Page 366 - the-idiot

for the life of him understand how to reconcile the beauti-
ful, sincere, pure nature of the girl with the irony of this jest.
That it was a jest there was no doubt whatever; he knew that
well enough, and had good reason, too, for his conviction;
for during her recitation of the ballad Aglaya had deliber-
ately changed the letters A. N. B. into N. P. B. He was quite
sure she had not done this by accident, and that his ears had
not deceived him. At all events her performance—which
was a joke, of course, if rather a crude one,—was premed-
itated. They had evidently talked (and laughed) over the
‘poor knight’ for more than a month.
Yet Aglaya had brought out these letters N. P. B. not only
without the slightest appearance of irony, or even any par-
ticular accentuation, but with so even and unbroken an
appearance of seriousness that assuredly anyone might have
supposed that these initials were the original ones written
in the ballad. The thing made an uncomfortable impression
upon the prince. Of course Mrs. Epanchin saw nothing ei-
ther in the change of initials or in the insinuation embodied
therein. General Epanchin only knew that there was a reci-
tation of verses going on, and took no further interest in the
matter. Of the rest of the audience, many had understood
the allusion and wondered both at the daring of the lady
and at the motive underlying it, but tried to show no sign
of their feelings. But Evgenie Pavlovitch (as the prince was
ready to wager) both comprehended and tried his best to
show that he comprehended; his smile was too mocking to
leave any doubt on that point.
‘How beautiful that is!’ cried Mrs. Epanchin, with sin-