also began to gaze intently at the prince. Kolya appeared from the other room.
"I'm very glad to have met you here, Kolya," the prince turned to him. "Couldn't you help me? I absolutely must be at Nastasya Filippovna's. I asked Ardalion Alexandrovich earlier, but he's fallen asleep. Take me there, because I don't know the streets or the way. I have the address, though: near the Bolshoi Theater, Mrs. Mytovtsev's house."
"Nastasya Filippovna? But she's never lived near the Bolshoi Theater, and my father has never been to Nastasya Filippovna's, if you want to know. It's strange that you expected anything from him. She lives off Vladimirskaya, near the Five Corners, it's much nearer here. Do you want to go now? It's nine-thirty. I'll take you there, if you like."
The prince and Kolya left at once. Alas! The prince had no way to pay for a cab, and they had to go on foot.
"I wanted to introduce you to Ippolit," said Kolya. "He's the oldest son of this jerkined captain's widow and was in the other room; he's unwell and stayed in bed all day today. But he's so strange; he's terribly touchy, and it seemed to me that you might make him ashamed, coming at such a moment . . . I'm not as ashamed as he is, because it's my father, after all, not my mother, there's still a difference, because in such cases the male sex isn't dishonored. Though maybe that's a prejudice about the predominance of the sexes in such cases. Ippolit is a splendid fellow, but he's the slave of certain prejudices."
"You say he has consumption?"
"Yes, I think it would be better if he died sooner. In his place I'd certainly want to die. He feels sorry for his brother and sisters, those little ones. If it was possible, if only we had the money, he and I would rent an apartment and renounce our families. That's our dream. And, you know, when I told him about that incident with you, he even got angry, he says that anyone who ignores a slap and doesn't challenge the man to a duel is a scoundrel. Anyhow, he was terribly irritated, and I stopped arguing with him. So it means that Nastasya Filippovna invited you to her place straight off?"
"The thing is that she didn't."
"How can you be going, then?" Kolya exclaimed and even stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. "And . . . and dressed like that, and to a formal party?"
"By God, I really don't know how I'm going to get in. If they receive me—good; if not—then my business is lost. And as for my clothes, what can I do about that?"
"You have business there? Or is it just so, pour passer le temps*in 'noble society'?"
"No, essentially I . . . that is, I do have business . . . it's hard for me to explain it, but . . ."
"Well, as for what precisely, that can be as you like, but the main thing for me is that you're not simply inviting yourself to a party, to be in the charming company of loose women, generals, and usurers. If that were so, excuse me, Prince, but I'd laugh at you and start despising you. There are terribly few honest people here, so that there's nobody at all to respect. You can't help looking down on them, while they all demand respect—Varya first of all. And have you noticed, Prince, in our age they're all adventurers! And precisely here, in Russia, in our dear fatherland. And how it has all come about, I can't comprehend. It seemed to stand so firmly, and what is it now? Everybody talks and writes about it everywhere. They expose. With us everybody exposes. The parents are the first to retreat and are ashamed themselves at their former morals. There, in Moscow, a father kept telling his son to stop at nothingin getting money; it got into print. 38Look at my general. What's become of him? But, anyhow, you know, it seems to me that my general is an honest man; by God, it's so! All that is just disorder and drink. By God, it's so! It's even a pity; only I'm afraid to say it, because everybody laughs; but by God, it's a pity. And what about them, the smart ones? They're all usurers, every last one. Ippolit justifies usury; he says that's how it has to be, there's economic upheaval, some sort of influxes and refluxes, devil take them. It vexes me terribly to have it come from him, but he's angry. Imagine, his mother, the captain's widow, takes money from the general and then gives him quick loans on interest. It's terribly shameful! And, you know, mother, I mean my mother, Nina Alexandrovna, the general's wife, helps Ippolit with money, clothes, linen, and everything, and sometimes the children, too, through Ippolit, because the woman neglects them. And Varya does the same."
"You see, you say there are no honest and strong people, that there are only usurers; but then strong people turn up, your mother
*To pass the time.
and Varya. Isn't it a sign of moral strength to help here and in such circumstances?"
"Varka does it out of vanity, out of boastfulness, so as not to lag behind her mother. Well, but mama actually ... I respect it. Yes, I respect it and justify it. Even Ippolit feels it, though he's almost totally embittered. At first he made fun of it, called it baseness on my mother's part; but now he's beginning to feel it sometimes. Hm! So you call it strength? I'll make note of that. Ganya doesn't know about it, or he'd call it connivance."
"And Ganya doesn't know? It seems there's still a lot that Ganya doesn't know," escaped the prince, who lapsed into thought.
"You know, Prince, I like you very much. I can't stop thinking about what happened to you today."
"And I like you very much, Kolya."
"Listen, how do you intend to live here? I'll soon find myself work and earn a little something. Let's take an apartment and live together, you, me, and Ippolit, the three of us; and we can invite the general to visit."
"With the greatest pleasure. We'll see, though. Right now I'm very . . . very upset. What? We're there already? In this house . . . what a magnificent entrance! And a doorkeeper! Well, Kolya, I don't know what will come of it."
The prince stood there like a lost man.
"You'll tell me about it tomorrow! Don't be too shy. God grant you success, because I share your convictions in everything! Goodbye. I'll go back now and tell Ippolit about it. And you'll be received, there's no doubt of that, don't worry! She's terribly original. This stairway, second floor, the doorkeeper will show you!"
XIII
The prince was very worried as he went upstairs and tried as hard as he could to encourage himself. "The worst thing," he thought, "will be if they don't receive me and think something bad about me, or perhaps receive me and start laughing in my face . . . Ah, never mind!" And, in fact, it was not very frightening; but the question: "What would he do there and why was he going?"— to this question he was decidedly unable to find a reassuring answer. Even if it should be possible in some way to seize an opportunity and tell Nastasya Filippovna: "Don't marry this man and don't ruin
yourself, he doesn't love you, he loves your money, he told me so himself, and Aglaya Epanchin told me, and I've come to tell you"— it would hardly come out right in all respects. Yet another unresolved question emerged, and such a major one that the prince was even afraid to think about it, could not and dared not even admit it, did not know how to formulate it, and blushed and trembled at the very thought of it. But in the end, despite all these anxieties and doubts, he still went in and asked for Nastasya Filippovna.
Nastasya Filippovna occupied a not very large but indeed magnificently decorated apartment. There had been a time, at the beginning of those five years of her Petersburg life, when Afanasy Ivanovich had been particularly unstinting of money for her; he was then still counting on her love and thought he could seduce her mainly by comfort and luxury, knowing how easily the habits of luxury take root and how hard it is to give them up later, when luxury has gradually turned into necessity. In this case Totsky remained true to