Page 863 - the-idiot

up, you know. Neither of them kept to the real point, you
see. I could never explain what I mean to you, but I think I
could to Aglaya. Oh! my God, my God! You spoke just now
of Aglaya’s face at the moment when she ran away. Oh, my
God! I remember it! Come along, come along— quick!’ He
pulled at Evgenie’s coat-sleeve nervously and excitedly, and
rose from his chair.
‘Where to?’
‘Come to Aglaya—quick, quick!’
‘But I told you she is not at Pavlofsk. And what would be
the use if she were?’
‘Oh, she’ll understand, she’ll understand!’ cried the
prince, clasping his hands. ‘She would understand that all
this is not the point—not a bit the real point—it is quite for-
eign to the real question.’
‘How can it be foreign? You ARE going to be married, are
you not? Very well, then you are persisting in your course.
ARE you going to marry her or not?’
‘Yes, I shall marry her—yes.’
‘Then why is it ‘not the point’?’
‘Oh, no, it is not the point, not a bit. It makes no differ-
ence, my marrying her—it means nothing.’
‘How ‘means nothing’? You are talking nonsense, my
friend. You are marrying the woman you love in order to
secure her happiness, and Aglaya sees and knows it. How
can you say that it’s ‘not the point’?’
‘Her happiness? Oh, no! I am only marrying her—well,
because she wished it. It means nothing—it’s all the same.
She would certainly have died. I see now that that marriage

The Idiot