Page 358 - the-idiot

ter!’
‘I am very glad,’ said the prince.
‘He has been very ill,’ added Varia.
‘How has he changed for the better?’ asked Mrs. Ep-
anchin. ‘I don’t see any change for the better! What’s better
in him? Where did you get THAT idea from? WHAT’S bet-
ter?’
‘There’s nothing better than the ‘poor knight’!’ said Colia,
who was standing near the last speaker’s chair.
‘I quite agree with you there!’ said Prince S., laughing.
‘So do I,’ said Adelaida, solemnly.
‘WHAT poor knight?’ asked Mrs. Epanchin, looking
round at the face of each of the speakers in turn. Seeing,
however, that Aglaya was blushing, she added, angrily:
‘What nonsense you are all talking! What do you mean
by poor knight?’
‘It’s not the first time this urchin, your favourite, has
shown his impudence by twisting other people’s words,’
said Aglaya, haughtily.
Every time that Aglaya showed temper (and this was very
often), there was so much childish pouting, such ‘school-
girlishness,’ as it were, in her apparent wrath, that it was
impossible to avoid smiling at her, to her own unutterable
indignation. On these occasions she would say, ‘How can
they, how DARE they laugh at me?’
This time everyone laughed at her, her sisters, Prince S.,
Prince Muishkin (though he himself had flushed for some
reason), and Colia. Aglaya was dreadfully indignant, and
looked twice as pretty in her wrath.