematical accuracy, that the clergy were in those days sixty times richer and more flourishing than the rest of humanity and perhaps sixty times fatter also...", "pos": 808853}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You are exaggerating, you are exaggerating, Lebedeff!", "pos": 809368}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I admit that it is an historic thought, but what is your conclusion?", "pos": 809458}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Don’t you see he is a lunatic, prince? Someone told me just now that he is a bit touched on the subject of lawyers, that he has a mania for making speeches and intends to pass the examinations. I am expecting a splendid burlesque now.", "pos": 809729}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "My conclusion is vast. Let us examine first the psychological and legal position of the criminal. We see that in spite of the difficulty of finding other food, the accused, or, as we may say, my client, has often during his peculiar life exhibited signs of repentance, and of wishing to give up this clerical diet. Incontrovertible facts prove this assertion. He has eaten five or six children, a relatively insignificant number, no doubt, but remarkable enough from another point of view. It is manifest that, pricked by remorse—for my client is religious, in his way, and has a conscience, as I shall prove later—and desiring to extenuate his sin as far as possible, he has tried six times at least to substitute lay nourishment for clerical. That this was merely an experiment we can hardly doubt: for if it had been only a question of gastronomic variety, six would have been too few; why only six? Why not thirty? But if we regard it as an experiment, inspired by the fear of committing new sacrilege, then this number six becomes intelligible. Six attempts to calm his remorse, and the pricking of his conscience, would amply suffice, for these attempts could scarcely have been happy ones. In my humble opinion, a child is too small; I should say, not sufficient; which would result in four or five times more lay children than monks being required in a given time. The sin, lessened on the one hand, would therefore be increased on the other, in quantity, not in quality. Please understand, gentlemen, that in reasoning thus, I am taking the point of view which might have been taken by a criminal of the middle ages. As for myself, a man of the late nineteenth century, I, of course, should reason differently; I say so plainly, and therefore you need not jeer at me nor mock me, gentlemen. As for you, general, it is still more unbecoming on your part. In the second place, and giving my own personal opinion, a child’s flesh is not a satisfying diet; it is too insipid, too sweet; and the criminal, in making these experiments, could have satisfied neither his conscience nor his appetite. I am about to conclude, gentlemen; and my conclusion contains a reply to one of the most important questions of that day and of our own! This criminal ended at last by denouncing himself to the clergy, and giving himself up to justice. We cannot but ask, remembering the penal system of that day, and the tortures that awaited him—the wheel, the stake, the fire!—we cannot but ask, I repeat, what induced him to accuse himself of this crime? Why did he not simply stop short at the number sixty, and keep his secret until his last breath? Why could he not simply leave the monks alone, and go into the desert to repent? Or why not become a monk himself? That is where the puzzle comes in! There must have been something stronger than the stake or the fire, or even than the habits of twenty years! There must have been an idea more powerful than all the calamities and sorrows of this world, famine or torture, leprosy or plague—an idea which entered into the heart, directed and enlarged the springs of life, and made even that hell supportable to humanity! Show me a force, a power like that, in this our century of vices and railways! I might say, perhaps, in our century of steamboats and railways, but I repeat in our century of vices and railways, because I am drunk but truthful! Show me a single idea which unites men nowadays with half the strength that it had in those centuries, and dare to maintain that the ‘springs of life’ have not been polluted and weakened beneath this ‘star,’ beneath this network in which men are entangled! Don’t talk to me about your prosperity, your riches, the rarity of famine, the rapidity of the means of transport! There is more of riches, but less of force. The idea uniting heart and soul to heart and soul exists no more. All is loose, soft, limp—we are all of us limp.... Enough, gentlemen! I have done. That is not the question. No, the question is now, excellency, I believe, to sit down to the banquet you are about to provide for us!", "pos": 810009}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "That’s how a clever barrister makes a good point!", "pos": 814361}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "He attacks education, he boasts of the fanaticism of the twelfth century, he makes absurd grimaces, and added to that he is by no means the innocent he makes himself out to be. How did he get the money to buy this house, allow me to ask?", "pos": 814707}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I have known, a real interpreter of the Apocalypse, the late Gregory Semeonovitch Burmistroff, and he—he pierced the heart like a fiery flash! He began by putting on his spectacles, then he opened a large black book; his white beard, and his two medals on his breast, recalling acts of charity, all added to his impressiveness. He began in a stern voice, and before him generals, hard men of the world, bowed down, and ladies fell to the ground fainting. But this one here—he ends by announcing a banquet! That is not the real thing!", "pos": 815064}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Tell me, prince, why on earth did this boy intrude himself upon you? I wouldn’t mind laying odds that he is up to some mischief.", "pos": 816743}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I have observed, that he seems to be an object of very singular interest to you, Evgenie Pavlovitch. Why is it?", "pos": 816971}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "You may add that I have surely enough to think of, on my own account, without him; and therefore it is all the more surprising that I cannot tear my eyes and thoughts away from his detestable physiognomy.", "pos": 817104}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, come! He has a handsome face.", "pos": 817311}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Why, look at him—look at him now!", "pos": 817347}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "What! are they all off? Is it all over? Is the sun up? What time is it? Tell me, quick, for goodness’ sake! How long have I slept?", "pos": 817731}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "You have slept seven or perhaps eight minutes,", "pos": 818019}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Oh, is that all? Then I— So you counted the minutes while I slept, did you, Evgenie Pavlovitch? You have not taken your eyes off me all the evening—I have noticed that much, you see! Ah, Rogojin! I’ve just been dreaming about him, prince. Yes, by the by, where’s the orator? Where’s Lebedeff? Has he finished? What did he talk about? Is it true, prince, that you once declared that ‘beauty would save the world’? Great Heaven! The prince says that beauty saves the world! And I declare that he only has such playful ideas because he’s in love! Gentlemen, the prince is in love. I guessed it the moment he came in. Don’t blush, prince; you make me sorry for you. What beauty saves the world? Colia told me that you are a zealous Christian; is it so? Colia says you call yourself a Christian. You don’t answer me; perhaps you think I am very fond of you? What, after yesterday? Wasn’t I honest with you? Why so? why so? Because I envy you, eh? You always think that, I know. But do you know why I am saying all this? Look here! I must have some more champagne—pour me out some, Keller, will you? No, you’re not to drink any more, Hippolyte. I won’t let you. Well perhaps you’re right. They might say—yet, devil take them! what does it matter?—prince, what can it matter what people will say of us then, eh? I believe I’m half asleep. I’ve had such a dreadful dream—I’ve only just remembered it. Prince, I don’t wish you such dreams as that, though sure enough, perhaps, I don’t love you. Why wish a man evil, though you do not love him, eh? Give me your hand—let me press it sincerely. There—you’ve given me your hand—you must feel that I do press it sincerely, don’t you? I don’t think I shall drink any more. What time is it? Never mind, I know the time. The time has come, at all events. What! they are laying supper over there, are they? Then this table is free? Capital, gentlemen! I—hem! these gentlemen are not listening. Prince, I will just read over an article I have here. Supper is more interesting, of course, but—", "pos": 818161}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "What have you got there?", "pos": 821299}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why should you suppose it of us? And what are you going to read, Hippolyte? What is it?", "pos": 821731}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "I wrote this yesterday, myself, just after I saw you, prince, and told you I would come down here. I wrote all day and all night, and finished it this morning early. Afterwards I had a dream.", "pos": 821941}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Hadn’t we better hear it tomorrow?", "pos": 822135}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Tomorrow ‘there will be no more time!’ You needn’t be afraid; I shall get through the whole thing in forty minutes, at most an hour! Look how interested everybody is! Everybody has drawn near. Look! look at them all staring at my sealed packet! If I hadn’t sealed it up it wouldn’t have been half so effective! Ha, ha! that’s mystery, that is! Now then, gentlemen, shall I break the seal or not? Say the word; it’s a mystery, I tell you—a secret! Prince, you know who said there would be ‘no more time’? It was the great and powerful angel in the Apocalypse.", "pos": 822198}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Better not read it now,", "pos": 822794}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "No, don’t read it!", "pos": 822869}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Reading? None of your reading now!", "pos": 823002}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "it’s supper-time.", "pos": 823054}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What sort of an article is it?", "pos": 823074}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "For a paper?", "pos": 823105}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Probably it’s very dull,", "pos": 823118}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Then I’m not to read it? Am I not to read it? What are you afraid of, prince?", "pos": 823220}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What should I be afraid of?", "pos": 823419}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Has anyone a coin about them? Give me a twenty-copeck piece, somebody! Here you are, toss it, will you? Heads, I read, tails, I don’t. Then I read it. But after all, what is it? Is it possible that I should have just risked my fate by tossing up? That is an astonishing psychological fact. It is... it is something quite inconceivable, prince. Take note of it, prince, remember it; you collect, I am told, facts concerning capital punishment... They told me so. Ha, ha! My God, how absurd! It is shameful—though what does it matter to me if it is shameful? Gentlemen, gentlemen! I am about to break the seal. I—I—of course I don’t insist upon anyone listening if they do not wish to.", "pos": 823449}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Gentlemen, this—you’ll soon see what this is. It’s headed, ‘A Necessary Explanation,’ with the motto, ‘Après moi le déluge!’ Oh, deuce take it all! Surely I can never have seriously written such a silly motto as that? Look here, gentlemen, I beg to give notice that all this is very likely terrible nonsense. It is only a few ideas of mine. If you think that there is anything mysterious coming—or in a word—", "pos": 825493}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Better read on without any more beating about the bush,", "pos": 825959}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Affectation!", "pos": 826029}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Too much talk. That’s not the way to settle this business, my friend; that’s not the way at all.", "pos": 826067}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Then it was you who came—you—you?", "pos": 826849}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Came where? What do you mean?", "pos": 826885}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "You came to me last week, in the night, at two o’clock, the day I was with you in the morning! Confess it was you!", "pos": 827019}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Last week? In the night? Have you gone cracked, my good friend?", "pos": 827136}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "It was you. Yes, it was you who came to my room and sat silently on a chair at my window for a whole hour—more! It was between one and two at night; you rose and went out at about three. It was you, you! Why you should have frightened me so, why you should have wished to torment me like that, I cannot tell—but you it was. You shall hear all this directly, gentlemen. I—I—listen!", "pos": 827301}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "He’s either mad or delirious,", "pos": 828029}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "MY NECESSARY EXPLANATION. Après moi le déluge. Yesterday morning the prince came to see me. Among other things he asked me to come down to his villa. I knew he would come and persuade me to this step, and that he would adduce the argument that it would be easier for me to die ‘among people and green trees,’—as he expressed it. But today he did not say ‘die,’ he said ‘live.’ It is pretty much the same to me, in my position, which he says. When I asked him why he made such a point of his ‘green trees,’ he told me, to my astonishment, that he had heard that last time I was in Pavlofsk I had said that I had come ‘to have a last look at the trees.’ When I observed that it was all the same whether one died among trees or in front of a blank brick wall, as here, and that it was not worth making any fuss over a fortnight, he agreed at once. But he insisted that the good air at Pavlofsk and the greenness would certainly cause a physical change for the better, and that my excitement, and my dreams, would be perhaps relieved. I remarked to him, with a smile, that he spoke like a materialist, and he answered that he had always been one. As he never tells a lie, there must be something in his words. His smile is a pleasant one. I have had a good look at him. I don’t know whether I like him or not; and I have no time to waste over the question. The hatred which I felt for him for five months has become considerably modified, I may say, during the last month. Who knows, perhaps I am going to Pavlofsk on purpose to see him! But why do I leave my chamber? Those who are sentenced to death should not leave their cells. If I had not formed a final resolve, but had decided to wait until the last minute, I should not leave my room, or accept his invitation to come and die at Pavlofsk. I must be quick and finish this explanation before tomorrow. I shall have no time to read it over and correct it, for I must read it tomorrow to the prince and two or three witnesses whom I shall probably find there. As it will be absolutely true, without a touch of falsehood, I am curious to see what impression it will make upon me myself at the moment when I read it out. This is my ‘last and solemn’—but why need I call it that? There is no question about the truth of it, for it is not worthwhile lying for a fortnight; a fortnight of life is not itself worth having, which is a proof that I write nothing here but pure truth. Let me remember to consider; am I mad at this moment, or not? or rather at these moments? I have been told that consumptives sometimes do go out of their minds for a while in the last stages of the malady. I can prove this tomorrow when I read it out, by the impression it makes upon the audience. I must settle this question once and for all, otherwise I can’t go on with anything. I believe I have just written dreadful nonsense; but there’s no time for correcting, as I said before. Besides that, I have made myself a promise not to alter a single word of what I write in this paper, even though I find that I am contradicting myself every five lines. I wish to verify the working of the natural logic of my ideas tomorrow during the reading—whether I am capable of detecting logical errors, and whether all that I have meditated over during the last six months be true, or nothing but delirium. If two months since I had been called upon to leave my room and the view of Meyer’s wall opposite, I verily believe I should have been sorry. But now I have no such feeling, and yet I am leaving this room and Meyer’s brick wall for ever. So that my conclusion, that it is not worth while indulging in grief, or any other emotion, for a fortnight, has proved stronger than my very nature, and has taken over the direction of my feelings. But is it so? Is it the case that my nature is conquered entirely? If I were to be put on the rack now, I should certainly cry out. I should not say that it is not worth while to yell and feel pain because I have but a fortnight to live. But is it true that I have but a fortnight of life left to me? I know I told some of my friends that Doctor B. had informed me that this was the case; but I now confess that I lied; B. has not even seen me. However, a week ago, I called in a medical student, Kislorodoff, who is a Nationalist, an Atheist, and a Nihilist, by conviction, and that is why I had him. I needed a man who would tell me the bare truth without any humbug or ceremony—and so he did—indeed, almost with pleasure (which I thought was going a little too far). Well, he plumped out that I had about a month left me; it might be a little more, he said, under favourable circumstances, but it might also be considerably less. According to his opinion I might die quite suddenly—tomorrow, for instance—there had been such cases. Only a day or two since a young lady at Colomna who suffered from consumption, and was about on a par with myself in the march of the disease, was going out to market to buy provisions, when she suddenly felt faint, lay down on the sofa, gasped once, and died. Kislorodoff told me all this with a sort of exaggerated devil-may-care negligence, and as though he did me great honour by talking to me so, because it showed that he considered me the same sort of exalted Nihilistic being as himself, to whom death was a matter of no consequence whatever, either way. At all events, the fact remained—a month of life and no more! That he is right in his estimation I am absolutely persuaded.", "pos": 828495}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Gentlemen!", "pos": 838779}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "You have indeed!", "pos": 838945}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Yes, you certainly think a great deal too much about yourself.", "pos": 839119}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Well—gentlemen—I do not force anyone to listen! If any of you are unwilling to sit it out, please go away, by all means!", "pos": 839201}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "He turns people out of a house that isn’t his own,", "pos": 839324}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Suppose we all go away?", "pos": 839395}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "You don’t like me at all!", "pos": 839542}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Hippolyte, give me the papers, and go to bed like a sensible fellow. We’ll have a good talk tomorrow, but you really mustn’t go on with this reading; it is not good for you!", "pos": 839606}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "How can I? How can I? Gentlemen! I was a fool! I won’t break off again. Listen, everyone who wants to! The idea that it is not worth while living for a few weeks took possession of me a month ago, when I was told that I had four weeks to live, but only partially so at that time. The idea quite overmastered me three days since, that evening at Pavlofsk. The first time that I felt really impressed with this thought was on the terrace at the prince’s, at the very moment when I had taken it into my head to make a last trial of life. I wanted to see people and trees (I believe I said so myself), I got excited, I maintained Burdovsky’s rights, ‘my neighbour!’—I dreamt that one and all would open their arms, and embrace me, that there would be an indescribable exchange of forgiveness between us all! In a word, I behaved like a fool, and then, at that very same instant, I felt my ‘last conviction.’ I ask myself now how I could have waited six months for that conviction! I knew that I had a disease that spares no one, and I really had no illusions; but the more I realized my condition, the more I clung to life; I wanted to live at any price. I confess I might well have resented that blind, deaf fate, which, with no apparent reason, seemed to have decided to crush me like a fly; but why did I not stop at resentment? Why did I begin to live, knowing that it was not worthwhile to begin? Why did I attempt to do what I knew to be an impossibility? And yet I could not even read a book to the end; I had given up reading. What is the good of reading, what is the good of learning anything, for just six months? That thought has made me throw aside a book more than once. Yes, that wall of Meyer’s could tell a tale if it liked. There was no spot on its dirty surface that I did not know by heart. Accursed wall! and yet it is dearer to me than all the Pavlofsk trees!—That is—it would be dearer if it were not all the same to me, now! I remember now with what hungry interest I began to watch the lives of other people—interest that I had never felt before! I used to wait for Colia’s arrival impatiently, for I was so ill myself, then, that I could not leave the house. I so threw myself into every little detail of news, and took so much interest in every report and rumour, that I believe I became a regular gossip! I could not understand, among other things, how all these people—with so much life in and before them—do not become rich—and I don’t understand it now. I remember being told of a poor wretch I once knew, who had died of hunger. I was almost beside myself with rage! I believe if I could have resuscitated him I would have done so for the sole purpose of murdering him! Occasionally I was so much better that I could go out; but the streets used to put me in such a rage that I would lock myself up for days rather than go out, even if I were well enough to do so! I could not bear to see all those preoccupied, anxious-looking creatures continuously surging along the streets past me! Why are they always anxious? What is the meaning of their eternal care and worry? It is their wickedness, their perpetual detestable malice—that’s what it is—they are all full of malice, malice! Whose fault is it that they are all miserable, that they don’t know how to live, though they have fifty or sixty years of life before them? Why did that fool allow himself to die of hunger with sixty years of unlived life before him? And everyone of them shows his rags, his toil-worn hands, and yells in his wrath: ‘Here are we, working like cattle all our lives, and always as hungry as dogs, and there are others who do not work, and are fat and rich!’ The eternal refrain! And side by side with them trots along some wretched fellow who has known better days, doing light porter’s work from morn to night for a living, always blubbering and saying that ‘his wife died because he had no money to buy medicine with,’ and his children dying of cold and hunger, and his eldest daughter gone to the bad, and so on. Oh! I have no pity and no patience for these fools of people. Why can’t they be Rothschilds? Whose fault is it that a man has not got millions of money like Rothschild? If he has life, all this must be in his power! Whose fault is it that he does not know how to live his life? Oh! it’s all the same to me now—now! But at that time I would soak my pillow at night with tears of mortification, and tear at my blanket in my rage and fury. Oh, how I longed at that time to be turned out—me, eighteen years old, poor, half-clothed, turned out into the street, quite alone, without lodging, without work, without a crust of bread, without relations, without a single acquaintance, in some large town—hungry, beaten (if you like), but in good health—and then I would show them— What would I show them? Oh, don’t think that I have no sense of my own humiliation! I have suffered already in reading so far. Which of you all does not think me a fool at this moment—a young fool who knows nothing of life—forgetting that to live as I have lived these last six months is to live longer than grey-haired old men. Well, let them laugh, and say it is all nonsense, if they please. They may say it is all fairy-tales, if they like; and I have spent whole nights telling myself fairy-tales. I remember them all. But how can I tell fairy-tales now? The time for them is over. They amused me when I found that there was not even time for me to learn the Greek grammar, as I wanted to do. ‘I shall die before I get to the syntax,’ I thought at the first page—and threw the book under the table. It is there still, for I forbade anyone to pick it up. If this ‘Explanation’ gets into anybody’s hands, and they have patience to read it through, they may consider me a madman, or a schoolboy, or, more likely, a man condemned to die, who thought it only natural to conclude that all men, excepting himself, esteem life far too lightly, live it far too carelessly and lazily, and are, therefore, one and all, unworthy of it. Well, I affirm that my reader is wrong again, for my convictions have nothing to do with my sentence of death. Ask them, ask any one of them, or all of them, what they mean by happiness! Oh, you may be perfectly sure that if Columbus was happy, it was not after he had discovered America, but when he was discovering it! You may be quite sure that he reached the culminating point of his happiness three days before he saw the New World with his actual eyes, when his mutinous sailors wanted to tack about, and return to Europe! What did the New World matter after all? Columbus had hardly seen it when he died, and in reality he was entirely ignorant of what he had discovered. The important thing is life—life and nothing else! What is any ‘discovery’ whatever compared with the incessant, eternal discovery of life? But what is the use of talking? I’m afraid all this is so commonplace that my confession will be taken for a schoolboy exercise—the work of some ambitious lad writing in the hope of his work ‘seeing the light’; or perhaps my readers will say that ‘I had perhaps something to say, but did not know how to express it.’ Let me add to this that in every idea emanating from genius, or even in every serious human idea—born in the human brain—there always remains something—some sediment—which cannot be expressed to others, though one wrote volumes and lectured upon it for five-and-thirty years. There is always a something, a remnant, which will never come out from your brain, but will remain there with you, and you alone, for ever and ever, and you will die, perhaps, without having imparted what may be the very essence of your idea to a single living soul. So that if I cannot now impart all that has tormented me for the last six months, at all events you will understand that, having reached my ‘last convictions,’ I must have paid a very dear price for them. That is what I wished, for reasons of my own, to make a point of in this my ‘Explanation.’ But let me resume. I will not deceive you. ‘Reality’ got me so entrapped in its meshes now and again during the past six months, that I forgot my ‘sentence’ (or perhaps I did not wish to think of it), and actually busied myself with affairs. A word as to my circumstances. When, eight months since, I became very ill, I threw up all my old connections and dropped all my old companions. As I was always a gloomy, morose sort of individual, my friends easily forgot me; of course, they would have forgotten me all the same, without that excuse. My position at home was solitary enough. Five months ago I separated myself entirely from the family, and no one dared enter my room except at stated times, to clean and tidy it, and so on, and to bring me my meals. My mother dared not disobey me; she kept the children quiet, for my sake, and beat them if they dared to make any noise and disturb me. I so often complained of them that I should think they must be very fond, indeed, of me by this time. I think I must have tormented ‘my faithful Colia’ (as I called him) a good deal too. He tormented me of late; I could see that he always bore my tempers as though he had determined to ‘spare the poor invalid.’ This annoyed me, naturally. He seemed to have taken it into his head to imitate the prince in Christian meekness! Surikoff, who lived above us, annoyed me, too. He was so miserably poor, and I used to prove to him that he had no one to blame but himself for his poverty. I used to be so angry that I think I frightened him eventually, for he stopped coming to see me. He was a most meek and humble fellow, was Surikoff. (N.B.—They say that meekness is a great power. I must ask the prince about this, for the expression is his.) But I remember one day in March, when I went up to his lodgings to see whether it was true that one of his children had been starved and frozen to death, I began to hold forth to him about his poverty being his own fault, and, in the course of my remarks, I accidentally smiled at the corpse of his child. Well, the poor wretch’s lips began to tremble, and he caught me by the shoulder, and pushed me to the door. ‘Go out,’ he said, in a whisper. I went out, of course, and I declare I liked it. I liked it at the very moment when I was turned out. But his words filled me with a strange sort of feeling of disdainful pity for him whenever I thought of them—a feeling which I did not in the least desire to entertain. At the very moment of the insult (for I admit that I did insult him, though I did not mean to), this man could not lose his temper. His lips had trembled, but I swear it was not with rage. He had taken me by the arm, and said, ‘Go out,’ without the least anger. There was dignity, a great deal of dignity, about him, and it was so inconsistent with the look of him that, I assure you, it was quite comical. But there was no anger. Perhaps he merely began to despise me at that moment.", "pos": 839801}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Since that time he has always taken off his hat to me on the stairs, whenever I met him, which is a thing he never did before; but he always gets away from me as quickly as he can, as though he felt confused. If he did despise me, he despised me ‘meekly,’ after his own fashion.", "pos": 850948}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I dare say he only took his hat off out of fear, as it were, to the son of his creditor; for he always owed my mother money. I thought of having an explanation with him, but I knew that if I did, he would begin to apologize in a minute or two, so I decided to let him alone.", "pos": 851228}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Just about that time, that is, the middle of March, I suddenly felt very much better; this continued for a couple of weeks. I used to go out at dusk. I like the dusk, especially in March, when the night frost begins to harden the day’s puddles, and the gas is burning.", "pos": 851504}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, one night in the Shestilavochnaya, a man passed me with a paper parcel under his arm. I did not take stock of him very carefully, but he seemed to be dressed in some shabby summer dust-coat, much too light for the season. When he was opposite the lamp-post, some ten yards away, I observed something fall out of his pocket. I hurried forward to pick it up, just in time, for an old wretch in a long kaftan rushed up too. He did not dispute the matter, but glanced at what was in my hand and disappeared.", "pos": 851774}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It was a large old-fashioned pocket-book, stuffed full; but I guessed, at a glance, that it had anything in the world inside it, except money.", "pos": 852285}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "When I entered the yard I thought I saw a man going along on the far side of it; but it was so dark I could not make out his figure.", "pos": 852881}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "This was still smaller than the other, so cramped that I could scarcely turn round; a narrow single bed at one side took up nearly all the room. Besides the bed there were only three common chairs, and a wretched old kitchen-table standing before a small sofa. One could hardly squeeze through between the table and the bed.", "pos": 854181}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "On the table, as in the other room, burned a tallow candle-end in an iron candlestick; and on the bed there whined a baby of scarcely three weeks old. A pale-looking woman was dressing the child, probably the mother; she looked as though she had not as yet got over the trouble of childbirth, she seemed so weak and was so carelessly dressed. Another child, a little girl of about three years old, lay on the sofa, covered over with what looked like a man’s old dress-coat.", "pos": 854507}
{"speaker": "The Doctor", "text": "How dare you come in so? Be off!", "pos": 857321}
{"speaker": "Terentieff", "text": "I think you dropped this,", "pos": 857499}
{"speaker": "The Doctor", "text": "My God! where did you find it? How? Gracious Heaven! all our papers are in it! My dear sir, you little know what you have done for us. I should have been lost—lost!", "pos": 857807}
{"speaker": "The Doctor", "text": "I’m afraid you are ill? I am myself a medical man I see that you—", "pos": 858848}
{"speaker": "Terentieff", "text": "I’m in consumption,", "pos": 859137}
{"speaker": "The Doctor", "text": "Perhaps you are exaggerating—if you were to take proper measures perhaps—", "pos": 859221}
{"speaker": "Terentieff", "text": "Oh, don’t mind me. Dr. B—— saw me last week and my hash is quite settled; pardon me—", "pos": 859423}
{"speaker": "The Doctor", "text": "If I—", "pos": 860165}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I—I am so very grateful to you, and I am so much to blame in your eyes, I feel sure, I—you see—", "pos": 860256}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "at this moment I am in such a position—", "pos": 860385}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh!", "pos": 860428}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "there’s nothing to see; it’s quite a clear case—you’ve lost your post and have come up to make explanations and get another, if you can!", "pos": 860442}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "How do you know that?", "pos": 860582}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, it was evident at the first glance,", "pos": 860630}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "There are lots of people who come up from the provinces full of hope, and run about town, and have to live as best they can.", "pos": 860717}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I have jotted down your name,", "pos": 862491}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "and all the rest of it—the place you served at, the district, the date, and all. I have a friend, Bachmatoff, whose uncle is a councillor of state and has to do with these matters, one Peter Matveyevitch Bachmatoff.", "pos": 862535}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Peter Matveyevitch Bachmatoff!", "pos": 862754}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Why, nearly everything depends on that very man!", "pos": 862833}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "If only they would allow me to explain all to his excellency! If I could but be permitted to tell my tale to him!", "pos": 863507}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I’ll do it—I’ll do it, of course!", "pos": 865772}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I shall attack my uncle about it tomorrow morning, and I’m very glad you told me the story. But how was it that you thought of coming to me about it, Terentieff?", "pos": 865817}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "So much depends upon your uncle,", "pos": 865982}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And besides we have always been enemies, Bachmatoff; and as you are a generous sort of fellow, I thought you would not refuse my request because I was your enemy!", "pos": 866025}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Like Napoleon going to England, eh?", "pos": 866211}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I’ll do it though—of course, and at once, if I can!", "pos": 866269}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "In Moscow,", "pos": 867259}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "He scarcely ever talked about the particular crimes of any of them, but listened if any volunteered information on that point. All the convicts were equal for him, and he made no distinction. He spoke to all as to brothers, and every one of them looked upon him as a father. When he observed among the exiles some poor woman with a child, he would always come forward and fondle the little one, and make it laugh. He continued these acts of mercy up to his very death; and by that time all the criminals, all over Russia and Siberia, knew him!", "pos": 867997}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "A man I knew who had been to Siberia and returned, told me that he himself had been a witness of how the very most hardened criminals remembered the old general, though, in point of fact, he could never, of course, have distributed more than a few pence to each member of a party. Their recollection of him was not sentimental or particularly devoted. Some wretch, for instance, who had been a murderer—cutting the throat of a dozen fellow-creatures, for instance; or stabbing six little children for his own amusement (there have been such men!)—would perhaps, without rhyme or reason, suddenly give a sigh and say, “I wonder whether that old general is alive still!” Although perhaps he had not thought of mentioning him for a dozen years before! How can one say what seed of good may have been dropped into his soul, never to die?", "pos": 868543}
