Page 369 - the-idiot

‘But there is no necessity for you to retire at all,’ com-
plained the general, ‘as far as I know.’
‘I want to go and look after my country estates. You ad-
vised me to do that yourself,’ was the reply. ‘And then I wish
to go abroad.’
After a few more expostulations, the conversation drifted
into other channels, but the prince, who had been an atten-
tive listener, thought all this excitement about so small a
matter very curious. ‘There must be more in it than appears,’
he said to himself.
‘I see the ‘poor knight’ has come on the scene again,’ said
Evgenie Pavlovitch, stepping to Aglaya’s side.
To the amazement of the prince, who overheard the
remark, Aglaya looked haughtily and inquiringly at the
questioner, as though she would give him to know, once
for all, that there could be no talk between them about the
‘poor knight,’ and that she did not understand his question.
‘But not now! It is too late to send to town for a Pushkin
now. It is much too late, I say!’ Colia was exclaiming in a
loud voice. ‘I have told you so at least a hundred times.’
‘Yes, it is really much too late to send to town now,’ said
Evgenie Pavlovitch, who had escaped from Aglaya as rapid-
ly as possible. ‘I am sure the shops are shut in Petersburg; it
is past eight o’clock,’ he added, looking at his watch.
‘We have done without him so far,’ interrupted Adelaida
in her turn. ‘Surely we can wait until to-morrow.’
‘Besides,’ said Colia, ‘it is quite unusual, almost improper,
for people in our position to take any interest in literature.
Ask Evgenie Pavlovitch if I am not right. It is much more

The Idiot