Page 773 - the-idiot

itch, who was to escort the princess, was the only young
man.
Muishkin was told of the princess’s visit three days be-
forehand, but nothing was said to him about the party until
the night before it was to take place.
He could not help observing the excited and agitated
condition of all members of the family, and from certain
hints dropped in conversation he gathered that they were
all anxious as to the impression he should make upon the
princess. But the Epanchins, one and all, believed that
Muishkin, in his simplicity of mind, was quite incapable of
realizing that they could be feeling any anxiety on his ac-
count, and for this reason they all looked at him with dread
and uneasiness.
In point of fact, he did attach marvellously little im-
portance to the approaching event. He was occupied with
altogether different thoughts. Aglaya was growing hour-
ly more capricious and gloomy, and this distressed him.
When they told him that Evgenie Pavlovitch was expected,
he evinced great delight, and said that he had long wished
to see him—and somehow these words did not please any-
one.
Aglaya left the room in a fit of irritation, and it was not
until late in the evening, past eleven, when the prince was
taking his departure, that she said a word or two to him,
privately, as she accompanied him as far as the front door.
‘I should like you,’ she said, ‘not to come here tomorrow
until evening, when the guests are all assembled. You know
there are to be guests, don’t you?’

The Idiot