{"speaker": "Bachmatoff", "text": "And to think that you are to be cut off from life!", "pos": 869623}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Do you know what has suddenly come into my head?", "pos": 869880}
{"speaker": "Bachmatoff", "text": "Surely not to throw yourself into the river?", "pos": 869992}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, not yet. At present nothing but the following consideration. You see I have some two or three months left me to live—perhaps four; well, supposing that when I have but a month or two more, I take a fancy for some “good deed” that needs both trouble and time, like this business of our doctor friend, for instance: why, I shall have to give up the idea of it and take to something else—some little good deed, more within my means, eh? Isn’t that an amusing idea!", "pos": 870106}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "It was impossible for me to go on living when life was full of such detestable, strange, tormenting forms. This ghost had humiliated me;—nor could I bear to be subordinate to that dark, horrible force which was embodied in the form of the loathsome insect. It was only towards evening, when I had quite made up my mind on this point, that I began to feel easier. I had a small pocket pistol. I had procured it while still a boy, at that droll age when the stories of duels and highwaymen begin to delight one, and when one imagines oneself nobly standing fire at some future day, in a duel. There were a couple of old bullets in the bag which contained the pistol, and powder enough in an old flask for two or three charges. The pistol was a wretched thing, very crooked and wouldn’t carry farther than fifteen paces at the most. However, it would send your skull flying well enough if you pressed the muzzle of it against your temple. I determined to die at Pavlofsk at sunrise, in the park—so as to make no commotion in the house. This ‘explanation’ will make the matter clear enough to the police. Students of psychology, and anyone else who likes, may make what they please of it. I should not like this paper, however, to be made public. I request the prince to keep a copy himself, and to give a copy to Aglaya Ivanovna Epanchin. This is my last will and testament. As for my skeleton, I bequeath it to the Medical Academy for the benefit of science. I recognize no jurisdiction over myself, and I know that I am now beyond the power of laws and judges. A little while ago a very amusing idea struck me. What if I were now to commit some terrible crime—murder ten fellow-creatures, for instance, or anything else that is thought most shocking and dreadful in this world—what a dilemma my judges would be in, with a criminal who only has a fortnight to live in any case, now that the rack and other forms of torture are abolished! Why, I should die comfortably in their own hospital—in a warm, clean room, with an attentive doctor—probably much more comfortably than I should at home. I don’t understand why people in my position do not oftener indulge in such ideas—if only for a joke! Perhaps they do! Who knows! There are plenty of merry souls among us! But though I do not recognize any jurisdiction over myself, still I know that I shall be judged, when I am nothing but a voiceless lump of clay; therefore I do not wish to go before I have left a word of reply—the reply of a free man—not one forced to justify himself—oh no! I have no need to ask forgiveness of anyone. I wish to say a word merely because I happen to desire it of my own free will. Here, in the first place, comes a strange thought! Who, in the name of what Law, would think of disputing my full personal right over the fortnight of life left to me? What jurisdiction can be brought to bear upon the case? Who would wish me, not only to be sentenced, but to endure the sentence to the end? Surely there exists no man who would wish such a thing—why should anyone desire it? For the sake of morality? Well, I can understand that if I were to make an attempt upon my own life while in the enjoyment of full health and vigour—my life which might have been ‘useful,’ etc., etc.—morality might reproach me, according to the old routine, for disposing of my life without permission—or whatever its tenet may be. But now, now, when my sentence is out and my days numbered! How can morality have need of my last breaths, and why should I die listening to the consolations offered by the prince, who, without doubt, would not omit to demonstrate that death is actually a benefactor to me? (Christians like him always end up with that—it is their pet theory.) And what do they want with their ridiculous ‘Pavlofsk trees’? To sweeten my last hours? Cannot they understand that the more I forget myself, the more I let myself become attached to these last illusions of life and love, by means of which they try to hide from me Meyer’s wall, and all that is so plainly written on it—the more unhappy they make me? What is the use of all your nature to me—all your parks and trees, your sunsets and sunrises, your blue skies and your self-satisfied faces—when all this wealth of beauty and happiness begins with the fact that it accounts me—only me—one too many! What is the good of all this beauty and glory to me, when every second, every moment, I cannot but be aware that this little fly which buzzes around my head in the sun’s rays—even this little fly is a sharer and participator in all the glory of the universe, and knows its place and is happy in it;—while I—only I, am an outcast, and have been blind to the fact hitherto, thanks to my simplicity! Oh! I know well how the prince and others would like me, instead of indulging in all these wicked words of my own, to sing, to the glory and triumph of morality, that well-known verse of Gilbert’s: O, puissent voir longtemps votre beauté sacrée Tant d’amis, sourds à mes adieux! Qu’ils meurent pleins de jours, que leur mort soit pleurée, Qu’un ami leur ferme les yeux! But believe me, believe me, my simple-hearted friends, that in this highly moral verse, in this academical blessing to the world in general in the French language, is hidden the intensest gall and bitterness; but so well concealed is the venom, that I dare say the poet actually persuaded himself that his words were full of the tears of pardon and peace, instead of the bitterness of disappointment and malice, and so died in the delusion. Do you know there is a limit of ignominy, beyond which man’s consciousness of shame cannot go, and after which begins satisfaction in shame? Well, of course humility is a great force in that sense, I admit that—though not in the sense in which religion accounts humility to be strength! Religion!—I admit eternal life—and perhaps I always did admit it. Admitted that consciousness is called into existence by the will of a Higher Power; admitted that this consciousness looks out upon the world and says ‘I am;’ and admitted that the Higher Power wills that the consciousness so called into existence, be suddenly extinguished (for so—for some unexplained reason—it is and must be)—still there comes the eternal question—why must I be humble through all this? Is it not enough that I am devoured, without my being expected to bless the power that devours me? Surely—surely I need not suppose that Somebody—there—will be offended because I do not wish to live out the fortnight allowed me? I don’t believe it. It is much simpler, and far more likely, to believe that my death is needed—the death of an insignificant atom—in order to fulfil the general harmony of the universe—in order to make even some plus or minus in the sum of existence. Just as every day the death of numbers of beings is necessary because without their annihilation the rest cannot live on—(although we must admit that the idea is not a particularly grand one in itself!) However—admit the fact! Admit that without such perpetual devouring of one another the world cannot continue to exist, or could never have been organized—I am ever ready to confess that I cannot understand why this is so—but I’ll tell you what I do know, for certain. If I have once been given to understand and realize that I am—what does it matter to me that the world is organized on a system full of errors and that otherwise it cannot be organized at all? Who will or can judge me after this? Say what you like—the thing is impossible and unjust! And meanwhile I have never been able, in spite of my great desire to do so, to persuade myself that there is no future existence, and no Providence. The fact of the matter is that all this does exist, but that we know absolutely nothing about the future life and its laws! But it is so difficult, and even impossible to understand, that surely I am not to be blamed because I could not fathom the incomprehensible? Of course I know they say that one must be obedient, and of course, too, the prince is one of those who say so: that one must be obedient without questions, out of pure goodness of heart, and that for my worthy conduct in this matter I shall meet with reward in another world. We degrade God when we attribute our own ideas to Him, out of annoyance that we cannot fathom His ways. Again, I repeat, I cannot be blamed because I am unable to understand that which it is not given to mankind to fathom. Why am I to be judged because I could not comprehend the Will and Laws of Providence? No, we had better drop religion. And enough of this. By the time I have got so far in the reading of my document the sun will be up and the huge force of his rays will be acting upon the living world. So be it. I shall die gazing straight at the great Fountain of life and power; I do not want this life! If I had had the power to prevent my own birth I should certainly never have consented to accept existence under such ridiculous conditions. However, I have the power to end my existence, although I do but give back days that are already numbered. It is an insignificant gift, and my revolt is equally insignificant. Final explanation: I die, not in the least because I am unable to support these next three weeks. Oh no, I should find strength enough, and if I wished it I could obtain consolation from the thought of the injury that is done me. But I am not a French poet, and I do not desire such consolation. And finally, nature has so limited my capacity for work or activity of any kind, in allotting me but three weeks of time, that suicide is about the only thing left that I can begin and end in the time of my own free will. Perhaps then I am anxious to take advantage of my last chance of doing something for myself. A protest is sometimes no small thing.", "pos": 885278}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "The sun is rising. See, it is rising now!", "pos": 896181}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "Well, what then? Did you suppose it wasn’t going to rise?", "pos": 896312}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "It’s going to be atrociously hot again all day. A month of this... Are you coming home, Ptitsin?", "pos": 896391}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "You manage your composure too awkwardly. I see you wish to insult me. You—you are a cur! I understand, gentlemen, that I have deserved your resentment, and—and am sorry that I should have troubled you with this raving nonsense or rather, I am sorry that I have not troubled you enough. Have I troubled you, Evgenie Pavlovitch? Tell me now, have I troubled you or not?", "pos": 896667}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Well, it was a little drawn out, perhaps; but—", "pos": 897452}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Good-night, prince,", "pos": 897747}
{"speaker": "Vera Lebedeff", "text": "What are you thinking of? Don’t go, he’ll blow his brains out in a minute! What are you thinking of? He said he would blow his brains out at sunrise.", "pos": 897805}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Just look at him! Prince, what are you thinking of?", "pos": 898210}
{"speaker": "Burdovsky", "text": "He has the right—the right—", "pos": 898366}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "What do you mean by ‘arrangements’? No, no, excuse me! I’m master of this house, though I do not wish to lack respect towards you. You are master of the house too, in a way; but I can’t allow this sort of thing—", "pos": 898530}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "He won’t shoot himself; the boy is only playing the fool,", "pos": 898746}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "I think you remark in that manuscript of yours, that you bequeath your skeleton to the Academy. Are you referring to your own skeleton—I mean, your very bones?", "pos": 899066}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Yes, my bones, I—", "pos": 899228}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "Quite so, I see; because, you know, little mistakes have occurred now and then. There was a case—", "pos": 899248}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why do you tease him?", "pos": 899348}
{"speaker": "Ferdishenko", "text": "You’ve moved him to tears,", "pos": 899400}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "but did you observe the young gentleman’s style? ‘I’ll go and blow my brains out in the park,’ says he, ‘so as not to disturb anyone.’ He thinks he won’t disturb anybody if he goes three yards away, into the park, and blows his brains out there.", "pos": 900899}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Gentlemen—", "pos": 901147}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Since you must have observed yourself that this is no joke, and since at least half your guests must also have concluded that after all that has been said this youth must blow his brains out for honour’s sake—I—as master of this house, and before these witnesses, now call upon you to take steps.", "pos": 901253}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, but what am I to do, Lebedeff? What steps am I to take? I am ready.", "pos": 901552}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I’ll tell you. In the first place he must immediately deliver up the pistol which he boasted of, with all its appurtenances. If he does this I shall consent to his being allowed to spend the night in this house—considering his feeble state of health, and of course conditionally upon his being under proper supervision. But tomorrow he must go elsewhere. Excuse me, prince! Should he refuse to deliver up his weapon, then I shall instantly seize one of his arms and General Ivolgin the other, and we shall hold him until the police arrive and take the matter into their own hands. Mr. Ferdishenko will kindly fetch them.", "pos": 901627}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Prince, you don’t suppose that I did not foresee all this hatred? Enough! It’s all my fault, gentlemen! Lebedeff, here’s the key, this one, the last but one—Colia will show you—Colia, where’s Colia? Yes, he’ll show you; he packed the bag with me this morning. Take him up, Colia; my bag is upstairs in the prince’s study, under the table. Here’s the key, and in the little case you’ll find my pistol and the powder, and all. Colia packed it himself, Mr. Lebedeff; he’ll show you; but it’s on condition that tomorrow morning, when I leave for Petersburg, you will give me back my pistol, do you hear? I do this for the prince’s sake, not yours.", "pos": 902500}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Capital, that’s much better!", "pos": 903438}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "What brutes they all are!", "pos": 903757}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Let them alone, you’re too weak now—", "pos": 903861}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Yes, directly; I’ll go away directly. I’ll— Perhaps you think I am mad, eh?", "pos": 903900}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, but you—", "pos": 904050}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Directly, directly! Stand still a moment, I wish to look in your eyes; don’t speak—stand so—let me look at you! I am bidding farewell to mankind.", "pos": 904065}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Hippolyte, Hippolyte, what is the matter with you?", "pos": 904401}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Directly! There, that’s enough. I’ll lie down directly. I must drink to the sun’s health. I wish to—I insist upon it! Let go!", "pos": 904470}
{"speaker": "someone", "text": "What is it? A misfire?", "pos": 906249}
{"speaker": "several voices", "text": "Perhaps it wasn’t loaded,", "pos": 906304}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "It’s loaded all right, but— What! did it miss fire?", "pos": 906353}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "There was no cap in it,", "pos": 906446}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "Gentlemen, if any one of you casts any doubt again, before me, upon Hippolyte’s good faith, or hints that the cap was forgotten intentionally, or suggests that this unhappy boy was acting a part before us, I beg to announce that the person so speaking shall account to me for his words.", "pos": 907953}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Quite so, but I have changed my mind for the time being. I confess, I am too disturbed, and so, I think, are you; and the matter as to which I wished to consult you is too serious to tackle with one’s mind even a little disturbed; too serious both for myself and for you. You see, prince, for once in my life I wish to perform an absolutely honest action, that is, an action with no ulterior motive; and I think I am hardly in a condition to talk of it just at this moment, and—and—well, we’ll discuss it another time. Perhaps the matter may gain in clearness if we wait for two or three days—just the two or three days which I must spend in Petersburg. Yes, I am afraid... Not a bit of it! You are much too good to him; you shouldn’t care a hang about what he thinks. I have heard of such things before, but never came across, till tonight, a man who would actually shoot himself in order to gain a vulgar notoriety, or blow out his brains for spite, if he finds that people don’t care to pat him on the back for his sanguinary intentions. But what astonishes me more than anything is the fellow’s candid confession of weakness. You’d better get rid of him tomorrow, in any case. Do you think he will make another attempt? Oh no, not he, not now! But you have to be very careful with this sort of gentleman. Crime is too often the last resource of these petty nonentities. This young fellow is quite capable of cutting the throats of ten people, simply for a lark, as he told us in his ‘explanation.’ I assure you those confounded words of his will not let me sleep. What an extraordinary person you are, prince! Do you mean to say that you doubt the fact that he is capable of murdering ten men? Well, as you like, just as you like. Only you are such a plucky fellow, take care you don’t get included among the ten victims!", "pos": 908563}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, he is much more likely not to kill anyone at all,", "pos": 911296}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "au revoir! Did you observe that he ‘willed’ a copy of his confession to Aglaya Ivanovna? Yes, I did; I am thinking of it. In connection with ‘the ten,’ eh?", "pos": 911440}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "He’s asleep! You were asleep,", "pos": 916755}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Is it really you? Oh yes, of course, this is our rendezvous. I fell asleep here. Did no one awake me besides yourself? Was there no one else here? I thought there was another woman. It was a dream, of course. Hippolyte’s suicide—", "pos": 916825}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "What? At your house? He was alive yesterday evening, wasn’t he? How could you sleep here after that?", "pos": 917687}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, but he didn’t kill himself; the pistol didn’t go off.", "pos": 917868}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Well, that’ll do; we must be quick. We have only an hour here, till eight; I must be home by then without fail, so that they may not find out that I came and sat here with you; but I’ve come on business. I have a great deal to say to you. But you have bowled me over considerably with your news. As to Hippolyte, I think his pistol was bound not to go off; it was more consistent with the whole affair. Are you sure he really wished to blow his brains out, and that there was no humbug about the matter?", "pos": 918257}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No humbug at all.", "pos": 918799}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Very likely. So he wrote that you were to bring me a copy of his confession, did he? Why didn’t you bring it?", "pos": 918819}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why, he didn’t die! I’ll ask him for it, if you like.", "pos": 918931}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Bring it by all means; you needn’t ask him. He will be delighted, you may be sure; for, in all probability, he shot at himself simply in order that I might read his confession. Don’t laugh at what I say, please, Lef Nicolaievitch, because it may very well be the case.", "pos": 918987}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I’m not laughing. I am convinced, myself, that that may have been partly the reason.", "pos": 919258}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Of course,", "pos": 920067}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "he wished us all to applaud his conduct—besides yourself.", "pos": 920098}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "How do you mean—applaud?", "pos": 920158}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well—how am I to explain? He was very anxious that we should all come around him, and say we were so sorry for him, and that we loved him very much, and all that; and that we hoped he wouldn’t kill himself, but remain alive. Very likely he thought more of you than the rest of us, because he mentioned you at such a moment, though perhaps he did not know himself that he had you in his mind’s eye.", "pos": 920185}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I don’t understand you. How could he have me in view, and not be aware of it himself? And yet, I don’t know—perhaps I do. Do you know I have intended to poison myself at least thirty times—ever since I was thirteen or so—and to write to my parents before I did it? I used to think how nice it would be to lie in my coffin, and have them all weeping over me and saying it was all their fault for being so cruel, and all that—what are you smiling at? What do you think of when you go mooning about alone? I suppose you imagine yourself a field-marshal, and think you have conquered Napoleon?", "pos": 920585}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well, I really have thought something of the sort now and then, especially when just dozing off. Only it is the Austrians whom I conquer—not Napoleon.", "pos": 921208}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I don’t wish to joke with you, Lef Nicolaievitch. I shall see Hippolyte myself. Tell him so. As for you, I think you are behaving very badly, because it is not right to judge a man’s soul as you are judging Hippolyte’s. You have no gentleness, but only justice—so you are unjust.", "pos": 921383}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I think you are unfair towards me. There is nothing wrong in the thoughts I ascribe to Hippolyte; they are only natural. But of course I don’t know for certain what he thought. Perhaps he thought nothing, but simply longed to see human faces once more, and to hear human praise and feel human affection. Who knows? Only it all came out wrong, somehow. Some people have luck, and everything comes out right with them; others have none, and never a thing turns out fortunately.", "pos": 921687}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I suppose you have felt that in your own case,", "pos": 922176}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, I have,", "pos": 922238}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "H’m—well, at all events, I shouldn’t have fallen asleep here, in your place. It wasn’t nice of you, that. I suppose you fall asleep wherever you sit down?", "pos": 922320}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "But I didn’t sleep a wink all night. I walked and walked about, and went to where the music was—", "pos": 922477}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "What music?", "pos": 922576}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Where they played last night. Then I found this bench and sat down, and thought and thought—and at last I fell fast asleep.", "pos": 922590}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Oh, is that it? That makes a difference, perhaps. What did you go to the bandstand for?", "pos": 922716}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I don’t know; I—", "pos": 922806}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Very well—afterwards. You are always interrupting me. What woman was it you were dreaming about?", "pos": 922825}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It was—about—you saw her—", "pos": 922924}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Quite so; I understand. I understand quite well. You are very—Well, how did she appear to you? What did she look like? No, I don’t want to know anything about her, don’t interrupt me— Look here; this is what I called you here for. I wish to make you a—to ask you to be my friend. What do you stare at me like that for?", "pos": 922952}
{"speaker": "AAglaya", "text": "Perhaps you do not wish to accept my proposition?", "pos": 924137}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh yes, I do; but it is so unnecessary. I mean, I did not think you need make such a proposition,", "pos": 924232}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "What did you suppose, then? Why did you think I invited you out here? I suppose you think me a ‘little fool,’ as they all call me at home?", "pos": 924367}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I didn’t know they called you a fool. I certainly don’t think you one.", "pos": 924508}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "You don’t think me one! Oh, dear me!—that’s very clever of you; you put it so neatly, too.", "pos": 924581}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "In my opinion, you are far from a fool sometimes—in fact, you are very intelligent. You said a very clever thing just now about my being unjust because I had only justice. I shall remember that, and think about it.", "pos": 924674}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Listen. I have long waited to tell you all this, ever since the time when you sent me that letter—even before that. Half of what I have to say you heard yesterday. I consider you the most honest and upright of men—more honest and upright than any other man; and if anybody says that your mind is—is sometimes affected, you know—it is unfair. I always say so and uphold it, because even if your surface mind be a little affected (of course you will not feel angry with me for talking so—I am speaking from a higher point of view) yet your real mind is far better than all theirs put together. Such a mind as they have never even dreamed of; because really, there are two minds—the kind that matters, and the kind that doesn’t matter. Isn’t it so?", "pos": 925052}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "May be! may be so!", "pos": 925819}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I knew you would not misunderstand me. Prince S. and Evgenie Pavlovitch and Alexandra don’t understand anything about these two kinds of mind, but, just fancy, mamma does!", "pos": 925899}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You are very like Lizabetha Prokofievna.", "pos": 926099}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "What! surely not?", "pos": 926142}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, you are, indeed.", "pos": 926175}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Thank you; I am glad to be like mamma. You respect her very much, don’t you?", "pos": 926199}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Very much; and I am so glad that you have realized the fact.", "pos": 926367}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I am very glad, too, because she is often laughed at by people. But listen to the chief point. I have long thought over the matter, and at last I have chosen you. I don’t wish people to laugh at me; I don’t wish people to think me a ‘little fool.’ I don’t want to be chaffed. I felt all this of a sudden, and I refused Evgenie Pavlovitch flatly, because I am not going to be forever thrown at people’s heads to be married. I want—I want—well, I’ll tell you, I wish to run away from home, and I have chosen you to help me.", "pos": 926430}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Run away from home?", "pos": 926954}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Yes—yes—yes! Run away from home! I won’t, I won’t be made to blush every minute by them all! I don’t want to blush before Prince S. or Evgenie Pavlovitch, or anyone, and therefore I have chosen you. I shall tell you everything, everything, even the most important things of all, whenever I like, and you are to hide nothing from me on your side. I want to speak to at least one person, as I would to myself. They have suddenly begun to say that I am waiting for you, and in love with you. They began this before you arrived here, and so I didn’t show them the letter, and now they all say it, every one of them. I want to be brave, and be afraid of nobody. I don’t want to go to their balls and things—I want to do good. I have long desired to run away, for I have been kept shut up for twenty years, and they are always trying to marry me off. I wanted to run away when I was fourteen years old—I was a little fool then, I know—but now I have worked it all out, and I have waited for you to tell me about foreign countries. I have never seen a single Gothic cathedral. I must go to Rome; I must see all the museums; I must study in Paris. All this last year I have been preparing and reading forbidden books. Alexandra and Adelaida are allowed to read anything they like, but I mayn’t. I don’t want to quarrel with my sisters, but I told my parents long ago that I wish to change my social position. I have decided to take up teaching, and I count on you because you said you loved children. Can we go in for education together—if not at once, then afterwards? We could do good together. I won’t be a general’s daughter any more! Tell me, are you a very learned man?", "pos": 926994}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh no; not at all.", "pos": 928704}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Oh-h-h! I’m sorry for that. I thought you were. I wonder why I always thought so—but at all events you’ll help me, won’t you? Because I’ve chosen you, you know.", "pos": 928725}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Aglaya Ivanovna, it’s absurd.", "pos": 928888}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "But I will, I will run away! and if you don’t agree I shall go and marry Gavrila Ardalionovitch! I won’t be considered a horrible girl, and accused of goodness knows what.", "pos": 928920}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Are you out of your mind? What do they accuse you of? Who accuses you?", "pos": 929144}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "At home, everybody, mother, my sisters, Prince S., even that detestable Colia! If they don’t say it, they think it. I told them all so to their faces. I told mother and father and everybody. Mamma was ill all the day after it, and next day father and Alexandra told me that I didn’t understand what nonsense I was talking. I informed them that they little knew me—I was not a small child—I understood every word in the language—that I had read a couple of Paul de Kok’s novels two years since on purpose, so as to know all about everything. No sooner did mamma hear me say this than she nearly fainted!", "pos": 929268}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Have you always lived at home, Aglaya Ivanovna? I mean, have you never been to school, or college, or anything?", "pos": 930243}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "No—never—nowhere! I’ve been at home all my life, corked up in a bottle; and they expect me to be married straight out of it. What are you laughing at again? I observe that you, too, have taken to laughing at me, and range yourself on their side against me. Don’t irritate me—I’m bad enough without that—I don’t know what I am doing sometimes. I am persuaded that you came here today in the full belief that I am in love with you, and that I arranged this meeting because of that,", "pos": 930369}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I admit I was afraid that that was the case, yesterday, but today I am quite convinced that—", "pos": 930909}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "How? You were afraid that I—you dared to think that I—good gracious! you suspected, perhaps, that I sent for you to come here in order to catch you in a trap, so that they should find us here together, and make you marry me—", "pos": 931053}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Aglaya Ivanovna, aren’t you ashamed of saying such a thing? How could such a horrible idea enter your sweet, innocent heart? I am certain you don’t believe a word of what you say, and probably you don’t even know what you are talking about.", "pos": 931333}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "No, I’m not; I’m not a bit ashamed! And how do you know my heart is innocent? And how dared you send me a love-letter that time?", "pos": 931678}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Love-letter? My letter a love-letter? That letter was the most respectful of letters; it went straight from my heart, at what was perhaps the most painful moment of my life! I thought of you at the time as a kind of light. I—", "pos": 931825}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Well, very well, very well! Very well. I feel that I said a very foolish thing. I only did it just to try you. Take it as unsaid, and if I offended you, forgive me. Don’t look straight at me like that, please; turn your head away. You called it a ‘horrible idea’; I only said it to shock you. Very often I am myself afraid of saying what I intend to say, and out it comes all the same. You have just told me that you wrote that letter at the most painful moment of your life. I know what moment that was!", "pos": 932053}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, if you could know all!", "pos": 932884}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I do know all! You were living in the same house as that horrible woman with whom you ran away. I don’t love you a bit! I love Gavrila Ardalionovitch,", "pos": 932913}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That is not true,", "pos": 933683}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "What! I tell stories, do I? It is true! I gave him my promise a couple of days ago on this very seat.", "pos": 933745}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It is not true, you have just invented it!", "pos": 933902}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "You are wonderfully polite. You know he is greatly improved. He loves me better than his life. He let his hand burn before my very eyes in order to prove to me that he loved me better than his life!", "pos": 933973}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "He burned his hand!", "pos": 934174}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Yes, believe it or not! It’s all the same to me!", "pos": 934196}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What! he brought a candle with him to this place? That is, if the episode happened here; otherwise I can’t.", "pos": 934342}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Yes, a candle! What’s there improbable about that?", "pos": 934452}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "A whole one, and in a candlestick?", "pos": 934505}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Yes—no—half a candle—an end, you know—no, it was a whole candle; it’s all the same. Be quiet, can’t you! He brought a box of matches too, if you like, and then lighted the candle and held his finger in it for half an hour and more!—There! Can’t that be?", "pos": 934542}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I saw him yesterday, and his fingers were all right!", "pos": 934798}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Do you know why I have just told you these lies? Because when one tells a lie, if one insists on something unusual and eccentric—something too ‘out of the way’ for anything, you know—the more impossible the thing is, the more plausible does the lie sound. I’ve noticed this. But I managed it badly; I didn’t know how to work it. If if when I read you all that about the ‘poor knight,’ I wished to-to praise you for one thing—I also wished to show you that I knew all—and did not approve of your conduct.", "pos": 934911}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You are very unfair to me, and to that unfortunate woman of whom you spoke just now in such dreadful terms, Aglaya.", "pos": 935687}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Because I know all, all—and that is why I speak so. I know very well how you—half a year since—offered her your hand before everybody. Don’t interrupt me. You see, I am merely stating facts without any comment upon them. After that she ran away with Rogojin. Then you lived with her at some village or town, and she ran away from you. Then she returned to Rogojin again, who loves her like a madman. Then you—like a wise man as you are—came back here after her as soon as ever you heard that she had returned to Petersburg. Yesterday evening you sprang forward to protect her, and just now you dreamed about her. You see, I know all. You did come back here for her, for her—now didn’t you?", "pos": 935805}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes—for her! I came to find out something—I don’t believe in her future happiness as Rogojin’s wife, although—in a word, I did not know how to help her or what to do for her—but I came, on the chance.", "pos": 936528}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "If you came without knowing why, I suppose you love her very much indeed!", "pos": 936969}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, no, I do not love her. Oh! if you only knew with what horror I recall the time I spent with her!", "pos": 937063}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Tell me about it,", "pos": 937252}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "There is nothing which you might not hear. Why I should wish to tell you, and only you, this experience of mine, I really cannot say; perhaps it really is because I love you very much. This unhappy woman is persuaded that she is the most hopeless, fallen creature in the world. Oh, do not condemn her! Do not cast stones at her! She has suffered too much already in the consciousness of her own undeserved shame. And she is not guilty—oh God!