The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Page B

blind and is ready to suspect hope where there is none at all; not only that, but he loses his reason and acts like a silly child, though he may be a Solomon of wisdom. It was known that the general was preparing to give Nastasya Filippovna a present of some wonderful pearls, costing a vast sum, for her birthday, and that he had a considerable interest in this present, though he knew that Nastasya Filippovna was a disinterested woman. On the eve of Nastasya Filippovna’s birthday he was almost in a fever, though he skilfully concealed it. It was of these pearls that the general’s wife, Mrs Yepanchina, had heard. True, Yelizaveta Prokofyevna had long experienced her spouse’s fickleness, and was even to some extent accustomed to it; but after all, a case like this could not possibly be overlooked: the rumour of the pearls interested her exceedingly. The general sniffed this out in good time; the previous day certain words had passed between them; he had forebodings of a major confrontation, and was afraid of it. This was why, on the morning where we begin our story, he so dreadfully did not want to go to have breakfastin the bosom of his family. Even before the prince appeared he had decided to plead pressure of business, and thus to avoid it. For the general, avoidance sometimes simply meant running away. He merely wished to get through that day and, especially, that evening, without unpleasantness. And suddenly, so opportunely, the prince had arrived. ‘As though God had sent him!’ the general thought to himself as he went in to his wife.

5
    The general’s wife guarded her lineage jealously. So it may be imagined what she felt upon hearing, directly and without preparation, that this Prince Myshkin, the last in the family, a man of whom she had already heard something, was no more than a pathetic idiot and almost a beggar, and accepting alms because of poverty. For the general had striven for effect, so as to engage her interest at once and somehow deflect it from himself.
    In extreme situations the general’s wife’s eyes usually bulged exceedingly as, with a slight backwards tilt of her body, she looked vaguely ahead of her, not saying a word. She was a tall woman, the same age as her husband, with dark hair that contained much grey, but was still luxuriant, a slightly aquiline nose, and a rather thin look, with hollow, sallow cheeks and sunken lips. Her forehead was high, but narrow; her grey, rather large eyes sometimes had a most startling expression. At one time she had the foible of believing that her gaze was uncommonly effective; this conviction had remained with her, and nothing could efface it.
    ‘Receive him? You say we must receive him, now, this instant?’ And the general’s wife made her eyes bulge with all her might at Ivan Fyodorovich, as he stood fidgeting before her.
    ‘Oh, where that’s concerned you need not stand on any ceremony, if only you will see him, my dear,’ the general hurried to explain. ‘He’s a perfect child, and even a rather pathetic one; he has some kind of morbid fits; he is newly arrived from Switzerland, just off the train, dressed strangely, in a sort of German style, and in addition without a copeck, literally; he is almost in tears. I gave him twenty-five roubles and am going to find him some little clerking job in our office. And you, mesdames, I should like you to give him something to eat and drink, because I think he is hungry, too ...’
    ‘You astonish me,’ the general’s wife continued as before. ‘Hungry and fits ! What kind of fits?’
    “Oh, they don’t occur so often, and moreover he’s almost like a child, though an educated one. I was going to ask you, mesdames,’ he addressed his daughters again, ‘to give him an examination, for it really would be good to know what he is able to do.’
    ‘An ex-am-in-ation?’ the general’s wife said slowly, and in the most profound bewilderment began once more to roll her eyes from her daughters to her