Page 891 - the-idiot

have been expected to be with him in Pavlofsk.
He satisfied their curiosity, in as few words as possible,
with regard to the wedding, but their exclamations and
sighs were so numerous and sincere that he was obliged to
tell the whole story— in a short form, of course. The advice
of all these agitated ladies was that the prince should go at
once and knock at Rogojin’s until he was let in: and when
let in insist upon a substantial explanation of everything. If
Rogojin was really not at home, the prince was advised to
go to a certain house, the address of which was given, where
lived a German lady, a friend of Nastasia Philipovna’s. It
was possible that she might have spent the night there in her
anxiety to conceal herself.
The prince rose from his seat in a condition of men-
tal collapse. The good ladies reported afterwards that ‘his
pallor was terrible to see, and his legs seemed to give way
underneath him.’ With difficulty he was made to under-
stand that his new friends would be glad of his address, in
order to act with him if possible. After a moment’s thought
he gave the address of the small hotel, on the stairs of which
he had had a fit some five weeks since. He then set off once
more for Rogojin’s.
This time they neither opened the door at Rogojin’s flat
nor at the one opposite. The prince found the porter with
difficulty, but when found, the man would hardly look at
him or answer his questions, pretending to be busy. Even-
tually, however, he was persuaded to reply so far as to state
that Rogojin had left the house early in the morning and
gone to Pavlofsk, and that he would not return today at all.

0 The Idiot