"Pani Agrippina, I have received a mortal insult!" he exclaimed.
But Grushenka suddenly lost all patience, as though they had wounded her in the tenderest spot.
"Speak Russian! Speak Russian!" she cried, "not another word of Polish! You used to talk Russian.You can't have forgotten it in five years."She was red with passion.
"Pani Agrippina-"
"My name's Agrafena, Grushenka, speak Russian or I won't listen!"The Pole gasped with offended dignity, and quickly and pompously delivered himself in broken Russian:
"Pani Agrafena, I came here to forget the past and forgive it, to forget all that has happened till to-day-""Forgive? Came here to forgive me?" Grushenka cut him short, jumping up from her seat.
"Just so, Pani, I'm not pusillanimous, I'm magnanimous.But Iwas astounded when I saw your lovers.Pan Mitya offered me three thousand, in the other room to depart.I spat in the pan's face.""What? He offered you money for me?" cried Grushenka, hysterically."Is it true, Mitya? How dare you? Am I for sale?""Panie, panie!" yelled Mitya, "she's pure and shining, and Ihave never been her lover! That's a lie...""How dare you defend me to him?" shrieked Grushenka."It wasn't virtue kept me pure, and it wasn't that I was afraid of Kuzma, but that I might hold up my head when I met him, and tell him he's a scoundrel.And he did actually refuse the money?""He took it! He took it!" cried Mitya; "only he wanted to get the whole three thousand at once, and I could only give him seven hundred straight off.""I see: he heard I had money, and came here to marry me!""Pani Agrippina!" cried the little Pole."I'm- a knight, I'm- a nobleman, and not a lajdak.I came here to make you my wife and I find you a different woman, perverse and shameless.""Oh, go back where you came from! I'll tell them to turn you out and you'll be turned out," cried Grushenka, furious."I've been a fool, a fool, to have been miserable these five years! And it wasn't for his sake, it was my anger made me miserable.And this isn't he at all! Was he like this? It might be his father! Where did you get your wig from? He was a falcon, but this is a gander.He used to laugh and sing to me....And I've been crying for five years, damned fool, abject, shameless I was!
She sank back in her low chair and hid her face in her hands.At that instant the chorus of Mokroe began singing in the room on the left- a rollicking dance song.
"A regular Sodom!" Vrublevsky roared suddenly."Landlord, send the shameless hussies away!"The landlord, who had been for some time past inquisitively peeping in at the door, hearing shouts and guessing that his guests were quarrelling, at once entered the room.
"What are you shouting for? D'you want to split your throat?" he said, addressing Vrublevsky, with surprising rudeness.
"Animal!" bellowed Pan Vrublevsky.
"Animal? And what sort of cards were you playing with just now?
I gave you a pack and you hid it.You played with marked cards! Icould send you to Siberia for playing with false cards, d'you know that, for it's just the same as false banknotes...
And going up to the sofa he thrust his fingers between the sofa back and the cushion, and pulled out an unopened pack of cards.
"Here's my pack unopened!"
He held it up and showed it to all in the room."From where Istood I saw him slip my pack away, and put his in place of it-you're a cheat and not a gentleman!"
"And I twice saw the pan change a card!" cried Kalganov.
"How shameful! How shameful!" exclaimed Grushenka, clasping her hands, and blushing for genuine shame."Good Lord, he's come to that!""I thought so, too!" said Mitya.But before he had uttered the words, Vrublevsky, with a confused and infuriated face, shook his fist at Grushenka, shouting:
"You low harlot!"
Mitya flew at him at once, clutched him in both hands, lifted him in the air, and in one instant had carried him into the room on the right, from which they had just come.
"I've laid him on the floor, there," he announced, returning at once, gasping with excitement."He's struggling, the scoundrel! But he won't come back, no fear of that!..."He closed one half of the folding doors, and holding the other ajar called out to the little Pole:
"Most illustrious, will you please to retire as well?""My dear Dmitri Fyodorovitch," said Trifon Borissovitch, "make them give you back the money you lost.It's as good as stolen from you.""I don't want my fifty roubles back," Kalgonov declared suddenly.
"I don't want my two hundred, either," cried Mitya, "I wouldn't take it for anything! Let him keep it as a consolation.""Bravo, Mitya! You're a trump, Mitya!" cried Grushenka, and there was a note of fierce anger in the exclamation.
The little pan, crimson with fury but still mindful of his dignity, was making for the door, but he stopped short and said suddenly, addressing Grushenka:
"Pani, if you want to come with me, come.If not, good-bye."And swelling with indignation and importance he went to the door.This was a man of character: he had so good an opinion of himself that after all that had passed, he still expected that she would marry him.Mitya slammed the door after him.
"Lock it," said Kalganov.But the key clicked on the other side, they had locked it from within.
"That's capital!" exclaimed Grushenka relentlessly."Serve them right!"Chapter 8
DeliriumWHAT followed was almost an orgy, a feast to which all were welcome.Grushenka was the first to call for wine.
"I want to drink.I want to be quite drunk, as we were before.
Do you remember, Mitya, do you remember how we made friends here last time!"Mitya himself was almost delirious, feeling that his happiness was at hand.But Grushenka was continually sending him away from her.