The Idiot Page 9

“young lady’s library,” pictures, paint-boxes,a lap-dog, and everything to make life agreeable. Within a fortnightTotski himself arrived, and from that time he appeared to have taken agreat fancy to this part of the world and came down each summer, stayingtwo and three months at a time. So passed four years peacefully andhappily, in charming surroundings.

  At the end of that time, and about four months after Totski’s lastvisit (he had stayed but a fortnight on this occasion), a report reachedNastasia Philipovna that he was about to be married in St. Petersburg,to a rich, eminent, and lovely woman. The report was only partiallytrue, the marriage project being only in an embryo condition; but agreat change now came over Nastasia Philipovna. She suddenly displayedunusual decision of character; and without wasting time in thought,she left her country home and came up to St. Petersburg, straight toTotski’s house, all alone.

  The latter, amazed at her conduct, began to express his displeasure;but he very soon became aware that he must change his voice, style, andeverything else, with this young lady; the good old times were gone. Anentirely new and different woman sat before him, between whom andthe girl he had left in the country last July there seemed nothing incommon.

  In the first place, this new woman understood a good deal more than wasusual for young people of her age; so much indeed, that Totski could nothelp wondering where she had picked up her knowledge. Surely not fromher “young lady’s library”? It even embraced legal matters, and the“world” in general, to a considerable extent.

  Her character was absolutely changed. No more of the girlishalternations of timidity and petulance, the adorable naivete, thereveries, the tears, the playfulness... It was an entirely new andhitherto unknown being who now sat and laughed at him, and informed himto his face that she had never had the faintest feeling for him of anykind, except loathing and contempt--contempt which had followed closelyupon her sensations of surprise and bewilderment after her firstacquaintance with him.

  This new woman gave him further to understand that though it wasabsolutely the same to her whom he married, yet she had decided toprevent this marriage--for no particular reason, but that she _chose_ todo so, and because she wished to amuse herself at his expense for thatit was “quite her turn to laugh a little now!”

  Such were her words--very likely she did not give her real reason forthis eccentric conduct; but, at all events, that was all the explanationshe deigned to offer.

  Meanwhile, Totski thought the matter over as well as his scattered ideaswould permit. His meditations lasted a fortnight, however, and at theend of that time his resolution was taken. The fact was, Totski wasat that time a man of fifty years of age; his position was solid andrespectable; his place in society had long been firmly fixed upon safefoundations; he loved himself, his personal comforts, and his positionbetter than all the world, as every respectable gentleman should!

  At the same time his grasp of things in general soon showed Totski thathe now had to deal with a being who was outside the pale of the ordinaryrules of traditional behaviour, and who would not only threaten mischiefbut would undoubtedly carry it out, and stop for no one.

  There was evidently, he concluded, something at work here; some storm ofthe mind, some paroxysm of romantic anger, goodness knows against whomor what, some insatiable contempt--in a word, something altogetherabsurd and impossible, but at the same time most dangerous to be metwith by any respectable person with a position in society to keep up.

  For a man of Totski’s wealth and standing, it would, of course, havebeen the simplest possible matter to take steps which would rid him atonce from all annoyance; while it was obviously impossible for NastasiaPhilipovna to harm him in any way, either legally or by stirring up ascandal, for, in case of the latter danger, he could so easily removeher to a sphere of safety. However, these arguments would only hold goodin case of Nastasia acting as others might in such an emergency. She wasmuch more likely to overstep the bounds of reasonable conduct by someextraordinary eccentricity.

  Here the sound judgment of Totski stood him in good stead. He realizedthat Nastasia Philipovna must be well aware that she could do nothingby legal means to injure him, and that her flashing eyes betrayed someentirely different intention.

  Nastasia Philipovna was quite capable of ruining herself, and even ofperpetrating something which would send her to Siberia, for the merepleasure of injuring a man for whom she had developed so inhuman a senseof loathing and contempt. He had sufficient insight to understand thatshe valued nothing in the world--herself least of all--and he made noattempt to conceal the fact that he was a coward in some respects. Forinstance, if he had been told that he would be stabbed at the altar, orpublicly insulted, he would undoubtedly have been frightened; but not somuch at the idea of being murdered, or wounded, or insulted, as at thethought that if such things were to happen he would be made to lookridiculous in the eyes of society.

