Page 464 - the-idiot

HER!’
‘I’ll swear it by whatever you please.’
‘I believe you. You may kiss me; I breathe freely at last.
But you must know, my dear friend, Aglaya does not love
you, and she shall never be your wife while I am out of my
grave. So be warned in time. Do you hear me?’
‘Yes, I hear.’
The prince flushed up so much that he could not look her
in the face.
‘I have waited for you with the greatest impatience (not
that you were worth it). Every night I have drenched my
pillow with tears, not for you, my friend, not for you, don’t
flatter yourself! I have my own grief, always the same, al-
ways the same. But I’ll tell you why I have been awaiting you
so impatiently, because I believe that Providence itself sent
you to be a friend and a brother to me. I haven’t a friend in
the world except Princess Bielokonski, and she is growing
as stupid as a sheep from old age. Now then, tell me, yes or
no? Do you know why she called out from her carriage the
other night?’
‘I give you my word of honour that I had nothing to do
with the matter and know nothing about it.’
‘Very well, I believe you. I have my own ideas about it. Up
to yesterday morning I thought it was really Evgenie Pav-
lovitch who was to blame; now I cannot help agreeing with
the others. But why he was made such a fool of I cannot un-
derstand. However, he is not going to marry Aglaya, I can
tell you that. He may be a very excellent fellow, but—so it
shall be. I was not at all sure of accepting him before, but