to you."

"Prince,", said the general, pressing his hand, and looking at him with
flashing eyes, and an expression as though he were under the influence
of a sudden thought which had come upon him with stunning force.
"Prince, you are so kind, so simple-minded, that sometimes I really
feel sorry for you! I gaze at you with a feeling of real affection. Oh,
Heaven bless you! May your life blossom and fructify in love. Mine is
over. Forgive me, forgive me!"

He left the room quickly, covering his face with his hands.

The prince could not doubt the sincerity of his agitation. He
understood, too, that the old man had left the room intoxicated with his
own success. The general belonged to that class of liars, who, in spite
of their transports of lying, invariably suspect that they are not
believed. On this occasion, when he recovered from his exaltation, he
would probably suspect Muishkin of pitying him, and feel insulted.

"Have I been acting rightly in allowing him to develop such vast
resources of imagination?" the prince asked himself. But his answer was
a fit of violent laughter which lasted ten whole minutes. He tried to
reproach himself for the laughing fit, but eventually concluded that he
needn't do so, since in spite of it he was truly sorry for the old man.
The same evening he received a strange letter, short but decided. The
general informed him that they must part for ever; that he was grateful,
but that even from him he could not accept "signs of sympathy which were
humiliating to the dignity of a man already miserable enough."

When the prince heard that the old man had gone to Nina Alexandrovna,
though, he felt almost easy on his account.

We have seen, however, that the general paid a visit to Lizabetha
Prokofievna and caused trouble there, the final upshot being that he
frightened Mrs. Epanchin, and angered her by bitter hints as to his son
Gania.

He had been turned out in disgrace, eventually, and this was the
cause of his bad night and quarrelsome day, which ended in his sudden
departure into the street in a condition approaching insanity, as
recorded before.

Colia did not understand the position. He tried severity with his
father, as they stood in the street after the latter had cursed the
household, hoping to bring him round that way.

"Well, where are we to go to now, father?" he asked. "You don't want
to go to the prince's; you have quarrelled with Lebedeff; you have no
money; I never ha