Page 808 - the-idiot

ably have made up his mind to lead the prince quietly out of
the room, on the plea of his being ill (and it was more than
likely that the general was right in his belief that the prince
WAS actually ill), but it so happened that destiny had some-
thing different in store.
At the beginning of the evening, when the prince first
came into the room, he had sat down as far as possible from
the Chinese vase which Aglaya had spoken of the day be-
fore.
Will it be believed that, after Aglaya’s alarming words, an
ineradicable conviction had taken possession of his mind
that, however he might try to avoid this vase next day, he
must certainly break it? But so it was.
During the evening other impressions began to awaken
in his mind, as we have seen, and he forgot his presentiment.
But when Pavlicheff was mentioned and the general intro-
duced him to Ivan Petrovitch, he had changed his place,
and went over nearer to the table; when, it so happened, he
took the chair nearest to the beautiful vase, which stood on
a pedestal behind him, just about on a level with his elbow.
As he spoke his last words he had risen suddenly from
his seat with a wave of his arm, and there was a general cry
of horror.
The huge vase swayed backwards and forwards; it seemed
to be uncertain whether or no to topple over on to the head
of one of the old men, but eventually determined to go the
other way, and came crashing over towards the German
poet, who darted out of the way in terror.
The crash, the cry, the sight of the fragments of valuable

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