Page 744 - the-idiot

V

N point of fact, Varia had rather exaggerated the certain-
Ity of her news as to the prince’s betrothal to Aglaya. Very
likely, with the perspicacity of her sex, she gave out as an
accomplished fact what she felt was pretty sure to become a
fact in a few days. Perhaps she could not resist the satisfac-
tion of pouring one last drop of bitterness into her brother
Gania’s cup, in spite of her love for him. At all events, she
had been unable to obtain any definite news from the Ep-
anchin girls—the most she could get out of them being hints
and surmises, and so on. Perhaps Aglaya’s sisters had mere-
ly been pumping Varia for news while pretending to impart
information; or perhaps, again, they had been unable to re-
sist the feminine gratification of teasing a friend—for, after
all this time, they could scarcely have helped divining the
aim of her frequent visits.
On the other hand, the prince, although he had told Leb-
edeff,—as we know, that nothing had happened, and that he
had nothing to impart,—the prince may have been in error.
Something strange seemed to have happened, without any-
thing definite having actually happened. Varia had guessed
that with her true feminine instinct.
How or why it came about that everyone at the Epanchins’
became imbued with one conviction—that something very
important had happened to Aglaya, and that her fate was in