Page 908 - the-idiot

and he seemed to have lost the use of them. A new sensa-
tion came over him, filling his heart and soul with infinite
anguish.
Meanwhile the daylight grew full and strong; and at last
the prince lay down, as though overcome by despair, and
laid his face against the white, motionless face of Rogojin.
His tears flowed on to Rogojin’s cheek, though he was per-
haps not aware of them himself.
At all events when, after many hours, the door was
opened and people thronged in, they found the murderer
unconscious and in a raging fever. The prince was sitting
by him, motionless, and each time that the sick man gave
a laugh, or a shout, he hastened to pass his own trembling
hand over his companion’s hair and cheeks, as though
trying to soothe and quiet him. But alas I he understood
nothing of what was said to him, and recognized none of
those who surrounded him.
If Schneider himself had arrived then and seen his for-
mer pupil and patient, remembering the prince’s condition
during the first year in Switzerland, he would have flung up
his hands, despairingly, and cried, as he did then:
‘An idiot!’

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