Page 869 - the-idiot

can come in, you know. Why do you look so amazed? I often
meet him; I’ve seen him at least four times, here at Pavlofsk,
within the last week.’
‘I haven’t seen him once—since that day!’ the prince
murmured.
As Nastasia Philipovna had not said a word about having
met Rogojin since ‘that day,’ the prince concluded that the
latter had his own reasons for wishing to keep out of sight.
All the day of the funeral our hero, was in a deeply thought-
ful state, while Nastasia Philipovna was particularly merry,
both in the daytime and in the evening.
Colia had made it up with the prince before his father’s
death, and it was he who urged him to make use of Keller
and Burdovsky, promising to answer himself for the for-
mer’s behaviour. Nina Alexandrovna and Lebedeff tried to
persuade him to have the wedding in St. Petersburg, instead
of in the public fashion contemplated, down here at Pav-
lofsk in the height of the season. But the prince only said
that Nastasia Philipovna desired to have it so, though he
saw well enough what prompted their arguments.
The next day Keller came to visit the prince. He was in
a high state of delight with the post of honour assigned to
him at the wedding.
Before entering he stopped on the threshold, raised his
hand as if making a solemn vow, and cried:
‘I won’t drink!’
Then he went up to the prince, seized both his hands,
shook them warmly, and declared that he had at first felt
hostile towards the project of this marriage, and had openly

The Idiot