Page 500 - the-idiot

unaffected mirth, and without giving any explanation.
The sisters, who also appeared to be in high spirits, never
tired of glancing at Aglaya and the prince, who were walk-
ing in front. It was evident that their younger sister was a
thorough puzzle to them both.
Prince S. tried hard to get up a conversation with Mrs.
Epanchin upon outside subjects, probably with the good in-
tention of distracting and amusing her; but he bored her
dreadfully. She was absent-minded to a degree, and an-
swered at cross purposes, and sometimes not at all.
But the puzzle and mystery of Aglaya was not yet over for
the evening. The last exhibition fell to the lot of the prince
alone. When they had proceeded some hundred paces or so
from the house, Aglaya said to her obstinately silent cavalier
in a quick halfwhisper:
‘Look to the right!’
The prince glanced in the direction indicated.
‘Look closer. Do you see that bench, in the park there,
just by those three big trees—that green bench?’
The prince replied that he saw it.
‘Do you like the position of it? Sometimes of a morning
early, at seven o’clock, when all the rest are still asleep, I
come out and sit there alone.’
The prince muttered that the spot was a lovely one.
‘Now, go away, I don’t wish to have your arm any longer;
or perhaps, better, continue to give me your arm, and walk
along beside me, but don’t speak a word to me. I wish to
think by myself.’
The warning was certainly unnecessary; for the prince