everything.
lf he has a justification,
it is that he does not know
what he is doing.
Gentlemen, they are
ashamed even of
the expression 'love of country'.
You understand, they have annihilated
the very spirit of the words
as something injurious and petty.
And this is the true fact.
But at the same time, such fact
in no country, never ever,
had happened.
l take all that you,
Evgenie Pavlovitch, have said
as a joke.
You have taken some accidental case
and twisted it into a universal law
which is unjust.
Prince,
do you consider
it an accidental case?
l have not seen much
or been very far into the question
but l cannot help thinking that you are
probably
more or less right
You didn't answer me seriously, surely, did you?
Did you ask me the question seriously?
Don't trust him, prince!
Evgenie Pavlovitch
can lay hold of to ridicule.
ln my opinion the conversation has been a painful one,
and we ought never to have begun it
We were all going for a walk
Come along then, it's a glorious evening.
But, to prove that this time
l was speaking absolutely seriously,
will you allow me to put just one more question to the prince?
Well, not long since everyone was talking
of the extraordinary speech of the barrister,
who observed that in the poverty-stricken
condition of the criminal
it must have come naturally
into his head
to kill these six people.
So how is to your mind, prince,
is this distortion, this capacity for a perverted way of viewing the world
a special or accidental case, or is such a general rule?
A special case of accidental of course!
No, l don't think it was a special case.
lf you are capable to see this, prince, how is it that in claim
of Burdovsky, if l'm not mistaken. -Yes, Burdovsky
in claim of Burdovsky you saw nothing distorted or perverted.
lt turned to me entirely...
l'll tell you what, my friend, here are we all sitting here
we are very clever, and meanwhile he has received a letter
from one of them, from the very chief.
-Do you remeber, Alexandra? -Yes, mama.
He begs the prince's pardon.
And Hippolyte has come down here to stay!
What! has he arrived?
l dare swear that you went up to town yesterday
and went down on your knees and begged for his pardon
get the little wretch to do you the great honour of coming to stay
lt seems to me, that you were very foolish to bring him here
he talked so eloquently about the blank wall outside his bedroom
so its sure that without that blank wall he will never be able to die eloquently
and he does so long to die eloquently!
So what?
lf you don't want to forgive him
he will die without you, he has
come down to see a few trees now
Oh, l forgive him with all my heart;
you may tell him so if you like
l don't think you should take it quite like that.
l think it is more a case
of his forgiving you.
What have l done to need his forgiveness?
lf you don't understand, then...
but of course, you do understand that he wished
to bless you
all round
and to have your blessing,
that's all.
My dear prince,
you seem to expect to
find heaven on earth,
Heaven is a difficult thing to find anywhere, prince;
far more difficult than appears
to that good heart of yours.
Stop.
Stop.
Let's go and hear the band, then.
-Strauss.
-Strauss will be played today.
-Yes, today is the eighteen.
-Strauss is charming.
-Evgenie Pavlovitch!
-...Charming and very nice
Evgenie Pavlovitch, be...
be assured that l esteem you
as a generous
and honourable man,
in spite of everything.
Be assured of that
l wouldn't mind betting, prince, that you
did not in the least mean to say that,
and very likely you meant to address someone else altogether.
What is it?
Are you feeling unwell?
Very likely.
Very likely, extremely likely,
and you must be a very close observer to detect
that l did not intend to come up to YOU at all.
And exactly!
What's the matter with him?
Do his fits begin
like that?
No, no, Lizabetha Prokofievna,