Page 825 - the-idiot

words ‘as usual,’ and again in her added, ‘mine, at all events,’
there seemed an ominous knell of some evil to come.
The prince began to think of Aglaya. She had certainly
given him a wonderful smile, both at coming and again at
leave-taking, but had not said a word, not even when the
others all professed their friendship for him. She had looked
very intently at him, but that was all. Her face had been pal-
er than usual; she looked as though she had slept badly.
The prince made up his mind that he would make a point
of going there ‘as usual,’ tonight, and looked feverishly at
his watch.
Vera came in three minutes after the Epanchins had left.
‘Lef Nicolaievitch,’ she said, ‘Aglaya Ivanovna has just given
me a message for you.’
The prince trembled.
‘Is it a note?’
‘No, a verbal message; she had hardly time even for that.
She begs you earnestly not to go out of the house for a single
moment all to-day, until seven o’clock in the evening. It may
have been nine; I didn’t quite hear.’
‘But—but, why is this? What does it mean?’
‘I don’t know at all; but she said I was to tell you particu-
larly.’
‘Did she say that?’
‘Not those very words. She only just had time to whis-
per as she went by; but by the way she looked at me I knew
it was important. She looked at me in a way that made my
heart stop beating.’
The prince asked a few more questions, and though he

The Idiot