Page 121 - the-idiot

from Switzerland on purpose for me. Maybe you will have
other things to do, besides, but you are sent chiefly for my
sake, I feel sure of it. God sent you to me! Au revoir! Alex-
andra, come with me, my dear.’
Mrs. Epanchin left the room.
Gania—confused, annoyed, furious—took up his por-
trait, and turned to the prince with a nasty smile on his
face.
‘Prince,’ he said, ‘I am just going home. If you have not
changed your mind as to living with us, perhaps you would
like to come with me. You don’t know the address, I be-
lieve?’
‘Wait a minute, prince,’ said Aglaya, suddenly rising
from her seat, ‘do write something in my album first, will
you? Father says you are a most talented caligraphist; I’ll
bring you my book in a minute.’ She left the room.
‘Well, au revoir, prince,’ said Adelaida, ‘I must be going
too.’ She pressed the prince’s hand warmly, and gave him a
friendly smile as she left the room. She did not so much as
look at Gania.
‘This is your doing, prince,’ said Gania, turning on the
latter so soon as the others were all out of the room. ‘This
is your doing, sir! YOU have been telling them that I am
going to be married!’ He said this in a hurried whisper, his
eyes flashing with rage and his face ablaze. ‘You shameless
tattler!’
‘I assure you, you are under a delusion,’ said the prince,
calmly and politely. ‘I did not even know that you were to
be married.’

1 0 The Idiot