et hold of competent witnesses as
to Muishkin's mental incapacity. Then, with the assistance of a few
influential persons, he would soon see the matter arranged.

Lebedeff immediately procured the services of an old doctor, and carried
the latter away to Pavlofsk to see the prince, by way of viewing the
ground, as it were, and to give him (Lebedeff) counsel as to whether
the thing was to be done or not. The visit was not to be official, but
merely friendly.

Muishkin remembered the doctor's visit quite well. He remembered that
Lebedeff had said that he looked ill, and had better see a doctor; and
although the prince scouted the idea, Lebedeff had turned up almost
immediately with his old friend, explaining that they had just met at
the bedside of Hippolyte, who was very ill, and that the doctor had
something to tell the prince about the sick man.

The prince had, of course, at once received him, and had plunged into
a conversation about Hippolyte. He had given the doctor an account of
Hippolyte's attempted suicide; and had proceeded thereafter to talk of
his own malady,--of Switzerland, of Schneider, and so on; and so
deeply was the old man interested by the prince's conversation and his
description of Schneider's system, that he sat on for two hours.

Muishkin gave him excellent cigars to smoke, and Lebedeff, for his part,
regaled him with liqueurs, brought in by Vera, to whom the doctor--a
married man and the father of a family--addressed such compliments that
she was filled with indignation. They parted friends, and, after leaving
the prince, the doctor said to Lebedeff: "If all such people were put
under restraint, there would be no one left for keepers." Lebedeff then,
in tragic tones, told of the approaching marriage, whereupon the other
nodded his head and replied that, after all, marriages like that were
not so rare; that he had heard that the lady was very fascinating and of
extraordinary beauty, which was enough to explain the infatuation of a
wealthy man; that, further, thanks to the liberality of Totski and of
Rogojin, she possessed--so he had heard--not only money, but pearls,
diamonds, shawls, and furniture, and consequently she could not be
considered a bad match. In brief, it seemed to the doctor that the
prince's choice, far from being a sign of foolishness, denoted, on the
contrary, a shrewd, calculating, and practical mind. Lebedeff had been
much struck by this point of view, and he terminated his