Incidentally—ha, ha, ha!
I forgot to ask: is my impression right, that you like Nastasya Filippovna a bit too much, eh?"
"Yes ... I like her." * He who laughs last laughs best.
"In love?"
"N-no!"
"But he turns all red and suffers.
Well, all right, all right, I won't laugh. Good-bye.
And, you know, she's a virtuous woman, can you believe that?
You think she lives with that one, with Totsky?
No, no!
Not for a long time.
And did you notice that she's terribly awkward and was even abashed for a few moments today?
Really.
There's the kind that loves domination.
Well, good-bye!"
Ganechka went out much more casually than he came in, and in good spirits.
For about ten minutes the prince remained motionless and pondered.
Kolya again stuck his head in at the door.
"I don't want any dinner, Kolya. I had a good lunch at the Epanchins'."
Kolya came all the way in the door and handed the prince a note.
It was from the general, folded and sealed.
By Kolya's face it could be seen that it was painful for him to deliver it.
The prince read it, got up, and took his hat.
"It's two steps from here," Kolya became embarrassed.
"He's sitting there now over a bottle.
How he got them to give him credit I can't understand.
Prince, dear heart, please don't tell them later that I brought you the note!
I've sworn a thousand times not to do it, but I feel sorry for him. Oh, and please don't be ceremonious with him: give him a little something, and there's an end to it."
"I had a thought myself, Kolya. I need to see your father ... on a certain matter . . . Let's go . . ."
XII
Kolya led the prince not far away, to Liteinaya, to a cafe and billiard parlor on the ground floor, with an entrance from the street.
There, to the right, in the corner, in a private little room, Ardalion Alexandrovich had settled like an old-time habitue, a bottle on the table in front of him and, in fact, with the Independence Belge in his hands.
He was expecting the prince. As soon as he saw him, he put the newspaper aside and began an ardent and verbose explanation, of which, however, the prince understood almost nothing, because the general was already nearly loaded.
"I haven't got ten roubles," the prince interrupted, "but here's twenty-five, have it broken for you and give me back fifteen, otherwise I'll be left without a penny myself."
"Oh, no question; and rest assured that this very hour . . ."
"Besides, I have something to ask you, General.
Have you ever been to Nastasya Filippovna's?"
"I?
Have I ever been?
You say this to me?
Several times, my dear, several times!" the general cried in a fit of self-satisfied and triumphant irony. "But I finally stopped it myself, because I did not wish to encourage an improper union.
You saw it yourself, you were a witness this afternoon: I've done everything a father could do—but a meek and indulgent father; now a father of a different sort will come onstage, and then—we shall see whether the honored old soldier will gain the upper hand in this intrigue, or a shameless adventuress will get into the noblest of families."
"But I precisely wanted to ask you whether, as an acquaintance, you might not get me into Nastasya Filippovna's this evening?
I absolutely must be there tonight; I have business; but I have no idea how to get in.
I was introduced to her today, but all the same I wasn't invited: she's giving a party this evening.
I'm prepared to overlook certain proprieties, however, and they can even laugh at me, if only I get in somehow."
"And you've hit squarely, squarely upon my own idea, my young friend," the general exclaimed rapturously. "I didn't summon you for a trifle!" he went on, picking up the money, however, and dispatching it into his pocket. "I summoned you precisely to invite you to accompany me on the march to Nastasya Filippovna, or, better, on the march against Nastasya Filippovna!
General Ivolgin and Prince Myshkin!
How will that seem to her!
And I, in the guise of birthday courtesies, will finally pronounce my will—in a roundabout way, not directly, but it will be as if directly.