"Yes, for certain; now it's certain; now, in these days, I've learned it quite certainly!"
"But what are you doing to yourself?" Evgeny Pavlovich cried out in alarm. "It means you're marrying out of some sort of fear?
It's impossible to understand anything here . . . Even without loving her, perhaps?"
"Oh, no, I love her with all my soul!
She's ... a child; now she's a child, a complete child!
Oh, you don't know anything!"
"And at the same time you assured Aglaya Ivanovna of your love?"
"Oh, yes, yes!"
"How's that?
So you want to love them both?"
"Oh, yes, yes!"
"Good heavens, Prince, what are you saying? Come to your senses!"
"Without Aglaya I ... I absolutely must see her!
I . . . I'll soon die in my sleep; I thought last night that I was going to die in my sleep.
Oh, if Aglaya knew, knew everything . . . that is, absolutely everything.
Because here you have to know everything, that's the first thing!
Why can we never know everything about another person when it's necessary, when the person is to blame! . . . However, I don't know what I'm saying, I'm confused; you struck me terribly . . . Can she really still have the same face as when she ran out?
Oh, yes, I'm to blame!
Most likely I'm to blame for everything!
I still don't know precisely for what, but I'm to blame . . . There's something in it that I can't explain to you, Evgeny Pavlych, I lack the words, but.. . Aglaya Ivanovna will understand!
Oh, I've always believed she would understand."
"No, Prince, she won't understand!
Aglaya Ivanovna loved as a woman, as a human being, not as ... an abstract spirit.
You know, my poor Prince: most likely you never loved either of them!"
"I don't know. .. maybe, maybe; you're right about many things, Evgeny Pavlych.
You're extremely intelligent, Evgeny Pavlych; ah, my head's beginning to ache again, let's go to her!
For God's sake, for God's sake!"
"I tell you, she's not in Pavlovsk, she's in Kolmino."
"Let's go to Kolmino, let's go now!"
"That is im-pos-sible!" Evgeny Pavlovich drew out, getting up.
"Listen, I'll write a letter; take a letter to her!"
"No, Prince, no!
Spare me such errands, I cannot!"
They parted.
Evgeny Pavlovich left with some strange convictions: and, in his opinion, it came out that the prince was slightly out of his mind.
And what was the meaning of this face that he was afraid of and that he loved so much!
And at the same time he might actually die without Aglaya, so that Aglaya might never know he loved her so much!
Ha, ha!
And what was this about loving two women?
With two different loves of some sort?
That's interesting . . . the poor idiot!
And what will become of him now?
X
The prince, however, did not die before his wedding, either awake or "in his sleep," as he had predicted to Evgeny Pavlovich.
He may indeed have slept poorly and had bad dreams, but in the daytime, with people, he seemed kind and even content, only sometimes very pensive, but that was when he was alone.
They were hurrying the wedding; it was to take place about a week after Evgeny Pavlovich's call.
Given such haste, even the prince's best friends, if he had any, were bound to be disappointed in their efforts to "save" the unfortunate madcap.
There was a rumor that General Ivan Fyodorovich and his wife Lizaveta Prokofyevna were partly responsible for Evgeny Pavlovich's visit.
But even if the two of them, in the immeasurable goodness of their hearts, might have wanted to save the pathetic madman from the abyss, they had, of course, to limit themselves to this one feeble attempt; neither their position, nor even, perhaps, the disposition of their hearts (as was natural) could correspond to more serious efforts.
We have mentioned that even those around the prince partly rose up against him.