Page 750 - the-idiot

ful things to the prince that he laughed no more, but grew
dreadfully pale, especially when she said that she should
not remain in the house with him, and that he ought to be
ashamed of coming to their house at all, especially at night,
‘AFTER ALL THAT HAD HAPPENED.’
So saying, she had left the room, banging the door after
her, and the prince went off, looking as though he were on
his way to a funeral, in spite of all their attempts at conso-
lation.
Suddenly, a quarter of an hour after the prince’s depar-
ture, Aglaya had rushed out of her room in such a hurry
that she had not even wiped her eyes, which were full of
tears. She came back because Colia had brought a hedge-
hog. Everybody came in to see the hedgehog. In answer to
their questions Colia explained that the hedgehog was not
his, and that he had left another boy, Kostia Lebedeff, wait-
ing for him outside. Kostia was too shy to come in, because
he was carrying a hatchet; they had bought the hedgehog
and the hatchet from a peasant whom they had met on the
road. He had offered to sell them the hedgehog, and they
had paid fifty copecks for it; and the hatchet had so taken
their fancy that they had made up their minds to buy it of
their own accord. On hearing this, Aglaya urged Colia to
sell her the hedgehog; she even called him ‘dear Colia,’ in
trying to coax him. He refused for a long time, but at last
he could hold out no more, and went to fetch Kostia Lebe-
deff. The latter appeared, carrying his hatchet, and covered
with confusion. Then it came out that the hedgehog was not
theirs, but the property of a schoolmate, one Petroff, who