Lizaveta Prokofyevna can be of great use to you; you bear her name. If she doesn’t wish to, there’s nothing for it, some other time perhaps. And you, Ganya, look through these accounts meantime; Fedoseyev and I have been struggling with them. You mustn’t forget to include them.”
The general went out, and so Myshkin did not succeed in telling him about the business which he had four times essayed to speak of in vain. Ganya lighted a cigarette and offered one to Myshkin. The latter accepted it, but refrained from conversation for fear of interrupting him. He began looking about the study. But Ganya scarcely glanced at the sheet covered with figures, which the general had indicated to him. He was preoccupied; his smile, his expression, his thoughtfulness weighed on Myshkin even more when they were left alone. All at once Ganya approached Myshkin, who was at that moment standing before the portrait of Nastasya Filippovna, gazing at it.
“So you admire a woman like that, prince?” he asked him suddenly, looking searchingly at him and as though with some peculiar intention.
“It’s a wonderful face,” he answered, “and I feel sure her story is not an ordinary one. The face is cheerful, but she has passed through terrible suffering, hasn’t she? Her eyes tell one that, the cheek bones, those points under her eyes. It’s a proud face, awfully proud, but I don’t know whether she is kindhearted. Ah, if she were! That would redeem it all!”
“And would you marry such a woman?” Ganya went on, his feverish eyes fixed upon him.
“I can’t marry any one, I am an invalid,” said Myshkin.
“And would Rogozhin marry her? What do you think?”
“Marry her! He might tomorrow; I dare say he’d marry her and in a week perhaps murder her.”
He had no sooner uttered this than Ganya shuddered so violently that Myshkin almost cried out.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, seizing his hand.
“Your excellency! His excellency begs you to come to her excellency,” the footman announced, appearing at the door.
Myshkin followed the footman.
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