In the past he had occasionally been received in very good society, from which he had been definitively excluded only two or three years ago.
It was then that he gave himself over all too unrestrainedly to some of his weaknesses; but he still retained his adroit and pleasant manner.
Nastasya Filippovna, it seemed, was exceedingly delighted by the appearance of Ardalion Alexandrovich, of whom she knew, of course, by hearsay.
"I've heard that this son of mine . . ." Ardalion Alexandrovich began.
"Yes, this son of yours!
And you're a fine one, too, papa dear!
Why don't I ever see you at my place?
What, are you hiding, or is your son hiding you?
You, at least, can come to me without compromising anybody."
"Nineteenth-century children and their parents . . ." the general tried to begin again.
"Nastasya Filippovna!
Please let Ardalion Alexandrovich go for a moment, someone is asking for him," Nina Alexandrovna said loudly.
"Let him go!
Good heavens, I've heard so much, I've wanted to see him for so long!
And what sort of business can he have?
Isn't he retired?
You won't leave me, General, you won't go?"
"I give you my word that he'll come and see you himself, but now he's in need of rest."
"Ardalion Alexandrovich, they say you're in need of rest!" Nastasya Filippovna cried, making a wry and displeased face, like a flighty, foolish little girl whose toy is being taken away.
The general did his best to make his own position all the more foolish.
"My friend!
My friend!" he said reproachfully, turning solemnly to his wife and putting his hand to his heart.
"Won't you leave here, mama?" Varya asked loudly.
"No, Varya, I'll sit it out to the end."
Nastasya Filippovna could not help hearing both the question and the answer, but it seemed to increase her gaiety still more.
She immediately showered the general with questions again, and after five minutes the general was in a most triumphant mood and was oratorizing to the loud laughter of those present.
Kolya pulled the prince's coattail.
"You at least take him away somehow!
Can't you?
Please!"
Tears of indignation even scalded the poor boy's eyes.
"Oh, damn you, Ganka!" he added to himself.
"Ivan Fyodorovich Epanchin and I were actually great friends," the general effused to Nastasya Filippovna's questions.
"He and I, and the late Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin, whose son I embraced today after a twenty-year separation, the three of us were inseparable, a cavalcade, so to speak: Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.32 But, alas, one lies in his grave, struck down by slander and a bullet, another stands before you now and is still fighting against slander and bullets ..."
"Bullets!" cried Nastasya Filippovna.
"They're here, in my breast, received at Kars,33 and in bad weather I feel them.
In all other respects I live like a philosopher, go about, stroll, play checkers in my cafe, like a bourgeois retired from business, and read the Independence.34 But since that story of the lapdog on the train three years ago, my relations with our Porthos, Epanchin, have been definitively terminated."
"A lapdog?
What was that?" Nastasya Filippovna asked with particular curiosity.
"With a lapdog?
And on the train, if you please! . . ." She seemed to be remembering something.
"Oh, a stupid story, not even worth repeating: because of Mrs. Schmidt, Princess Belokonsky's governess, but . . . it's not worth repeating."
"No, you absolutely must tell it!" Nastasya Filippovna exclaimed gaily.
"I haven't heard it either!" observed Ferdyshchenko. "C'est du nouveau"*
"Ardalion Alexandrovich!" Nina Alexandrovna's pleading voice rang out again.
"Papa, somebody's asking for you!" cried Kolya.
"A stupid story, and briefly told," the general began selfcontentedly.
"Two years ago, yes! or a bit less, just when the new -------railway line was opened, I (already in civilian dress), seeing to some extremely important matters to do with handing over my job, bought myself a first-class ticket: I got in, sat down, smoked.
That is, I went on smoking, because I had lit up earlier.
I was alone in the compartment.