Page 877 - the-idiot

seen her face when she had caught him starting off for
the Epanchins’ house on several occasions. When the Ep-
anchins left Pavlofsk, she had beamed with radiance and
happiness. Unsuspicious and unobservant as he was, he had
feared at that time that Nastasia might have some scheme
in her mind for a scene or scandal which would drive Agla-
ya out of Pavlofsk. She had encouraged the rumours and
excitement among the inhabitants of the place as to her
marriage with the prince, in order to annoy her rival; and,
finding it difficult to meet the Epanchins anywhere, she had,
on one occasion, taken him for a drive past their house. He
did not observe what was happening until they were almost
passing the windows, when it was too late to do anything.
He said nothing, but for two days afterwards he was ill.
Nastasia did not try that particular experiment again. A
few days before that fixed for the wedding, she grew grave
and thoughtful. She always ended by getting the better of
her melancholy, and becoming merry and cheerful again,
but not quite so unaffectedly happy as she had been some
days earlier.
The prince redoubled his attentive study of her symp-
toms. It was a most curious circumstance, in his opinion,
that she never spoke of Rogojin. But once, about five days
before the wedding, when the prince was at home, a mes-
senger arrived begging him to come at once, as Nastasia
Philipovna was very ill.
He had found her in a condition approaching to abso-
lute madness. She screamed, and trembled, and cried out
that Rogojin was hiding out there in the garden—that she

The Idiot