ever could have indulged the whim of entering an honest family like his.
I saw his mother--and kissed her hand, too. I came and stirred up all
that fuss, Gania, this afternoon, on purpose to see how much you could
swallow--you surprised me, my friend--you did, indeed. Surely you could
not marry a woman who accepts pearls like those you knew the general was
going to give me, on the very eve of her marriage? And Rogojin! Why, in
your own house and before your own brother and sister, he bargained with
me! Yet you could come here and expect to be betrothed to me before you
left the house! You almost brought your sister, too. Surely what Rogojin
said about you is not really true: that you would crawl all the way to
the other end of the town, on hands and knees, for three roubles?"

"Yes, he would!" said Rogojin, quietly, but with an air of absolute
conviction.

"H'm! and he receives a good salary, I'm told. Well, what should you get
but disgrace and misery if you took a wife you hated into your family
(for I know very well that you do hate me)? No, no! I believe now that a
man like you would murder anyone for money--sharpen a razor and come
up behind his best friend and cut his throat like a sheep--I've read
of such people. Everyone seems money-mad nowadays. No, no! I may be
shameless, but you are far worse. I don't say a word about that other--"

"Nastasia Philipovna, is this really you? You, once so refined and
delicate of speech. Oh, what a tongue! What dreadful things you are
saying," cried the general, wringing his hands in real grief.

"I am intoxicated, general. I am having a day out, you know--it's my
birthday! I have long looked forward to this happy occasion. Daria
Alexeyevna, you see that nosegay-man, that Monsieur aux Camelias,
sitting there laughing at us?"

"I am not laughing, Nastasia Philipovna; I am only listening with all my
attention," said Totski, with dignity.

"Well, why have I worried him, for five years, and never let him go
free? Is he worth it? He is only just what he ought to be--nothing
particular. He thinks I am to blame, too. He gave me my education, kept
me like a countess. Money--my word! What a lot of money he spent over
me! And he tried to find me an honest husband first, and then this
Gania, here. And what do you think? All these five years I did not
live with him, and yet I took his money, and considered I was quite
justified.

"You say, take the hundred thousand and kick that man