Page 322 - the-idiot

some moments, as though he could not make up his mind.
Then he drew him along, murmuring almost inaudibly,
‘Come!’
They stopped on the landing, and rang the bell at a door
opposite to Parfen’s own lodging.
An old woman opened to them and bowed low to Parfen,
who asked her some questions hurriedly, but did not wait
to hear her answer. He led the prince on through several
dark, cold-looking rooms, spotlessly clean, with white cov-
ers over all the furniture.
Without the ceremony of knocking, Parfen entered a
small apartment, furnished like a drawing-room, but with
a polished mahogany partition dividing one half of it from
what was probably a bedroom. In one corner of this room
sat an old woman in an armchair, close to the stove. She
did not look very old, and her face was a pleasant, round
one; but she was white-haired and, as one could detect at
the first glance, quite in her second childhood. She wore a
black woollen dress, with a black handkerchief round her
neck and shoulders, and a white cap with black ribbons. Her
feet were raised on a footstool. Beside her sat another old
woman, also dressed in mourning, and silently knitting a
stocking; this was evidently a companion. They both looked
as though they never broke the silence. The first old wom-
an, so soon as she saw Rogojin and the prince, smiled and
bowed courteously several times, in token of her gratifica-
tion at their visit.
‘Mother,’ said Rogojin, kissing her hand, ‘here is my great
friend, Prince Muishkin; we have exchanged crosses; he

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