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.’
And Afanasy Ivanovitch heaved a deep sigh.
Part II
I-II
Two days after the strange conclusion to Nastasia Phil-ipovna’s birthday party, with the record of which we
concluded the first part of this story, Prince Muishkin hur-riedly left St. Petersburg for Moscow, in order to see after some business connected with the receipt of his unexpected fortune.
It was said that there were other reasons for his hurried departure; but as to this, and as to his movements in Mos-cow, and as to his prolonged absence from St. Petersburg, we are able to give very little information.
The prince was away for six months, and even those who were most interested in his destiny were able to pick up very little news about him all that while. True, certain rumours did reach his friends, but these were both strange and rare, and each one contradicted the last.
Of course the Epanchin family was much interested in his movements, though he had not had time to bid them farewell before his departure. The general, however, had had an opportunity of seeing him once or twice since the eventful evening, and had spoken very seriously with him; but though he had seen the prince, as I say, he told his fam-ily nothing about the circumstance. In fact, for a month or so after his departure it was considered not the thing to mention the prince’s name in the Epanchin household.
Only Mrs. Epanchin, at the commencement of this period, had announced that she had been ‘cruelly mistaken in the prince!’ and a day or two after, she had added, evidently al-luding to him, but not mentioning his name, that it was an unalterable characteristic of hers to be mistaken in people. Then once more, ten days later, after some passage of arms with one of her daughters, she had remarked sententiously.
‘We have had enough of mistakes. I shall be more careful in future!’ However, it was impossible to avoid remarking that there was some sense of oppression in the household— something unspoken, but felt; something strained. All the members of the family wore frowning looks. The general was unusually busy; his family hardly ever saw him.
As to the girls, nothing was said openly, at all events; and probably very little in private. They were proud dam-sels, and were not always perfectly confidential even among themselves. But they understood each other thoroughly at the first word on all occasions; very often at the first glance, so that there was no need of much talking as a rule.
One fact, at least, would have been perfectly plain to an outsider, had any such person been on the spot; and that was, that the prince had made a very considerable impres-sion upon the family, in spite of the fact that he had but once been inside the house, and then only for a short time. Of course, if analyzed, this impression might have proved to be nothing more than a feeling of curiosity; but be it what it might, there it undoubtedly was.
Little by little, the rumours spread about town became lost in a maze of uncertainty. It was said that some fool-
ish young prince, name unknown, had suddenly come into possession of a gigantic fortune, and had married a French ballet dancer. This was contradicted, and the rumour circu-lated that it was a young merchant who had come into the enormous fortune and married the great ballet dancer, and that at the wedding the drunken young fool had burned seventy thousand roubles at a candle out of pure bravado.
However, all these rumours soon died down, to which circumstance certain facts largely contributed. For in-stance, the whole of the Rogojin troop had departed, with him at their head, for Moscow. This was exactly a week after a dreadful orgy at the Ekaterinhof gardens, where Nastasia Philipovna had been present. It became known that after this orgy Nastasia Philipovna had entirely disappeared, and that she had since been traced to Moscow; so that the ex-odus of the Rogojin band was found consistent with this report.
There were rumours current as to Gania, too; but circum-stances soon contradicted these. He had fallen seriously ill, and his illness precluded his appearance in society, and even at business, for over a month. As soon as he had re-covered, however, he threw up his situation in the public company under General Epanchin’s direction, for some un-known reason, and the post was given to another. He never went near the Epanchins’ house at all, and was exceedingly irritable and depressed.
Varvara Ardalionovna married Ptitsin this winter, and it was said that the fact of Gania’s retirement from busi-ness was the ultimate cause of the marriage, since Gania
was now not only unable to support his family, but even re-quired help himself.
We may mention that Gania was no longer mentioned in the Epanchin household any more than the prince was; but that a certain circumstance in connection with the fatal evening at Nastasia’s house became known to the general, and, in fact, to all the family the very next day. This fact was that Gania had come home that night, but had refused to go to bed. He had awaited the prince’s return from Ekaterin-hof with feverish impatience.
On the latter’s arrival, at six in the morning, Gania had gone to him in his room, bringing with him the singed packet of money, which he had insisted that the prince should return to Nastasia Philipovna without delay. It was said that when Gania entered the prince’s room, he came with anything but friendly feelings, and in a condition of despair and misery; but that after a short conversation, he had stayed on for a couple of hours with him, sobbing con-tinuously and bitterly the whole time. They had parted upon terms of cordial friendship.
The Epanchins heard about this, as well as about the epi-sode at Nastasia Philipovna’s. It was strange, perhaps, that the facts should become so quickly, and fairly accurate-ly, known. As far as Gania was concerned, it might have been supposed that the news had come through Varvara Ardalionovna, who had suddenly become a frequent visi-tor of the Epanchin girls, greatly to their mother’s surprise. But though Varvara had seen fit, for some reason, to make friends with them, it was not likely that she would have
talked to them about her brother. She had plenty of pride, in spite of the fact that in thus acting she was seeking inti-macy with people who had practically shown her brother the door. She and the Epanchin girls had been acquainted in childhood, although of late they had met but rarely. Even now Varvara hardly ever appeared in the drawing-room, but would slip in by a back way. Lizabetha Prokofievna, who disliked Varvara, although she had a great respect for her mother, was much annoyed by this sudden intimacy, and put it down to the general ‘contrariness’ of her daugh-ters, who were ‘always on the lookout for some new way of opposing her.’ Nevertheless, Varvara continued her visits.
A month after Muishkin’s departure, Mrs. Epanchin received a letter from her old friend Princess Bielokonski (who had lately left for Moscow), which letter put her into the greatest good humour. She did not divulge its contents either to her daughters or the general, but her conduct to-wards the former became affectionate in the extreme. She even made some sort of confession to them, but they were unable to understand what it was about. She actually relaxed towards the general a little—he had been long disgraced— and though she managed to quarrel with them all the next day, yet she soon came round, and from her general behav-iour it was to be concluded that she had bad good news of some sort, which she would like, but could not make up her mind, to disclose.
However, a week later she received another letter from the same source, and at last resolved to speak.
She solemnly announced that she had heard from old
Princess Bielokonski, who had given her most comforting news about ‘that queer young prince.’ Her friend had hunt-ed him up, and found that all was going well with him. He had since called in person upon her, making an extremely favourable impression, for the princess had received him each day since, and had introduced him into several good houses.
The girls could see that their mother concealed a great deal from them, and left out large pieces of the letter in reading it to them.
However, the ice was broken, and it suddenly became possible to mention the prince’s name again. And again it became evident how very strong was the impression the young man had made in the household by his one visit there. Mrs. Epanchin was surprised at the effect which the news from
