The Idiot Read online

wellaware that they were proud and quite understood their own value. Theeldest was musical, while the second was a clever artist, which factshe had concealed until lately. In a word, the world spoke well of thegirls; but they were not without their enemies, and occasionally peopletalked with horror of the number of books they had read.

  They were in no hurry to marry. They liked good society, but were nottoo keen about it. All this was the more remarkable, because everyonewas well aware of the hopes and aims of their parents.

  It was about eleven o’clock in the forenoon when the prince rang thebell at General Epanchin’s door. The general lived on the first flooror flat of the house, as modest a lodging as his position permitted. Aliveried servant opened the door, and the prince was obliged to enterinto long explanations with this gentleman, who, from the first glance,looked at him and his bundle with grave suspicion. At last, however, onthe repeated positive assurance that he really was Prince Muishkin, andmust absolutely see the general on business, the bewildered domesticshowed him into a little ante-chamber leading to a waiting-room thatadjoined the general’s study, there handing him over to another servant,whose duty it was to be in this ante-chamber all the morning, andannounce visitors to the general. This second individual wore a dresscoat, and was some forty years of age; he was the general’s specialstudy servant, and well aware of his own importance.

  “Wait in the next room, please; and leave your bundle here,” said thedoor-keeper, as he sat down comfortably in his own easy-chair in theante-chamber. He looked at the prince in severe surprise as the lattersettled himself in another chair alongside, with his bundle on hisknees.

  “If you don’t mind, I would rather sit here with you,” said the prince;“I should prefer it to sitting in there.”

  “Oh, but you can’t stay here. You are a visitor--a guest, so to speak.Is it the general himself you wish to see?”

  The man evidently could not take in the idea of such a shabby-lookingvisitor, and had decided to ask once more.

  “Yes--I have business--” began the prince.

  “I do not ask you what your business may be, all I have to do is toannounce you; and unless the secretary comes in here I cannot do that.”

  The man’s suspicions seemed to increase more and more. The prince wastoo unlike the usual run of daily visitors; and although the generalcertainly did receive, on business, all sorts and conditions of men, yetin spite of this fact the servant felt great doubts on the subjectof this particular visitor. The presence of the secretary as anintermediary was, he judged, essential in this case.

  “Surely you--are from abroad?” he inquired at last, in a confused sortof way. He had begun his sentence intending to say, “Surely you are notPrince Muishkin, are you?”

  “Yes, straight from the train! Did not you intend to say, ‘Surely youare not Prince Muishkin?’ just now, but refrained out of politeness?”

  “H’m!” grunted the astonished servant.

  “I assure you I am not deceiving you; you shall not have to answer forme. As to my being dressed like this, and carrying a bundle, there’snothing surprising in that--the fact is, my circumstances are notparticularly rosy at this moment.”

  “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’venot come to beg, have you?”

  “Oh dear no, you can be perfectly easy on that score. I have quiteanother matter on hand.”

  “You must excuse my asking, you know. Your appearance led me tothink--but just wait for the secretary; the general is busy now, but thesecretary is sure to come out.”

  “Oh--well, look here, if I have some time to wait, would you mindtelling me, is there any place about where I could have a smoke? I havemy pipe and tobacco with me.”

  “_Smoke?_” said the man, in shocked but disdainful surprise, blinking hiseyes at the prince as though he could not believe his senses. “No, sir,you cannot smoke here, and I wonder you are not ashamed of the verysuggestion. Ha, ha! a cool idea that, I declare!”

  “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. Yousee, I’m used to smoking a good deal, and now I haven’t had a puff forthree hours; however, just as you like.”

  “Now how on earth am I to announce a man like that?” muttered theservant. “In the first place, you’ve no right in here at all; you oughtto be in the waiting-room, because you’re a sort of visitor--a guest, infact--and I shall catch it for this. Look here, do you intend to take upyou abode with us?” he added, glancing once more at the prince’s bundle,which evidently gave him no peace.

  “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think I should stay even if they wereto invite me. I’ve simply come to make their acquaintance, and nothingmore.”

  “Make their acquaintance?” asked the man, in amazement, and withredoubled suspicion. “Then why did you say you had business with thegeneral?”

  “Oh well, very little business. There is one little matter--someadvice I am going to ask him for; but my principal object is simply tointroduce myself, because I am Prince Muishkin, and Madame Epanchin isthe last of her branch of the house, and besides herself and me thereare no other Muishkins left.”

  “What--you’re a relation then, are you?” asked the servant, sobewildered that he began to feel quite alarmed.

  “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 oncewrote to your mistress from abroad, but she did not reply. However, Ihave thought it right to make acquaintance with her on my arrival. I amtelling you all this in order to ease your mind, for I see you are stillfar from comfortable on my account. All you have to do is to announce meas Prince Muishkin, and the object of my visit will be plain enough. IfI am received--very good; if not, well, very good again. But they aresure to receive me, I should think; Madame Epanchin will naturally becurious to see the only remaining representative of her family. Shevalues her Muishkin descent very highly, if I am rightly informed.”

  The prince’s conversation was artless and confiding to a degree, andthe servant could not help feeling that as from visitor to commonserving-man this state of things was highly improper. His conclusion wasthat one of two things must be the explanation--either that this was abegging impostor, or that the prince, if prince he were, was simply afool, without the slightest ambition; for a sensible prince with anyambition would certainly not wait about in ante-rooms with servants, andtalk of his own private affairs like this. In either case, how was he toannounce this singular visitor?

  “I really think I must request you to step into the next room!” he said,with all the insistence he could muster.

  “Why? If I had been sitting there now, I should not have had theopportunity of making these personal explanations. I see you are stilluneasy about me and keep eyeing my cloak and bundle. Don’t you thinkyou might go in yourself now, without waiting for the secretary to comeout?”

  “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 theColonel C--. Gavrila Ardalionovitch goes in without announcing.”

  “Who may that be? a clerk?”

  “What? Gavrila Ardalionovitch? Oh no; he belongs to one of thecompanies. Look here, at all events put your bundle down, here.”

  “Yes, I will if I may; and--can I take off my cloak”

  “Of course; you can’t go in _there_ with it on, anyhow.”

  The prince rose and took off his mantle, revealing a neat enough morningcostume--a little worn, but well made. He wore a steel watch chain andfrom this chain there hung a silver Geneva watch. Fool the prince mightbe, still, the general’s servant felt that it was not correct for him tocontinue to converse thus with a visitor, in spite of the fact that theprince pleased him somehow.

  “And what time of da
y does the lady receive?” the latter asked,reseating himself in his old place.

  “Oh, that’s not in _my_ province! I believe she receives at any time; itdepends upon the visitors. The dressmaker goes in at eleven. GavrilaArdalionovitch is allowed much earlier than other people, too; he iseven admitted to early lunch now and then.”

  “It is much warmer in the rooms here than it is abroad at this season,” observed the prince; “but it is much warmer there out of doors. As forthe houses--a Russian can’t live in them in the winter until he getsaccustomed to them.”

  “Don’t they heat them at all?”

  “Well, they do heat them a little; but the houses and stoves are sodifferent to ours.”

  “H’m! were you long away?”

  “Four years! and I was in the same place nearly all the time,--in onevillage.”

  “You must have forgotten Russia, hadn’t you?”

  “Yes, indeed I had--a good deal; and, would you believe it, I oftenwonder at myself for not having forgotten how to speak Russian? Evennow, as I talk to you, I keep saying to myself ‘how well I am speakingit.’ Perhaps that