  He knew well that Nastasia thoroughly understood him and where to woundhim and how, and therefore, as the marriage was still only in embryo,Totski decided to conciliate her by giving it up. His decision wasstrengthened by the fact that Nastasia Philipovna had curiously alteredof late. It would be difficult to conceive how different she wasphysically, at the present time, to the girl of a few years ago. She waspretty then... but now!... Totski laughed angrily when he thought howshort-sighted he had been. In days gone by he remembered how he hadlooked at her beautiful eyes, how even then he had marvelled at theirdark mysterious depths, and at their wondering gaze which seemed to seekan answer to some unknown riddle. Her complexion also had altered. Shewas now exceedingly pale, but, curiously, this change only made her morebeautiful. Like most men of the world, Totski had rather despised sucha cheaply-bought conquest, but of late years he had begun to thinkdifferently about it. It had struck him as long ago as last spring thathe ought to be finding a good match for Nastasia; for instance, somerespectable and reasonable young fellow serving in a government officein another part of the country. How maliciously Nastasia laughed at theidea of such a thing, now!

  However, it appeared to Totski that he might make use of her in anotherway; and he determined to establish her in St. Petersburg, surroundingher with all the comforts and luxuries that his wealth could command. Inthis way he might gain glory in certain circles.

  Five years of this Petersburg life went by, and, of course, during thattime a great deal happened. Totski’s position was very uncomfortable;having “funked” once, he could not totally regain his ease. He wasafraid, he did not know why, but he was simply _afraid_ of NastasiaPhilipovna. For the first two years or so he had suspected that shewished to marry him herself, and that only her vanity prevented hertelling him so. He thought that she wanted him to approach her with ahumble proposal from his own side. But to his great, and not entirelypleasurable amazement, he discovered that this was by no means the case,and that were he to offer himself he would be refused. He could notunderstand such a state of things, and was obliged to conclude that itwas pride, the pride of an injured and imaginative woman, which hadgone to such lengths that it preferred to sit and nurse its contempt andhatred in solitude rather than mount to heights of hitherto unattainablesplendour. To make matters worse, she was quite impervious to mercenaryconsiderations, and could not be bribed in any way.

  Finally, Totski took cunning means to try to break his chains andbe free. He tried to tempt her in various ways to lose her heart; heinvited princes, hussars, secretaries of embassies, poets, novelists,even Socialists, to see her; but not one of them all made the faintestimpression upon Nastasia. It was as though she had a pebble in placeof a heart, as though her feelings and affections were dried up andwithered for ever.

  She lived almost entirely alone; she read, she studied, she loved music.Her principal acquaintances were poor women of various grades, a coupleof actresses, and the family of a poor schoolteacher. Among these peopleshe was much beloved.

  She received four or five friends sometimes, of an evening. Totskioften came. Lately, too, Genera
l Epanchin had been enabled withgreat difficulty to introduce himself into her circle. Gania madeher acquaintance also, and others were Ferdishenko, an ill-bred, andwould-be witty, young clerk, and Ptitsin, a money-lender of modestand polished manners, who had risen from poverty. In fact, NastasiaPhilipovna’s beauty became a thing known to all the town; but not asingle man could boast of anything more than his own admiration forher; and this reputation of hers, and her wit and culture and grace, allconfirmed Totski in the plan he had now prepared.

  And it was at this moment that General Epanchin began to play so largeand important a part in the story.

  When Totski had approached the general with his request for friendlycounsel as to a marriage with one of his daughters, he had made a fulland candid confession. He had said that he intended to stop at no meansto obtain his freedom; even if Nastasia were to promise to leave himentirely alone in future, he would not (he said) believe and trust her;words were not enough for him; he must have solid guarantees of somesort.