—Every moment she bemoans and bewails herself, and cries out that she does not admit any guilt, that she is the victim of circumstances—the victim of a wicked libertine. But whatever she may say, remember that she does not believe it herself,—remember that she will believe nothing but that she is a guilty creature. When I tried to rid her soul of this gloomy fallacy, she suffered so terribly that my heart will never be quite at peace so long as I can remember that dreadful time!—Do you know why she left me? Simply to prove to me what is not true—that she is base. But the worst of it is, she did not realize herself that that was all she wanted to prove by her departure! She went away in response to some inner prompting to do something disgraceful, in order that she might say to herself—‘There—you’ve done a new act of shame—you degraded creature!’ Oh, Aglaya—perhaps you cannot understand all this. Try to realize that in the perpetual admission of guilt she probably finds some dreadful unnatural satisfaction—as though she were revenging herself upon someone. Now and then I was able to persuade her almost to see light around her again; but she would soon fall, once more, into her old tormenting delusions, and would go so far as to reproach me for placing myself on a pedestal above her (I never had an idea of such a thing!), and informed me, in reply to my proposal of marriage, that she ‘did not want condescending sympathy or help from anybody.’ You saw her last night. You don’t suppose she can be happy among such people as those—you cannot suppose that such society is fit for her? You have no idea how well-educated she is, and what an intellect she has! She astonished me sometimes.", "pos": 937285}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "And you preached her sermons there, did you?", "pos": 939440}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh no. I was almost always silent there. I often wished to speak, but I really did not know what to say. In some cases it is best to say nothing, I think. I loved her, yes, I loved her very much indeed; but afterwards—afterwards she guessed all.", "pos": 939487}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "What did she guess?", "pos": 939808}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That I only pitied her—and—and loved her no longer!", "pos": 939830}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "How do you know that? How do you know that she is not really in love with that—that rich cad—the man she eloped with?", "pos": 939884}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh no! I know she only laughs at him; she has made a fool of him all along.", "pos": 940004}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Has she never laughed at you?", "pos": 940082}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No—in anger, perhaps. Oh yes! she reproached me dreadfully in anger; and suffered herself, too! But afterwards—oh! don’t remind me—don’t remind me of that!", "pos": 940114}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Are you aware that she writes to me almost every day?", "pos": 940302}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "So that is true, is it? I had heard a report of it, but would not believe it.", "pos": 940358}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Whom did you hear it from? Rogojin said something about it yesterday, but nothing definite.", "pos": 940476}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yesterday! Morning or evening? Before the music or after?", "pos": 940595}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "After—it was about twelve o’clock.", "pos": 940655}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Ah! Well, if it was Rogojin—but do you know what she writes to me about?", "pos": 940692}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I should not be surprised by anything. She is mad! There are the letters. For a whole week she has been entreating and worrying and persuading me to marry you. She—well, she is clever, though she may be mad—much cleverer than I am, as you say. Well, she writes that she is in love with me herself, and tries to see me every day, if only from a distance. She writes that you love me, and that she has long known it and seen it, and that you and she talked about me—there. She wishes to see you happy, and she says that she is certain only I can ensure you the happiness you deserve. She writes such strange, wild letters—I haven’t shown them to anyone. Now, do you know what all this means? Can you guess anything?", "pos": 940767}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It is madness—it is merely another proof of her insanity!", "pos": 941572}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "You are crying, aren’t you?", "pos": 941672}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, Aglaya. No, I’m not crying.", "pos": 941702}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Well, what am I to do? What do you advise me? I cannot go on receiving these letters, you know.", "pos": 941762}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, let her alone, I entreat you!", "pos": 941860}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What can you do in this dark, gloomy mystery? Let her alone, and I’ll use all my power to prevent her writing you any more letters.", "pos": 941914}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "If so, you are a heartless man! As if you can’t see that it is not myself she loves, but you, you, and only you! Surely you have not remarked everything else in her, and only not this? Do you know what these letters mean? They mean jealousy, sir—nothing but pure jealousy! She—do you think she will ever really marry this Rogojin, as she says here she will? She would take her own life the day after you and I were married.", "pos": 942048}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "God knows, Aglaya, that to restore her peace of mind and make her happy I would willingly give up my life. But I cannot love her, and she knows that.", "pos": 942655}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Oh, make a sacrifice of yourself! That sort of thing becomes you well, you know. Why not do it? And don’t call me ‘Aglaya’; you have done it several times lately. You are bound, it is your duty to ‘raise’ her; you must go off somewhere again to soothe and pacify her. Why, you love her, you know!", "pos": 942807}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I cannot sacrifice myself so, though I admit I did wish to do so once. Who knows, perhaps I still wish to! But I know for certain, that if she married me it would be her ruin; I know this and therefore I leave her alone. I ought to go to see her today; now I shall probably not go. She is proud, she would never forgive me the nature of the love I bear her, and we should both be ruined. This may be unnatural, I don’t know; but everything seems unnatural. You say she loves me, as if this were love! As if she could love me, after what I have been through! No, no, it is not love.", "pos": 943106}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "How pale you have grown!", "pos": 943690}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, it’s nothing. I haven’t slept, that’s all, and I’m rather tired. I—we certainly did talk about you, Aglaya.", "pos": 943740}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Oh, indeed, it is true then! You could actually talk about me with her; and—and how could you have been fond of me when you had only seen me once?", "pos": 943854}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I don’t know. Perhaps it was that I seemed to come upon light in the midst of my gloom. I told you the truth when I said I did not know why I thought of you before all others. Of course it was all a sort of dream, a dream amidst the horrors of reality. Afterwards I began to work. I did not intend to come back here for two or three years—", "pos": 944003}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Then you came for her sake?", "pos": 944345}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes, I came for her sake.", "pos": 944400}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "If you say, if you say that this woman of yours is mad—at all events I have nothing to do with her insane fancies. Kindly take these three letters, Lef Nicolaievitch, and throw them back to her, from me. And if she dares, if she dares so much as write me one word again, tell her I shall tell my father, and that she shall be taken to a lunatic asylum.", "pos": 944500}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You cannot really feel like that! You don’t mean what you say. It is not true,", "pos": 945032}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "It is true, it is true,", "pos": 945126}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What’s true? What’s all this? What’s true?", "pos": 945199}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Why, it’s true that I am going to marry Gavrila Ardalionovitch, that I love him and intend to elope with him tomorrow,", "pos": 945325}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Do you hear? Is your curiosity satisfied? Are you pleased with what you have heard?", "pos": 945485}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "H’m! well, you are not going away just yet, my friend, at all events. Kindly step home with me, and let me have a little explanation of the mystery. Nice goings on, these! I haven’t slept a wink all night as it is.", "pos": 945618}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Don’t suppose, prince, don’t suppose that I have brought you here to ask questions. After last night, I assure you, I am not so exceedingly anxious to see you at all; I could have postponed the pleasure for a long while.", "pos": 947746}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "But at the same time you would be very glad to know how I happened to meet Aglaya Ivanovna this morning?", "pos": 948029}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Well, what then? Supposing I should like to know? I’m sure I am not afraid of plain speaking. I’m not offending anyone, and I never wish to, and—", "pos": 948202}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Pardon me, it is no offence to wish to know this; you are her mother. We met at the green bench this morning, punctually at seven o’clock,—according to an agreement made by Aglaya Ivanovna with myself yesterday. She said that she wished to see me and speak to me about something important. We met and conversed for an hour about matters concerning Aglaya Ivanovna herself, and that’s all.", "pos": 948391}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Of course it is all, my friend. I don’t doubt you for a moment,", "pos": 948782}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Well done, prince, capital! Thank you for assuming that I would not demean myself with lies. Come, is that enough, mamma, or do you intend to put any more questions?", "pos": 948889}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "You know I have never needed to blush before you, up to this day, though perhaps you would have been glad enough to make me. Good-bye, prince; forgive me for bothering you. I trust you will rest assured of my unalterable esteem for you.", "pos": 949110}
{"speaker": "Vera", "text": "Thank goodness, we’ve just managed to finish it before you came in!", "pos": 950108}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Good-morning! My head whirls so; I didn’t sleep all night. I should like to have a nap now.", "pos": 950199}
{"speaker": "Vera", "text": "Here, on the verandah? Very well, I’ll tell them all not to come and wake you. Papa has gone out somewhere. Prince! have pity on that poor boy; don’t turn him out today.", "pos": 950293}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Not for the world; he shall do just as he likes.", "pos": 950599}
{"speaker": "Vera", "text": "He won’t do any harm now; and—and don’t be too severe with him.", "pos": 950650}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh dear no! Why—", "pos": 950716}
{"speaker": "Vera", "text": "And—and you won’t laugh at him? That’s the chief thing.", "pos": 950735}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh no! Never.", "pos": 950793}
{"speaker": "Vera", "text": "How foolish I am to speak of such things to a man like you. Though you do look tired, your eyes are so splendid at this moment—so full of happiness.", "pos": 950809}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Really?", "pos": 951015}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What a dear little thing she is,", "pos": 951260}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Well, here’s a go! What do you think of Hippolyte now? Don’t respect him any longer, eh?", "pos": 951794}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Why not? But look here, Colia, I’m tired; besides, the subject is too melancholy to begin upon again. How is he, though?", "pos": 951941}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Asleep—he’ll sleep for a couple of hours yet. I quite understand—you haven’t slept—you walked about the park, I know. Agitation—excitement—all that sort of thing—quite natural, too!", "pos": 952064}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "How do you know I walked in the park and didn’t sleep at home?", "pos": 952248}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Vera just told me. She tried to persuade me not to come, but I couldn’t help myself, just for one minute. I have been having my turn at the bedside for the last two hours; Kostia Lebedeff is there now. Burdovsky has gone. Now, lie down, prince, make yourself comfortable, and sleep well! I’m awfully impressed, you know.", "pos": 952313}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Naturally, all this—", "pos": 952636}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "No, no, I mean with the ‘explanation,’ especially that part of it where he talks about Providence and a future life. There is a gigantic thought there.", "pos": 952659}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "But it is not any one particular thought, only; it is the general circumstances of the case. If Voltaire had written this now, or Rousseau, I should have just read it and thought it remarkable, but should not have been so impressed by it. But a man who knows for certain that he has but ten minutes to live and can talk like that—why—it’s—it’s pride, that is! It is really a most extraordinary, exalted assertion of personal dignity, it’s—it’s defiant! What a gigantic strength of will, eh? And to accuse a fellow like that of not putting in the cap on purpose; it’s base and mean! You know he deceived us last night, the cunning rascal. I never packed his bag for him, and I never saw his pistol. He packed it himself. But he put me off my guard like that, you see. Vera says you are going to let him stay on; I swear there’s no danger, especially as we are always with him.", "pos": 952948}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Who was by him at night?", "pos": 953826}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I, and Burdovsky, and Kostia Lebedeff. Keller stayed a little while, and then went over to Lebedeff’s to sleep. Ferdishenko slept at Lebedeff’s, too; but he went away at seven o’clock. My father is always at Lebedeff’s; but he has gone out just now. I dare say Lebedeff will be coming in here directly; he has been looking for you; I don’t know what he wants. Shall we let him in or not, if you are asleep? I’m going to have a nap, too. By-the-by, such a curious thing happened. Burdovsky woke me at seven, and I met my father just outside the room, so drunk, he didn’t even know me. He stood before me like a log, and when he recovered himself, asked hurriedly how Hippolyte was. ‘Yes,’ he said, when I told him, ‘that’s all very well, but I really came to warn you that you must be very careful what you say before Ferdishenko.’ Do you follow me, prince?", "pos": 953853}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yes. Is it really so? However, it’s all the same to us, of course.", "pos": 954712}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Of course it is; we are not a secret society; and that being the case, it is all the more curious that the general should have been on his way to wake me up in order to tell me this.", "pos": 954781}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Ferdishenko has gone, you say?", "pos": 954966}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Yes, he went at seven o’clock. He came into the room on his way out; I was watching just then. He said he was going to spend ‘the rest of the night’ at Wilkin’s; there’s a tipsy fellow, a friend of his, of that name. Well, I’m off. Oh, here’s Lebedeff himself! The prince wants to go to sleep, Lukian Timofeyovitch, so you may just go away again.", "pos": 954999}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "One moment, my dear prince, just one. I must absolutely speak to you about something which is most grave. I hear you have called twice; I suppose you are still worried about yesterday’s affair. What, about that boy, you mean? Oh dear no, yesterday my ideas were a little—well—mixed. Today, I assure you, I shall not oppose in the slightest degree any suggestions it may please you to make.", "pos": 955348}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What’s up with you this morning, Lebedeff? You look so important and dignified, and you choose your words so carefully,", "pos": 955997}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Nicolai Ardalionovitch! As I have a communication to make to the prince which concerns only myself—", "pos": 956145}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Of course, of course, not my affair. All right,", "pos": 956317}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I love that boy for his perception. My dear prince. I have had a terrible misfortune, either last night or early this morning. I cannot tell the exact time.", "pos": 956397}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What is it?", "pos": 956608}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I have lost four hundred roubles out of my side pocket! They’re gone!", "pos": 956622}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You’ve lost four hundred roubles? Oh! I’m sorry for that.", "pos": 956728}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Yes, it is serious for a poor man who lives by his toil.", "pos": 956788}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Of course, of course! How was it?", "pos": 956847}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh, the wine is to blame, of course. I confess to you, prince, as I would to Providence itself. Yesterday I received four hundred roubles from a debtor at about five in the afternoon, and came down here by train. I had my purse in my pocket. When I changed, I put the money into the pocket of my plain clothes, intending to keep it by me, as I expected to have an applicant for it in the evening.", "pos": 956883}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It’s true then, Lebedeff, that you advertise to lend money on gold or silver articles?", "pos": 957282}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Yes, through an agent. My own name doesn’t appear. I have a large family, you see, and at a small percentage—", "pos": 957371}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Quite so, quite so. I only asked for information—excuse the question. Go on.", "pos": 957483}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Well, meanwhile that sick boy was brought here, and those guests came in, and we had tea, and—well, we made merry—to my ruin! Hearing of your birthday afterwards, and excited with the circumstances of the evening, I ran upstairs and changed my plain clothes once more for my uniform —you must have noticed I had my uniform on all the evening? Well, I forgot the money in the pocket of my old coat—you know when God will ruin a man he first of all bereaves him of his senses—and it was only this morning at half-past seven that I woke up and grabbed at my coat pocket, first thing. The pocket was empty—the purse gone, and not a trace to be found!", "pos": 957562}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Dear me! This is very unpleasant!", "pos": 958211}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Unpleasant! Indeed it is. You have found a very appropriate expression,", "pos": 958247}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "But what’s to be done? It’s a serious matter. Don’t you think you may have dropped it out of your pocket whilst intoxicated?", "pos": 958364}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Certainly. Anything is possible when one is intoxicated, as you neatly express it, prince. But consider—if I, intoxicated or not, dropped an object out of my pocket on to the ground, that object ought to remain on the ground. Where is the object, then?", "pos": 958524}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Didn’t you put it away in some drawer, perhaps?", "pos": 958779}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I’ve looked everywhere, and turned out everything.", "pos": 958829}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I confess this disturbs me a good deal. Someone must have picked it up, then.", "pos": 958882}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Or taken it out of my pocket—two alternatives.", "pos": 958962}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It is very distressing, because who—? That’s the question!", "pos": 959011}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Most undoubtedly, excellent prince, you have hit it—that is the very question. How wonderfully you express the exact situation in a few words!", "pos": 959072}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Come, come, Lebedeff, no sarcasm! It’s a serious—", "pos": 959217}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Sarcasm! All right, all right, I’m not angry. I’m only put out about this. Whom do you suspect?", "pos": 959269}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That is a very difficult and complicated question. I cannot suspect the servant, for she was in the kitchen the whole evening, nor do I suspect any of my children.", "pos": 959405}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I should think not. Go on.", "pos": 959571}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Then it must be one of the guests.", "pos": 959600}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Is such a thing possible?", "pos": 959637}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Absolutely and utterly impossible—and yet, so it must be. But one thing I am sure of, if it be a theft, it was committed, not in the evening when we were all together, but either at night or early in the morning; therefore, by one of those who slept here. Burdovsky and Colia I except, of course. They did not even come into my room.", "pos": 959665}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Yes, or even if they had! But who did sleep with you?", "pos": 960001}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Four of us, including myself, in two rooms. The general, myself, Keller, and Ferdishenko. One of us four it must have been. I don’t suspect myself, though such cases have been known.", "pos": 960057}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh! do go on, Lebedeff! Don’t drag it out so. Well, there are three left, then—Keller firstly. He is a drunkard to begin with, and a liberal (in the sense of other people’s pockets), otherwise with more of the ancient knight about him than of the modern liberal. He was with the sick man at first, but came over afterwards because there was no place to lie down in the room and the floor was so hard.", "pos": 960242}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You suspect him?", "pos": 960647}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I did suspect him. When I woke up at half-past seven and tore my hair in despair for my loss and carelessness, I awoke the general, who was sleeping the sleep of innocence near me. Taking into consideration the sudden disappearance of Ferdishenko, which was suspicious in itself, we decided to search Keller, who was lying there sleeping like a top. Well, we searched his clothes thoroughly, and not a farthing did we find; in fact, his pockets all had holes in them. We found a dirty handkerchief, and a love-letter from some scullery-maid. The general decided that he was innocent. We awoke him for further inquiries, and had the greatest difficulty in making him understand what was up. He opened his mouth and stared—he looked so stupid and so absurdly innocent. It wasn’t Keller.", "pos": 960666}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, I’m so glad! I was so afraid.", "pos": 961453}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Afraid! Then you had some grounds for supposing he might be the culprit?", "pos": 961518}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh no—not a bit! It was foolish of me to say I was afraid! Don’t repeat it please, Lebedeff, don’t tell anyone I said that!", "pos": 961618}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "My dear prince! your words lie in the lowest depth of my heart—it is their tomb!", "pos": 961744}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Thanks; very well. Then I suppose it’s Ferdishenko; that is, I mean, you suspect Ferdishenko?", "pos": 961897}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Whom else?", "pos": 961993}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Of course—quite so, whom else? But what are the proofs?", "pos": 962069}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "We have evidence. In the first place, his mysterious disappearance at seven o’clock, or even earlier.", "pos": 962127}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I know, Colia told me that he had said he was off to—I forget the name, some friend of his, to finish the night.", "pos": 962231}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "H’m! then Colia has spoken to you already?", "pos": 962346}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Not about the theft.", "pos": 962391}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "He does not know of it; I have kept it a secret. Very well, Ferdishenko went off to Wilkin’s. That is not so curious in itself, but here the evidence opens out further. He left his address, you see, when he went. Now prince, consider, why did he leave his address? Why do you suppose he went out of his way to tell Colia that he had gone to Wilkin’s? Who cared to know that he was going to Wilkin’s? No, no! prince, this is finesse, thieves’ finesse! This is as good as saying, ‘There, how can I be a thief when I leave my address? I’m not concealing my movements as a thief would.’ Do you understand, prince?", "pos": 962414}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh yes, but that is not enough.", "pos": 963026}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Second proof. The scent turns out to be false, and the address given is a sham. An hour after—that is at about eight, I went to Wilkin’s myself, and there was no trace of Ferdishenko. The maid did tell me, certainly, that an hour or so since someone had been hammering at the door, and had smashed the bell; she said she would not open the door because she didn’t want to wake her master; probably she was too lazy to get up herself. Such phenomena are met with occasionally!", "pos": 963060}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "But is that all your evidence? It is not enough!", "pos": 963538}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Well, prince, whom are we to suspect, then? Consider!", "pos": 963589}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You should search your room and all the cupboards again,", "pos": 963764}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "But I have done so, my dear prince!", "pos": 963884}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "H’m! why must you needs go up and change your coat like that?", "pos": 963961}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh, don’t be so worried on my account, prince! I assure you I am not worth it! At least, not I alone. But I see you are suffering on behalf of the criminal too, for wretched Ferdishenko, in fact!", "pos": 964090}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Of course you have given me a disagreeable enough thing to think about, but what are you going to do, since you are so sure it was Ferdishenko?", "pos": 964288}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "But who else could it be, my very dear prince? If you don’t wish me to suspect Mr. Burdovsky?", "pos": 964464}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Of course not.", "pos": 964606}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Nor the general? Ha, ha, ha!", "pos": 964623}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Nonsense!", "pos": 964654}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Quite so, nonsense! Ha, ha, ha! dear me! He did amuse me, did the general! We went off on the hot scent to Wilkin’s together, you know; but I must first observe that the general was even more thunderstruck than I myself this morning, when I awoke him after discovering the theft; so much so that his very face changed—he grew red and then pale, and at length flew into a paroxysm of such noble wrath that I assure you I was quite surprised! He is a most generous-hearted man! He tells lies by the thousands, I know, but it is merely a weakness; he is a man of the highest feelings; a simple-minded man too, and a man who carries the conviction of innocence in his very appearance. I love that man, sir; I may have told you so before; it is a weakness of mine. Well—he suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, opened out his coat and bared his breast. ‘Search me,’ he says, ‘you searched Keller; why don’t you search me too? It is only fair!’ says he. And all the while his legs and hands were trembling with anger, and he as white as a sheet all over! So I said to him, ‘Nonsense, general; if anybody but yourself had said that to me, I’d have taken my head, my own head, and put it on a large dish and carried it round to anyone who suspected you; and I should have said: “There, you see that head? It’s my head, and I’ll go bail with that head for him! Yes, and walk through the fire for him, too.” There,’ says I, ‘that’s how I’d answer for you, general!’ Then he embraced me, in the middle of the street, and hugged me so tight (crying over me all the while) that I coughed fit to choke! ‘You are the one friend left to me amid all my misfortunes,’ says he. Oh, he’s a man of sentiment, that! He went on to tell me a story of how he had been accused, or suspected, of stealing five hundred thousand roubles once, as a young man; and how, the very next day, he had rushed into a burning, blazing house and saved the very count who suspected him, and Nina Alexandrovna (who was then a young girl), from a fiery death. The count embraced him, and that was how he came to marry Nina Alexandrovna, he said. As for the money, it was found among the ruins next day in an English iron box with a secret lock; it had got under the floor somehow, and if it had not been for the fire it would never have been found! The whole thing is, of course, an absolute fabrication, though when he spoke of Nina Alexandrovna he wept! She’s a grand woman, is Nina Alexandrovna, though she is very angry with me! Search me, you searched Keller; why don’t you search me too? It is only fair! Nonsense, general; if anybody but yourself had said that to me, I’d have taken my head, my own head, and put it on a large dish and carried it round to anyone who suspected you; and I should have said: “There, you see that head? It’s my head, and I’ll go bail with that head for him! Yes, and walk through the fire for him, too.” There,’ says I, ‘that’s how I’d answer for you, general! There, you see that head? It’s my head, and I’ll go bail with that head for him! Yes, and walk through the fire for him, too. You are the one friend left to me amid all my misfortunes, he said.", "pos": 964716}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Are you acquainted with her?", "pos": 967214}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Well, hardly at all. I wish I were, if only for the sake of justifying myself in her eyes. Nina Alexandrovna has a grudge against me for, as she thinks, encouraging her husband in drinking; whereas in reality I not only do not encourage him, but I actually keep him out of harm’s way, and out of bad company. Besides, he’s my friend, prince, so that I shall not lose sight of him, again. Where he goes, I go. He’s quite given up visiting the captain’s widow, though sometimes he thinks sadly of her, especially in the morning, when he’s putting on his boots. I don’t know why it’s at that time. But he has no money, and it’s no use his going to see her without. Has he borrowed any money from you, prince?", "pos": 967245}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, he has not.", "pos": 967953}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Ah, he’s ashamed to! He meant to ask you, I know, for he said so. I suppose he thinks that as you gave him some once (you remember), you would probably refuse if he asked you again.", "pos": 967971}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Do you ever give him money?", "pos": 968155}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Prince! Money! Why I would give that man not only my money, but my very life, if he wanted it. Well, perhaps that’s exaggeration; not life, we’ll say, but some illness, a boil or a bad cough, or anything of that sort, I would stand with pleasure, for his sake; for I consider him a great man fallen—money, indeed!", "pos": 968185}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "H’m, then you do give him money?", "pos": 968501}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "N-no, I have never given him money, and he knows well that I will never give him any; because I am anxious to keep him out of intemperate ways. He is going to town with me now; for you must know I am off to Petersburg after Ferdishenko, while the scent is hot; I’m certain he is there. I shall let the general go one way, while I go the other; we have so arranged matters in order to pop out upon Ferdishenko, you see, from different sides. But I am going to follow that naughty old general and catch him, I know where, at a certain widow’s house; for I think it will be a good lesson, to put him to shame by catching him with the widow.", "pos": 968536}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, Lebedeff, don’t, don’t make any scandal about it!", "pos": 969176}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Not for the world, not for the world! I merely wish to make him ashamed of himself. Oh, prince, great though this misfortune be to myself, I cannot help thinking of his morals! I have a great favour to ask of you, esteemed prince; I confess that it is the chief object of my visit. You know the Ivolgins, you have even lived in their house; so if you would lend me your help, honoured prince, in the general’s own interest and for his good. What help do you want from me? You may be certain that I am most anxious to understand you, Lebedeff. I felt sure of that, or I should not have come to you. We might manage it with the help of Nina Alexandrovna, so that he might be closely watched in his own house. Unfortunately I am not on terms... otherwise... but Nicolai Ardalionovitch, who adores you with all his youthful soul, might help, too.", "pos": 969293}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, no! Heaven forbid that we should bring Nina Alexandrovna into this business! Or Colia, either. But perhaps I have not yet quite understood you, Lebedeff?", "pos": 970186}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "But there is nothing to understand! Sympathy and tenderness, that is all—that is all our poor invalid requires! You will permit me to consider him an invalid?", "pos": 970383}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, it shows delicacy and intelligence on your part.", "pos": 970544}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I will explain my idea by a practical example, to make it clearer. You know the sort of man he is. At present his only failing is that he is crazy about that captain’s widow, and he cannot go to her without money, and I mean to catch him at her house today—for his own good; but supposing it was not only the widow, but that he had committed a real crime, or at least some very dishonourable action (of which he is, of course, incapable), I repeat that even in that case, if he were treated with what I may call generous tenderness, one could get at the whole truth, for he is very soft-hearted! Believe me, he would betray himself before five days were out; he would burst into tears, and make a clean breast of the matter; especially if managed with tact, and if you and his family watched his every step, so to speak. Oh, my dear prince. I do not positively assert that he has... I am ready, as the saying is, to shed my last drop of blood for him this instant; but you will admit that debauchery, drunkenness, and the captain’s widow, all these together may lead him very far.", "pos": 970600}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I am, of course, quite ready to add my efforts to yours in such a case, but I confess, Lebedeff, that I am terribly perplexed. Tell me, do you still think... plainly, you say yourself that you suspect Mr. Ferdishenko?", "pos": 971719}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Why, who else could I possibly suspect? Who else, most outspoken prince?", "pos": 972004}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You see, Lebedeff, a mistake here would be a dreadful thing. This Ferdishenko, I would not say a word against him, of course; but, who knows? Perhaps it really was he? I mean he really does seem to be a more likely man than... than any other. You see. I was given to understand that Ferdishenko was that sort of man,—that one can’t say everything before him. One has to take care not to say too much, you understand? I say this to prove that he really is, so to speak, more likely to have done this than anyone else, eh? You understand? The important thing is, not to make a mistake. And who told you this about Ferdishenko? Oh, I was told. Of course I don’t altogether believe it. I am very sorry that I should have had to say this, because I assure you I don’t believe it myself; it is all nonsense, of course. It was stupid of me to say anything about it.", "pos": 972157}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "You see, it is very important, it is most important to know where you got this report from. Because look here, prince, I don’t mind telling you now that as we were going along to Wilkin’s this morning, after telling me what you know about the fire, and saving the count and all that, the general was pleased to drop certain hints to the same effect about Ferdishenko, but so vaguely and clumsily that I thought better to put a few questions to him on the matter, with the result that I found the whole thing was an invention of his excellency’s own mind. Of course, he only lies with the best intentions; still, he lies. But, such being the case, where could you have heard the same report? It was the inspiration of the moment with him, you understand, so who could have told you? It is an important question, you see!", "pos": 973215}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It was Colia told me, and his father told him at about six this morning. They met at the threshold, when Colia was leaving the room for something or other.", "pos": 974170}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "There now, that’s what we may call scent! I thought it must be so, you see. The general interrupted his innocent slumbers, at six o’clock, in order to go and wake his beloved son, and warn him of the dreadful danger of companionship with Ferdishenko. Dear me! what a dreadfully dangerous man Ferdishenko must be, and what touching paternal solicitude, on the part of his excellency, ha! ha! ha!", "pos": 974406}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Listen, Lebedeff, do act quietly—don’t make a scandal, Lebedeff, I ask you—I entreat you! No one must know—no one, mind! In that case only, I will help you.", "pos": 974861}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Be assured, most honourable, most worthy of princes—be assured that the whole matter shall be buried within my heart! I’d give every drop of my blood... Illustrious prince, I am a poor wretch in soul and spirit, but ask the veriest scoundrel whether he would prefer to deal with one like himself, or with a noble-hearted man like you, and there is no doubt as to his choice! He’ll answer that he prefers the noble-hearted man—and there you have the triumph of virtue! Au revoir, honoured prince! You and I together—softly! softly!", "pos": 975059}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "When you open this letter", "pos": 979293}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "look first at the signature. The signature will tell you all, so that I need explain nothing, nor attempt to justify myself. Were I in any way on a footing with you, you might be offended at my audacity; but who am I, and who are you? We are at such extremes, and I am so far removed from you, that I could not offend you if I wished to do so.", "pos": 979343}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Do not consider my words as the sickly ecstasies of a diseased mind, but you are, in my opinion—perfection! I have seen you—I see you every day. I do not judge you; I have not weighed you in the scales of Reason and found you Perfection—it is simply an article of faith. But I must confess one sin against you—I love you. One should not love perfection. One should only look on it as perfection—yet I am in love with you. Though love equalizes, do not fear. I have not lowered you to my level, even in my most secret thoughts. I have written ‘Do not fear,’ as if you could fear. I would kiss your footprints if I could; but, oh! I am not putting myself on a level with you!