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This question he did not once ask himself today; his heart was quite pure. He knew whom he loved. He was not so much afraid of this meeting, nor of its strangeness, nor of any reasons there might be for it, unknown to himself; he was afraid of the woman herself, Nastasia Philipovna.
"So should I, in your place, I've no doubt!" laughed the prince to Ferdishenko; then continued, addressing Nastasia: "Your portrait struck me very forcibly this morning; then I was talking about you to the Epanchins; and then, in the train, before I reached Petersburg, Parfen Rogojin told me a good deal about you; and at the very moment that I opened the door to you I happened to be thinking of you, when there you stood before me!"
Nastasia Philipovna's reply to this long rigmarole astonished both the friends considerably.
"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 matter like this, a matter of honour, and of heart, and "
You used to give lessons, I hear; how is it you do nothing now?" "I am engaged on something," returned Raskolnikoff dryly and half reluctantly. "On what?" "Some work " "What sort of work?" "Thinking," replied he gravely, after a short silence. Nastasia was convulsed.
"Nastasia Philipovna told us all about the earrings that very day. But now it is quite a different matter. You see the fellow really has a million of roubles, and he is passionately in love. The whole story smells of passion, and we all know what this class of gentry is capable of when infatuated. I am much afraid of some disagreeable scandal, I am indeed!"
You must know, Evgenie Pavlovitch, I have never told anyone before not even Aglaya that I cannot bear Nastasia Philipovna's face." I mean her FACE I looked at her face, you see. Even in the morning when I saw her portrait, I felt that I could not BEAR to look at it. Now, there's Vera Lebedeff, for instance, her eyes are quite different, you know. I'm AFRAID of her face!" he added, with real alarm.
"How so? Did he bring the portrait for my husband?" "Only to show it. Nastasia Philipovna gave it to Gavrila Ardalionovitch today, and the latter brought it here to show to the general." "I must see it!" cried Mrs. Epanchin. "Where is the portrait? If she gave it to him, he must have it; and he is still in the study. He never leaves before four o'clock on Wednesdays.
"Then I began to talk about faces, at least about the EXPRESSIONS of faces, and said that Aglaya Ivanovna was nearly as lovely as Nastasia Philipovna. It was then I blurted out about the portrait " "But you didn't repeat what you heard in the study? You didn't repeat that eh?" "No, I tell you I did NOT." "Then how did they look here! Did Aglaya show my letter to the old lady?"
He waited another minute, and decided to go and ring the bell once more; however, he thought better of it again and put it off for an hour. The chief object in his mind at this moment was to get as quickly as he could to Nastasia Philipovna's lodging.
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