"Give her up to you?" Darya Alexeevna triumphantly joined in. "See, he dumps money on the table, the boor! The prince is marrying her, and you show up with your outrages!"
"I'll marry her, too! Right now, this minute! I'll give her everything ..."
"Look at him, drunk from the pot-house—you should be thrown out!" Darya Alexeevna repeated indignantly.
More laughter.
"Do you hear, Prince?" Nastasya Filippovna turned to him. "That's how the boor bargains for your bride."
"He's drunk," said the prince. "He loves you very much."
"And won't you be ashamed afterwards that your bride almost went off with Rogozhin?"
"It's because you were in a fever; and you're in a fever now, as if you're delirious."
"And won't it shame you when they tell you afterwards that your wife was Totsky's kept woman?"
"No, it won't. . . You were not with Totsky by your own will."
"And you'll never reproach me?"
"Never."
"Well, watch out, don't vouch for your whole life!"
"Nastasya Filippovna," the prince said quietly and as if with compassion, "I told you just now that I will take your consent as an honor, and that you are doing me an honor, and not I you. You smiled at those words, and I also heard laughter around me. Perhaps I expressed myself in a funny way, and was funny myself, but I still think that I . . . understand what honor is, and I'm sure that what I said was the truth. You were just going to ruin yourself irretrievably, because you would never forgive yourself for that: but you're not guilty of anything. It can't be that your life is already completely ruined. So what if Rogozhin came to you, and Gavrila Ardalionovich wanted to swindle you? Why do you constantly mention that? Very few people are capable of doing what you have done, I repeat it to you, and as for wanting to go off with Rogozhin, you decided that in a fit of illness. You're still in a fit, and it would be better if you went to bed. You'd get yourself hired as a washerwoman tomorrow and not stay with Rogozhin. You're proud, Nastasya Filippovna, but you may be so unhappy that you actually consider yourself guilty. You need much good care, Nastasya Filippovna. I will take care of you. I saw your portrait today, and it was as if I recognized a familiar face. It seemed to me at once as if you had already called me. I ... I shall respect you all my life, Nastasya Filippovna," the prince suddenly concluded, as if coming to his senses, blushing and realizing the sort of people before whom he had said these things.
Ptitsyn even bowed his head out of chastity and looked at the ground. Totsky thought to himself: "He's an idiot, but he knows that flattery succeeds best: it's second nature!" The prince also noticed Ganya's eyes flashing from the corner, as if he wanted to reduce him to ashes.
"What a kind man!" Darya Alexeevna proclaimed tenderheartedly.
"A cultivated man, but a lost one!" the general whispered in a low voice.
Totsky took his hat and prepared to get up and quietly disappear. He and the general exchanged glances so as to leave together.
"Thank you, Prince, no one has ever spoken to me like that," said Nastasya Filippovna. "They all bargained for me, but no decent person ever asked me to marry him. Did you hear, Afanasy Ivanych? How do you like what the prince said? It's almost indecent
. . . Rogozhin! Don't leave yet. And you won't, I can see that. Maybe I'll still go with you. Where did you want to take me?"
"To Ekaterinhof," 45Lebedev reported from the corner, but Rogozhin only gave a start and became all eyes, as if unable to believe himself. He was completely stupefied, like someone who has received a terrible blow on the head.
"Oh, come now, come now, darling! You certainly are in a fit: have you lost your mind?" the frightened Darya Alexeevna roused herself up.
"And you thought it could really be?" Nastasya Filippovna jumped up from the sofa with a loud laugh. "That I could ruin such a baby? That's just the right thing for Afanasy Ivanych: he's the one who loves babies! Let's go, Rogozhin! Get your packet ready! Never mind that you want to marry me, give me the money anyway. Maybe I still won't marry you. You thought, since you want to marry me, you'd get to keep the packet? Ah, no! I'm shameless myself! I was Totsky's concubine . . . Prince! you need Aglaya Epanchin now, not Nastasya Filippovna—otherwise Ferdyshchenko will point the finger at you! You're not afraid, but I'd be afraid to ruin you and have you reproach me afterwards! And as for your declarations that I'd be doing you an honor, Totsky knows all about that. And you, Ganechka, you've missed Aglaya Epanchin; did you know that? If you hadn't bargained with her, she would certainly have married you! That's how you all are: keep company with dishonorable women, or with honorable women— there's only one choice! Otherwise you're sure to get confused . . . Hah, look at the general staring openmouthed . . ."
"It's bedlam, bedlam!" the general repeated, heaving his shoulders. He, too, got up from the sofa; they were all on their feet again. Nastasya Filippovna seemed to be in a frenzy.
"It can't be!" the prince groaned, wringing his hands.
"You think not? Maybe I'm proud myself, even if I am shameless. You just called me perfection; a fine perfection, if just for the sake of boasting that I've trampled on a million and a princely title, I go off to a thieves' den! What kind of wife am I for you after that? Afanasy Ivanych, I've really thrown a million out the window! How could you think I'd consider myself lucky to marry Ganechka and your seventy-five thousand? Keep the seventy-five thousand, Afanasy Ivanych (you didn't even get up to a hundred, Rogozhin outdid you!); as for Ganechka, I'll comfort him myself, I've got an idea. And now I want to carouse, I'm a streetwalker! I sat in prison
for ten years, now comes happiness! What's wrong, Rogozhin? Get ready, let's go!"
"Let's go!" bellowed Rogozhin, nearly beside himself with joy. "Hey, you . . . whoever . . . wine! Ohh! . . ."
"Lay in more wine, I'm going to drink. And will there be music?"
"There will, there will! Keep away!" Rogozhin screamed in frenzy, seeing Darya Alexeevna approaching Nastasya Filippovna. "She's mine! It's all mine! A queen! The end!"
He was breathless with joy; he circled around Nastasya Filippovna and cried out to everyone: "Keep away!" His whole company had already crowded into the drawing room. Some were drinking, others were shouting and guffawing, they were all in a most excited and uninhibited state. Ferdyshchenko began trying to sidle up to them. The general and Totsky made another move to disappear quickly. Ganya also had his hat in his hand, but he stood silently and still seemed unable to tear himself away from the picture that was developing before him.
"Keep away!" cried Rogozhin.
"What are you yelling for?" Nastasya Filippovna laughed loudly at him. "I'm still the mistress here; if I want, I can have you thrown out. I haven't taken your money yet, it's right there; give it to me, the whole packet! So there's a hundred thousand in this packet? Pah, how loathsome! What's wrong, Darya Alexeevna? Should I have ruined him?" (She pointed to the prince.) "How can he get married, he still needs a nursemaid himself; so the general will be his nursemaid—look how he dangles after him! See, Prince, your fiancée took the money because she's dissolute, and you wanted to marry her! Why are you crying? Bitter, is it? No, but laugh, as I do!" Nastasya Filippovna went on, with two big tears glistening on her own cheeks. "Trust in time—everything will pass! Better to change your mind now than later . . . But why are you all crying— here's Katya crying! What's wrong, Katya, dear? I've left a lot to you and Pasha, I've already made the arrangements, and now goodbye! I've made an honest girl like you wait on a dissolute one like me . . . It's better this way, Prince, truly better, you'd start despising me tomorrow, and there'd be no happiness for us! Don't swear, I won't believe you! And it would be so stupid . . . No, better let's part nicely, because I'm a dreamer myself, there'd be no use! As if I haven't dreamed of you myself? You're right about that, I dreamed for a long time, still in the country, where he kept me for five years, completely alone, I used to think and think, dream and dream—