He passed under the gateway and into the street. The crowds of people walking about⁠—as is always the case at sunset in Petersburg, during the summer⁠—surprised him, but he walked on in the direction of Rogojin’s house.

About fifty yards from the hotel, at the first crossroad, as he passed through the crowd of foot-passengers sauntering along, someone touched his shoulder, and said in a whisper into his ear:

“Lef Nicolaievitch, my friend, come along with me.” It was Rogojin.

The prince immediately began to tell him, eagerly and joyfully, how he had but the moment before expected to see him in the dark passage of the hotel.