"Hush! hush! Gavrila Ardalionovitch!" cried Muishkin in dismay, but it was too late.
"I said, and I have repeated it over and over again," shouted Burdovsky furiously, "that I did not want the money. I will not take itwhyI will notI am going away!"
He was rushing hurriedly from the terrace, when Lebedeff's nephew seized his arms, and said something to him in a low voice. Burdovsky turned quickly, and drawing an addressed but unsealed envelope from his pocket, he threw it down on a little table beside the prince.
"There's the money!How dare you?The money!"
"Those are the two hundred and fifty roubles you dared to send him as a charity, by the hands of Tchebaroff," explained Doktorenko.
"The article in the newspaper put it at fifty!" cried Colia.
"I beg your pardon," said the prince, going up to Burdovsky. "I have done you a great wrong, but I did not send you that money as a charity, believe me. And now I am again to blame. I offended you just now." (The prince was much distressed; he seemed worn out with fatigue, and spoke almost incoherently.) "I spoke of swindlingbut I did not apply that to you. I was deceived . I said you wereafflictedlike me But you are not like meyou give lessonsyou support your mother. I said you had dishonoured your mother, but you love her. She says so herselfI did not knowGavrila Ardalionovitch did not tell me thatForgive me! I dared to offer you ten thousand roubles, but I was wrong. I ought to have done it differently, and nowthere is no way of doing it, for you despise me"
"I declare, this is a lunatic asylum!" cried Lizabetha Prokofievna.
"Of course it is a lunatic asylum!" repeated Aglaya sharply, but her words were overpowered by other voices. Everybody was talking loudly, making remarks and comments; some discussed the affair gravely, others laughed. Ivan Fedorovitch Epanchin was extremely indignant. He stood waiting for his wife with an air of offended dignity. Lebedeff's nephew took up the word again.
"Well, prince, to do you justice, you certainly know how to make the most of yourlet us call it infirmity, for the sake of politeness; you have set about offering your money and friendship in such a way that no selfrespecting man could possibly accept them. This is an excess of ingenuousness or of maliceyou ought to know better than anyone which word best fits the case."
"Allow me, gentlemen," said Gavrila Ardalionovitch, who had just examined the contents of the envelope, "there are only a hundred roubles here, not two hundred and fifty. I point this out, prince, to prevent misunderstanding."
"Never mind, never mind," said the prince, signing to him to keep quiet.
"But we do mind," said Lebedeff's nephew vehemently. "Prince, your 'never mind' is an insult to us. We have nothing to hide; our actions can bear daylight. It is true that there are only a hundred roubles instead of two hundred and fifty, but it is all the same."
"Why, no, it is hardly the same," remarked Gavrila Ardalionovitch, with an air of ingenuous surprise.
"Don't interrupt, we are not such fools as you think, Mr. Lawyer," cried Lebedeff's nephew angrily. "Of course there is a difference between a hundred roubles and two hundred and fifty, but in this case the principle is the main point, and that a hundred and fifty roubles are missing is only a side issue. The point to be emphasized is that Burdovsky will not accept your highness's charity; he flings it back in your face, and it scarcely matters if there are a hundred roubles or two hundred and fifty. Burdovsky has refused ten thousand roubles; you heard him. He would not have returned even a hundred roubles if he was dishonest! The hundred and fifty roubles were paid to Tchebaroff for his travelling expenses. You may jeer at our stupidity and at our inexperience in business matters; you have done all you could already to make us look ridiculous; but do not dare to call us dishonest. The four of us will club together every day to repay the hundred and fifty roubles to the prince, if we have to pay it in instalments of a rouble at a time, but we will repay it, with interest. Burdovsky is poor, he has no millions. After his journey to see the prince Tchebaroff sent in his bill. We counted on winningWho would not have done the same in such a case?"
"Who indeed?" exclaimed Prince S.
"I shall certainly go mad, if I stay here!" cried Lizabetha Prokofievna.
"It reminds me," said Evgenie Pavlovitch, laughing, "of the famous plea of a certain lawyer who lately defended a man for murdering six people in order to rob them. He excused his client on the score of poverty. 'It is quite natural,' he said in conclusion, 'considering the state of misery he was in, that he should have thought of murdering these six people; which of you, gentlemen, would not have done the same in his place?'"
"Enough," cried Lizabetha Prokofievna abruptly, trembling with anger, "we have had enough of this balderdash!"
In a state of terrible excitement she threw back her head, with flaming eyes, casting looks of contempt and defiance upon the whole company, in which she could no longer distinguish friend from foe. She had restrained herself so long that she felt forced to vent her rage on somebody. Those who knew Lizabetha Prokofievna saw at once how it was with her. "She flies into these rages sometimes," said Ivan Fedorovitch to Prince S. the next day, "but she is not often so violent as she was yesterday; it does not happen more than once in three years."