Page 761 - the-idiot

you can follow me almost at once. That’s the best way.’
She had almost reached the door when she turned round
again.
‘I shall laugh—I know I shall; I shall die of laughing,’ she
said, lugubriously.
However, she turned and ran down to the prince as fast
as her feet could carry her.
‘Well, what does it all mean? What do you make of it?’
asked the general of his spouse, hurriedly.
‘I hardly dare say,’ said Lizabetha, as hurriedly, ‘but I
think it’s as plain as anything can be.’
‘I think so too, as clear as day; she loves him.’
‘Loves him? She is head over ears in love, that’s what she
is,’ put in Alexandra.
‘Well, God bless her, God bless her, if such is her destiny,’
said Lizabetha, crossing herself devoutly.
‘H’m destiny it is,’ said the general, ‘and there’s no getting
out of destiny.’
With these words they all moved off towards the draw-
ing-room, where another surprise awaited them. Aglaya
had not only not laughed, as she had feared, but had gone to
the prince rather timidly, and said to him:
‘Forgive a silly, horrid, spoilt girl’—(she took his hand
here)— ‘and be quite assured that we all of us esteem you
beyond all words. And if I dared to turn your beautiful, ad-
mirable simplicity to ridicule, forgive me as you would a
little child its mischief. Forgive me all my absurdity of just
now, which, of course, meant nothing, and could not have
the slightest consequence.’ She spoke these words with great

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