The possessed : $b or, The devilsDostoyevsky, Fyodor
General
The possessed : $b or, The devils
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor
Nihilism -- Fiction; Political fiction; Russia -- Social life and customs -- 1533-1917 -- Fiction; Terrorists -- Russia -- Fiction
But from all her explanations and outpourings nothing certain could be
gathered but that there actually had been some sort of quarrel between
Liza and Nikolay, but of the nature of the quarrel Praskovya Ivanovna
was obviously unable to form a definite idea. As for her imputations
against Darya Pavlovna, she not only withdrew them completely in the
end, but even particularly begged Varvara Petrovna to pay no attention
to her words, because "they had been said in irritation." In fact, it
had all been left very far from clear--suspicious, indeed. According to
her account the quarrel had arisen from Liza's "obstinate and ironical
character." "Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch is proud, too, and though he
was very much in love, yet he could not endure sarcasm, and began to be
sarcastic himself. Soon afterwards we made the acquaintance of a
young man, the nephew, I believe, of your 'Professor' and, indeed, the
surname's the same."
"The son, not the nephew," Varvara Petrovna corrected her.
Even in old days Praskovya Ivanovna had been always unable to recall
Stepan Trofimovitch's name, and had always called him the "Professor."
"Well, his son, then; so much the better. Of course, it's all the same
to me. An ordinary young man, very lively and free in his manners, but
nothing special in him. Well, then, Liza herself did wrong, she
made friends with the young man with the idea of making Nikolay
Vsyevolodovitch jealous. I don't see much harm in that; it's the way of
girls, quite usual, even charming in them. Only instead of being jealous
Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch made friends with the young man himself, just as
though he saw nothing and didn't care. This made Liza furious. The young
man soon went away (he was in a great hurry to get somewhere) and
Liza took to picking quarrels with Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch at every
opportunity. She noticed that he used sometimes to talk to Dasha; and,
well, she got in such a frantic state that even my life wasn't worth
living, my dear. The doctors have forbidden my being irritated, and I
was so sick of their lake they make such a fuss about, it simply gave me
toothache, I had such rheumatism. It's stated in print that the Lake of
Geneva does give people the toothache. It's a feature of the place. Then
Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch suddenly got a letter from the countess and he
left us at once. He packed up in one day. They parted in a friendly way,
and Liza became very cheerful and frivolous, and laughed a great deal
seeing him off; only that was all put on. When he had gone she became
very thoughtful, and she gave up speaking of him altogether and wouldn't
let me mention his name. And I should advise you, dear Varvara Petrovna,
not to approach the subject with Liza, you'll only do harm. But if you
hold your tongue she'll begin to talk of it herself, and then you'll
learn more. I believe they'll come together again, if only Nikolay
Vsyevolodovitch doesn't put off coming, as he promised."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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