Page 508 - the-idiot

tion to pity—immeasurable pity, and this was the truth. The
sight of the portrait face alone had filled his heart full of
the agony of real sympathy; and this feeling of sympathy,
nay, of actual SUFFERING, for her, had never left his heart
since that hour, and was still in full force. Oh yes, and more
powerful than ever!
But the prince was not satisfied with what he had said to
Rogojin. Only at this moment, when she suddenly made her
appearance before him, did he realize to the full the exact
emotion which she called up in him, and which he had not
described correctly to Rogojin.
And, indeed, there were no words in which he could have
expressed his horror, yes, HORROR, for he was now fully
convinced from his own private knowledge of her, that the
woman was mad.
If, loving a woman above everything in the world, or at
least having a foretaste of the possibility of such love for her,
one were suddenly to behold her on a chain, behind bars
and under the lash of a keeper, one would feel something
like what the poor prince now felt.
‘What’s the matter?’ asked Aglaya, in a whisper, giving
his sleeve a little tug.
He turned his head towards her and glanced at her black
and (for some reason) flashing eyes, tried to smile, and then,
apparently forgetting her in an instant, turned to the right
once more, and continued to watch the startling apparition
before him.
Nastasia Philipovna was at this moment passing the
young ladies’ chairs.

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