has offered a large sum of money for the arranged marriage, but Nastasya Filippovna distrusts Ganya's motives and is aware that his family disapproves of her. She deliberately increases the tension in the room by mocking them and behaving insultingly, and when Rogozhin suddenly arrives with a retinue of drunken rogues, she laughingly encourages his inebriated attempts to buy her away from Ganya. When the scene reaches a climax, with Ganya on the point of striking his own sister for spitting in his face, Myshkin defuses the situation by diverting Ganya's violence toward himself. In the stunned aftermath, Nastasya Filippovna maintains, somewhat less assuredly, her sarcastic tone, and Myshkin reproaches her with feeling: "Aren't you ashamed? Surely you are not what you are pretending to be now? It isn't possible!" (p 108). This produces a change, and as Nastasya Filippovna leaves she kisses the hand of Ganya's mother and whispers to her that Myshkin is right. Rogozhin does not notice the gesture, and goes off with his retinue to raise the 100,000 rubles he has offered. The second scene occurs later that evening at Nastasya Filippovna's birthday soirée. In the presence of all the interested parties and a number of other guests (including Myshkin, who has turned up uninvited), she is to announce her decision on the proposed marriage. During the course of the evening a game is played in which each person must recount the story of the worst thing they have ever done. Totsky tells an innocuous anecdote from the distant past, and Nastasya Filippovna becomes angry. She turns to the Prince and asks him whether she should marry Ganya. Myshkin advises her not to, and she immediately announces that she is following this advice. At this point, Rogozhin and his retinue arrive with the 100,000 rubles. Nastasya Filippovna prepares to leave with them, but Myshkin advises her not to go with Rogozhin either, and offers to marry her himself. He speaks gently and sincerely, assuring her that she is pure and not to blame, and that he will love and respect her all his life. She is temporarily stunned as she realizes that Myshkin is the embodiment of her long dreamed-of innocence, but quickly falls back into her destructive persona. She tells Myshkin that she will not be like Totsky and corrupt children, and, after throwing the 100,000 rubles in the fire for Ganya to retrieve if