I wasn't afraid of anything before, but now I'm afraid of everything.
I'm sure to flunk."
"Then keep quiet.
Sit there and keep quiet."
"It won't be possible; I'm sure to start talking from fear and to break the vase from fear.
Maybe I'll trip on the smooth floor, or something else like that will happen, because it's happened before; I'll dream about it all night; why did you speak of it!"
Aglaya gave him a dark look.
"You know what: I'd better not come at all tomorrow!
I'll report myself sick and be done with it!" he decided at last.
Aglaya stamped her foot and even turned pale with wrath.
"Lord!
Have you ever seen the like!
He won't come when it's purposely for him and . . . oh, God!
What a pleasure to deal with such a . . . senseless man as you!"
"Well, I'll come, I'll come!" the prince hastily interrupted. "And I give you my word of honor that I'll sit all evening without saying a word.
That's what I'll do."
"Splendid.
You just said you'd 'report yourself sick.' Where indeed do you get these expressions?
What makes you speak with me in such words?
Are you teasing me or something?"
"I'm sorry; that's also a school phrase; I'll stop.
I realize very well that you're . . . afraid for me . . . (no, don't be angry!), and I'm terribly glad of it.
You won't believe how afraid I am now and— how glad I am of your words.
But all this fear, I swear to you, it's all pettiness and nonsense.
By God, Aglaya!
And the joy will remain.
I like it terribly that you're such a child, such a good and kind child!
Ah, how beautiful you can be, Aglaya!"
Aglaya would of course have become angry, and was just about to, but suddenly some completely unexpected feeling seized her whole soul in an instant.
"And you won't reproach me for these rude words . . . sometime . . . afterwards?" she suddenly asked.
"How can you, how can you!
And why have you blushed again?
And again you have this dark look!
You sometimes have this dark look, Aglaya, which you never had before.
I know why . . ."
"Be quiet, be quiet!"
"No, it's better to say it.
I've long wanted to say it; I already have, but ... it wasn't enough, because you didn't believe me.
Between us a certain being still stands . . ."
"Quiet, quiet, quiet, quiet!" Aglaya suddenly interrupted, seizing him firmly by the hand and looking at him in all but horror.
At that moment someone called her; as if glad of it, she left him and ran off.
The prince was in a fever all night.
Strangely, for several nights in a row he had been in a fever.
This time, in half-delirium, the thought came to him: what if he should have a fit tomorrow in front of everybody?
Had he not had fits in a waking state?
The thought petrified him; all night he imagined himself in some odd and unheard-of company, among some strange people.
The main thing was that he "started talking"; he knew that he should not be talking, yet he talked all the time, trying to convince them of something.
Evgeny Pavlovich and Ippolit were also among the guests and seemed to be on extremely friendly terms.
He woke up past eight o'clock with a headache, with disordered thoughts, with strange impressions.
For some reason he wanted terribly to see Rogozhin, to see him and talk a great deal with him—about what he did not know himself; then he became fully resolved to go for some reason to see Ippolit.