Page 152 - the-idiot

both women, before shaking hands, exchanged looks of
strange import. Nastasia, however, smiled amiably; but
Varia did not try to look amiable, and kept her gloomy ex-
pression. She did not even vouchsafe the usual courteous
smile of etiquette. Gania darted a terrible glance of wrath
at her for this, but Nina Alexandrovna, mended matters a
little when Gania introduced her at last. Hardly, however,
had the old lady begun about her ‘ highly gratified feelings,’
and so on, when Nastasia left her, and flounced into a chair
by Gania’s side in the corner by the window, and cried:
‘Where’s your study? and where are the—the lodgers? You
do take in lodgers, don’t you?’
Gania looked dreadfully put out, and tried to say some-
thing in reply, but Nastasia interrupted him:
‘Why, where are you going to squeeze lodgers in here?
Don’t you use a study? Does this sort of thing pay?’ she add-
ed, turning to Nina Alexandrovna.
‘Well, it is troublesome, rather,’ said the latter; ‘but I
suppose it will ‘pay’ pretty well. We have only just begun,
however—‘
Again Nastasia Philipovna did not hear the sentence out.
She glanced at Gania, and cried, laughing, ‘What a face! My
goodness, what a face you have on at this moment!’
Indeed, Gania did not look in the least like himself. His
bewilderment and his alarmed perplexity passed off, how-
ever, and his lips now twitched with rage as he continued
to stare evilly at his laughing guest, while his countenance
became absolutely livid.
There was another witness, who, though standing at the

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