Page 224 - the-idiot

There were a few seconds of dead silence.
The prince tried to speak, but could not form his words;
a great weight seemed to lie upon his breast and suffocate
him.
‘N-no! don’t marry him!’ he whispered at last, drawing
his breath with an effort.
‘So be it, then. Gavrila Ardalionovitch,’ she spoke sol-
emnly and forcibly, ‘you hear the prince’s decision? Take
it as my decision; and let that be the end of the matter for
good and all.’
‘Nastasia Philipovna!’ cried Totski, in a quaking voice.
‘Nastasia Philipovna!’ said the general, in persuasive but
agitated tones.
Everyone in the room fidgeted in their places, and wait-
ed to see what was coming next.
‘Well, gentlemen!’ she continued, gazing around in ap-
parent astonishment; ‘what do you all look so alarmed
about? Why are you so upset?’
‘But—recollect, Nastasia Philipovna.’ stammered Totski,
‘you gave a promise, quite a free one, and—and you might
have spared us this. I am confused and bewildered, I know;
but, in a word, at such a moment, and before company, and
all so-so-irregular, finishing off a game with a serious mat-
ter like this, a matter of honour, and of heart, and—‘
‘I don’t follow you, Afanasy Ivanovitch; you are losing
your head. In the first place, what do you mean by ‘before
company’? Isn’t the company good enough for you? And
what’s all that about ‘a game’? I wished to tell my little story,
and I told it! Don’t you like it? You heard what I said to the