it; you are inthe plot with them!”
“No one ever tormented you on the subject,” murmured Adelaida, aghast.
“No one ever thought of such a thing! There has never been a word saidabout it!” cried Alexandra.
“Who has been annoying her? Who has been tormenting the child? Whocould have said such a thing to her? Is she raving?” cried LizabethaProkofievna, trembling with rage, to the company in general.
“Every one of them has been saying it--every one of them--all thesethree days! And I will never, never marry him!”
So saying, Aglaya burst into bitter tears, and, hiding her face in herhandkerchief, sank back into a chair.
“But he has never even--”
“I have never asked you to marry me, Aglaya Ivanovna!” said the prince,of a sudden.
“_What?_” cried Mrs. Epanchin, raising her hands in horror. “_What’s_that?”
She could not believe her ears.
“I meant to say--I only meant to say,” said the prince, faltering,“I merely meant to explain to Aglaya Ivanovna--to have the honour toexplain, as it were--that I had no intention--never had--to ask thehonour of her hand. I assure you I am not guilty, Aglaya Ivanovna, Iam not, indeed. I never did wish to--I never thought of it at all--andnever shall--you’ll see it yourself--you may be quite assured of it.Some wicked person has been maligning me to you; but it’s all right.Don’t worry about it.”
So saying, the prince approached Aglaya.
She took the handkerchief from her face, glanced keenly at him, tookin what he had said, and burst out laughing--such a merry, unrestrainedlaugh, so hearty and gay, that Adelaida could not contain herself. She,too, glanced at the prince’s panic-stricken countenance, then rushed ather sister, threw her arms round her neck, and burst into as merry afit of laughter as Aglaya’s own. They laughed together like a couple ofschool-girls. Hearing and seeing this, the prince smiled happily, and inaccents of relief and joy, he exclaimed “Well, thank God--thank God!”
Alexandra now joined in, and it looked as though the three sisters weregoing to laugh on for ever.
“They are insane,” muttered Lizabetha Prokofievna. “Either they frightenone out of one’s wits, or else--”
But Prince S. was laughing now, too, so was Evgenie Pavlovitch, so wasColia, and so was the prince himself, who caught the infection as helooked round radiantly upon the others.
“Come along, let’s go out for a walk!” cried Adelaida. “We’ll all gotogether, and the prince must absolutely go with us. You needn’t goaway, you dear good fellow! _Isn’t_ he a dear, Aglaya? Isn’t he, mother? Imust really give him a kiss for--for his explanation to Aglaya just now.Mother, dear, I may kiss him, mayn’t I? Aglaya, may I kiss _your_ prince?” cried the young rogue, and sure enough she skipped up to the prince andkissed his forehead.
He seized her hands, and pressed them so hard that Adelaida nearly criedout; he then gazed with delight into her eyes, and raising her righthand to his lips with enthusiasm, kissed it three times.
“Come along,” said Aglaya. “Prince, you must walk with me. May he,mother? This young cavalier, who won’t have me? You said you would _never_have me, didn’t you, prince? No--no, not like that; _that’s_ not the wayto give your arm. Don’t you know how to give your arm to a lady yet?There--so. Now, come along, you and I will lead the way. Would you liketo lead the way with me alone, tête-à-tête?”
She went on talking and chatting without a pause, with occasional littlebursts of laughter between.
“Thank God--thank God!” said Lizabetha Prokofievna to herself, withoutquite knowing why she felt so relieved.
“What extraordinary people they are!” thought Prince S., for perhapsthe hundredth time since he had entered into intimate relations with thefamily; but--he liked these “extraordinary people,” all the same. As forPrince Lef Nicolaievitch himself, Prince S. did not seem quite to likehim, somehow. He was decidedly preoccupied and a little disturbed asthey all started off.
Evgenie Pavlovitch seemed to be in a lively humour. He made Adelaida andAlexandra laugh all the way to the Vauxhall; but they both laughedso very readily and promptly that the worthy Evgenie began at last tosuspect that they were not listening to him at all.
At this idea, he burst out laughing all at once, in quite unaffectedmirth, and without giving any explanation.
