Page 905 - the-idiot

to rise, and led him towards the bed. But the prince could
now walk by himself, so that his fear must have passed; for
all that, however, he continued to shudder.
‘It’s hot weather, you see,’ continued Rogojin, as he lay
down on the cushions beside Muishkin, ‘and, naturally,
there will be a smell. I daren’t open the window. My moth-
er has some beautiful flowers in pots; they have a delicious
scent; I thought of fetching them in, but that old servant
will find out, she’s very inquisitive.
‘Yes, she is inquisitive,’ assented the prince.
‘I thought of buying flowers, and putting them all round
her; but I was afraid it would make us sad to see her with
flowers round her.’
‘Look here,’ said the prince; he was bewildered, and his
brain wandered. He seemed to be continually groping for
the questions he wished to ask, and then losing them. ‘Lis-
ten—tell me—how did you—with a knife?—That same
one?’
‘Yes, that same one.’
‘Wait a minute, I want to ask you something else, Parfen;
all sorts of things; but tell me first, did you intend to kill her
before my wedding, at the church door, with your knife?’
‘I don’t know whether I did or not,’ said Rogojin, drily,
seeming to be a little astonished at the question, and not
quite taking it in.
‘Did you never take your knife to Pavlofsk with you?’ ‘No.
As to the knife,’ he added, ‘this is all I can tell you about
it.’ He was silent for a moment, and then said, ‘I took it out
of the locked drawer this morning about three, for it was

0 The Idiot