—Look at the signature—quick, look at the signature!", "pos": 979730}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "However, observe", "pos": 980458}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "that although I couple you with him, yet I have not once asked you whether you love him. He fell in love with you, though he saw you but once. He spoke of you as of ‘the light.’ These are his own words—I heard him use them. But I understood without his saying it that you were all that light is to him. I lived near him for a whole month, and I understood then that you, too, must love him. I think of you and him as one.", "pos": 980516}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What was the matter yesterday?", "pos": 980940}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I passed by you, and you seemed to me to blush. Perhaps it was only my fancy. If I were to bring you to the most loathsome den, and show you the revelation of undisguised vice—you should not blush. You can never feel the sense of personal affront. You may hate all who are mean, or base, or unworthy—but not for yourself—only for those whom they wrong. No one can wrong you. Do you know, I think you ought to love me—for you are the same in my eyes as in his—you are as light. An angel cannot hate, perhaps cannot love, either. I often ask myself—is it possible to love everybody? Indeed it is not; it is not in nature. Abstract love of humanity is nearly always love of self. But you are different. You cannot help loving all, since you can compare with none, and are above all personal offence or anger. Oh! how bitter it would be to me to know that you felt anger or shame on my account, for that would be your fall—you would become comparable at once with such as me.", "pos": 981003}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yesterday, after seeing you, I went home and thought out a picture.", "pos": 981976}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Artists always draw the Saviour as an actor in one of the Gospel stories. I should do differently. I should represent Christ alone—the disciples did leave Him alone occasionally. I should paint one little child left with Him. This child has been playing about near Him, and had probably just been telling the Saviour something in its pretty baby prattle. Christ had listened to it, but was now musing—one hand reposing on the child’s bright head. His eyes have a far-away expression. Thought, great as the Universe, is in them—His face is sad. The little one leans its elbow upon Christ’s knee, and with its cheek resting on its hand, gazes up at Him, pondering as children sometimes do ponder. The sun is setting. There you have my picture.", "pos": 982045}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You are innocent—and in your innocence lies all your perfection—oh, remember that! What is my passion to you?—you are mine now; I shall be near you all my life—I shall not live long!", "pos": 982788}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "For Heaven’s sake, don’t misunderstand me! Do not think that I humiliate myself by writing thus to you, or that I belong to that class of people who take a satisfaction in humiliating themselves—from pride. I have my consolation, though it would be difficult to explain it—but I do not humiliate myself.", "pos": 983021}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Why do I wish to unite you two? For your sakes or my own? For my own sake, naturally. All the problems of my life would thus be solved; I have thought so for a long time. I know that once when your sister Adelaida saw my portrait she said that such beauty could overthrow the world. But I have renounced the world. You think it strange that I should say so, for you saw me decked with lace and diamonds, in the company of drunkards and wastrels. Take no notice of that; I know that I have almost ceased to exist. God knows what it is dwelling within me now—it is not myself. I can see it every day in two dreadful eyes which are always looking at me, even when not present. These eyes are silent now, they say nothing; but I know their secret. His house is gloomy, and there is a secret in it. I am convinced that in some box he has a razor hidden, tied round with silk, just like the one that Moscow murderer had. This man also lived with his mother, and had a razor hidden away, tied round with white silk, and with this razor he intended to cut a throat.", "pos": 983326}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "All the while I was in their house I felt sure that somewhere beneath the floor there was hidden away some dreadful corpse, wrapped in oil-cloth, perhaps buried there by his father, who knows? Just as in the Moscow case. I could have shown you the very spot!", "pos": 984385}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "He is always silent, but I know well that he loves me so much that he must hate me. My wedding and yours are to be on the same day; so I have arranged with him. I have no secrets from him. I would kill him from very fright, but he will kill me first. He has just burst out laughing, and says that I am raving. He knows I am writing to you.", "pos": 984645}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "How did you come here?", "pos": 986086}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I—I—came in—", "pos": 986131}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Mamma is not very well, nor is Aglaya. Adelaida has gone to bed, and I am just going. We were alone the whole evening. Father and Prince S. have gone to town.", "pos": 986146}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I have come to you—now—to—", "pos": 986307}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Do you know what time it is?", "pos": 986336}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "N—no!", "pos": 986367}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Half-past twelve. We are always in bed by one.", "pos": 986375}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I—I thought it was half-past nine!", "pos": 986424}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Never mind! but why didn’t you come earlier? Perhaps you were expected!", "pos": 986461}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I thought", "pos": 986550}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Au revoir! I shall amuse them all with this story tomorrow!", "pos": 986597}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Get up!", "pos": 987704}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Are you happy—are you happy?", "pos": 987779}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Say this one word. Are you happy now? Today, this moment? Have you just been with her? What did she say?", "pos": 987821}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I am going away tomorrow, as you bade me—I won’t write—so that this is the last time I shall see you, the last time! This is really the last time!", "pos": 988051}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, be calm—be calm! Get up!", "pos": 988200}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Good-bye!", "pos": 988308}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Wait a minute, prince. I shall be back in five minutes. I’ve put her in the carriage, it has been waiting round the corner there since ten o’clock. She expected that you would be with them all the evening. I told her exactly what you wrote me. She won’t write to the girl any more, she promises; and tomorrow she will be off, as you wish. She desired to see you for the last time, although you refused, so we’ve been sitting and waiting on that bench till you should pass on your way home. Did you read them? Of course—she showed them to me herself. You are thinking of the razor, eh? Ha, ha, ha!", "pos": 988490}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, she is mad!", "pos": 989440}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Who knows? Perhaps she is not so mad after all. Well, good-bye. I’m off tomorrow too, you know. Remember me kindly! By-the-by, did you answer her question just now? Are you happy, or not?", "pos": 989496}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, no, no!", "pos": 989819}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Ha, ha! I never supposed you would say ‘yes,’", "pos": 989877}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Podkoleosin", "pos": 990784}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Tu l’as voulu, Georges Dandin!", "pos": 991606}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "You know, you despise generals and generaldom, but you will see that ‘they’ will all end by being generals in their turn. You will see it if you live long enough!", "pos": 1001584}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "But why should they suppose that I despise generals?", "pos": 1001780}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "The old story, eh?", "pos": 1003943}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Old story? No! Heaven knows what’s up now—I don’t! Father has simply gone mad; mother’s in floods of tears. Upon my word, Varia, I must kick him out of the house; or else go myself,", "pos": 1003964}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "You must make allowances,", "pos": 1004252}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Make allowances? For whom? Him—the old blackguard? No, no, Varia—that won’t do! It won’t do, I tell you! And look at the swagger of the man! He’s all to blame himself, and yet he puts on so much ‘side’ that you’d think—my word!—‘It’s too much trouble to go through the gate, you must break the fence for me!’ That’s the sort of air he puts on; but what’s the matter with you, Varia? What a curious expression you have!", "pos": 1004296}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "I’m all right,", "pos": 1004717}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "You’ve been there?", "pos": 1004834}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Yes.", "pos": 1004875}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Did you find out anything?", "pos": 1004882}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Nothing unexpected. I discovered that it’s all true. My husband was wiser than either of us. Just as he suspected from the beginning, so it has fallen out. Where is he?", "pos": 1004911}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Out. Well—what has happened?—go on.", "pos": 1005082}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "The prince is formally engaged to her—that’s settled. The elder sisters told me about it. Aglaya has agreed. They don’t attempt to conceal it any longer; you know how mysterious and secret they have all been up to now. Adelaida’s wedding is put off again, so that both can be married on one day. Isn’t that delightfully romantic? Somebody ought to write a poem on it. Sit down and write an ode instead of tearing up and down like that. This evening Princess Bielokonski is to arrive; she comes just in time—they have a party tonight. He is to be presented to old Bielokonski, though I believe he knows her already; probably the engagement will be openly announced. They are only afraid that he may knock something down, or trip over something when he comes into the room. It would be just like him.", "pos": 1005120}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Well, it was clear enough all along. So that’s the end,", "pos": 1006107}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "It’s a good thing that you take it philosophically, at all events. I’m really very glad of it.", "pos": 1006355}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Yes, it’s off our hands—off yours, I should say.", "pos": 1006466}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "I think I have served you faithfully. I never even asked you what happiness you expected to find with Aglaya.", "pos": 1006517}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Did I ever expect to find happiness with Aglaya?", "pos": 1006629}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Come, come, don’t overdo your philosophy. Of course you did. Now it’s all over, and a good thing, too; pair of fools that we have been! I confess I have never been able to look at it seriously. I busied myself in it for your sake, thinking that there was no knowing what might happen with a funny girl like that to deal with. There were ninety to one chances against it. To this moment I can’t make out why you wished for it.", "pos": 1006680}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "H’m! now, I suppose, you and your husband will never weary of egging me on to work again. You’ll begin your lectures about perseverance and strength of will, and all that. I know it all by heart,", "pos": 1007108}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "He’s got some new idea in his head,", "pos": 1007328}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Are they pleased over there—the parents?", "pos": 1007381}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "N-no, I don’t think they are. You can judge for yourself. I think the general is pleased enough; her mother is a little uneasy. She always loathed the idea of the prince as a husband; everybody knows that.", "pos": 1007447}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Of course, naturally. The bridegroom is an impossible and ridiculous one. I mean, has she given her formal consent?", "pos": 1007655}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "She has not said ‘no,’ up to now, and that’s all. It was sure to be so with her. You know what she is like. You know how absurdly shy she is. You remember how she used to hide in a cupboard as a child, so as to avoid seeing visitors, for hours at a time. She is just the same now; but, do you know, I think there is something serious in the matter, even from her side; I feel it, somehow. She laughs at the prince, they say, from morn to night in order to hide her real feelings; but you may be sure she finds occasion to say something or other to him on the sly, for he himself is in a state of radiant happiness. He walks in the clouds; they say he is extremely funny just now; I heard it from themselves. They seemed to be laughing at me in their sleeves—those elder girls—I don’t know why.", "pos": 1007773}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "I’ll turn him out! I shall just turn him out—we can’t have this.", "pos": 1008727}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Yes, and then he’ll go about the place and disgrace us as he did yesterday.", "pos": 1008860}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "How ‘as he did yesterday’? What do you mean? What did he do yesterday?", "pos": 1008937}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Why, goodness me, don’t you know?", "pos": 1009033}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "What? You don’t mean to say that he went there yesterday! Good heavens, Varia! Speak! You have just been there. Was he there or not, quick?", "pos": 1009090}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "What are you doing? Where are you going to? You can’t let him go now; if you do he’ll go and do something worse.", "pos": 1009358}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "What did he do there? What did he say?", "pos": 1009473}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Funny girl, Aglaya. Give my special and personal respects to your parents; I shall certainly find an opportunity to see your father one day,", "pos": 1010183}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Wasn’t she joking? She was speaking sarcastically!", "pos": 1010436}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Not a bit of it; that’s just the strange part of it.", "pos": 1010489}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Does she know about father, do you think—or not?", "pos": 1010544}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "That they do not know about it in the house is quite certain, the rest of them, I mean; but you have given me an idea. Aglaya perhaps knows. She alone, though, if anyone; for the sisters were as astonished as I was to hear her speak so seriously. If she knows, the prince must have told her.", "pos": 1010595}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh! it’s not a great matter to guess who told her. A thief! A thief in our family, and the head of the family, too!", "pos": 1010889}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Oh! nonsense!", "pos": 1011007}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Father is a drunkard and a thief; I am a beggar, and the husband of my sister is a usurer,", "pos": 1011196}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Feeds me? Go on. Don’t stand on ceremony, pray. Don’t lose your temper. You are just like a schoolboy. You think that all this sort of thing would harm you in Aglaya’s eyes, do you? You little know her character. She is capable of refusing the most brilliant party, and running away and starving in a garret with some wretched student; that’s the sort of girl she is. You never could or did understand how interesting you would have seen in her eyes if you had come firmly and proudly through our misfortunes. The prince has simply caught her with hook and line; firstly, because he never thought of fishing for her, and secondly, because he is an idiot in the eyes of most people. It’s quite enough for her that by accepting him she puts her family out and annoys them all round—that’s what she likes. You don’t understand these things.", "pos": 1011447}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "We shall see whether I understand or no! But I shouldn’t like her to know all about father, all the same. I thought the prince would manage to hold his tongue about this, at least. He prevented Lebedeff spreading the news—he wouldn’t even tell me all when I asked him—", "pos": 1012289}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Then you must see that he is not responsible. What does it matter to you now, in any case? What are you hoping for still? If you have a hope left, it is that your suffering air may soften her heart towards you.", "pos": 1012589}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh, she would funk a scandal like anyone else. You are all tarred with one brush!", "pos": 1012802}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "What! Aglaya would have funked? You are a chicken-hearted fellow, Gania! All I’m afraid of is—mother. I’m afraid this scandal about father may come to her ears; perhaps it has already. I am dreadfully afraid.", "pos": 1012886}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "It undoubtedly has already!", "pos": 1013341}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Who could have told her?", "pos": 1013540}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Hippolyte, probably. He would think it the most delightful amusement in the world to tell her of it the instant he moved over here; I haven’t a doubt of it.", "pos": 1013567}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "But how could he know anything of it? Tell me that. Lebedeff and the prince determined to tell no one—even Colia knows nothing.", "pos": 1013726}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "What, Hippolyte? He found it out himself, of course. Why, you have no idea what a cunning little animal he is; dirty little gossip! He has the most extraordinary nose for smelling out other people’s secrets, or anything approaching to scandal. Believe it or not, but I’m pretty sure he has got round Aglaya. If he hasn’t, he soon will. Rogojin is intimate with him, too. How the prince doesn’t notice it, I can’t understand. The little wretch considers me his enemy now and does his best to catch me tripping. What on earth does it matter to him, when he’s dying? However, you’ll see; I shall catch him tripping yet, and not he me.", "pos": 1013856}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Why did you get him over here, if you hate him so? And is it really worth your while to try to score off him?", "pos": 1014490}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Why, it was yourself who advised me to bring him over!", "pos": 1014602}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "I thought he might be useful. You know he is in love with Aglaya himself, now, and has written to her; he has even written to Lizabetha Prokofievna!", "pos": 1014659}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh! he’s not dangerous there! However, I believe there is something of that sort in the air; he is very likely to be in love, for he is a mere boy. But he won’t write anonymous letters to the old lady; that would be too audacious a thing for him to attempt; but I dare swear the very first thing he did was to show me up to Aglaya as a base deceiver and intriguer. I confess I was fool enough to attempt something through him at first. I thought he would throw himself into my service out of revengeful feelings towards the prince, the sly little beast! But I know him better now. As for the theft, he may have heard of it from the widow in Petersburg, for if the old man committed himself to such an act, he can have done it for no other object but to give the money to her. Hippolyte said to me, without any prelude, that the general had promised the widow four hundred roubles. Of course I understood, and the little wretch looked at me with a nasty sort of satisfaction. I know him; you may depend upon it he went and told mother too, for the pleasure of wounding her. And why doesn’t he die, I should like to know? He undertook to die within three weeks, and here he is getting fatter. His cough is better, too. It was only yesterday that he said that was the second day he hadn’t coughed blood. Well, turn him out! I don’t hate, I despise him. Well, I do hate him, if you like! and I’ll tell him so to his face, even when he’s dying! If you had but read his confession—good Lord! what refinement of impudence! Oh, but I’d have liked to whip him then and there, like a schoolboy, just to see how surprised he would have been! Now he hates everybody because he—Oh, I say, what on earth are they doing there! Listen to that noise! I really can’t stand this any longer. Ptitsin!", "pos": 1014810}
{"speaker": "Ptitsin", "text": "what in the name of goodness are we coming to? Listen to that—", "pos": 1016737}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Look here, my dear sir,", "pos": 1019188}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Hadn’t you better say corkscrew?", "pos": 1019737}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "No, sir, not corkscrew. I am a general, not a bottle, sir. Make your choice, sir—me or him.", "pos": 1019788}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "But what have I done? What is his grievance?", "pos": 1020404}
{"speaker": "Nina Alexandrovna", "text": "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, teasing an old man like that—and in your position, too.", "pos": 1020534}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "And pray what is my position, madame? I have the greatest respect for you, personally; but—", "pos": 1020629}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "He’s a little screw. What did Gavrila bring you over here for? They’re all against me, even to my own son—all against me.", "pos": 1020723}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh, come—nonsense!", "pos": 1021166}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "What—shame you? I?—what do you mean, you young calf? I shame you? I can only do you honour, sir; I cannot shame you.", "pos": 1021290}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Honour, indeed!", "pos": 1021496}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "What do you say, sir?", "pos": 1021546}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "I say that I have but to open my mouth, and you— It’s only for mother’s sake that I spare him,", "pos": 1021618}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Speak!", "pos": 1022002}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh, father’s curse be hanged—you don’t frighten me that way! Whose fault is it that you have been as mad as a March hare all this week? It is just a week—you see, I count the days. Take care now; don’t provoke me too much, or I’ll tell all. Why did you go to the Epanchins’ yesterday—tell me that? And you call yourself an old man, too, with grey hair, and father of a family! H’m—nice sort of a father.", "pos": 1022117}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Be quiet, Gania,", "pos": 1022537}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Yes, but how have I offended him?", "pos": 1022590}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Why does he call me a screw? You all heard it. He came to me himself and began telling me about some Captain Eropegoff. I don’t wish for your company, general. I always avoided you—you know that. What have I to do with Captain Eropegoff? All I did was to express my opinion that probably Captain Eropegoff never existed at all!", "pos": 1022679}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Of course he never existed!", "pos": 1023009}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "There, you see! Even your own son supports my statement that there never was such a person as Captain Eropegoff!", "pos": 1023316}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Kapiton Eropegoff—not Captain Eropegoff!—Kapiton—major retired—Eropegoff—Kapiton.", "pos": 1023472}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Kapiton didn’t exist either!", "pos": 1023556}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "What? Didn’t exist?", "pos": 1023617}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "That’ll do, Gania!", "pos": 1023699}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Shut up, Gania!", "pos": 1023745}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "What did you mean, sir, that he didn’t exist? Explain yourself,", "pos": 1023829}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Because he didn’t exist—never could and never did—there! You’d better drop the subject, I warn you!", "pos": 1023917}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "And this is my son—my own son—whom I—oh, gracious Heaven! Eropegoff—Eroshka Eropegoff didn’t exist!", "pos": 1024019}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Ha, ha! it’s Eroshka now,", "pos": 1024121}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "No, sir, Kapitoshka—not Eroshka. I mean, Kapiton Alexeyevitch—retired major—married Maria Petrovna Lu—Lu—he was my friend and companion—Lutugoff—from our earliest beginnings. I closed his eyes for him—he was killed. Kapiton Eropegoff never existed! tfu!", "pos": 1024168}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Enough of this! My curse—away, out of the house I go! Colia, bring my bag away!", "pos": 1024993}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "What have you done now?", "pos": 1025188}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Well, he shouldn’t steal. As for you, sir,", "pos": 1025306}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "I don’t quite agree with you that your father is out of his mind. On the contrary, I cannot help thinking he has been less demented of late. Don’t you think so? He has grown so cunning and careful, and weighs his words so deliberately; he spoke to me about that Kapiton fellow with an object, you know! Just fancy—he wanted me to—", "pos": 1025692}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh, devil take what he wanted you to do! Don’t try to be too cunning with me, young man! If you are aware of the real reason for my father’s present condition (and you have kept such an excellent spying watch during these last few days that you are sure to be aware of it)—you had no right whatever to torment the—unfortunate man, and to worry my mother by your exaggerations of the affair; because the whole business is nonsense—simply a drunken freak, and nothing more, quite unproved by any evidence, and I don’t believe that much of it!", "pos": 1026049}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Screw!", "pos": 1026704}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Because you are a humbug, sir; and thought fit to worry people for half an hour, and tried to frighten them into believing that you would shoot yourself with your little empty pistol, pirouetting about and playing at suicide! I gave you hospitality, you have fattened on it, your cough has left you, and you repay all this—", "pos": 1026731}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Excuse me—two words! I am Varvara Ardalionovna’s guest, not yours; you have extended no hospitality to me. On the contrary, if I am not mistaken, I believe you are yourself indebted to Mr. Ptitsin’s hospitality. Four days ago I begged my mother to come down here and find lodgings, because I certainly do feel better here, though I am not fat, nor have I ceased to cough. I am today informed that my room is ready for me; therefore, having thanked your sister and mother for their kindness to me, I intend to leave the house this evening. I beg your pardon—I interrupted you—I think you were about to add something?", "pos": 1027057}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Oh—if that is the state of affairs—", "pos": 1027675}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Excuse me—I will take a seat, for I am not strong yet. Now then, I am ready to hear you. Especially as this is the last chance we shall have of a talk, and very likely the last meeting we shall ever have at all.", "pos": 1027726}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "I assure you I did not mean to reckon up debits and credits, and if you—", "pos": 1028030}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "I don’t understand your condescension. As for me, I promised myself, on the first day of my arrival in this house, that I would have the satisfaction of settling accounts with you in a very thorough manner before I said good-bye to you. I intend to perform this operation now, if you like; after you, though, of course.", "pos": 1028117}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "May I ask you to be so good as to leave this room?", "pos": 1028457}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "You’d better speak out. You’ll be sorry afterwards if you don’t.", "pos": 1028510}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Hippolyte, stop, please! It’s so dreadfully undignified,", "pos": 1028577}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Well, only for the sake of a lady. I am ready to put off the reckoning, but only put it off, Varvara Ardalionovna, because an explanation between your brother and myself has become an absolute necessity, and I could not think of leaving the house without clearing up all misunderstandings first.", "pos": 1028648}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "In a word, you are a wretched little scandal-monger, and you cannot go away without a scandal!", "pos": 1028974}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "You see, you can’t restrain yourself. You’ll be dreadfully sorry afterwards if you don’t speak out now. Come, you shall have the first say. I’ll wait. I shall be as short as possible, for my part. Two or three times to-day I have had the word ‘hospitality’ pushed down my throat; this is not fair. In inviting me here you yourself entrapped me for your own use; you thought I wished to revenge myself upon the prince. You heard that Aglaya Ivanovna had been kind to me and read my confession. Making sure that I should give myself up to your interests, you hoped that you might get some assistance out of me. I will not go into details. I don’t ask either admission or confirmation of this from yourself; I am quite content to leave you to your conscience, and to feel that we understand one another capitally.", "pos": 1029086}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "What a history you are weaving out of the most ordinary circumstances!", "pos": 1030007}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "I told you the fellow was nothing but a scandal-monger,", "pos": 1030093}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Excuse me, Varia Ardalionovna, I will proceed. I can, of course, neither love nor respect the prince, though he is a good-hearted fellow, if a little queer. But there is no need whatever for me to hate him. I quite understood your brother when he first offered me aid against the prince, though I did not show it; I knew well that your brother was making a ridiculous mistake in me. I am ready to spare him, however, even now; but solely out of respect for yourself, Varvara Ardalionovna. “Having now shown you that I am not quite such a fool as I look, and that I have to be fished for with a rod and line for a good long while before I am caught, I will proceed to explain why I specially wished to make your brother look a fool. That my motive power is hate, I do not attempt to conceal. I have felt that before dying (and I am dying, however much fatter I may appear to you), I must absolutely make a fool of, at least, one of that class of men which has dogged me all my life, which I hate so cordially, and which is so prominently represented by your much esteemed brother. I should not enjoy paradise nearly so much without having done this first. I hate you, Gavrila Ardalionovitch, solely (this may seem curious to you, but I repeat)—solely because you are the type, and incarnation, and head, and crown of the most impudent, the most self-satisfied, the most vulgar and detestable form of commonplaceness. You are ordinary of the ordinary; you have no chance of ever fathering the pettiest idea of your own. And yet you are as jealous and conceited as you can possibly be; you consider yourself a great genius; of this you are persuaded, although there are dark moments of doubt and rage, when even this fact seems uncertain. There are spots of darkness on your horizon, though they will disappear when you become completely stupid. But a long and chequered path lies before you, and of this I am glad. In the first place you will never gain a certain person.”", "pos": 1030163}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Come, come! This is intolerable! You had better stop, you little mischief-making wretch!", "pos": 1032135}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Are you off? Wait a moment—look at this.", "pos": 1032762}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Good heavens! GAVRILA ARDOLIONOVITCH,—persuaded of your kindness of heart, I have determined to ask your advice on a matter of great importance to myself. I should like to meet you tomorrow morning at seven o’clock by the green bench in the park. It is not far from our house. Varvara Ardalionovna, who must accompany you, knows the place well. “A. E.” What on earth is one to make of a girl like that? And this is the very day that they were to announce the engagement! What will she do next?", "pos": 1032989}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "What do you suppose she wants to talk about tomorrow?", "pos": 1033817}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Oh, that’s all the same! The chief thing is that she wants to see you after six months’ absence. Look here, Gania, this is a serious business. Don’t swagger again and lose the game—play carefully, but don’t funk, do you understand? As if she could possibly avoid seeing what I have been working for all this last six months! And just imagine, I was there this morning and not a word of this! I was there, you know, on the sly. The old lady did not know, or she would have kicked me out. I ran some risk for you, you see. I did so want to find out, at all hazards.", "pos": 1033886}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Now, Gania,", "pos": 1034559}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "we can’t let him go out! We can’t afford to have a breath of scandal about the town at this moment. Run after him and beg his pardon—quick.", "pos": 1034598}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "What are you up to? Where are you off to? You’ve nowhere to go to, you know,", "pos": 1035144}
