laughing at her. Get rid of that idea, I really do respect her,
for she's better than any of us.' And, do you know, he said it in such a
serious tone. Meanwhile, he hadn't really said a word to her for two or
three months, except 'good morning' and 'good-bye.' I remember, for I
was there, that she came at last to the point of looking on him almost
as her betrothed who dared not 'elope with her,' simply because he had
many enemies and family difficulties, or something of the sort.
There was a great deal of laughter about it. It ended in Nikolay
Vsyevolodovitch's making provision for her when he had to come here, and
I believe he arranged to pay a considerable sum, three hundred roubles a
year, if not more, as a pension for her. In short it was all a caprice,
a fancy of a man prematurely weary on his side, perhaps--it may even
have been, as Kirillov says, a new experiment of a blase man, with
the object of finding out what you can bring a crazy cripple to." (You
picked out on purpose, he said, the lowest creature, a cripple, for ever
covered with disgrace and blows, knowing, too, that this creature was
dying of comic love for you, and set to work to mystify her completely
on purpose, simply to see what would come of it.) "Though, how is a man
so particularly to blame for the fancies of a crazy woman, to whom
he had hardly uttered two sentences the whole time. There are things,
Varvara Petrovna, of which it is not only impossible to speak sensibly,
but it's even nonsensical to begin speaking of them at all. Well,
eccentricity then, let it stand at that. Anyway, there's nothing worse
to be said than that; and yet now they've made this scandal out of it.
... I am to some extent aware, Varvara Petrovna, of what is happening
here."

The speaker suddenly broke off and was turning to Lebyadkin. But Varvara
Petrovna checked him. She was in a state of extreme exaltation.

"Have you finished?" she asked.

"Not yet; to complete my story I should have to ask this gentleman one
or two questions if you'll allow me... you'll see the point in a minute,
Varvara Petrovna."

"Enough, afterwards, leave it for the moment I beg you. Oh, I was quite
right to let you speak!"

"And note this, Varvara Petrovna," Pyotr Stepanovitch said hastily.
"Could Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch have explained all this just now in
answer to your question, which was perhaps too peremptory?"

"Oh, yes, it was."

"And wasn't I right in saying that in some cases i