"And what shall I tell him by way of answer?"
"Nothingof course! That's the best answer. Is it the case that you are going to live in his house?"
"Yes, your father kindly recommended me to him."
"Then look out for him, I warn you! He won't forgive you easily, for taking back the letter."
Aglaya pressed the prince's hand and left the room. Her face was serious and frowning; she did not even smile as she nodded goodbye to him at the door.
"I'll just get my parcel and we'll go," said the prince to Gania, as he reentered the drawingroom. Gania stamped his foot with impatience. His face looked dark and gloomy with rage.
At last they left the house behind them, the prince carrying his bundle.
At last they left the house behind them, the prince carrying his bundle.
"The answerquickthe answer!" said Gania, the instant they were outside. "What did she say? Did you give the letter?" The prince silently held out the note. Gania was struck motionless with amazement.
"How, what? my letter?" he cried. "He never delivered it! I might have guessed it, oh! curse him! Of course she did not understand what I meant, naturally! Whywhywhy didn't you give her the note, you"
"Excuse me; I was able to deliver it almost immediately after receiving your commission, and I gave it, too, just as you asked me to. It has come into my hands now because Aglaya Ivanovna has just returned it to me."
"How? When?"
"As soon as I finished writing in her album for her, and when she asked me to come out of the room with her (you heard?), we went into the diningroom, and she gave me your letter to read, and then told me to return it."
"To read?" cried Gania, almost at the top of his voice; "to read, and you read it?"
And again he stood like a log in the middle of the pavement; so amazed that his mouth remained open after the last word had left it.
"Yes, I have just read it."
"And she gave it you to read herselfherself?"
"Yes, herself; and you may believe me when I tell you that I would not have read it for anything without her permission."
Gania was silent for a minute or two, as though thinking out some problem. Suddenly he cried:
"It's impossible, she cannot have given it to you to read! You are lying. You read it yourself!"
"I am telling you the truth," said the prince in his former composed tone of voice; "and believe me, I am extremely sorry that the circumstance should have made such an unpleasant impression upon you!"
"But, you wretched man, at least she must have said something? There must be some answer from her!"
"Yes, of course, she did say something!"
"Out with it then, damn it! Out with it at once!" and Gania stamped his foot twice on the pavement.
"As soon as I had finished reading it, she told me that you were fishing for her; that you wished to compromise her so far as to receive some hopes from her, trusting to which hopes you might break with the prospect of receiving a hundred thousand roubles. She said that if you had done this without bargaining with her, if you had broken with the money prospects without trying to force a guarantee out of her first, she might have been your friend. That's all, I think. Oh no, when I asked her what I was to say, as I took the letter, she replied that 'no answer is the best answer.' I think that was it. Forgive me if I do not use her exact expressions. I tell you the sense as I understood it myself."
Ungovernable rage and madness took entire possession of Gania, and his fury burst out without the least attempt at restraint.
"Oh! that's it, is it!" he yelled. "She throws my letters out of the window, does she! Oh! and she does not condescend to bargain, while I do, eh? We shall see, we shall see! I shall pay her out for this."
He twisted himself about with rage, and grew paler and paler; he shook his fist. So the pair walked along a few steps. Gania did not stand on ceremony with the prince; he behaved just as though he were alone in his room. He clearly counted the latter as a nonentity. But suddenly he seemed to have an idea, and recollected himself.
"But how was it?" he asked, "how was it that you (idiot that you are)," he added to himself, "were so very confidential a couple of hours after your first meeting with these people? How was that, eh?"
Up to this moment jealousy had not been one of his torments; now it suddenly gnawed at his heart.
"That is a thing I cannot undertake to explain," replied the prince. Gania looked at him with angry contempt.
"Oh! I suppose the present she wished to make to you, when she took you into the diningroom, was her confidence, eh?"
"I suppose that was it; I cannot explain it otherwise?"
"But why, why? Devil take it, what did you do in there? Why did they fancy you? Look here, can't you remember exactly what you said to them, from the very beginning? Can't you remember?"
"Oh, we talked of a great many things. When first I went in we began to speak of Switzerland."
"Oh, the devil take Switzerland!"
"Then about executions."
"Executions?"
"Yesat least about one. Then I told the whole three years' story of my life, and the history of a poor peasant girl"