"Good Heavens! what misery! But no, I haven't a grandmother like that."
"Well, if you haven't why do you sit at home? . . ."
"Listen, do you want to know the sort of man I am?"
"Yes, yes!"
"In the strict sense of the word?"
"In the very strictest sense of the word."
"Very well, I am a type!"
"Type, type! What sort of type?" cried the girl, laughing, as though she had not had a chance of laughing for a whole year. "Yes, it's very amusing talking to you. Look, here's a seat, let us sit down. No one is passing here, no one will hear us, and—begin your history. For it's no good your telling me, I know you have a history; only you are concealing it. To begin with, what is a type?"
"A type? A type is an original, it's an absurd person!" I said, infected by her childish laughter. "It's a character. Listen; do you know what is meant by a dreamer?"
"A dreamer! Indeed I should think I do know. I am a dreamer myself. Sometimes, as I sit by grandmother, all sorts of things come into my head. Why, when one begins dreaming one lets one's fancy run away with one—why, I marry a Chinese Prince! . . . Though sometimes it is a good thing to dream! But, goodness knows! Especially when one has something to think of apart from dreams," added the girl, this time rather seriously.
"Excellent! If you have been married to a Chinese Emperor, you will quite understand me. Come, listen. . . . But one minute, I don't know your name yet."
"At last! You have been in no hurry to think of it!"
"Oh, my goodness! It never entered my head, I felt quite happy as it was. . . ."
"My name is Nastenka."
"Nastenka! And nothing else?"
"Nothing else! Why, is not that enough for you, you insatiable person?"
14
