Page 516 - the-idiot

news.
Little by little the family gathered together upstairs in
Lizabetha Prokofievna’s apartments, and Prince Muishkin
found himself alone on the verandah when he arrived. He
settled himself in a corner and sat waiting, though he knew
not what he expected. It never struck him that he had better
go away, with all this disturbance in the house. He seemed
to have forgotten all the world, and to be ready to sit on
where he was for years on end. From upstairs he caught
sounds of excited conversation every now and then.
He could not say how long he sat there. It grew late and
became quite dark.
Suddenly Aglaya entered the verandah. She seemed to be
quite calm, though a little pale.
Observing the prince, whom she evidently did not
expect to see there, alone in the corner, she smiled, and ap-
proached him:
‘What are you doing there?’ she asked.
The prince muttered something, blushed, and jumped
up; but Aglaya immediately sat down beside him; so he re-
seated himself.
She looked suddenly, but attentively into his face, then
at the window, as though thinking of something else, and
then again at him.
‘Perhaps she wants to laugh at me,’ thought the prince,
‘but no; for if she did she certainly would do so.’
‘Would you like some tea? I’ll order some,’ she said, after
a minute or two of silence.
‘N-no thanks, I don’t know—‘

1