Free The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Page B

pancakes that were the favourite of the general’s wife, rissoles and so on, a strong, hot bouillon was even sometimes served. On the morning our narrative begins, the entire household had gathered in the dining room in expectation of the general, who had promised to appear at half-past twelve. If he had been only a minute late, they would have sent for him at once; but he appeared punctually. As he approached his spouse to greet her and kiss her hand, on this occasion he noticed something rather strange in the look on her face. And although the night before he had had a presentiment that this would indeed be so today because of a certain ‘incident’ (as he was in the habit of putting it), and had been worried about it as he dropped off to sleep, yet none the less his nerve failed him now. His daughters came up to him to give him a kiss; here, though they were not angry with him, and here too there was something strange. To be sure, the general, because of certain circumstances, had become excessively suspicious; but as he was an experienced and skilful husband, he at once took measures of his own.

    Perhaps we shall do no great harm to the vividness of our narrative if we pause here and have recourse to a few explanations, in order to establish, in the most straightforward and precise manner, the relations and circumstances that we find in General Yepanchin’s household at the beginning of our tale. We said just now that the general, though not a man of great education, but, on the contrary, as he said of himself, ‘a man self-taught’, was, however, an experienced husband and a skilful father. Among other things, he had adopted the system of not hurrying his daughters into marriage, in other words not ‘worrying the life out of them’ and not troubling them with an excessive paternal love of their happiness, as happens more often than not, involuntarily and naturally, even in the most intelligent families where there is an accumulation of grown-up daughters. He even managed to win Lizaveta Prokofyevna over to his system, though it was on the whole a difficult task - difficult because unnatural; but the general’s arguments were extremely cogent, and were grounded on tangible facts. What was more, left entirely their own will and resolve, the future brides would naturally be constrained to make up their own minds, and then things would start to happen fast, because they would set to work with a will, putting aside their caprices and excessive discrimination; their parents would merely need to keep a more watchful and unobtrusive eye on them, lest any strange choice or unnatural aberration occur, and then, seizing the proper moment, do all that they could to help them and direct the matter with all their influence. Finally, the very fact that with each year that passed their wealth and social standing grew in geometrical progression meant that, the more time went by, the more the daughters gained, even as future brides. But among all these incontrovertible facts yet one more fact emerged: suddenly, and almost quite unexpectedly (as is always the case) the eldest daughter, Alexandra, turned twenty-five. At almost the same time, Afanasy Ivanovich Totsky, a man of the highest society, with the highest connections and extraordinary wealth, again disclosed his long-felt desire to marry. He was a man of about fifty-five, of exquisite character, and with uncommon refinement of taste. He wanted to marry well; he was a great connoisseur of beauty. As for some time he had been on unusually close terms of friendship with General Yepanchin, a friendship strengthened by their mutual participation in certain financial undertakings, he now, as it were, told him about it, requesting friendly advice and guidance: would it or would it not be possible for him to enter into a marriage with one of his daughters? In the quiet and splendid flow of General Yepanchin’s family life an evident upheaval was in the offing.
    The undoubted