Page 273 - the-idiot

she usually did with papers which she wanted to be able to
find easily. She laughed when, about a week later, she hap-
pened to notice the name of the book, and saw that it was
Don Quixote, but it would be difficult to say exactly why.
I cannot say, either, whether she showed the letter to her
sisters.
But when she had read it herself once more, it sudden-
ly struck her that surely that conceited boy, Colia, had not
been the one chosen correspondent of the prince all this
while. She determined to ask him, and did so with an ex-
aggerated show of carelessness. He informed her haughtily
that though he had given the prince his permanent address
when the latter left town, and had offered his services, the
prince had never before given him any commission to per-
form, nor had he written until the following lines arrived,
with Aglaya’s letter. Aglaya took the note, and read it.
‘DEAR COLIA,—Please be so kind as to give the enclosed
sealed letter to Aglaya Ivanovna. Keep well—Ever your lov-
ing, “PR. L. MUISHKIN.’
‘It seems absurd to trust a little pepper-box like you,’ said
Aglaya, as she returned the note, and walked past the ‘pep-
perbox’ with an expression of great contempt.
This was more than Colia could bear. He had actually
borrowed Gania’s new green tie for the occasion, without
saying why he wanted it, in order to impress her. He was
very deeply mortified.
IT was the beginning of June, and for a whole week the
weather in St. Petersburg had been magnificent. The Ep-
anchins had a luxurious country-house at Pavlofsk, [One

The Idiot