Page 758 - the-idiot

she too had burst into an irrepressible, and almost hysteri-
cal, fit of mirth. At length she jumped up, and ran out of
the room.
‘I knew it was all a joke!’ cried Adelaida. ‘I felt it ever
since—since the hedgehog.’
‘No, no! I cannot allow this,—this is a little too much,’
cried Lizabetha Prokofievna, exploding with rage, and she
rose from her seat and followed Aglaya out of the room as
quickly as she could.
The two sisters hurriedly went after her.
The prince and the general were the only two persons left
in the room.
‘It’s—it’s really—now could you have imagined anything
like it, Lef Nicolaievitch?’ cried the general. He was evident-
ly so much agitated that he hardly knew what he wished to
say. ‘Seriously now, seriously I mean—‘
‘I only see that Aglaya Ivanovna is laughing at me,’ said
the poor prince, sadly.
‘Wait a bit, my boy, I’ll just go—you stay here, you know.
But do just explain, if you can, Lef Nicolaievitch, how in the
world has all this come about? And what does it all mean?
You must understand, my dear fellow; I am a father, you see,
and I ought to be allowed to understand the matter—do ex-
plain, I beg you!’
‘I love Aglaya Ivanovna—she knows it,—and I think she
must have long known it.’
The general shrugged his shoulders.
‘Strange—it’s strange,’ he said, ‘and you love her very
much?’