{"speaker": "Varia", "text": "Come back, father; the neighbours will hear!", "pos": 1035255}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "My curse be upon this house!", "pos": 1035381}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "Which observation should always be made in as theatrical a tone as possible,", "pos": 1035412}
{"speaker": "Gania", "text": "I have long sought the honour and opportunity of meeting you—much-esteemed Lef Nicolaievitch,", "pos": 1042572}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "No—I will not sit down,—I am keeping you, I see,—another time!—I think I may be permitted to congratulate you upon the realization of your heart’s best wishes, is it not so?", "pos": 1042805}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What best wishes?", "pos": 1042981}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Oh—be easy, sir, be easy! I shall not wound your tenderest feelings. I’ve been through it all myself, and I know well how unpleasant it is when an outsider sticks his nose in where he is not wanted. I experience this every morning. I came to speak to you about another matter, though, an important matter. A very important matter, prince.", "pos": 1043126}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Well—just for one second, then. The fact is, I came for advice. Of course I live now without any very practical objects in life; but, being full of self-respect, in which quality the ordinary Russian is so deficient as a rule, and of activity, I am desirous, in a word, prince, of placing myself and my wife and children in a position of—in fact, I want advice. Quite so—quite so! But this is all mere nonsense. I came here to speak of something quite different, something very important, prince. And I have determined to come to you as to a man in whose sincerity and nobility of feeling I can trust like—like—are you surprised at my words, prince?", "pos": 1043540}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "But enough! I see I have been boring you with my—", "pos": 1044856}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Not in the least—not in the least, I assure you. On the contrary, I am listening most attentively, and am anxious to guess—", "pos": 1044930}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Prince, I wish to place myself in a respectable position—I wish to esteem myself—and to—", "pos": 1045056}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "My dear sir, a man of such noble aspirations is worthy of all esteem by virtue of those aspirations alone.", "pos": 1045147}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Enough! you understand me, and that is the great thing. A heart like yours cannot help understanding the sufferings of another. Prince, you are the ideal of generosity; what are other men beside yourself? But you are young—accept my blessing! My principal object is to beg you to fix an hour for a most important conversation—that is my great hope, prince. My heart needs but a little friendship and sympathy, and yet I cannot always find means to satisfy it.", "pos": 1046337}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "But why not now? I am ready to listen, and—", "pos": 1046823}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "No, no—prince, not now! Now is a dream! And it is too, too important! It is to be the hour of Fate to me—my own hour. Our interview is not to be broken in upon by every chance comer, every impertinent guest—and there are plenty of such stupid, impertinent fellows who are unworthy to tie your shoe, prince. I don’t say mine, mind—you will understand me, prince. Only you understand me, prince—no one else. He doesn’t understand me, he is absolutely—absolutely unable to sympathize. The first qualification for understanding another is Heart.", "pos": 1046869}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Everyone has his worries, prince, especially in these strange and troublous times of ours,", "pos": 1049023}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Dear me, what a philosopher you are!", "pos": 1049212}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Philosophy is necessary, sir—very necessary—in our day. It is too much neglected. As for me, much esteemed prince, I am sensible of having experienced the honour of your confidence in a certain matter up to a certain point, but never beyond that point. I do not for a moment complain—", "pos": 1049271}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Lebedeff, you seem to be angry for some reason!", "pos": 1049558}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Not the least bit in the world, esteemed and revered prince! Not the least bit in the world! On the contrary, I am too painfully aware that neither by my position in the world, nor by my gifts of intellect and heart, nor by my riches, nor by any former conduct of mine, have I in any way deserved your confidence, which is far above my highest aspirations and hopes. Oh no, prince; I may serve you, but only as your humble slave! I am not angry, oh no! Not angry; pained perhaps, but nothing more.", "pos": 1049625}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "My dear Lebedeff, I—", "pos": 1050182}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh, nothing more, nothing more! I was saying to myself but now... ‘I am quite unworthy of friendly relations with him,’ say I; ‘but perhaps as landlord of this house I may, at some future date, in his good time, receive information as to certain imminent and much to be desired changes—’", "pos": 1050205}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I don’t understand what you are driving at!", "pos": 1050660}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "and, and—what an intriguer you are, Lebedeff!", "pos": 1050732}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And do you know, I am amazed at your naive ways, Lebedeff! Don’t be angry with me—not only yours, everybody else’s also! You are waiting to hear something from me at this very moment with such simplicity that I declare I feel quite ashamed of myself for having nothing whatever to tell you. I swear to you solemnly, that there is nothing to tell. There! Can you take that in?", "pos": 1050995}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "And what can I do for you, esteemed prince? Since I am told you sent for me just now,", "pos": 1052158}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, it was about the general,", "pos": 1052285}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "and—and about the theft you told me of.", "pos": 1052403}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "That is—er—about—what theft?", "pos": 1052445}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh come! just as if you didn’t understand, Lukian Timofeyovitch! What are you up to? I can’t make you out! The money, the money, sir! The four hundred roubles that you lost that day. You came and told me about it one morning, and then went off to Petersburg. There, now do you understand?", "pos": 1052476}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh—h—h! You mean the four hundred roubles! Thanks very much, prince, for your kind interest—you do me too much honour. I found the money, long ago!", "pos": 1052767}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You found it? Thank God for that!", "pos": 1053041}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Your exclamation proves the generous sympathy of your nature, prince; for four hundred roubles—to a struggling family man like myself—is no small matter!", "pos": 1053077}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I didn’t mean that; at least, of course, I’m glad for your sake, too,", "pos": 1053233}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "but—how did you find it?", "pos": 1053343}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Very simply indeed! I found it under the chair upon which my coat had hung; so that it is clear the purse simply fell out of the pocket and on to the floor!", "pos": 1053370}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Under the chair? Impossible! Why, you told me yourself that you had searched every corner of the room? How could you not have looked in the most likely place of all?", "pos": 1053529}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Of course I looked there,—of course I did! Very much so! I looked and scrambled about, and felt for it, and wouldn’t believe it was not there, and looked again and again. It is always so in such cases. One longs and expects to find a lost article; one sees it is not there, and the place is as bare as one’s palm; and yet one returns and looks again and again, fifteen or twenty times, likely enough!", "pos": 1053697}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, quite so, of course. But how was it in your case?—I don’t quite understand,", "pos": 1054100}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You say it wasn’t there at first, and that you searched the place thoroughly, and yet it turned up on that very spot!", "pos": 1054210}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Yes, sir—on that very spot.", "pos": 1054330}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And the general?", "pos": 1054400}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "The—the general? How do you mean, the general?", "pos": 1054439}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, good heavens! I mean, what did the general say when the purse turned up under the chair? You and he had searched for it together there, hadn’t you?", "pos": 1054578}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Quite so—together! But the second time I thought better to say nothing about finding it. I found it alone.", "pos": 1054732}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "But—why in the world—and the money? Was it all there?", "pos": 1054841}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I opened the purse and counted it myself; right to a single rouble.", "pos": 1054897}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I think you might have come and told me,", "pos": 1054967}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh—I didn’t like to disturb you, prince, in the midst of your private and doubtless most interesting personal reflections. Besides, I wanted to appear, myself, to have found nothing. I took the purse, and opened it, and counted the money, and shut it and put it down again under the chair.", "pos": 1055041}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What in the world for?", "pos": 1055333}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh, just out of curiosity,", "pos": 1055358}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What, it’s still there then, is it? Ever since the day before yesterday?", "pos": 1055436}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh no! You see, I was half in hopes the general might find it. Because if I found it, why should not he too observe an object lying before his very eyes? I moved the chair several times so as to expose the purse to view, but the general never saw it. He is very absent just now, evidently. He talks and laughs and tells stories, and suddenly flies into a rage with me, goodness knows why.", "pos": 1055511}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, but—have you taken the purse away now?", "pos": 1055902}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "No, it disappeared from under the chair in the night.", "pos": 1055949}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Where is it now, then?", "pos": 1056005}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Here, here, in the lining of my coat. Look, you can feel it for yourself, if you like! I took it out and had a look at it; it’s all right. I’ve let it slip back into the lining now, as you see, and so I have been walking about ever since yesterday morning; it knocks against my legs when I walk along.", "pos": 1056030}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "H’m! and you take no notice of it?", "pos": 1056624}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Quite so, I take no notice of it. Ha, ha! and think of this, prince, my pockets are always strong and whole, and yet, here in one night, is a huge hole. I know the phenomenon is unworthy of your notice; but such is the case. I examined the hole, and I declare it actually looks as though it had been made with a pen-knife, a most improbable contingency.", "pos": 1056661}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And—and—the general?", "pos": 1057017}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Ah, very angry all day, sir; all yesterday and all today. He shows decided bacchanalian predilections at one time, and at another is tearful and sensitive, but at any moment he is liable to paroxysms of such rage that I assure you, prince, I am quite alarmed. I am not a military man, you know. Yesterday we were sitting together in the tavern, and the lining of my coat was—quite accidentally, of course—sticking out right in front. The general squinted at it, and flew into a rage. He never looks me quite in the face now, unless he is very drunk or maudlin; but yesterday he looked at me in such a way that a shiver went all down my back. I intend to find the purse tomorrow; but till then I am going to have another night of it with him.", "pos": 1057040}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What’s the good of tormenting him like this?", "pos": 1057784}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I don’t torment him, prince, I don’t indeed! I love him, my dear sir, I esteem him; and believe it or not, I love him all the better for this business, yes—and value him more.", "pos": 1057849}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Nonsense! love him and torment him so! Why, by the very fact that he put the purse prominently before you, first under the chair and then in your lining, he shows that he does not wish to deceive you, but is anxious to beg your forgiveness in this artless way. Do you hear? He is asking your pardon. He confides in the delicacy of your feelings, and in your friendship for him. And you can allow yourself to humiliate so thoroughly honest a man!", "pos": 1058132}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Thoroughly honest, quite so, prince, thoroughly honest! And only you, prince, could have found so very appropriate an expression. I honour you for it, prince. Very well, that’s settled; I shall find the purse now and not tomorrow. Here, I find it and take it out before your eyes! And the money is all right. Take it, prince, and keep it till tomorrow, will you? Tomorrow or next day I’ll take it back again. I think, prince, that the night after its disappearance it was buried under a bush in the garden. So I believe—what do you think of that?", "pos": 1058580}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, take care you don’t tell him to his face that you have found the purse. Simply let him see that it is no longer in the lining of your coat, and form his own conclusions.", "pos": 1059166}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Do you think so? Had I not just better tell him I have found it, and pretend I never guessed where it was?", "pos": 1059344}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, I don’t think so,", "pos": 1059453}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "it’s too late for that—that would be dangerous now. No, no! Better say nothing about it. Be nice with him, you know, but don’t show him—oh, you know well enough—", "pos": 1059508}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I know, prince, of course I know, but I’m afraid I shall not carry it out; for to do so one needs a heart like your own. He is so very irritable just now, and so proud. At one moment he will embrace me, and the next he flies out at me and sneers at me, and then I stick the lining forward on purpose. Well, au revoir, prince, I see I am keeping you, and boring you, too, interfering with your most interesting private reflections.", "pos": 1059672}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Now, do be careful! Secrecy, as before!", "pos": 1060105}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh, silence isn’t the word! Softly, softly!", "pos": 1060147}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I’ve brought your book back. Much obliged to you for lending it to me.", "pos": 1061125}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Ah, yes. Well, did you read it, general? It’s curious, isn’t it?", "pos": 1061248}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Curious enough, yes, but crude, and of course dreadful nonsense; probably the man lies in every other sentence.", "pos": 1061402}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, but it’s only the simple tale of an old soldier who saw the French enter Moscow. Some of his remarks were wonderfully interesting. Remarks of an eye-witness are always valuable, whoever he be, don’t you think so?", "pos": 1061614}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Had I been the publisher I should not have printed it. As to the evidence of eye-witnesses, in these days people prefer impudent lies to the stories of men of worth and long service. I know of some notes of the year 1812, which—I have determined, prince, to leave this house, Mr. Lebedeff’s house.", "pos": 1061833}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Of course you have your own lodging at Pavlofsk at—at your daughter’s house,", "pos": 1062179}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "At my wife’s; in other words, at my own place, my daughter’s house.", "pos": 1062417}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I beg your pardon, I—", "pos": 1062487}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I leave Lebedeff’s house, my dear prince, because I have quarrelled with this person. I broke with him last night, and am very sorry that I did not do so before. I expect respect, prince, even from those to whom I give my heart, so to speak. Prince, I have often given away my heart, and am nearly always deceived. This person was quite unworthy of the gift.", "pos": 1062511}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "There is much that might be improved in him, but he has some qualities which—though amid them one cannot but discern a cunning nature—reveal what is often a diverting intellect.", "pos": 1062871}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Oh, that he possesses good traits, I was the first to show, when I very nearly made him a present of my friendship. I am not dependent upon his hospitality, and upon his house; I have my own family. I do not attempt to justify my own weakness. I have drunk with this man, and perhaps I deplore the fact now, but I did not take him up for the sake of drink alone (excuse the crudeness of the expression, prince); I did not make friends with him for that alone. I was attracted by his good qualities; but when the fellow declares that he was a child in 1812, and had his left leg cut off, and buried in the Vagarkoff cemetery, in Moscow, such a cock-and-bull story amounts to disrespect, my dear sir, to—to impudent exaggeration.", "pos": 1063198}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, he was very likely joking; he said it for fun.", "pos": 1063928}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I quite understand you. You mean that an innocent lie for the sake of a good joke is harmless, and does not offend the human heart. Some people lie, if you like to put it so, out of pure friendship, in order to amuse their fellows; but when a man makes use of extravagance in order to show his disrespect and to make clear how the intimacy bores him, it is time for a man of honour to break off the said intimacy, and to teach the offender his place.", "pos": 1063981}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, but Lebedeff cannot have been in Moscow in 1812. He is much too young; it is all nonsense.", "pos": 1064484}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Very well, but even if we admit that he was alive in 1812, can one believe that a French chasseur pointed a cannon at him for a lark, and shot his left leg off? He says he picked his own leg up and took it away and buried it in the cemetery. He swore he had a stone put up over it with the inscription: ‘Here lies the leg of Collegiate Secretary Lebedeff,’ and on the other side, ‘Rest, beloved ashes, till the morn of joy,’ and that he has a service read over it every year (which is simply sacrilege), and goes to Moscow once a year on purpose. He invites me to Moscow in order to prove his assertion, and show me his leg’s tomb, and the very cannon that shot him; he says it’s the eleventh from the gate of the Kremlin, an old-fashioned falconet taken from the French afterwards.", "pos": 1064581}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "And, meanwhile both his legs are still on his body. I assure you, it is only an innocent joke, and you need not be angry about it.", "pos": 1065366}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Excuse me—wait a minute—he says that the leg we see is a wooden one, made by Tchernosvitoff.", "pos": 1065528}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "They do say one can dance with those!", "pos": 1065623}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Quite so, quite so; and he swears that his wife never found out that one of his legs was wooden all the while they were married. When I showed him the ridiculousness of all this, he said, ‘Well, if you were one of Napoleon’s pages in 1812, you might let me bury my leg in the Moscow cemetery.’", "pos": 1065663}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why, did you say—", "pos": 1065959}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Oh, go on, finish your sentence, by all means. Say how odd it appears to you that a man fallen to such a depth of humiliation as I, can ever have been the actual eye-witness of great events. Go on, I don’t mind! Has he found time to tell you scandal about me?", "pos": 1066066}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, I’ve heard nothing of this from Lebedeff, if you mean Lebedeff.", "pos": 1066339}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "H’m; I thought differently. You see, we were talking over this period of history. I was criticizing a current report of something which then happened, and having been myself an eye-witness of the occurrence—you are smiling, prince—you are looking at my face as if—", "pos": 1066409}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh no! not at all—I—", "pos": 1066676}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I am rather young-looking, I know; but I am actually older than I appear to be. I was ten or eleven in the year 1812. I don’t know my age exactly, but it has always been a weakness of mine to make it out less than it really is.", "pos": 1066699}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I assure you, general, I do not in the least doubt your statement. One of our living autobiographers states that when he was a small baby in Moscow in 1812 the French soldiers fed him with bread.", "pos": 1066929}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Well, there you see! There is nothing whatever unusual about my tale. Truth very often appears to be impossible. I was a page—it sounds strange, I dare say. Had I been fifteen years old I should probably have been terribly frightened when the French arrived, as my mother was (who had been too slow about clearing out of Moscow); but as I was only just ten I was not in the least alarmed, and rushed through the crowd to the very door of the palace when Napoleon alighted from his horse.", "pos": 1067127}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Undoubtedly, at ten years old you would not have felt the sense of fear, as you say,", "pos": 1067654}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Of course; and it all happened so easily and naturally. And yet, were a novelist to describe the episode, he would put in all kinds of impossible and incredible details.", "pos": 1067838}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh. I have often thought that! Why, I know of a murder, for the sake of a watch. It’s in all the papers now. But if some writer had invented it, all the critics would have jumped down his throat and said the thing was too improbable for anything. And yet you read it in the paper, and you can’t help thinking that out of these strange disclosures is to be gained the full knowledge of Russian life and character. You said that well, general; it is so true,", "pos": 1068010}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Yes, it’s quite true, isn’t it? A small boy, a child, would naturally realize no danger; he would shove his way through the crowds to see the shine and glitter of the uniforms, and especially the great man of whom everyone was speaking, for at that time all the world had been talking of no one but this man for some years past. The world was full of his name; I—so to speak—drew it in with my mother’s milk. Napoleon, passing a couple of paces from me, caught sight of me accidentally. I was very well dressed, and being all alone, in that crowd, as you will easily imagine...", "pos": 1068603}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, of course! Naturally the sight impressed him, and proved to him that not all the aristocracy had left Moscow; that at least some nobles and their children had remained behind.", "pos": 1069243}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Just so! just so! He wanted to win over the aristocracy! When his eagle eye fell on me, mine probably flashed back in response. ‘Voilà un garçon bien éveillé! Qui est ton père?’ I immediately replied, almost panting with excitement, ‘A general, who died on the battle-fields of his country!’ ‘Le fils d’un boyard et d’un brave, pardessus le marché. J’aime les boyards. M’aimes-tu, petit?’ The Russian heart can recognize a great man even in the bitter enemy of his country. I like that boy’s pride; if all Russians think like this child, then— That was a great woman. Well, in a couple of days I was known all over the palace and the Kremlin as ‘le petit boyard.’ I only went home to sleep. They were nearly out of their minds about me at home. A couple of days after this, Napoleon’s page, De Bazancour, died; he had not been able to stand the trials of the campaign. Napoleon remembered me; I was taken away without explanation; the dead page’s uniform was tried on me, and when I was taken before the emperor, dressed in it, he nodded his head to me, and I was told that I was appointed to the vacant post of page. Well, I was glad enough, for I had long felt the greatest sympathy for this man; and then the pretty uniform and all that—only a child, you know—and so on. It was a dark green dress coat with gold buttons—red facings, white trousers, and a white silk waistcoat—silk stockings, shoes with buckles, and top-boots if I were riding out with his majesty or with the suite. Though the position of all of us at that time was not particularly brilliant, and the poverty was dreadful all round, yet the etiquette at court was strictly preserved, and the more strictly in proportion to the growth of the forebodings of disaster.", "pos": 1069425}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Quite so, quite so, of course! Your memoirs would be most interesting.", "pos": 1071667}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "My memoirs! Write my memoirs? The idea has not tempted me. And yet, if you please, my memoirs have long been written, but they shall not see the light until dust returns to dust. Then, I doubt not, they will be translated into all languages, not of course on account of their actual literary merit, but because of the great events of which I was the actual witness, though but a child at the time. As a child, I was able to penetrate into the secrecy of the great man’s private room. At nights I have heard the groans and wailings of this ‘giant in distress.’ He could feel no shame in weeping before such a mere child as I was, though I understood even then that the reason for his suffering was the silence of the Emperor Alexander.", "pos": 1071998}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, of course; he had written letters to the latter with proposals of peace, had he not?", "pos": 1072781}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "We did not know the details of his proposals, but he wrote letter after letter, all day and every day. He was dreadfully agitated. Sometimes at night I would throw myself upon his breast with tears (Oh, how I loved that man!). ‘Ask forgiveness, Oh, ask forgiveness of the Emperor Alexander!’ I would cry. I should have said, of course, ‘Make peace with Alexander,’ but as a child I expressed my idea in the naive way recorded. ‘Oh, my child,’ he would say (he loved to talk to me and seemed to forget my tender years), ‘Oh, my child, I am ready to kiss Alexander’s feet, but I hate and abominate the King of Prussia and the Austrian Emperor, and—and—but you know nothing of politics, my child.’ He would pull up, remembering whom he was speaking to, but his eyes would sparkle for a long while after this. Well now, if I were to describe all this, and I have seen greater events than these, all these critical gentlemen of the press and political parties—Oh, no thanks! I’m their very humble servant, but no thanks!", "pos": 1072892}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Quite so—parties—you are very right. I was reading a book about Napoleon and the Waterloo campaign only the other day, by Charasse, in which the author does not attempt to conceal his joy at Napoleon’s discomfiture at every page. Well now, I don’t like that; it smells of ‘party,’ you know. You are quite right. And were you much occupied with your service under Napoleon?", "pos": 1073910}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I know Charasse’s book! Oh! I was so angry with his work! I wrote to him and said—I forget what, at this moment. You ask whether I was very busy under the Emperor? Oh no! I was called ‘page,’ but hardly took my duty seriously. Besides, Napoleon very soon lost hope of conciliating the Russians, and he would have forgotten all about me had he not loved me—for personal reasons—I don’t mind saying so now. My heart was greatly drawn to him, too. My duties were light. I merely had to be at the palace occasionally to escort the Emperor out riding, and that was about all. I rode very fairly well. He used to have a ride before dinner, and his suite on those occasions were generally Davoust, myself, and Roustan.", "pos": 1074476}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Constant?", "pos": 1075190}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "No; Constant was away then, taking a letter to the Empress Josephine. Instead of him there were always a couple of orderlies—and that was all, excepting, of course, the generals and marshals whom Napoleon always took with him for the inspection of various localities, and for the sake of consultation generally. I remember there was one—Davoust—nearly always with him—a big man with spectacles. They used to argue and quarrel sometimes. Once they were in the Emperor’s study together—just those two and myself—I was unobserved—and they argued, and the Emperor seemed to be agreeing to something under protest. Suddenly his eye fell on me and an idea seemed to flash across him.", "pos": 1075254}
{"speaker": "Napoleon", "text": "Child. If I were to recognize the Russian orthodox religion and emancipate the serfs, do you think Russia would come over to me?", "pos": 1075934}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Never!", "pos": 1076088}
{"speaker": "Napoleon", "text": "In the flashing eyes of this patriotic child I read and accept the fiat of the Russian people. Enough, Davoust, it is mere phantasy on our part. Come, let’s hear your other project.", "pos": 1076152}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, but that was a great idea. You ascribe it to Davoust, do you?", "pos": 1076337}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Well, at all events, they were consulting together at the time. Of course it was the idea of an eagle, and must have originated with Napoleon; but the other project was good too—it was the ‘Conseil du lion!’ as Napoleon called it. This project consisted in a proposal to occupy the Kremlin with the whole army; to arm and fortify it scientifically, to kill as many horses as could be got, and salt their flesh, and spend the winter there; and in spring to fight their way out. Napoleon liked the idea—it attracted him. We rode round the Kremlin walls every day, and Napoleon used to give orders where they were to be patched, where built up, where pulled down and so on. All was decided at last. They were alone together—those two and myself. Napoleon was walking up and down with folded arms. I could not take my eyes off his face—my heart beat loudly and painfully.", "pos": 1076445}
{"speaker": "Davoust", "text": "I’m off,", "pos": 1077316}
{"speaker": "Napoleon", "text": "Where to?", "pos": 1077341}
{"speaker": "Davoust", "text": "To salt horse-flesh,", "pos": 1077370}
{"speaker": "Napoleon", "text": "Child, what do you think of our plan?", "pos": 1077455}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Escape, general! Go home!—", "pos": 1077667}
{"speaker": "Davoust", "text": "Bah, il devient superstitieux!", "pos": 1077791}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "All this is most interesting, if it really was so—that is, I mean—", "pos": 1077870}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Oh, my dear prince. You say, ‘if it really was so!’ There was more—much more, I assure you! These are merely a few little political acts. I tell you I was the eye-witness of the nightly sorrow and groanings of the great man, and of that no one can speak but myself. Towards the end he wept no more, though he continued to emit an occasional groan; but his face grew more overcast day by day, as though Eternity were wrapping its gloomy mantle about him. Occasionally we passed whole hours of silence together at night, Roustan snoring in the next room—that fellow slept like a pig. ‘But he’s loyal to me and my dynasty,’ said Napoleon of him. But he’s loyal to me and my dynasty,", "pos": 1078003}
{"speaker": "Napoleon", "text": "You are sorry for me, you, my child, and perhaps one other child—my son, the King of Rome—may grieve for me. All the rest hate me; and my brothers are the first to betray me in misfortune.", "pos": 1078900}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Write, oh, write a letter to the Empress Josephine!", "pos": 1079254}
{"speaker": "Napoleon", "text": "You remind me of a third heart which loves me. Thank you, my friend;", "pos": 1079365}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You did a good action, for in the midst of his angry feelings you insinuated a kind thought into his heart.", "pos": 1079547}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Just so, prince, just so. How well you bring out that fact! Because your own heart is good! Yes, prince, it was a wonderful spectacle. And, do you know, I all but went off to Paris, and should assuredly have shared his solitary exile with him; but, alas, our destinies were otherwise ordered! We parted, he to his island, where I am sure he thought of the weeping child who had embraced him so affectionately at parting in Moscow; and I was sent off to the cadet corps, where I found nothing but roughness and harsh discipline. Alas, my happy days were done!", "pos": 1079676}
{"speaker": "Napoleon", "text": "I do not wish to deprive your mother of you, and, therefore, I will not ask you to go with me, but I should like to do something for you.", "pos": 1080330}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Write something in my sister’s album for me,", "pos": 1080550}
{"speaker": "Napoleon", "text": "How old is your sister?", "pos": 1080721}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Three years old,", "pos": 1080786}
{"speaker": "Napoleon", "text": "Ah, petite fille alors!", "pos": 1080813}
{"speaker": "NAPOLÉON", "text": "Ne mentez jamais! NAPOLÉON (votre ami sincère).", "pos": 1080867}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, quite so; very remarkable. Oh, not in the least. On the contrary, I have been so much interested, I’m really very much obliged to you.", "pos": 1080983}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Prince. Prince, you are so kind, so simple-minded, that sometimes I really feel sorry for you! I gaze at you with a feeling of real affection. Oh, Heaven bless you! May your life blossom and fructify in love. Mine is over. Forgive me, forgive me!", "pos": 1081455}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Have I been acting rightly in allowing him to develop such vast resources of imagination?", "pos": 1082374}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "signs of sympathy which were humiliating to the dignity of a man already miserable enough.", "pos": 1082911}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Well, where are we to go to now, father? You don’t want to go to the prince’s; you have quarrelled with Lebedeff; you have no money; I never have any; and here we are in the middle of the road, in a nice sort of mess.", "pos": 1083731}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Better to be of a mess than in a mess! I remember making a joke something like that at the mess in eighteen hundred and forty—forty—I forget. Where is my youth, where is my golden youth? Who was it said that, Colia?", "pos": 1083963}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "It was Gogol, in Dead Souls, father,", "pos": 1084183}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "Dead Souls, yes, of course, dead. When I die, Colia, you must engrave on my tomb: Here lies a Dead Soul, Shame pursues me. Who said that, Colia?", "pos": 1084267}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "I don’t know, father.", "pos": 1084419}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "There was no Eropegoff? Eroshka Eropegoff? No Eropegoff! And my own son to say it! Eropegoff was in the place of a brother to me for eleven months. I fought a duel for him. He was married afterwards, and then killed on the field of battle. The bullet struck the cross on my breast and glanced off straight into his temple.", "pos": 1084443}
