Page 116 - the-idiot

‘Oh, but it is absolutely necessary for me,’ Gania entreat-
ed. ‘Believe me, if it were not so, I would not ask you; how
else am I to get it to her? It is most important, dreadfully
important!’
Gania was evidently much alarmed at the idea that the
prince would not consent to take his note, and he looked at
him now with an expression of absolute entreaty.
‘Well, I will take it then.’
‘But mind, nobody is to see!’ cried the delighted Gania
‘And of course I may rely on your word of honour, eh?’
‘I won’t show it to anyone,’ said the prince.
‘The letter is not sealed—‘ continued Gania, and paused
in confusion.
‘Oh, I won’t read it,’ said the prince, quite simply.
He took up the portrait, and went out of the room.
Gania, left alone, clutched his head with his hands.
‘One word from her,’ he said, ‘one word from her, and I
may yet be free.’
He could not settle himself to his papers again, for agi-
tation and excitement, but began walking up and down the
room from corner to corner.
The prince walked along, musing. He did not like his
commission, and disliked the idea of Gania sending a note
to Aglaya at all; but when he was two rooms distant from
the drawing-room, where they all were, he stopped a though
recalling something; went to the window, nearer the light,
and began to examine the portrait in his hand.
He longed to solve the mystery of something in the face
Nastasia Philipovna, something which had struck him as

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