at he
might be mad.

"He's not mad, but one of those shallow-minded people," he mumbled
listlessly. "_Ces gens-la supposent la nature et la societe humaine
autres que Dieu ne les a faites et qu'elles ne sont reellement._ People
try to make up to them, but Stepan Verhovensky does not, anyway. I saw
them that time in Petersburg _avec cette chere amie_ (oh, how I used to
wound her then), and I wasn't afraid of their abuse or even of their
praise. I'm not afraid now either. _Mais parlons d'autre chose...._
I believe I have done dreadful things. Only fancy, I sent a letter
yesterday to Darya Pavlovna and... how I curse myself for it!"

"What did you write about?"

"Oh, my friend, believe me, it was all done in a noble spirit. I let
her know that I had written to Nicolas five days before, also in a noble
spirit."

"I understand now!" I cried with heat. "And what right had you to couple
their names like that?"

"But, _mon cher,_ don't crush me completely, don't shout at me; as it is
I'm utterly squashed like... a black-beetle. And, after all, I thought
it was all so honourable. Suppose that something really happened...
_en Suisse_...or was beginning. I was bound to question their hearts
beforehand that I..._enfin,_ that I might not constrain their hearts,
and be a stumbling-block in their paths. I acted simply from honourable
feeling."

"Oh, heavens! What a stupid thing you've done!" I cried involuntarily.

"Yes, yes," he assented with positive eagerness. "You have never said
anything more just, _c'etait bete, mais que faire? Tout est dit._ I shall
marry her just the same even if it be to cover 'another's sins.' So
there was no object in writing, was there?"

"You're at that idea again!"

"Oh, you won't frighten me with your shouts now. You see a different
Stepan Verhovensky before you now. The man I was is buried. _Enfin,
tout est dit._ And why do you cry out? Simply because you're not getting
married, and you won't have to wear a certain decoration on your head.
Does that shock you again? My poor friend, you don't know woman, while
I have done nothing but study her. 'If you want to conquer the world,
conquer yourself'--the one good thing that another romantic like you, my
bride's brother, Shatov, has succeeded in saying. I would gladly borrow
from him his phrase. Well, here I am ready to conquer myself, and I'm
getting married. And what am I conquering by way of the whole world?
Oh, my friend, marriage is the mor