{"speaker": "Eropegoff", "text": "I’ll never forget you,", "pos": 1084823}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I served my country well and honestly, Colia, but shame, shame has pursued me! You and Nina will come to my grave, Colia; poor Nina, I always used to call her Nina in the old days, and how she loved.... Nina, Nina, oh, Nina. What have I ever done to deserve your forgiveness and long-suffering? Oh, Colia, your mother has an angelic spirit, an angelic spirit, Colia!", "pos": 1084870}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "I know that, father. Look here, dear old father, come back home! Let’s go back to mother. Look, she ran after us when we came out. What have you stopped her for, just as though you didn’t take in what I said? Why are you crying, father?", "pos": 1085239}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "You kiss my hands, mine?", "pos": 1085535}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Yes, yes, yours, yours! What is there to surprise anyone in that? Come, come, you mustn’t go on like this, crying in the middle of the road; and you a general too, a military man! Come, let’s go back.", "pos": 1085562}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "God bless you, dear boy, for being respectful to a disgraced man. Yes, to a poor disgraced old fellow, your father. You shall have such a son yourself; le roi de Rome. Oh, curses on this house!", "pos": 1085765}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Come, come, what does all this mean? What is it? What has happened to you? Why don’t you wish to come back home? Why have you gone out of your mind, like this?", "pos": 1085961}
{"speaker": "General Ivolgin", "text": "I’ll explain it, I’ll explain all to you. Don’t shout! You shall hear. Le roi de Rome. Oh, I am sad, I am melancholy! Nurse, where is your tomb? Who said that, Colia?", "pos": 1086161}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I don’t know, I don’t know who said it. Come home at once; come on! I’ll punch Gania’s head myself, if you like—only come. Oh, where are you off to again?", "pos": 1086334}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Bend down—bend down your ear. I’ll tell you all—disgrace—bend down, I’ll tell you in your ear.", "pos": 1086619}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What are you dreaming of?", "pos": 1086716}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Le roi de Rome,", "pos": 1086822}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What? What do you mean? What roi de Rome?", "pos": 1086883}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I—I,", "pos": 1086927}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I—wish—to tell you—all—Maria—Maria Petrovna—Su—Su—Su.......", "pos": 1087022}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, really, you know", "pos": 1090082}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "of course, you know all this is very strange, if true, which I cannot deny; but", "pos": 1090117}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "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 family name—all this looks well, and perpetuates the name and title and all that—which at this moment is not standing so high as it might—from one point of view—don’t you know? The world, the world is the world, of course—and people will talk—and—and—the prince has property, you know—if it is not very large—and then he—he—", "pos": 1090210}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "First of all, this prince is an idiot, and, secondly, he is a fool—knows nothing of the world, and has no place in it. Whom can he be shown to? Where can you take him to? What will old Bielokonski say? We never thought of such a husband as that for our Aglaya!", "pos": 1090935}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And why is not the prince such a husband as you would have desired for Aglaya?", "pos": 1091383}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Old Bielokonski", "pos": 1093474}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Why were things always mismanaged in her house? Why had everybody been in such a frantic hurry in this matter? So far as she could see, nothing whatever had happened. Surely they had better wait and see what was to happen, instead of making mountains out of molehills.", "pos": 1094841}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I do not know the game,", "pos": 1096020}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "little fools", "pos": 1096299}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "after all that had happened", "pos": 1096919}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "dear Colia,", "pos": 1097979}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Go and take this hedgehog to the prince from me, and ask him to accept it as a token of my profound respect.", "pos": 1098975}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "What does the hedgehog mean? What is the meaning of such a present? I am sure that there is some allegory about it,", "pos": 1099158}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "a silly boy.", "pos": 1099378}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "If I did not respect all women in your person, and if my own principles would permit it, I would soon prove to you, that I know how to answer such an insult!", "pos": 1099393}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Colia, dear, please take care not to drop him!", "pos": 1099854}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "No, I will not drop him! Don’t be afraid, Aglaya Ivanovna!", "pos": 1100002}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What children we are still, Colia! and how delightful it is that we can be children still!", "pos": 1101483}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Simply—my dear prince,—simply she is in love with you,—that’s the whole of the secret!", "pos": 1101614}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Otherwise. I shall die before evening.", "pos": 1102255}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "I wish at least he would come and say something!", "pos": 1103154}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Did you get my hedgehog?", "pos": 1104112}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, I got it,", "pos": 1104180}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Tell us now, at once, what you made of the present? I must have you answer this question for mother’s sake; she needs pacifying, and so do all the rest of the family!", "pos": 1104224}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Look here, Aglaya—", "pos": 1104393}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "This—this is going beyond all limits!", "pos": 1104433}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "It is not in the least beyond all limits, mamma! I sent the prince a hedgehog this morning, and I wish to hear his opinion of it. Go on, prince.", "pos": 1104519}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What—what sort of opinion, Aglaya Ivanovna?", "pos": 1104695}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "About the hedgehog.", "pos": 1104741}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "That is—I suppose you wish to know how I received the hedgehog, Aglaya Ivanovna,—or, I should say, how I regarded your sending him to me? In that case, I may tell you—in a word—that I—in fact—", "pos": 1104763}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Come—you haven’t told us much! Very well, I am ready to drop the hedgehog, if you like; but I am anxious to be able to clear up this accumulation of misunderstandings. Allow me to ask you, prince,—I wish to hear from you, personally—are you making me an offer, or not?", "pos": 1104981}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Gracious heavens!", "pos": 1105300}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Don’t deceive me now, prince—tell the truth. All these people persecute me with astounding questions—about you. Is there any ground for all these questions, or not? Come!", "pos": 1105430}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I have not asked you to marry me yet, Aglaya Ivanovna, but you know yourself how much I love you and trust you.", "pos": 1105603}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "No—I asked you this—answer this! Do you intend to ask for my hand, or not?", "pos": 1105764}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes—I do ask for it!", "pos": 1105841}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "No—no—my dear girl. You cannot proceed like this, Aglaya, if that’s how the matter stands. It’s impossible. Prince, forgive it, my dear fellow, but—Lizabetha Prokofievna! you must really—", "pos": 1105945}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Not I—not I! I retire from all responsibility,", "pos": 1106193}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Allow me to speak, please, mamma. I think I ought to have something to say in the matter. An important moment of my destiny is about to be decided and I wish to find out how the matter stands, for my own sake, though I am glad you are all here. Allow me to ask you, prince, since you cherish those intentions, how you consider that you will provide for my happiness?", "pos": 1106295}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I—I don’t quite know how to answer your question, Aglaya Ivanovna. What is there to say to such a question? And—and must I answer?", "pos": 1106720}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I think you are rather overwhelmed and out of breath. Have a little rest, and try to recover yourself. Take a glass of water, or—but they’ll give you some tea directly.", "pos": 1106853}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I love you, Aglaya Ivanovna,—I love you very much. I love only you—and—please don’t jest about it, for I do love you very much.", "pos": 1107024}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Well, this matter is important. We are not children—we must look into it thoroughly. Now then, kindly tell me—what does your fortune consist of?", "pos": 1107154}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "No—Aglaya—come, enough of this, you mustn’t behave like this,", "pos": 1107301}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "It’s disgraceful,", "pos": 1107393}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "She’s mad—quite!", "pos": 1107459}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Fortune—money—do you mean?", "pos": 1107494}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Just so.", "pos": 1107558}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I have now—let’s see—I have a hundred and thirty-five thousand roubles,", "pos": 1107569}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Is that all, really? However, it’s not so bad, especially if managed with economy. Do you intend to serve?", "pos": 1107680}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I—I intended to try for a certificate as private tutor.", "pos": 1107855}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Very good. That would increase our income nicely. Have you any intention of being a Kammer-junker?", "pos": 1107913}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "A Kammer-junker? I had not thought of it, but—", "pos": 1108014}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "I knew it was all a joke! I felt it ever since—since the hedgehog.", "pos": 1108576}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "No, no! I cannot allow this,—this is a little too much,", "pos": 1108663}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "It’s—it’s really—now could you have imagined anything like it, Lef Nicolaievitch? Seriously now, seriously I mean—", "pos": 1108972}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I only see that Aglaya Ivanovna is laughing at me,", "pos": 1109187}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Wait a bit, my boy, I’ll just go—you stay here, you know. But do just explain, if you can, Lef Nicolaievitch, how in the world has all this come about? And what does it all mean? You must understand, my dear fellow; I am a father, you see, and I ought to be allowed to understand the matter—do explain, I beg you!", "pos": 1109269}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I love Aglaya Ivanovna—she knows it,—and I think she must have long known it.", "pos": 1109585}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Strange—it’s strange, and you love her very much?", "pos": 1109701}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, very much.", "pos": 1109764}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Well—it’s all most strange to me. That is—my dear fellow, it is such a surprise—such a blow—that... You see, it is not your financial position (though I should not object if you were a bit richer)—I am thinking of my daughter’s happiness, of course, and the thing is—are you able to give her the happiness she deserves? And then—is all this a joke on her part, or is she in earnest? I don’t mean on your side, but on hers.", "pos": 1109782}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Papa!", "pos": 1110280}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Wait for me here, my boy—will you? Just wait and think it all over, and I’ll come back directly,", "pos": 1110288}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "There, look at her now—Ivan Fedorovitch! Here she is—all of her! This is our real Aglaya at last! Oh, you cruel little girl! How will you treat us all next, I wonder?", "pos": 1110751}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Cruel? Yes, I am cruel, and worthless, and spoiled—tell father so,—oh, here he is—I forgot Father, listen!", "pos": 1111438}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "My darling, my little idol, so you love this young man, do you?", "pos": 1111595}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "No, no, no, can’t bear him, I can’t bear your young man! And if you dare say that once more, papa—I’m serious, you know, I’m,—do you hear me—I’m serious!", "pos": 1111746}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "If that’s the case, darling—then, of course, you shall do exactly as you like. He is waiting alone downstairs. Hadn’t I better hint to him gently that he can go?", "pos": 1112170}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "No, no, you needn’t do anything of the sort; you mustn’t hint gently at all. I’ll go down myself directly. I wish to apologize to this young man, because I hurt his feelings.", "pos": 1112396}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Yes, seriously,", "pos": 1112573}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Well, you’d better stay here, all of you, for a little, and I’ll go down to him alone to begin with. I’ll just go in and then you can follow me almost at once. That’s the best way. I shall laugh—I know I shall; I shall die of laughing,", "pos": 1112618}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "Well, what does it all mean? What do you make of it?", "pos": 1113027}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "I hardly dare say, but I think it’s as plain as anything can be.", "pos": 1113126}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "I think so too, as clear as day; she loves him.", "pos": 1113225}
{"speaker": "Alexandra", "text": "Loves him? She is head over ears in love, that’s what she is,", "pos": 1113275}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Well, God bless her, God bless her, if such is her destiny,", "pos": 1113357}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "H’m destiny it is, and there’s no getting out of destiny.", "pos": 1113462}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Forgive a silly, horrid, spoilt girl and be quite assured that we all of us esteem you beyond all words. And if I dared to turn your beautiful, admirable simplicity to ridicule, forgive me as you would a little child its mischief. Forgive me all my absurdity of just now, which, of course, meant nothing, and could not have the slightest consequence.", "pos": 1113753}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why do you speak so? Why do you ask my forgiveness?", "pos": 1114573}
{"speaker": "Aglaya's sisters", "text": "it made one feel happy to look at him,", "pos": 1115528}
{"speaker": "Lizabetha", "text": "She looked at him, and stared and stared, and hung on every word he said, and yet, tell her that she loves him, and she is furious!", "pos": 1117139}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "What’s to be done? It’s fate. It’s fate, it’s fate!", "pos": 1117318}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Do you know. I’ve remarked that you are dreadfully badly educated. You never know anything thoroughly, if one asks you; neither anyone’s name, nor dates, nor about treaties and so on. It’s a great pity, you know!", "pos": 1118310}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I told you I had not had much of an education,", "pos": 1118578}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "How am I to respect you, if that’s the case? Read on now. No—don’t! Stop reading!", "pos": 1118647}
{"speaker": "Prince S.", "text": "a new and approaching change in the family.", "pos": 1118986}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "she had no intentions as yet of replacing anybody’s mistress.", "pos": 1119393}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Didn’t I tell you the truth now, when I said you were in love?", "pos": 1120758}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "how irritating they all are there. They are such wretchedly small, vain, egotistical, commonplace people! Would you believe it, they invited me there under the express condition that I should die quickly, and they are all as wild as possible with me for not having died yet, and for being, on the contrary, a good deal better! Isn’t it a comedy? I don’t mind betting that you don’t believe me! I sometimes think of coming over to you again. So you don’t think them capable of inviting a man on the condition that he is to look sharp and die?", "pos": 1121373}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I certainly thought they invited you with quite other views.", "pos": 1121974}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Ho, ho! you are not nearly so simple as they try to make you out! This is not the time for it, or I would tell you a thing or two about that beauty, Gania, and his hopes. You are being undermined, pitilessly undermined, and—and it is really melancholy to see you so calm about it. But alas! it’s your nature—you can’t help it!", "pos": 1122037}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "My word! what a thing to be melancholy about! Why, do you think I should be any happier if I were to feel disturbed about the excavations you tell me of?", "pos": 1122366}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool’s paradise! I suppose you don’t believe that you have a rival in that quarter?", "pos": 1122522}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Your insinuations as to rivalry are rather cynical, Hippolyte. I’m sorry to say I have no right to answer you! As for Gania, I put it to you, can any man have a happy mind after passing through what he has had to suffer? I think that is the best way to look at it. He will change yet, he has lots of time before him, and life is rich; besides—besides... As to being undermined, I don’t know what in the world you are driving at, Hippolyte. I think we had better drop the subject!", "pos": 1122677}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Very well, we’ll drop it for a while. You can’t look at anything but in your exalted, generous way. You must put out your finger and touch a thing before you’ll believe it, eh? Ha! ha! ha! I suppose you despise me dreadfully, prince, eh? What do you think?", "pos": 1123183}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why? Because you have suffered more than we have?", "pos": 1123442}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "No; because I am unworthy of my sufferings, if you like!", "pos": 1123494}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Whoever can suffer is worthy to suffer, I should think. Aglaya Ivanovna wished to see you, after she had read your confession, but—", "pos": 1123553}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "She postponed the pleasure—I see—I quite understand! I hear—they tell me—that you read her all that nonsense aloud? Stupid bosh it was—written in delirium. And I can’t understand how anyone can be so—I won’t say cruel, because the word would be humiliating to myself, but we’ll say childishly vain and revengeful, as to reproach me with this confession, and use it as a weapon against me. Don’t be afraid, I’m not referring to yourself.", "pos": 1123687}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, but I’m sorry you repudiate the confession, Hippolyte—it is sincere; and, do you know, even the absurd parts of it—and these are many are, as it were, redeemed by suffering—for it must have cost you something to admit what you there say—great torture, perhaps, for all I know. Your motive must have been a very noble one all through. Whatever may have appeared 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—", "pos": 1124198}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "And yet I must die, a man like me! And imagine how that Gania annoys me! He has developed 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.", "pos": 1125014}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Who was he?", "pos": 1125880}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "He was impaled on a stake in the time of Peter.", "pos": 1125894}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "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?", "pos": 1125944}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Only that God gives that sort of dying to some, and not to others. Perhaps you think, though, that I could not die like Gleboff?", "pos": 1126075}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Not at all! I was only going to say that you—not that you could not be like Gleboff—but that you would have been more like—", "pos": 1126206}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "I guess what you mean—I should be an Osterman, not a Gleboff—eh? Is that what you meant?", "pos": 1126361}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What Osterman?", "pos": 1126452}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Why, Osterman—the diplomatist. Peter’s Osterman,", "pos": 1126504}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, no, no! that was not what I was going to say—oh no! I don’t think you would ever have been like Osterman.", "pos": 1126660}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "I’ll tell you why I draw the conclusion,", "pos": 1126800}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Because, though I often think over the men of those times, I cannot for the life of me imagine them to be like ourselves. It really appears to me that they were of another race altogether than ourselves of today. At that time people seemed to stick so to one idea; now, they are more nervous, more sensitive, more enlightened—people of two or three ideas at once—as it were. The man of today is a broader man, so to speak—and I declare I believe that is what prevents him from being so self-contained and independent a being as his brother of those earlier days. Of course my remark was only made under this impression, and not in the least—", "pos": 1126920}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "I quite understand. You are trying to comfort me for the naiveness with which you disagreed with me—eh? Ha! ha! ha! You are a regular child, prince! However, I cannot help seeing that you always treat me like—like a fragile china cup. Never mind, never mind, I’m not a bit angry! At all events we have had a very funny talk. Do you know, all things considered, I should like to be something better than Osterman! I wouldn’t take the trouble to rise from the dead to be an Osterman. However, I see I must make arrangements to die soon, or I myself—. Well—leave me now! Au revoir. Look here—before you go, just give me your opinion: how do you think I ought to die, now? I mean—the best, the most virtuous way? Tell me!", "pos": 1127564}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You should pass us by and forgive us our happiness,", "pos": 1128284}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "Ha! ha! ha! I thought so. I thought I should hear something like that. Well, you are—you really are—oh dear me! Eloquence, eloquence! Good-bye!", "pos": 1128370}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I should like you, not to come here tomorrow until evening, when the guests are all assembled. You know there are to be guests, don’t you?", "pos": 1131163}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "May I speak of something serious to you, for once in my life?", "pos": 1131886}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Of course you may; I am very glad to listen,", "pos": 1132044}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I do not wish to quarrel with them about this; in some things they won’t be reasonable. I always did feel a loathing for the laws which seem to guide mamma’s conduct at times. I don’t speak of father, for he cannot be expected to be anything but what he is. Mother is a noble-minded woman, I know; you try to suggest anything mean to her, and you’ll see! But she is such a slave to these miserable creatures! I don’t mean old Bielokonski alone. She is a contemptible old thing, but she is able to twist people round her little finger, and I admire that in her, at all events! How mean it all is, and how foolish! We were always middle-class, thoroughly middle-class, people. Why should we attempt to climb into the giddy heights of the fashionable world? My sisters are all for it. It’s Prince S. they have to thank for poisoning their minds. Why are you so glad that Evgenie Pavlovitch is coming?", "pos": 1132194}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Listen to me, Aglaya, I do believe you are nervous lest I shall make a fool of myself tomorrow at your party?", "pos": 1133094}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Nervous about you? Why should I be nervous about you? What would it matter to me if you were to make ever such a fool of yourself? How can you say such a thing? What do you mean by ‘making a fool of yourself’? What a vulgar expression! I suppose you intend to talk in that sort of way tomorrow evening? Look up a few more such expressions in your dictionary; do, you’ll make a grand effect! I’m sorry that you seem to be able to come into a room as gracefully as you do; where did you learn the art? Do you think you can drink a cup of tea decently, when you know everybody is looking at you, on purpose to see how you do it?", "pos": 1133224}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, I think I can.", "pos": 1133870}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Can you? I’m sorry for it then, for I should have had a good laugh at you otherwise. Do break something at least, in the drawing-room! Upset the Chinese vase, won’t you? It’s a valuable one; do break it. Mamma values it, and she’ll go out of her mind—it was a present. She’ll cry before everyone, you’ll see! Wave your hand about, you know, as you always do, and just smash it. Sit down near it on purpose.", "pos": 1133892}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "On the contrary, I shall sit as far from it as I can. Thanks for the hint.", "pos": 1134301}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Ha, ha! Then you are afraid you will wave your arms about! I wouldn’t mind betting that you’ll talk about some lofty subject, something serious and learned. How delightful, how tactful that will be!", "pos": 1134378}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I should think it would be very foolish indeed, unless it happened to come in appropriately.", "pos": 1134579}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Look here, once for all, if I hear you talking about capital punishment, or the economical condition of Russia, or about Beauty redeeming the world, or anything of that sort, I’ll—well, of course I shall laugh and seem very pleased, but I warn you beforehand, don’t look me in the face again! I’m serious now, mind, this time I am really serious.", "pos": 1134704}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, you’ve put me into such a fright that I shall certainly make a fool of myself, and very likely break something too. I wasn’t a bit alarmed before, but now I’m as nervous as can be.", "pos": 1135271}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Then don’t speak at all. Sit still and don’t talk.", "pos": 1135460}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, I can’t do that, you know! I shall say something foolish out of pure ‘funk,’ and break something for the same excellent reason; I know I shall. Perhaps I shall slip and fall on the slippery floor; I’ve done that before now, you know. I shall dream of it all night now. Why did you say anything about it?", "pos": 1135513}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Do you know what, I had better not come at all tomorrow! I’ll plead sick-list and stay away,", "pos": 1135853}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Oh, my goodness! Just listen to that! ‘Better not come,’ when the party is on purpose for him! Good Lord! What a delightful thing it is to have to do with such a—such a stupid as you are!", "pos": 1136037}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, I’ll come, I’ll come,", "pos": 1136227}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "and I’ll give you my word of honour that I will sit the whole evening and not say a word.", "pos": 1136290}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I believe that’s the best thing you can do. You said you’d ‘plead sick-list’ just now; where in the world do you get hold of such expressions? Why do you talk to me like this? Are you trying to irritate me, or what?", "pos": 1136382}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Forgive me, it’s a schoolboy expression. I won’t do it again. I know quite well, I see it, that you are anxious on my account (now, don’t be angry), and it makes me very happy to see it. You wouldn’t believe how frightened I am of misbehaving somehow, and how glad I am of your instructions. But all this panic is simply nonsense, you know, Aglaya! I give you my word it is; I am so pleased that you are such a child, such a dear good child. How charming you can be if you like, Aglaya.", "pos": 1136600}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "And you won’t reproach me for all these rude words of mine—some day—afterwards?", "pos": 1137210}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What an idea! Of course not. And what are you blushing for again? And there comes that frown once more! You’ve taken to looking too gloomy sometimes, Aglaya, much more than you used to. I know why it is.", "pos": 1137316}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Be quiet, do be quiet!", "pos": 1137522}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, no, I had much better speak out. I have long wished to say it, and have said it, but that’s not enough, for you didn’t believe me. Between us two there stands a being who—", "pos": 1137547}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet, be quiet!", "pos": 1137725}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I’ve—I’ve had a reward for my meanness—I’ve had a slap in the face. Early? Time counts for nothing, even in physical chastisement; but my slap in the face was not physical, it was moral.", "pos": 1139594}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Just so, and only this very morning I have sent up a letter to the noble lady, stating that I have a matter of great importance to communicate. She received the letter; I know she got it; and she received me, too.", "pos": 1141104}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Have you just seen Lizabetha Prokofievna?", "pos": 1141351}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Yes, I saw her, and got the said slap in the face as mentioned. She chucked the letter back to me unopened, and kicked me out of the house, morally, not physically, although not far off it.", "pos": 1141442}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What letter do you mean she returned unopened?", "pos": 1141634}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "What! didn’t I tell you? Ha, ha, ha! I thought I had. Why, I received a letter, you know, to be handed over—", "pos": 1141683}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "From whom? To whom?", "pos": 1141794}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Just as before, sir, just as before! To a certain person, and from a certain hand. The individual’s name who wrote the letter is to be represented by the letter A.—", "pos": 1142059}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What? Impossible! To Nastasia Philipovna? Nonsense!", "pos": 1142226}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "It was, I assure you, and if not to her then to Rogojin, which is the same thing. Mr. Hippolyte has had letters, too, and all from the individual whose name begins with an A.,", "pos": 1142298}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You are mad!", "pos": 1142973}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Not quite, esteemed prince. I confess I thought of doing you the service of handing the letter over to yourself, but I decided that it would pay me better to deliver it up to the noble lady aforesaid, as I had informed her of everything hitherto by anonymous letters; so when I sent her up a note from myself, with the letter, you know, in order to fix a meeting for eight o’clock this morning, I signed it ‘your secret correspondent.’ They let me in at once—very quickly—by the back door, and the noble lady received me.", "pos": 1143011}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well? Go on.", "pos": 1143575}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh, well, when I saw her she almost punched my head, as I say; in fact so nearly that one might almost say she did punch my head. She threw the letter in my face; she seemed to reflect first, as if she would have liked to keep it, but thought better of it and threw it in my face instead. ‘If anybody can have been such a fool as to trust a man like you to deliver the letter,’ says she, ‘take it and deliver it!’ Hey! she was grandly indignant. A fierce, fiery lady that, sir!", "pos": 1143590}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Where’s the letter now?", "pos": 1144070}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh, I’ve still got it, here!", "pos": 1144096}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "This letter cannot be allowed to remain in your hands.", "pos": 1144266}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "It’s for you—for you! I’ve brought it you on purpose! Why, I’m yours again now, heart and hand, your slave; there was but a momentary pause in the flow of my love and esteem for you. Mea culpa, mea culpa! as the Pope of Rome says.", "pos": 1144323}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "This letter should be sent on at once,", "pos": 1144585}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I’ll hand it over myself.", "pos": 1144654}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Wouldn’t it be better, esteemed prince, wouldn’t it be better—to—don’t you know—", "pos": 1144682}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What do you mean?", "pos": 1144907}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Why, open it, for the time being, don’t you know?", "pos": 1144944}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh, Lebedeff, Lebedeff! Can a man really sink to such depths of meanness?", "pos": 1145225}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh, I’m a mean wretch—a mean wretch!", "pos": 1145353}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It’s abominable dishonesty, you know!", "pos": 1145483}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Dishonesty—it is, it is! That’s the very word!", "pos": 1145523}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What in the world induces you to act so? You are nothing but a spy. Why did you write anonymously to worry so noble and generous a lady? Why should not Aglaya Ivanovna write a note to whomever she pleases? What did you mean to complain of today? What did you expect to get by it? What made you go at all?", "pos": 1145572}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Pure amiable curiosity,—I assure you—desire to do a service. That’s all. Now I’m entirely yours again, your slave; hang me if you like!", "pos": 1145879}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Did you go before Lizabetha Prokofievna in your present condition?", "pos": 1146017}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "No—oh no, fresher—more the correct card. I only became this like after the humiliation I suffered there.", "pos": 1146107}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well—that’ll do; now leave me.", "pos": 1146214}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Come, come—don’t cry! God will forgive you!", "pos": 1150331}
{"speaker": "Princess Bielokonski", "text": "who this general was, and who was Nina Alexandrovna,", "pos": 1150983}
{"speaker": "Aglaya's sisters", "text": "spoke beautifully, modestly, quietly, without gestures or too many words, and with great dignity.", "pos": 1151206}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "fall down on the slippery floor,", "pos": 1151448}
{"speaker": "the gentleman", "text": "To avoid another lawsuit about the Pavlicheff estate, I ran away. With a few more inheritances of that kind I should soon be ruined!", "pos": 1163634}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "That gentleman—Ivan Petrovitch—is a relation of your late friend, Mr. Pavlicheff. You wanted to find some of his relations, did you not? Lef Nicolaievitch was a ward of Nicolai Andreevitch Pavlicheff, after the death of his own parents,", "pos": 1163905}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "Very happy to meet him, I’m sure. I remember Lef Nicolaievitch well. When General Epanchin introduced us just now, I recognized you at once, prince. You are very little changed, though I saw you last as a child of some ten or eleven years old. There was something in your features, I suppose, that—", "pos": 1164433}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You saw me as a child!", "pos": 1164757}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "Oh! yes, long ago, while you were living with my cousin at Zlatoverhoff. You don’t remember me? No, I dare say you don’t; you had some malady at the time, I remember. It was so serious that I was surprised—", "pos": 1164819}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No; I remember nothing!", "pos": 1165057}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "In point of fact I don’t think I thought much about it,", "pos": 1165575}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "I assure you of it,", "pos": 1167063}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "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.", "pos": 1167141}