The sisters, who also appeared to be in high spirits, never tired ofglancing at Aglaya and the prince, who were walking in front. It wasevident that their younger sister was a thorough puzzle to them both.
Prince S. tried hard to get up a conversation with Mrs. Epanchin uponoutside subjects, probably with the good intention of distracting andamusing her; but he bored her dreadfully. She was absent-minded to adegree, and answered at cross purposes, and sometimes not at all.
But the puzzle and mystery of Aglaya was not yet over for the evening.The last exhibition fell to the lot of the prince alone. When they hadproceeded some hundred paces or so from the house, Aglaya said to herobstinately silent cavalier in a quick half-whisper:
“Look to the right!”
The prince glanced in the direction indicated.
“Look closer. Do you see that bench, in the park there, just by thosethree big trees--that green bench?”
The prince replied that he saw it.
“Do you like the position of it? Sometimes of a morning early, at seveno’clock, when all the rest are still asleep, I come out and sit therealone.”
The prince muttered that the spot was a lovely one.
“Now, go away, I don’t wish to have your arm any longer; or perhaps,better, continue to give me your arm, and walk along beside me, butdon’t speak a word to me. I wish to think by myself.”
The warning was certainly unnecessary; for the prince would not havesaid a word all the rest of the time whether forbidden to speak or not.His heart beat loud and painfully when Aglaya spoke of the bench; couldshe--but no! he banished the thought, after an instant’s deliberation.
At Pavlofsk, on weekdays, the public is more select than it is onSundays and Saturdays, when the townsfolk come down to walk about andenjoy the park.
The ladies dress elegantly, on these days, and it is the fashion togather round the band, which is probably the best of our pleasure-gardenbands, and plays the newest pieces. The behaviour of the public is mostcorrect and proper, and there is an appearance of friendly intimacyamong the usual frequenters. Many come for nothing but to look at theiracquaintances, but there are others who come for the sake of the music.It is very seldom that anything happens to break the harmony of theproceedings, though, of course, accidents will happen everywhere.
On this particular evening the weather was lovely, and there werea large number of people present. All the places anywhere near theorchestra were occupied.
Our friends took chairs near the side exit. The crowd and the musiccheered Mrs. Epanchin a little, and amused the girls; they bowed andshook hands with some of their friends and nodded at a distance toothers; they examined the ladies’ dresses, noticed comicalitiesand eccentricities among the people, and laughed and talked amongthemselves. Evgenie Pavlovitch, too, found plenty of friends to bow to.Several people noticed Aglaya and the prince, who were still together.
Before very long two or three young men had come up, and one or tworemained to talk; all of these young men appeared to be on intimateterms with Evgenie Pavlovitch. Among them was a young officer, aremarkably handsome fellow--very good-natured and a great chatterbox. Hetried to get up a conversation with Aglaya, and did his best to secureher attention. Aglaya behaved very graciously to him, and chattedand laughed merrily. Evgenie Pavlovitch begged the prince’s leave tointroduce their friend to him. The prince hardly realized what waswanted of him, but the introduction came off; the two men bowed andshook hands.
Evgenie Pavlovitch’s friend asked the prince some question, but thelatter did not reply, or if he did, he muttered something so strangelyindistinct that there was nothing to be made of it. The officer staredi
ntently at him, then glanced at Evgenie, divined why the latter hadintroduced him, and gave his undivided attention to Aglaya again. OnlyEvgenie Pavlovitch observed that Aglaya flushed up for a moment at this.
The prince did not notice that others were talking and making themselvesagreeable to Aglaya; in fact, at moments, he almost forgot that he wassitting by her himself. At other moments he felt a longing to go awaysomewhere and be alone with his thoughts, and to feel that no one knewwhere he was.
Or if that were impossible he would like to be alone at home, on theterrace--without either Lebedeff or his children, or anyone else abouthim, and to lie there and think--a day and night and another day again!He thought of the mountains--and especially of a certain spot which heused to frequent, whence he would look down upon the distant valleys andfields, and see the waterfall, far off, like a little silver thread,and the old ruined castle in the distance. Oh! how he longed to be therenow--alone with his thoughts--to think of one thing all his life--onething! A thousand years would not be too much time! And let everyonehere forget him--forget him utterly! How much better it would have beenif they
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