“Thank God, I have got mother away, and put her to bed without another scene! Gania is worried⁠—and ashamed⁠—not without reason! What a spectacle! I have come to thank you once more, prince, and to ask you if you knew Nastasia Philipovna before?”

“No, I have never known her.”

“Then what did you mean, when you said straight out to her that she was not really ‘like that’? You guessed right, I fancy. It is quite possible she was not herself at the moment, though I cannot fathom her meaning. Evidently she meant to hurt and insult us. I have heard curious tales about her before now, but if she came to invite us to her house, why did she behave so to my mother? Ptitsin knows her very well; he says he could not understand her today. With Rogojin, too! No one with a spark of self-respect could have talked like that in the house of her⁠ ⁠… Mother is extremely vexed on your account, too⁠ ⁠…”

“That is nothing!” said the prince, waving his hand.

“But how meek she was when you spoke to her!”