{"speaker": "Adelaida", "text": "choke out of pure simplicity and goodness of heart,", "pos": 1167481}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "But, my goodness me, why can’t I be cousin to even a splendid man?", "pos": 1167633}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, dear! 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 really was such a splendid man, wasn’t he?", "pos": 1167729}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "That he was a splendid man is perfectly true; you are quite right. He was a fine and a worthy fellow—worthy, one may say, of the highest respect, and it is agreeable to see, on your part, such—", "pos": 1169245}
{"speaker": "the old dignitary", "text": "Wasn’t it this same Pavlicheff about whom there was a strange story in connection with some abbot? I don’t remember who the abbot was, but I remember at one time everybody was talking about it,", "pos": 1169544}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "Yes—Abbot Gurot, a Jesuit. Yes, that’s the sort of thing our best men are apt to do. A man of rank, too, and rich—a man who, if he had continued to serve, might have done anything; and then to throw up the service and everything else in order to go over to Roman Catholicism and turn Jesuit—openly, too—almost triumphantly. By Jove! it was positively a mercy that he died when he did—it was indeed—everyone said so at the time.", "pos": 1169768}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Pavlicheff?—Pavlicheff turned Roman Catholic? Impossible!", "pos": 1170253}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "H’m! impossible is rather a strong word. You must allow, my dear prince... However, of course you value the memory of the deceased so very highly; and he certainly was the kindest of men; to which fact, by the way, I ascribe, more than to anything else, the success of the abbot in influencing his religious convictions. But you may ask me, if you please, how much trouble and worry I, personally, had over that business, and especially with this same Gurot! Would you believe it, they actually tried to put in a claim under the deceased’s will, and I had to resort to the very strongest measures in order to bring them to their senses? I assure you they knew their cue, did these gentlemen—wonderful! Thank goodness all this was in Moscow, and I got the Court, you know, to help me, and we soon brought them to their senses.", "pos": 1170334}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "You wouldn’t believe how you have pained and astonished me,", "pos": 1171228}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "Very sorry; but in point of fact, you know, it was all nonsense and would have ended in smoke, as usual—I’m sure of that. Last year. Countess K. joined some Roman Convent abroad. Our people never seem to be able to offer any resistance so soon as they get into the hands of these—intriguers—especially abroad.", "pos": 1171308}
{"speaker": "old man", "text": "That is all thanks to our lassitude, I think. And then their way of preaching; they have a skilful manner of doing it! And they know how to startle one, too. I got quite a fright myself in ’32, in Vienna, I assure you; but I didn’t cave in to them, I ran away instead, ha, ha!", "pos": 1171654}
{"speaker": "Princess Bielokonski", "text": "Come, come, I’ve always heard that you ran away with the beautiful Countess Levitsky that time—throwing up everything in order to do it—and not from the Jesuits at all,", "pos": 1171972}
{"speaker": "old fellow", "text": "Well, yes—but we call it from the Jesuits, you know; it comes to the same thing. You seem to be very religious, which is a thing one meets so seldom nowadays among young people.", "pos": 1172180}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Pavlicheff was a man of bright intellect and a good Christian, a sincere Christian. How could he possibly embrace a faith which is unchristian? Roman Catholicism is, so to speak, simply the same thing as unchristianity,", "pos": 1172645}
{"speaker": "old man", "text": "Come, that’s a little too strong, isn’t it?", "pos": 1172972}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "How do you make out that the Roman Catholic religion is unchristian? What is it, then?", "pos": 1173082}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It is not a Christian religion, in the first place. And in the second place, Roman Catholicism is, in my opinion, worse than Atheism itself. Yes—that is my opinion. Atheism only preaches a negation, but Romanism goes further; it preaches a disfigured, distorted Christ—it preaches Anti-Christ—I assure you, I swear it! This is my own personal conviction, and it has long distressed me. The Roman Catholic believes that the Church on earth cannot stand without universal temporal Power. He cries ‘non possumus!’ In my opinion the Roman Catholic religion is not a faith at all, but simply a continuation of the Roman Empire, and everything is subordinated to this idea—beginning with faith. The Pope has seized territories and an earthly throne, and has held them with the sword. And so the thing has gone on, only that to the sword they have added lying, intrigue, deceit, fanaticism, superstition, swindling;—they have played fast and loose with the most sacred and sincere feelings of men;—they have exchanged everything—everything for money, for base earthly power! And is this not the teaching of Anti-Christ? How could the upshot of all this be other than Atheism? Atheism is the child of Roman Catholicism—it proceeded from these Romans themselves, though perhaps they would not believe it. It grew and fattened on hatred of its parents; it is the progeny of their lies and spiritual feebleness. Atheism! In our country it is only among the upper classes that you find unbelievers; men who have lost the root or spirit of their faith; but abroad whole masses of the people are beginning to profess unbelief—at first because of the darkness and lies by which they were surrounded; but now out of fanaticism, out of loathing for the Church and Christianity!", "pos": 1173217}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "You exaggerate the matter very much. There are, in the foreign Churches, many representatives of their faith who are worthy of respect and esteem.", "pos": 1175426}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, but I did not speak of individual representatives. I was merely talking about Roman Catholicism, and its essence—of Rome itself. A Church can never entirely disappear; I never hinted at that!", "pos": 1175624}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "Agreed that all this may be true; but we need not discuss a subject which belongs to the domain of theology.", "pos": 1175822}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, no; oh, no! Not to theology alone, I assure you! Why, Socialism is the progeny of Romanism and of the Romanistic spirit. It and its brother Atheism proceed from Despair in opposition to Catholicism. It seeks to replace in itself the moral power of religion, in order to appease the spiritual thirst of parched humanity and save it; not by Christ, but by force. ‘Don’t dare to believe in God, don’t dare to possess any individuality, any property! Fraternité ou la Mort; two million heads. ‘By their works ye shall know them’—we are told. And we must not suppose that all this is harmless and without danger to ourselves. Oh, no; we must resist, and quickly, quickly! We must let our Christ shine forth upon the Western nations, our Christ whom we have preserved intact, and whom they have never known. Not as slaves, allowing ourselves to be caught by the hooks of the Jesuits, but carrying our Russian civilization to them, we must stand before them, not letting it be said among us that their preaching is ‘skilful,’ as someone expressed it just now.", "pos": 1175933}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "But excuse me, excuse me; Your ideas are, of course, most praiseworthy, and in the highest degree patriotic; but you exaggerate the matter terribly. It would be better if we dropped the subject.", "pos": 1176992}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, sir, I do not exaggerate, I understate the matter, if anything, undoubtedly understate it; simply because I cannot express myself as I should like, but—", "pos": 1177266}
{"speaker": "old dignitary", "text": "It seems to me that you have been too painfully impressed by the news of what happened to your good benefactor. You are excitable, perhaps as the result of your solitary life. You are excitable, perhaps as the result of your solitary life. If you would make up your mind to live more among your fellows in society, I trust, I am sure, that the world would be glad to welcome you, as a remarkable young man; and you would soon find yourself able to look at things more calmly. You would see that all these things are much simpler than you think; and, besides, these rare cases come about, in my opinion, from ennui and from satiety. You would see that all these things are much simpler than you think; and, besides, these rare cases come about, in my opinion, from ennui and from satiety.", "pos": 1177532}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Exactly, exactly! That is a true thought! From ennui, from our ennui but not from satiety! Oh, no, you are wrong there! Say from thirst if you like; the thirst of fever! And please do not suppose that this is so small a matter that we may have a laugh at it and dismiss it; we must be able to foresee our disasters and arm against them. We Russians no sooner arrive at the brink of the water, and realize that we are really at the brink, than we are so delighted with the outlook that in we plunge and swim to the farthest point we can see. Why is this? You say you are surprised at Pavlicheff’s action; you ascribe it to madness, to kindness of heart, and what not, but it is not so. Our Russian intensity not only astonishes ourselves; all Europe wonders at our conduct in such cases! For, if one of us goes over to Roman Catholicism, he is sure to become a Jesuit at once, and a rabid one into the bargain. If one of us becomes an Atheist, he must needs begin to insist on the prohibition of faith in God by force, that is, by the sword. Why is this? Why does he then exceed all bounds at once? Because he has found land at last, the fatherland that he sought in vain before; and, because his soul is rejoiced to find it, he throws himself upon it and kisses it! Oh, it is not from vanity alone, it is not from feelings of vanity that Russians become Atheists and Jesuits! But from spiritual thirst, from anguish of longing for higher things, for dry firm land, for foothold on a fatherland which they never believed in because they never knew it. It is easier for a Russian to become an Atheist, than for any other nationality in the world. And not only does a Russian ‘become an Atheist,’ but he actually believes in Atheism, just as though he had found a new faith, not perceiving that he has pinned his faith to a negation. Such is our anguish of thirst! ‘Whoso has no country has no God.’ That is not my own expression; it is the expression of a merchant, one of the Old Believers, whom I once met while travelling. He did not say exactly these words. I think his expression was: Whoso forsakes his country forsakes his God. But let these thirsty Russian souls find, like Columbus’ discoverers, a new world; let them find the Russian world, let them search and discover all the gold and treasure that lies hid in the bosom of their own land! Show them the restitution of lost humanity, in the future, by Russian thought alone, and by means of the God and of the Christ of our Russian faith, and you will see how mighty and just and wise and good a giant will rise up before the eyes of the astonished and frightened world; astonished because they expect nothing but the sword from us, because they think they will get nothing out of us but barbarism. This has been the case up to now, and the longer matters go on as they are now proceeding, the more clear will be the truth of what I say; and I—", "pos": 1178179}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "What made you so dreadfully startled, Lef Nicolaievitch? Come, my dear boy! cheer up. You really alarm me, taking the accident so to heart.", "pos": 1187156}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Do you forgive me all—all, besides the vase, I mean?", "pos": 1187329}
{"speaker": "old gentleman", "text": "C’est très-curieux et c’est très-sérieux,", "pos": 1187530}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "So that I have not offended any of you? You will not believe how happy I am to be able to think so. It is as it should be. As if I could offend anyone here! I should offend you again by even suggesting such a thing.", "pos": 1187669}
{"speaker": "the old dignitary", "text": "Calm yourself, my dear fellow. You are exaggerating again; you really have no occasion to be so grateful to us. It is a feeling which does you great credit, but an exaggeration, for all that.", "pos": 1187887}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I am not exactly thanking you, I am only feeling a growing admiration for you—it makes me happy to look at you. I dare say I am speaking very foolishly, but I must speak—I must explain, if it be out of nothing better than self-respect.", "pos": 1188081}
{"speaker": "Princess Bielokonski", "text": "All right, my friend, talk away, talk away!", "pos": 1188539}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Wasn’t it you,", "pos": 1188981}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "who saved the student Porkunoff and a clerk called Shoabrin from being sent to Siberia, two or three months since?", "pos": 1189046}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And I have heard of you,", "pos": 1189267}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "that when some of your villagers were burned out you gave them wood to build up their houses again, though they were no longer your serfs and had behaved badly towards you.", "pos": 1189344}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "Oh, come, come! You are exaggerating,", "pos": 1189519}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "And you, princess,", "pos": 1189730}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "was it not you who received me in Moscow, six months since, as kindly as though I had been your own son, in response to a letter from Lizabetha Prokofievna; and gave me one piece of advice, again as to your own son, which I shall never forget? Do you remember?", "pos": 1189796}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What are you making such a fuss about?", "pos": 1190059}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You are a good fellow, but very silly. One gives you a halfpenny, and you are as grateful as though one had saved your life. You think this is praiseworthy on your part, but it is not—it is not, indeed.", "pos": 1190135}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I told you Lef Nicolaievitch was a man—a man—if only he would not be in such a hurry, as the princess remarked,", "pos": 1190507}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I came into this room with anguish in my heart,", "pos": 1190817}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I—I was afraid of you all, and afraid of myself. I was most afraid of myself. When I returned to Petersburg, I promised myself to make a point of seeing our greatest men, and members of our oldest families—the old families like my own. I am now among princes like myself, am I not? I wished to know you, and it was necessary, very, very necessary. I had always heard so much that was evil said of you all—more evil than good; as to how small and petty were your interests, how absurd your habits, how shallow your education, and so on. There is so much written and said about you! I came here today with anxious curiosity; I wished to see for myself and form my own convictions as to whether it were true that the whole of this upper stratum of Russian society is worthless, has outlived its time, has existed too long, and is only fit to die—and yet is dying with petty, spiteful warring against that which is destined to supersede it and take its place—hindering the Coming Men, and knowing not that itself is in a dying condition. I did not fully believe in this view even before, for there never was such a class among us—excepting perhaps at court, by accident—or by uniform; but now there is not even that, is there? It has vanished, has it not?", "pos": 1190981}
{"speaker": "Ivan Petrovitch", "text": "No, not a bit of it,", "pos": 1192235}
{"speaker": "Princess Bielokonski", "text": "Good Lord, he’s off again!", "pos": 1192304}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Laissez-le dire! He is trembling all over,", "pos": 1192373}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well? What have I seen?", "pos": 1192499}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I have seen men of graceful simplicity of intellect; I have seen an old man who is not above speaking kindly and even listening to a boy like myself; I see before me persons who can understand, who can forgive—kind, good Russian hearts—hearts almost as kind and cordial as I met abroad. Imagine how delighted I must have been, and how surprised! Oh, let me express this feeling! I have so often heard, and I have even believed, that in society there was nothing but empty forms, and that reality had vanished; but I now see for myself that this can never be the case here, among us—it may be the order elsewhere, but not in Russia. Surely you are not all Jesuits and deceivers! I heard Prince N.‘s story just now. Was it not simple-minded, spontaneous humour? Could such words come from the lips of a man who is dead?—a man whose heart and talents are dried up? Could dead men and women have treated me so kindly as you have all been treating me to-day? Is there not material for the future in all this—for hope? Can such people fail to understand? Can such men fall away from reality?", "pos": 1192539}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Once more let us beg you to be calm, my dear boy. We’ll talk of all this another time—I shall do so with the greatest pleasure, for one,", "pos": 1193627}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No, I had better speak,", "pos": 1194095}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Yesterday, Aglaya Ivanovna forbade me to talk, and even specified the particular subjects I must not touch upon—she knows well enough that I am odd when I get upon these matters. I am nearly twenty-seven years old, and yet I know I am little better than a child. I have no right to express my ideas, and said so long ago. Only in Moscow, with Rogojin, did I ever speak absolutely freely! He and I read Pushkin together—all his works. Rogojin knew nothing of Pushkin, had not even heard his name. I am always afraid of spoiling a great Thought or Idea by my absurd manner. I have no eloquence, I know. I always make the wrong gestures—inappropriate gestures—and therefore I degrade the Thought, and raise a laugh instead of doing my subject justice. I have no sense of proportion either, and that is the chief thing. I know it would be much better if I were always to sit still and say nothing. When I do so, I appear to be quite a sensible sort of a person, and what’s more, I think about things. But now I must speak; it is better that I should. I began to speak because you looked so kindly at me; you have such a beautiful face. I promised Aglaya Ivanovna yesterday that I would not speak all the evening.", "pos": 1194258}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Really?", "pos": 1195469}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "But, at times, I can’t help thinking that I am wrong in feeling so about it, you know. Sincerity is more important than elocution, isn’t it?", "pos": 1195506}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Sometimes.", "pos": 1195649}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I want to explain all to you—everything—everything! I know you think me Utopian, don’t you—an idealist? Oh, no! I’m not, indeed—my ideas are all so simple. You don’t believe me? You are smiling. Do you know, I am sometimes very wicked—for I lose my faith? This evening as I came here, I thought to myself, ‘What shall I talk about? How am I to begin, so that they may be able to understand partially, at all events?’ How afraid I was—dreadfully afraid! And yet, how could I be afraid—was it not shameful of me? Was I afraid of finding a bottomless abyss of empty selfishness? Ah! that’s why I am so happy at this moment, because I find there is no bottomless abyss at all—but good, healthy material, full of life. “It is not such a very dreadful circumstance that we are odd people, is it? For we really are odd, you know—careless, reckless, easily wearied of anything. We don’t look thoroughly into matters—don’t care to understand things. We are all like this—you and I, and all of them! Why, here are you, now—you are not a bit angry with me for calling you ‘odd,’ are you? And, if so, surely there is good material in you? Do you know, I sometimes think it is a good thing to be odd. We can forgive one another more easily, and be more humble. No one can begin by being perfect—there is much one cannot understand in life at first. In order to attain to perfection, one must begin by failing to understand much. And if we take in knowledge too quickly, we very likely are not taking it in at all. I say all this to you—you who by this time understand so much—and doubtless have failed to understand so much, also. I am not afraid of you any longer. You are not angry that a mere boy should say such words to you, are you? Of course not! You know how to forget and to forgive. You are laughing, Ivan Petrovitch? You think I am a champion of other classes of people—that I am their advocate, a democrat, and an orator of Equality?” The prince laughed hysterically; he had several times burst into these little, short nervous laughs. “Oh, no—it is for you, for myself, and for all of us together, that I am alarmed. I am a prince of an old family myself, and I am sitting among my peers; and I am talking like this in the hope of saving us all; in the hope that our class will not disappear altogether—into the darkness—unguessing its danger—blaming everything around it, and losing ground every day. Why should we disappear and give place to others, when we may still, if we choose, remain in the front rank and lead the battle? Let us be servants, that we may become lords in due season!", "pos": 1195662}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Listen—I know it is best not to speak! It is best simply to give a good example—simply to begin the work. I have done this—I have begun, and—and—oh! can anyone be unhappy, really? Oh! what does grief matter—what does misfortune matter, if one knows how to be happy? Do you know, I cannot understand how anyone can pass by a green tree, and not feel happy only to look at it! How anyone can talk to a man and not feel happy in loving him! Oh, it is my own fault that I cannot express myself well enough! But there are lovely things at every step I take—things which even the most miserable man must recognize as beautiful. Look at a little child—look at God’s day dawn—look at the grass growing—look at the eyes that love you, as they gaze back into your eyes!", "pos": 1198388}
{"speaker": "Colia", "text": "Gania and Varia and Ptitsin are a worthless lot! I shall not quarrel with them; but from this moment our feet shall not travel the same road. Oh, prince, I have felt much that is quite new to me since yesterday! It is a lesson for me. I shall now consider my mother as entirely my responsibility; though she may be safe enough with Varia. Still, meat and drink is not everything. Isn’t there something else, prince? I heard yesterday, but I have no right to talk about this... If you ever want a true friend and servant—neither you nor I are so very happy, are we?—come to me. I won’t ask you questions, though.", "pos": 1205292}
{"speaker": "Epanchins", "text": "just for a minute.", "pos": 1206671}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "Look here. Look here, we are passing his house. Whatever Aglaya may think, and in spite of anything that may happen, he is not a stranger to us; besides which, he is ill and in misfortune. I, for one, shall call in and see him. Let anyone follow me who cares to.", "pos": 1207413}
{"speaker": "Lizabetha", "text": "Oh, that’s nothing, I’m not sorry for the vase, I’m sorry for you. H’m! so you can see that there was a ‘scene,’ can you? Well, it doesn’t matter much, for everyone must realize now that it is impossible to be hard on you. Well, au revoir. I advise you to have a walk, and then go to sleep again if you can. Come in as usual, if you feel inclined; and be assured, once for all, whatever happens, and whatever may have happened, you shall always remain the friend of the family—mine, at all events. I can answer for myself.", "pos": 1207900}
{"speaker": "Vera", "text": "Lef Nicolaievitch. Aglaya Ivanovna has just given me a message for you. No, a verbal message; she had hardly time even for that. She begs you earnestly not to go out of the house for a single moment all to-day, until seven o’clock in the evening. It may have been nine; I didn’t quite hear. I don’t know at all; but she said I was to tell you particularly. Not those very words. She only just had time to whisper as she went by; but by the way she looked at me I knew it was important. She looked at me in a way that made my heart stop beating.", "pos": 1209330}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "I am off. Shall I see you home? I don’t mean that I am going to leave your house. On the contrary, I thought it absolutely necessary to come and see you; otherwise I should not have troubled you. I am off there, you know, and this time I believe, seriously, that I am off! It’s all over. I did not come here for sympathy, believe me. I lay down this morning at ten o’clock with the intention of not rising again before that time; but I thought it over and rose just once more in order to come here; from which you may deduce that I had some reason for wishing to come. Well, well! Enough! You’ve pitied me, and that’s all that good manners exact. I forgot, how are you? I know, I heard; the china vase caught it! I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I’ve come about something important. In the first place I had, the pleasure of seeing Gavrila Ardalionovitch and Aglaya Ivanovna enjoying a rendezvous on the green bench in the park. I was astonished to see what a fool a man can look. I remarked upon the fact to Aglaya Ivanovna when he had gone. I don’t think anything ever surprises you, prince! To be astonished by nothing is a sign, they say, of a great intellect. In my opinion it would serve equally well as a sign of great foolishness. I am not hinting about you; pardon me! I am very unfortunate today in my expressions. You knew it? Come, that’s news! But no—perhaps better not tell me. And were you a witness of the meeting? Oh! but you may have been sitting behind the bushes somewhere. However, I am very glad, on your account, of course. I was beginning to be afraid that Mr. Gania—might have the preference! Especially as you know all, eh? Why, what do you mean? You said you knew, and now suddenly you know nothing! You say ‘very well; let’s leave it so.’ But I say, don’t be so confiding, especially as you know nothing. You are confiding simply because you know nothing. But do you know what these good people have in their minds’ eye—Gania and his sister? Perhaps you are suspicious? Well, well, I’ll drop the subject! Speak away, I am listening. Very well, but I’ll change my mind, and begin about Gania. Just fancy to begin with, if you can, that I, too, was given an appointment at the green bench today! However, I won’t deceive you; I asked for the appointment. I said I had a secret to disclose. I don’t know whether I came there too early, I think I must have; but scarcely had I sat down beside Aglaya Ivanovna than I saw Gavrila Ardalionovitch and his sister Varia coming along, arm in arm, just as though they were enjoying a morning walk together. Both of them seemed very much astonished, not to say disturbed, at seeing me; they evidently had not expected the pleasure. Aglaya Ivanovna blushed up, and was actually a little confused. I don’t know whether it was merely because I was there, or whether Gania’s beauty was too much for her! But anyway, she turned crimson, and then finished up the business in a very funny manner. She jumped up from her seat, bowed back to Gania, smiled to Varia, and suddenly observed: ‘I only came here to express my gratitude for all your kind wishes on my behalf, and to say that if I find I need your services, believe me—’ Here she bowed them away, as it were, and they both marched off again, looking very foolish. Gania evidently could not make head nor tail of the matter, and turned as red as a lobster; but Varia understood at once that they must get away as quickly as they could, so she dragged Gania away; she is a great deal cleverer than he is. As for myself, I went there to arrange a meeting to be held between Aglaya Ivanovna and Nastasia Philipovna. Nastasia Philipovna! Aha! I think you are growing less cool, my friend, and are beginning to be a trifle surprised, aren’t you? I’m glad that you are not above ordinary human feelings, for once. I’ll console you a little now, after your consternation. See what I get for serving a young and high-souled maiden! This morning I received a slap in the face from the lady! A—a moral one? Yes—not a physical one! I don’t suppose anyone—even a woman—would raise a hand against me now. Even Gania would hesitate! I did think at one time yesterday, that he would fly at me, though. I bet anything that I know what you are thinking of now! You are thinking: ‘Of course one can’t strike the little wretch, but one could suffocate him with a pillow, or a wet towel, when he is asleep! One ought to get rid of him somehow.’ I can see in your face that you are thinking that at this very second. I don’t know—I dreamed last night that I was being suffocated with a wet cloth by—somebody. I’ll tell you who it was—Rogojin! What do you think, can a man be suffocated with a wet cloth? I’ve heard so. Well, we’ll leave that question just now. Why am I a scandal-monger? Why did she call me a scandal-monger? And mind, after she had heard every word I had to tell her, and had asked all sorts of questions besides—but such is the way of women. For her sake I entered into relations with Rogojin—an interesting man! At her request I arranged a personal interview between herself and Nastasia Philipovna. Could she have been angry because I hinted that she was enjoying Nastasia Philipovna’s ‘leavings’? Why, I have been impressing it upon her all this while for her own good. Two letters have I written her in that strain, and I began straight off today about its being humiliating for her. Besides, the word ‘leavings’ is not my invention. At all events, they all used it at Gania’s, and she used it herself. So why am I a scandal-monger? I see—I see you are tremendously amused, at this moment! Probably you are laughing at me and fitting those silly lines to my case— Maybe sad Love upon his setting smiles, And with vain hopes his farewell hour beguiles. Ha, ha, ha! Observe, what a fellow Gania is! He talks about Nastasia’s ‘leavings,’ but what does he want to take himself? You spoke of a meeting with Nastasia Philipovna. Oh—come! Surely you must know that there is to be a meeting today between Nastasia and Aglaya Ivanovna, and that Nastasia has been sent for on purpose, through Rogojin, from St. Petersburg? It has been brought about by invitation of Aglaya Ivanovna and my own efforts, and Nastasia is at this moment with Rogojin, not far from here—at Dana Alexeyevna’s—that curious friend of hers; and to this questionable house Aglaya Ivanovna is to proceed for a friendly chat with Nastasia Philipovna, and for the settlement of several problems. They are going to play at arithmetic—didn’t you know about it? Word of honour? It’s a most improbable story. Oh, very well! if it’s improbable—it is—that’s all! And yet—where should you have heard it? Though I must say, if a fly crosses the room it’s known all over the place here. However, I’ve warned you, and you may be grateful to me. Well—au revoir—probably in the next world! One more thing—don’t think that I am telling you all this for your sake. Oh, dear, no! Do you know that I dedicated my confession to Aglaya Ivanovna? I did though, and how she took it, ha, ha! Oh, no! I am not acting from any high, exalted motives. But though I may have behaved like a cad to you, I have not done her any harm. I don’t apologize for my words about ‘leavings’ and all that. I am atoning for that, you see, by telling you the place and time of the meeting. Goodbye! You had better take your measures, if you are worthy the name of a man! The meeting is fixed for this evening—that’s certain. Then you think Aglaya Ivanovna herself intends to go to Nastasia Philipovna’s tonight? I don’t know absolutely for certain; but in all probability it is so. Look here, my dear prince, no one jumps out of the window if they can help it; but when there’s a fire, the dandiest gentleman or the finest lady in the world will skip out! When the moment comes, and there’s nothing else to be done—our young lady will go to Nastasia Philipovna’s! Don’t they let the young ladies out of the house alone, then? If you didn’t mean that, then she has only to go down the steps and walk off, and she need never come back unless she chooses: Ships are burned behind one sometimes, and one doesn’t care to return whence one came. Life need not consist only of lunches, and dinners, and Prince S’s. It strikes me you take Aglaya Ivanovna for some conventional boarding-school girl. I said so to her, and she quite agreed with me. Wait till seven or eight o’clock. In your place I would send someone there to keep watch, so as to seize the exact moment when she steps out of the house. Send Colia. He’ll play the spy with pleasure—for you at least. Ha, ha, ha!", "pos": 1210939}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "You are quite ready, I observe, dressed, and your hat in your hand. I see somebody has thought fit to warn you, and I know who. Hippolyte?", "pos": 1224718}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, he told me,", "pos": 1224896}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Come then. You know, I suppose, that you must escort me there? You are well enough to go out, aren’t you?", "pos": 1224957}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I am well enough; but is it really possible?—", "pos": 1225065}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "it’s all the same,", "pos": 1225809}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "There is not another soul in the house now excepting our four selves,", "pos": 1226358}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "You know of course why I requested this meeting?", "pos": 1228034}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "No—I know nothing about it,", "pos": 1228175}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "You know quite well, but you are pretending to be ignorant,", "pos": 1228528}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Why should I?", "pos": 1228642}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "You want to take advantage of my position, now that I am in your house,", "pos": 1228703}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "For that position you are to blame and not I. I did not invite you, but you me; and to this moment I am quite ignorant as to why I am thus honoured.", "pos": 1228806}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Restrain your tongue! I did not come here to fight you with your own weapons.", "pos": 1229029}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Oh! then you did come ‘to fight,’ I may conclude? Dear me!