Page 785 - the-idiot

when he had nearly reached Ptitsin’s door. However, he
there luckily met Colia, and commissioned him to deliv-
er the letter to his brother as if direct from Aglaya. Colia
asked no questions but simply delivered it, and Gania con-
sequently had no suspicion that it had passed through so
many hands.
Arrived home again, the prince sent for Vera Lebedeff
and told her as much as was necessary, in order to relieve
her mind, for she had been in a dreadful state of anxiety
since she had missed the letter. She heard with horror that
her father had taken it. Muishkin learned from her that
she had on several occasions performed secret missions
both for Aglaya and for Rogojin, without, however, having
had the slightest idea that in so doing she might injure the
prince in any way.
The latter, with one thing and another, was now so dis-
turbed and confused, that when, a couple of hours or so
later, a message came from Colia that the general was ill, he
could hardly take the news in.
However, when he did master the fact, it acted upon him
as a tonic by completely distracting his attention. He went
at once to Nina Alexandrovna’s, whither the general had
been carried, and stayed there until the evening. He could
do no good, but there are people whom to have near one is
a blessing at such times. Colia was in an almost hysterical
state; he cried continuously, but was running about all day,
all the same; fetching doctors, of whom he collected three;
going to the chemist’s, and so on.
The general was brought round to some extent, but the

The Idiot