“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?”
“Yes—at least about one. Then I told the whole three years’ story of my life, and the history of a poor peasant girl—”
“Oh, damn the peasant girl! go on, go on!” said Gania, impatiently.
“Then how Schneider told me about my childish nature, and—”
“Oh, curse Schneider and his dirty opinions! Go on.”
“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?”
“Oh, there I can give you my fullest assurance that she did not . I was there all the while—she had no time to do it!”
“But perhaps you may not have observed it, oh, you damned idiot, you!” he shouted, quite beside himself with fury. “You can’t even describe what went on.”