Page 528 - the-idiot

champagne! That was an interesting item of news, at all
events!— Twelve bottles! Dear me, that’s a very respectable
little stock indeed! I bet anything Lebedeff lent somebody
money on deposit of this dozen of champagne. Hum! he’s
a nice fellow, is this prince! I like this sort of man. Well, I
needn’t be wasting time here, and if it’s a case of champagne,
why—there’s no time like the present!’
That the prince was almost in a fever was no more than
the truth. He wandered about the park for a long while, and
at last came to himself in a lonely avenue. He was vague-
ly conscious that he had already paced this particular
walk—from that large, dark tree to the bench at the oth-
er end—about a hundred yards altogether—at least thirty
times backwards and forwards.
As to recollecting what he had been thinking of all that
time, he could not. He caught himself, however, indulging
in one thought which made him roar with laughter, though
there was nothing really to laugh at in it; but he felt that he
must laugh, and go on laughing.
It struck him that the idea of the duel might not have
occurred to Keller alone, but that his lesson in the art of
pistol-loading might have been not altogether acciden-
tal! ‘Pooh! nonsense!’ he said to himself, struck by another
thought, of a sudden. ‘Why, she was immensely surprised
to find me there on the verandah, and laughed and talk-
ed about TEA! And yet she had this little note in her hand,
therefore she must have known that I was sitting there. So
why was she surprised? Ha, ha, ha!’
He pulled the note out and kissed it; then paused and