Page 510 - the-idiot

good time, I see! Plain clothes! Well done, sly rogue! Non-
sense! I see—you knew it all before—I dare say you knew all
about it yesterday-”
Although the impudence of this attack, this public
proclamation of intimacy, as it were, was doubtless premed-
itated, and had its special object, yet Evgenie Pavlovitch at
first seemed to intend to make no show of observing either
his tormentor or her words. But Nastasia’s communication
struck him with the force of a thunderclap. On hearing of
his uncle’s death he suddenly grew as white as a sheet, and
turned towards his informant.
At this moment, Lizabetha Prokofievna rose swiftly from
her seat, beckoned her companions, and left the place al-
most at a run.
Only the prince stopped behind for a moment, as though
in indecision; and Evgenie Pavlovitch lingered too, for he
had not collected his scattered wits. But the Epanchins had
not had time to get more than twenty paces away when a
scandalous episode occurred. The young officer, Evgenie
Pavlovitch’s friend who had been conversing with Aglaya,
said aloud in a great state of indignation:
‘She ought to be whipped—that’s the only way to deal
with creatures like that—she ought to be whipped!’
This gentleman was a confidant of Evgenie’s, and had
doubtless heard of the carriage episode.
Nastasia turned to him. Her eyes flashed; she rushed
up to a young man standing near, whom she did not know
in the least, but who happened to have in his hand a thin
cane. Seizing this from him, she brought it with all her force

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