—and I thought you were cleverer—", "pos": 1229120}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "You have not quite understood. I did not come to quarrel with you, though I do not like you. I came to speak to you as... as one human being to another. I came with my mind made up as to what I had to say to you, and I shall not change my intention, although you may misunderstand me. So much the worse for you, not for myself! I wished to reply to all you have written to me and to reply personally, because I think that is the more convenient way. Listen to my reply to all your letters. I began to be sorry for Prince Lef Nicolaievitch on the very day I made his acquaintance, and when I heard—afterwards—of all that took place at your house in the evening, I was sorry for him because he was such a simple-minded man, and because he, in the simplicity of his soul, believed that he could be happy with a woman of your character. What I feared actually took place; you could not love him, you tortured him, and threw him over. You could not love him because you are too proud—no, not proud, that is an error; because you are too vain—no, not quite that either; too self-loving; you are self-loving to madness. Your letters to me are a proof of it. You could not love so simple a soul as his, and perhaps in your heart you despised him and laughed at him. All you could love was your shame and the perpetual thought that you were disgraced and insulted. If you were less shameful, or had no cause at all for shame, you would be still more unhappy than you are now. You remember, he wrote me a letter at that time; he says you know all about that letter and that you even read it. I understand all by means of this letter, and understand it correctly. He has since confirmed it all to me—what I now say to you, word for word. After receiving his letter I waited; I guessed that you would soon come back here, because you could never do without Petersburg; you are still too young and lovely for the provinces. However, this is not my own idea. When I next saw the prince I began to feel terribly pained and hurt on his account. Do not laugh; if you laugh you are unworthy of understanding what I say.", "pos": 1230571}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Surely you see that I am not laughing,", "pos": 1233159}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "However, it’s all the same to me; laugh or not, just as you please. When I asked him about you, he told me that he had long since ceased to love you, that the very recollection of you was a torture to him, but that he was sorry for you; and that when he thought of you his heart was pierced. I ought to tell you that I never in my life met a man anything like him for noble simplicity of mind and for boundless trustfulness. I guessed that anyone who liked could deceive him, and that he would immediately forgive anyone who did deceive him; and it was for this that I grew to love him— I have told you all now, and of course you understand what I wish of you.", "pos": 1233234}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Perhaps I do; but tell me yourself,", "pos": 1234187}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I wished to find out from you, by what right you dare to meddle with his feelings for me? By what right you dared send me those letters? By what right do you continually remind both me and him that you love him, after you yourself threw him over and ran away from him in so insulting and shameful a way?", "pos": 1234287}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "I never told either him or you that I loved him! And—and I did run away from him—you are right there,", "pos": 1234613}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Never told either him or me? How about your letters? Who asked you to try to persuade me to marry him? Was not that a declaration from you? Why do you force yourself upon us in this way? I confess I thought at first that you were anxious to arouse an aversion for him in my heart by your meddling, in order that I might give him up; and it was only afterwards that I guessed the truth. You imagined that you were doing an heroic action! How could you spare any love for him, when you love your own vanity to such an extent? Why could you not simply go away from here, instead of writing me those absurd letters? Why do you not now marry that generous man who loves you, and has done you the honour of offering you his hand? It is plain enough why; if you marry Rogojin you lose your grievance; you will have nothing more to complain of. You will be receiving too much honour. Evgenie Pavlovitch was saying the other day that you had read too many poems and are too well educated for—your position; and that you live in idleness. Add to this your vanity, and, there you have reason enough—", "pos": 1234793}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "And do you not live in idleness?", "pos": 1235900}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "How dare you speak so to me?", "pos": 1237079}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "You must have misunderstood what I said,", "pos": 1237206}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "If you wished to preserve your good name, why did you not give up your—your ‘guardian,’ Totski, without all that theatrical posturing?", "pos": 1237282}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "What do you know of my position, that you dare to judge me?", "pos": 1237462}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "I know this much, that you did not go out to honest work, but went away with a rich man, Rogojin, in order to pose as a fallen angel. I don’t wonder that Totski was nearly driven to suicide by such a fallen angel.", "pos": 1237589}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Silence! You are about as fit to understand me as the housemaid here, who bore witness against her lover in court the other day. She would understand me better than you do.", "pos": 1237805}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Probably an honest girl living by her own toil. Why do you speak of a housemaid so contemptuously?", "pos": 1238009}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "I do not despise toil; I despise you when you speak of toil.", "pos": 1238110}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "If you had cared to be an honest woman, you would have gone out as a laundress.", "pos": 1238173}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Aglaya, don’t! This is unfair,", "pos": 1238321}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "There, look at her. Look at this young lady! And I imagined her an angel! Did you come to me without your governess, Aglaya Ivanovna? Oh, fie, now shall I just tell you why you came here today? Shall I tell you without any embellishments? You came because you were afraid of me!", "pos": 1238485}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Afraid of you?", "pos": 1238808}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Yes, me, of course! Of course you were afraid of me, or you would not have decided to come. You cannot despise one you fear. And to think that I have actually esteemed you up to this very moment! Do you know why you are afraid of me, and what is your object now? You wished to satisfy yourself with your own eyes as to which he loves best, myself or you, because you are fearfully jealous.", "pos": 1238925}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "He has told me already that he hates you,", "pos": 1239317}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Perhaps, perhaps! I am not worthy of him, I know. But I think you are lying, all the same. He cannot hate me, and he cannot have said so. I am ready to forgive you, in consideration of your position; but I confess I thought better of you. I thought you were wiser, and more beautiful, too; I did, indeed! Well, take your treasure! See, he is gazing at you, he can’t recollect himself. Take him, but on one condition; go away at once, this instant! Or would you like me to bid him, bid him, do you hear, command him, now, at once, to throw you up, and remain mine for ever? Shall I? He will stay, and he will marry me too, and you shall trot home all alone. Shall I?—shall I say the word? Shall I turn Rogojin off? Ha! ha! you thought I would marry him for your benefit, did you? Why, I’ll call out now, if you like, in your presence, ‘Rogojin, get out!’ and say to the prince, ‘Do you remember what you promised me?’ Heavens! what a fool I have been to humiliate myself before them! Why, prince, you yourself gave me your word that you would marry me whatever happened, and would never abandon me. You said you loved me and would forgive me all, and—and resp—yes, you even said that! I only ran away from you in order to set you free, and now I don’t care to let you go again. Why does she treat me so—so shamefully? I am not a loose woman—ask Rogojin there! He’ll tell you. Will you go again now that she has insulted me, before your eyes, too; turn away from me and lead her away, arm-in-arm? May you be accursed too, for you were the only one I trusted among them all! Go away, Rogojin, I don’t want you. There he is! There he is! and if he does not approach me at once and take me and throw you over, then have him for your own—I give him up to you! I don’t want him!", "pos": 1239396}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "How can you? she is so unhappy.", "pos": 1242374}
{"speaker": "Aglaya", "text": "Oh, my God!", "pos": 1242776}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "What? Would you go to her—to her? Mine, mine! Has the proud young lady gone? Ha, ha, ha! And I had given him up to her! Why—why did I? Mad—mad! Get away, Rogojin! Ha, ha, ha!", "pos": 1243064}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I knew it was bound to be so. Where have they gone to?", "pos": 1256927}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "It’s a good thing that there is peace in the house, at all events,", "pos": 1257624}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "And in point of fact, prince, you must allow that they could hardly have stayed here, considering that they knew of all that went on at your place, and in the face of your daily visits to their house, visits which you insisted upon making in spite of their refusal to see you.", "pos": 1258550}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes—yes, quite so; you are quite right. I wished to see Aglaya Ivanovna, you know!", "pos": 1258857}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Oh, my dear fellow, how could you permit all that to come about as it has? Of course, of course, I know it was all so unexpected. I admit that you, only naturally, lost your head, and—and could not stop the foolish girl; that was not in your power. I quite see so much; but you really should have understood how seriously she cared for you. She could not bear to share you with another; and you could bring yourself to throw away and shatter such a treasure! Oh, prince, prince!", "pos": 1258977}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, yes, you are quite right again. I was wrong, I know. But it was only Aglaya who looked on Nastasia Philipovna so; no one else did, you know.", "pos": 1259514}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "But that’s just the worst of it all, don’t you see, that there was absolutely nothing serious about the matter in reality! Excuse me, prince, but I have thought over all this; I have thought a great deal over it; I know all that had happened before; I know all that took place six months since; and I know there was nothing serious about the matter, it was but fancy, smoke, fantasy, distorted by agitation, and only the alarmed jealousy of an absolutely inexperienced girl could possibly have mistaken it for serious reality. From the very beginning, you began with a lie; what began with a lie was bound to end with a lie; such is the law of nature. I do not agree, in fact I am angry, when I hear you called an idiot; you are far too intelligent to deserve such an epithet; but you are so far strange as to be unlike others; that you must allow, yourself. Now, I have come to the conclusion that the basis of all that has happened, has been first of all your innate inexperience (remark the expression ‘innate,’ prince). Then follows your unheard-of simplicity of heart; then comes your absolute want of sense of proportion (to this want you have several times confessed); and lastly, a mass, an accumulation, of intellectual convictions which you, in your unexampled honesty of soul, accept unquestionably as also innate and natural and true. Admit, prince, that in your relations with Nastasia Philipovna there has existed, from the very first, something democratic, and the fascination, so to speak, of the ‘woman question’? I know all about that scandalous scene at Nastasia Philipovna’s house when Rogojin brought the money, six months ago. I’ll show you yourself as in a looking-glass, if you like. I know exactly all that went on, in every detail, and why things have turned out as they have. You thirsted, while in Switzerland, for your home-country, for Russia; you read, doubtless, many books about Russia, excellent books, I dare say, but hurtful to you; and you arrived here; as it were, on fire with the longing to be of service. Then, on the very day of your arrival, they tell you a sad story of an ill-used woman; they tell you, a knight, pure and without reproach, this tale of a poor woman! The same day you actually see her; you are attracted by her beauty, her fantastic, almost demoniacal, beauty—(I admit her beauty, of course). Add to all this your nervous nature, your epilepsy, and your sudden arrival in a strange town—the day of meetings and of exciting scenes, the day of unexpected acquaintanceships, the day of sudden actions, the day of meeting with the three lovely Epanchin girls, and among them Aglaya—add your fatigue, your excitement; add Nastasia’ s evening party, and the tone of that party, and—what were you to expect of yourself at such a moment as that?", "pos": 1259706}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, yes, yes! Yes, it was so, or nearly so—I know it. And besides, you see, I had not slept the night before, in the train, or the night before that, either, and I was very tired.", "pos": 1262877}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Of course, of course, quite so; that’s what I am driving at! It is as clear as possible, and most comprehensible, that you, in your enthusiasm, should plunge headlong into the first chance that came of publicly airing your great idea that you, a prince, and a pure-living man, did not consider a woman disgraced if the sin were not her own, but that of a disgusting social libertine! Oh, heavens! it’s comprehensible enough, my dear prince, but that is not the question, unfortunately! The question is, was there any reality and truth in your feelings? Was it nature, or nothing but intellectual enthusiasm? What do you think yourself? We are told, of course, that a far worse woman was forgiven, but we don’t find that she was told that she had done well, or that she was worthy of honour and respect! Did not your common-sense show you what was the real state of the case, a few months later? The question is now, not whether she is an innocent woman (I do not insist one way or the other—I do not wish to); but can her whole career justify such intolerable pride, such insolent, rapacious egotism as she has shown? Forgive me, I am too violent, perhaps, but—", "pos": 1263131}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes—I dare say it is all as you say; I dare say you are quite right. She is very sensitive and easily put out, of course; but still, she...", "pos": 1264327}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "She is worthy of sympathy? Is that what you wished to say, my good fellow? But then, for the mere sake of vindicating her worthiness of sympathy, you should not have insulted and offended a noble and generous girl in her presence! This is a terrible exaggeration of sympathy! How can you love a girl, and yet so humiliate her as to throw her over for the sake of another woman, before the very eyes of that other woman, when you have already made her a formal proposal of marriage? And you did propose to her, you know; you did so before her parents and sisters. Can you be an honest man, prince, if you act so? I ask you! And did you not deceive that beautiful girl when you assured her of your love?", "pos": 1264502}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, you are quite right. Oh! I feel that I am very guilty!", "pos": 1265206}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "But as if that is enough! As if it is enough simply to say: ‘I know I am very guilty!’ You are to blame, and yet you persevere in evil-doing. Where was your heart, I should like to know, your christian heart, all that time? Did she look as though she were suffering less, at that moment? You saw her face—was she suffering less than the other woman? How could you see her suffering and allow it to continue? How could you?", "pos": 1265304}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "But I did not allow it,", "pos": 1265759}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "How—what do you mean you didn’t allow?", "pos": 1265815}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Upon my word, I didn’t! To this moment I don’t know how it all happened. I—I ran after Aglaya Ivanovna, but Nastasia Philipovna fell down in a faint; and since that day they won’t let me see Aglaya—that’s all I know.", "pos": 1265856}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "It’s all the same; you ought to have run after Aglaya though the other was fainting.", "pos": 1266075}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, yes, I ought—but I couldn’t! She would have died—she would have killed herself. You don’t know her; and I should have told Aglaya everything afterwards—but I see, Evgenie Pavlovitch, you don’t know all. Tell me now, why am I not allowed to see Aglaya? I should have cleared it all up, you know. Neither of them kept to the real point, you see. I could never explain what I mean to you, but I think I could to Aglaya. Oh! my God, my God! You spoke just now of Aglaya’s face at the moment when she ran away. Oh, my God! I remember it! Come along, come along—quick! Where to? Come to Aglaya—quick, quick! Oh, she’ll understand, she’ll understand! She would understand that all this is not the point—not a bit the real point—it is quite foreign to the real question.", "pos": 1266162}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "How can it be foreign? You are going to be married, are you not? Very well, then you are persisting in your course. Are you going to marry her or not?", "pos": 1267143}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, I shall marry her—yes.", "pos": 1267296}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Then why is it ‘not the point’?", "pos": 1267326}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, no, it is not the point, not a bit. It makes no difference, my marrying her—it means nothing.", "pos": 1267360}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "How ‘means nothing’? You are talking nonsense, my friend. You are marrying the woman you love in order to secure her happiness, and Aglaya sees and knows it. How can you say that it’s ‘not the point’?", "pos": 1267460}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Her happiness? Oh, no! I am only marrying her—well, because she wished it. It means nothing—it’s all the same. She would certainly have died. I see now that that marriage with Rogojin was an insane idea. I understand all now that I did not understand before; and, do you know, when those two stood opposite to one another, I could not bear Nastasia Philipovna’s face! You must know, Evgenie Pavlovitch, I have never told anyone before—not even Aglaya—that I cannot bear Nastasia Philipovna’s face. I looked at her face, you see. Even in the morning when I saw her portrait, I felt that I could not bear to look at it. Now, there’s Vera Lebedeff, for instance, her eyes are quite different, you know. I’m afraid of her face! You are afraid of it? Yes—she’s mad!", "pos": 1267663}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Do you know this for certain?", "pos": 1268762}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, for certain—quite for certain, now! I have discovered it absolutely for certain, these last few days.", "pos": 1268838}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "What are you doing, then? You must be marrying her solely out of fear, then! I can’t make head or tail of it, prince. Perhaps you don’t even love her?", "pos": 1268947}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, no; I love her with all my soul. Why, she is a child! She’s a child now—a real child. Oh! you know nothing about it at all, I see.", "pos": 1269128}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "And are you assured, at the same time, that you love Aglaya too?", "pos": 1269265}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes—yes—oh; yes!", "pos": 1269332}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "How so? Do you want to make out that you love them both?", "pos": 1269351}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes—yes—both! I do!", "pos": 1269410}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "Excuse me, prince, but think what you are saying! Recollect yourself!", "pos": 1269432}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Without Aglaya—I—I must see Aglaya!—I shall die in my sleep very soon—I thought I was dying in my sleep last night. Oh! if Aglaya only knew all—I mean really, really all! Because she must know all—that’s the first condition towards understanding. Why cannot we ever know all about another, especially when that other has been guilty? But I don’t know what I’m talking about—I’m so confused. You pained me so dreadfully. Surely—surely Aglaya has not the same expression now as she had at the moment when she ran away? Oh, yes! I am guilty and I know it—I know it! Probably I am in fault all round—I don’t quite know how—but I am in fault, no doubt. There is something else, but I cannot explain it to you, Evgenie Pavlovitch. I have no words; but Aglaya will understand. I have always believed Aglaya will understand—I am assured she will.", "pos": 1269504}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "No, prince, she will not. Aglaya loved like a woman, like a human being, not like an abstract spirit. Do you know what, my poor prince? The most probable explanation of the matter is that you never loved either the one or the other in reality.", "pos": 1270345}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I don’t know—perhaps you are right in much that you have said, Evgenie Pavlovitch. You are very wise, Evgenie Pavlovitch—oh! how my head is beginning to ache again! Come to her, quick—for God’s sake, come!", "pos": 1270591}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "But I tell you she is not in Pavlofsk! She’s in Colmina.", "pos": 1270799}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Oh, come to Colmina, then! Come—let us go at once!", "pos": 1270858}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "No—no, impossible!", "pos": 1270911}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Look here—I’ll write a letter—take a letter for me!", "pos": 1270954}
{"speaker": "Evgenie Pavlovitch", "text": "No—no, prince; you must forgive me, but I can’t undertake any such commissions! I really can’t. And what did he mean by that face—a face which he so fears, and yet so loves? And meanwhile he really may die, as he says, without seeing Aglaya, and she will never know how devotedly he loves her! Ha, ha, ha! How does the fellow manage to love two of them? Two different kinds of love, I suppose! This is very interesting—poor idiot! What on earth will become of him now?", "pos": 1271008}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Nothing. I only thought I— Is it Rogojin?", "pos": 1274058}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why—is he here?", "pos": 1274104}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Yes, he’s in church.", "pos": 1274122}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I thought I caught sight of his eyes! But what of it!—Why is he here? Was he asked?", "pos": 1274145}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Oh, dear, no! Why, they don’t even know him! Anyone can come in, you know. Why do you look so amazed? I often meet him; I’ve seen him at least four times, here at Pavlofsk, within the last week.", "pos": 1274268}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I haven’t seen him once—since that day!", "pos": 1274465}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "I won’t drink!", "pos": 1275605}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "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 wedding-night. 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! 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 money’—that is to say, the two things that distinguish us from the animals! I have heard it said positively. It is the sober truth.", "pos": 1276333}
{"speaker": "General Epanchin", "text": "save him,", "pos": 1278244}
{"speaker": "The Doctor", "text": "If all such people were put under restraint, there would be no one left for keepers.", "pos": 1280300}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte's mother", "text": "or he would eat her up bodily.", "pos": 1281975}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "beware of Rogojin. He is the sort of man, who won’t give up his object, you know; he is not like you and me, prince—he belongs to quite a different order of beings. If he sets his heart on a thing he won’t be afraid of anything—", "pos": 1282243}
{"speaker": "Hippolyte", "text": "run for his life—abroad, if necessary. There are Russian priests everywhere, and one can get married all over the world. What I am really alarmed about, though, is Aglaya Ivanovna. Rogojin knows how you love her. Love for love. You took Nastasia Philipovna from him. He will murder Aglaya Ivanovna; for though she is not yours, of course, now, still such an act would pain you,—wouldn’t it?", "pos": 1283123}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Let them shout and whistle, if they dare!", "pos": 1289983}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "What am I doing? What am I doing to you?", "pos": 1290869}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Why, he wears an ‘order,’ and it looks so well!", "pos": 1292477}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "as pale as a corpse.", "pos": 1293817}
{"speaker": "one", "text": "What a beauty!", "pos": 1294112}
{"speaker": "another", "text": "Well, she isn’t the first in the world, nor the last,", "pos": 1294140}
{"speaker": "a third", "text": "Marriage covers everything,", "pos": 1294210}
{"speaker": "a fourth", "text": "I defy you to find another beauty like that,", "pos": 1294258}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "She’s a real princess! I’d sell my soul for such a princess as that!", "pos": 1294320}
{"speaker": "Nastasia Philipovna", "text": "Save me! Take me away, anywhere you like, quick!", "pos": 1295093}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "To the station, quick! If you catch the train you shall have another. Quick!", "pos": 1295323}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "One more second and I should have stopped him,", "pos": 1295551}
{"speaker": "Burdovsky", "text": "Besides, the prince would not like it, would he?", "pos": 1295808}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Take fifty roubles for your cloak?", "pos": 1296231}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I was afraid, but I hardly thought it would come to this. However, in her state, it is quite consistent with the natural order of things.", "pos": 1297126}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "extraordinarily philosophical", "pos": 1297385}
{"speaker": "One gentleman", "text": "Whatever happens, I shall not sell my property; I shall wait. Enterprise is better than money, and there, sir, you have my whole system of economy, if you wish!", "pos": 1299145}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "it was no use worrying,", "pos": 1299797}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "perhaps all would turn out for the best,", "pos": 1299832}
{"speaker": "Keller", "text": "With you and me there would have been a scene. We should have shouted and fought, and called in the police. But he has simply made some new friends—and such friends, too! I know them!", "pos": 1300054}
{"speaker": "Lebedeff", "text": "Things are hidden from the wise and prudent, and revealed unto babes. I have applied those words to him before, but now I add that God has preserved the babe himself from the abyss, He and all His saints.", "pos": 1300302}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Until tomorrow!", "pos": 1301979}
{"speaker": "aged servant", "text": "Parfen Semionovitch is not at home. Whom do you want?", "pos": 1302613}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Parfen Semionovitch.", "pos": 1302703}
{"speaker": "aged servant", "text": "He is not in.", "pos": 1302726}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "At all events tell me whether he slept at home last night, and whether he came alone? Was not Nastasia Philipovna here with him, yesterday evening?", "pos": 1302816}
{"speaker": "aged servant", "text": "And, pray, who are you yourself?", "pos": 1303027}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Prince Lef Nicolaievitch Muishkin; he knows me well.", "pos": 1303062}
{"speaker": "aged servant", "text": "He is not at home.", "pos": 1303117}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "And Nastasia Philipovna?", "pos": 1303166}
{"speaker": "aged servant", "text": "I know nothing about it.", "pos": 1303193}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Stop a minute! When will he come back?", "pos": 1303220}
{"speaker": "aged servant", "text": "I don’t know that either.", "pos": 1303261}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Is Parfen Semionovitch at home?", "pos": 1303449}
{"speaker": "porter", "text": "Yes.", "pos": 1303493}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why did they tell me he was not at home, then?", "pos": 1303500}
{"speaker": "porter", "text": "Where did they tell you so,—at his door?", "pos": 1303549}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "No, at his mother’s flat; I rang at Parfen Semionovitch’s door and nobody came.", "pos": 1303592}
{"speaker": "porter", "text": "Well, he may have gone out. I can’t tell. Sometimes he takes the keys with him, and leaves the rooms empty for two or three days.", "pos": 1303674}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Do you know for certain that he was at home last night?", "pos": 1303806}
{"speaker": "porter", "text": "Yes, he was.", "pos": 1303864}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Was Nastasia Philipovna with him?", "pos": 1303879}
{"speaker": "porter", "text": "I don’t know; she doesn’t come often. I think I should have known if she had come.", "pos": 1303915}
{"speaker": "good ladies", "text": "his pallor was terrible to see, and his legs seemed to give way underneath him.", "pos": 1307080}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I shall wait; he may come back this evening.", "pos": 1307870}
{"speaker": "porter", "text": "He may not be home for a week.", "pos": 1307917}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Then, at all events, he did sleep here, did he?", "pos": 1307950}
{"speaker": "porter", "text": "Well—he did sleep here, yes.", "pos": 1308000}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "What if he were to come out of that corner as I go by and—and stop me?", "pos": 1314177}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Lef Nicolaievitch, my friend, come along with me. I was there. Come. Come along.", "pos": 1314738}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Why did you not ask for me at my room if you were in the hotel?", "pos": 1315335}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Look here, Lef Nicolaievitch, you go straight on to the house; I shall walk on the other side. See that we keep together.", "pos": 1315533}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Is Nastasia Philipovna at your house?", "pos": 1316274}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Yes.", "pos": 1316314}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "And was it you looked out of the window under the blind this morning?", "pos": 1316321}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Yes.", "pos": 1316393}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Then why did—", "pos": 1316400}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Well, I’m going. You go along here as before; we will keep to different sides of the road; it’s better so, you’ll see. Even the porter does not know that I have come home now. I told him, and told them at my mother’s too, that I was off to Pavlofsk. We’ll go in quietly and nobody will hear us.", "pos": 1316670}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "When you rang the bell this morning I thought it must be you. I went to the door on tip-toe and heard you talking to the servant opposite. I had told her before that if anyone came and rang—especially you, and I gave her your name—she was not to tell about me. Then I thought, what if he goes and stands opposite and looks up, or waits about to watch the house? So I came to this very window, looked out, and there you were staring straight at me. That’s how it came about. She’s here,", "pos": 1318049}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Had you not better light a candle?", "pos": 1319664}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "No, I needn’t. Sit down, let’s rest a bit. I knew you would be at that hotel. As I entered the passage it struck me that perhaps you were sitting and waiting for me, just as I was waiting for you. Have you been to the old lady at Ismailofsky barracks?", "pos": 1319716}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes. Rogojin, where is Nastasia Philipovna?", "pos": 1320390}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "There,", "pos": 1320863}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Asleep?", "pos": 1320924}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Let’s go in—but you mustn’t—well—let’s go in. Go in.", "pos": 1321005}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "It’s so dark,", "pos": 1321187}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "You can see quite enough,", "pos": 1321212}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I can just see there’s a bed—", "pos": 1321258}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Go nearer,", "pos": 1321290}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Let’s go. I see you are shuddering, Lef Nicolaievitch, almost as you did once in Moscow, before your fit; don’t you remember? I don’t know what I shall do with you—", "pos": 1322640}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Was it you?", "pos": 1323261}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Yes, it was I. Because, you know, if you were ill now, or had a fit, or screamed, or anything, they might hear it in the yard, or even in the street, and guess that someone was passing the night in the house. They would all come and knock and want to come in, because they know I am not at home. I didn’t light a candle for the same reason. When I am not here—for two or three days at a time, now and then—no one comes in to tidy the house or anything; those are my orders. So that I want them to not know we are spending the night here—", "pos": 1323342}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Wait,", "pos": 1324012}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I know you asked. I told them that she had called in for ten minutes, and then gone straight back to Pavlofsk. No one knows she slept here. Last night we came in just as carefully as you and I did today. I thought as I came along with her that she would not like to creep in so secretly, but I was quite wrong. She whispered, and walked on tip-toe; she carried her skirt over her arm, so that it shouldn’t rustle, and she held up her finger at me on the stairs, so that I shouldn’t make a noise—it was you she was afraid of. She was mad with terror in the train, and she begged me to bring her to this house. I thought of taking her to her rooms at the Ismailofsky barracks first; but she wouldn’t hear of it. She said, ‘No—not there; he’ll find me out at once there. Take me to your own house, where you can hide me, and tomorrow we’ll set off for Moscow.’ Thence she would go to Orel, she said. When she went to bed, she was still talking about going to Orel.", "pos": 1324161}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Wait! What do you intend to do now, Parfen?", "pos": 1325125}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Well, I’m afraid of you. You shudder and tremble so. We’ll pass the night here together. There are no other beds besides that one; but I’ve thought how we’ll manage. I’ll take the cushions off all the sofas, and lay them down on the floor, up against the curtain here—for you and me—so that we shall be together. For if they come in and look about now, you know, they’ll find her, and carry her away, and they’ll be asking me questions, and I shall say I did it, and then they’ll take me away, too, don’t you see? So let her lie close to us—close to you and me.", "pos": 1325171}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, yes. Not for anything!", "pos": 1325735}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "So I had decided, my friend; not to give her up to anyone. We’ll be very quiet. I have only been out of the house one hour all day, all the rest of the time I have been with her. I dare say the air is very bad here. It is so hot. Do you find it bad?", "pos": 1325892}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I don’t know—perhaps—by morning it will be.", "pos": 1326165}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I’ve covered her with oilcloth—best American oilcloth, and put the sheet over that, and four jars of disinfectant, on account of the smell—as they did at Moscow—you remember? And she’s lying so still; you shall see, in the morning, when it’s light. What! can’t you get up?", "pos": 1326211}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "My legs won’t move; it’s fear, I know. When my fear is over, I’ll get up—", "pos": 1326573}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Wait a bit—I’ll make the bed, and you can lie down. I’ll lie down, too, and we’ll listen and watch, for I don’t know yet what I shall do... I tell you beforehand, so that you may be ready in case I—", "pos": 1326668}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "It’s hot weather, you see, and, naturally, there will be a smell. I daren’t open the window. My mother has some beautiful flowers in pots; they have a delicious scent; I thought of fetching them in, but that old servant will find out, she’s very inquisitive.", "pos": 1327563}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, she is inquisitive,", "pos": 1327824}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I thought of buying flowers, and putting them all round her; but I was afraid it would make us sad to see her with flowers round her.", "pos": 1327872}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Look here. Listen—tell me—how did you—with a knife?—That same one?", "pos": 1328008}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Yes, that same one.", "pos": 1328233}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Wait a minute, I want to ask you something else, Parfen; all sorts of things; but tell me first, did you intend to kill her before my wedding, at the church door, with your knife?", "pos": 1328255}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "I don’t know whether I did or not. No. As to the knife, this is all I can tell you about it. I took it out of the locked drawer this morning about three, for it was in the early morning all this—happened. It has been inside the book ever since—and—and—this is what is such a marvel to me, the knife only went in a couple of inches at most, just under her left breast, and there wasn’t more than half a tablespoonful of blood altogether, not more.", "pos": 1328437}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes—yes—yes— I know, I know, I’ve read of that sort of thing—it’s internal haemorrhage, you know. Sometimes there isn’t a drop—if the blow goes straight to the heart—", "pos": 1329098}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Wait—listen! Somebody’s walking about, do you hear? In the hall.", "pos": 1329318}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "I hear,", "pos": 1329448}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Footsteps?", "pos": 1329515}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes.", "pos": 1329528}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Shall we shut the door, and lock it, or not?", "pos": 1329535}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Yes, lock it. Yes, by-the-by. I—I wanted those cards! They say you played cards with her?", "pos": 1329582}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Yes, I played with her,", "pos": 1329888}
{"speaker": "Prince Muishkin", "text": "Where are the cards?", "pos": 1329951}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "Here they are,", "pos": 1329974}
{"speaker": "Rogojin", "text": "That officer, eh!—that young officer—don’t you remember that fellow at the band? Eh? Ha, ha, ha! Didn’t she whip him smartly, eh?", "pos": 1330902}
{"speaker": "Schneider", "text": "An idiot!", "pos": 1332726}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Epanchin", "text": "They can’t bake bread anywhere, decently; and they all freeze in their houses, during winter, like a lot of mice in a cellar. At all events, I’ve had a good Russian cry over this poor fellow. So enough of this nonsense; it’s time we faced the truth. All this continental life, all this Europe of yours, and all the trash about ‘going abroad’ is simply foolery, and it is mere foolery on our part to come. Remember what I say, my friend; you’ll live to agree with me yourself.", "pos": 1340618}