Page 339 - the-idiot

again, and stopped as if rooted to the ground by a kind of
paralysis of limb such as attacks people under the stress of
some humiliating recollection.
The doorway was dark and gloomy at any time; but just
at this moment it was rendered doubly so by the fact that
the thunderstorm had just broken, and the rain was coming
down in torrents.
And in the semi-darkness the prince distinguished a
man standing close to the stairs, apparently waiting.
There was nothing particularly significant in the fact
that a man was standing back in the doorway, waiting to
come out or go upstairs; but the prince felt an irresistible
conviction that he knew this man, and that it was Rogojin.
The man moved on up the stairs; a moment later the prince
passed up them, too. His heart froze within him. ‘In a min-
ute or two I shall know all,’ he thought.
The staircase led to the first and second corridors of the
hotel, along which lay the guests’ bedrooms. As is often the
case in Petersburg houses, it was narrow and very dark, and
turned around a massive stone column.
On the first landing, which was as small as the neces-
sary turn of the stairs allowed, there was a niche in the
column, about half a yard wide, and in this niche the prince
felt convinced that a man stood concealed. He thought he
could distinguish a figure standing there. He would pass by
quickly and not look. He took a step forward, but could bear
the uncertainty no longer and turned his head.
The eyes—the same two eyes—met his! The man con-
cealed in the niche had also taken a step forward. For one

The Idiot