This, gentlemen, is a hundred thousand roubles, said Nastasia Philipovna, addressing the company in general, here, in this dirty parcel. This afternoon Rogojin yelled, like a madman, that he would bring me a hundred thousand in the evening, and I have been waiting for him all the while. He was bargaining for me, you know; first he offered me eighteen thousand; then he rose to forty, and then to a hundred thousand. And he has kept his word, see! My goodness, how white he is! All this happened this afternoon, at Ganias. I had gone to pay his mother a visit my future family, you know! And his sister said to my very face, surely somebody will turn this shameless creature out. After which she spat in her brother Ganias face a girl of character, that!
Nastasia Philipovna! began the general, reproachfully. He was beginning to put his own interpretation on the affair.
Well, what, general? Not quite good form, eh? Oh, nonsense! Here have I been sitting in my box at the French theatre for the last five years like a statue of inaccessible virtue, and kept out of the way of all admirers, like a silly little idiot! Now, theres this man, who comes and pays down his hundred thousand on the table, before you all, in spite of my five years of innocence and proud virtue, and I dare be sworn he has his sledge outside waiting to carry me off. He values me at a hundred thousand! I see you are still angry with me, Gania! Why, surely you never really wished to take ME into your family? ME, Rogojins mistress! What did the prince say just now?
I never said you were Rogojins mistress you are NOT! said the prince, in trembling accents.
Nastasia Philipovna, dear soul! cried the actress, impatiently, do be calm, dear! If it annoys you so all this do go away and rest! Of course you would never go with this wretched fellow, in spite of his hundred thousand roubles! Take his money and kick him out of the house; thats the way to treat him and the likes of him! Upon my word, if it were my business, Id soon clear them all out!
The actress was a kind-hearted woman, and highly impressionable. She was very angry now.
Dont be cross, Daria Alexeyevna! laughed Nastasia. I was not angry when I spoke; I wasnt reproaching Gania. I dont know how it was that I 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?
The actress was a kind-hearted woman, and highly impressionable. She was very angry now.
Dont be cross, Daria Alexeyevna! laughed Nastasia. I was not angry when I spoke; I wasnt reproaching Gania. I dont know how it was that I 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.
Hm! and he receives a good salary, Im 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 Ive read of such people. Everyone seems money-mad nowadays. No, no! I may be shameless, but you are far worse. I dont 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 its 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?