ns
everything and everybody he can lay hold of to ridicule. You should hear
the things he says sometimes, apparently in perfect seriousness."

"In my opinion the conversation has been a painful one throughout, and
we ought never to have begun it," said Alexandra. "We were all going for
a walk--"

"Come along then," said Evgenie; "it's a glorious evening. But, to prove
that this time I was speaking absolutely seriously, and especially
to prove this to the prince (for you, prince, have interested me
exceedingly, and I swear to you that I am not quite such an ass as
I like to appear sometimes, although I am rather an ass, I admit),
and--well, ladies and gentlemen, will you allow me to put just one more
question to the prince, out of pure curiosity? It shall be the last.
This question came into my mind a couple of hours since (you see,
prince, I do think seriously at times), and I made my own decision upon
it; now I wish to hear what the prince will say to it."

"We have just used the expression 'accidental case.' This is a
significant phrase; we often hear it. Well, not long since everyone was
talking and reading about that terrible murder of six people on the part
of a--young fellow, and of the extraordinary speech of the counsel for
the defence, who observed that in the poverty-stricken condition of the
criminal it must have come NATURALLY into his head to kill these six
people. I do not quote his words, but that is the sense of them, or
something very like it. Now, in my opinion, the barrister who put
forward this extraordinary plea was probably absolutely convinced that
he was stating the most liberal, the most humane, the most enlightened
view of the case that could possibly be brought forward in these days.
Now, was this distortion, this capacity for a perverted way of viewing
things, a special or accidental case, or is such a general rule?"

Everyone laughed at this.

"A special case--accidental, of course!" cried Alexandra and Adelaida.

"Let me remind you once more, Evgenie," said Prince S., "that your joke
is getting a little threadbare."

"What do you think about it, prince?" asked Evgenie, taking no notice
of the last remark, and observing Muishkin's serious eyes fixed upon his
face. "What do you think--was it a special or a usual case--the rule, or
an exception? I confess I put the question especially for you."

"No, I don't think it was a special case," said the prince, quietly, but
firmly.

"My de