“Capital, that’s much better!” cried Lebedeff, and seizing the key he made off in haste.
Colia stopped a moment as though he wished to say something; but Lebedeff dragged him away.
Hippolyte looked around at the laughing guests. The prince observed that his teeth were chattering as though in a violent attack of ague.
“What brutes they all are!” he whispered to the prince. Whenever he addressed him he lowered his voice.
“Let them alone, you’re too weak now—”
“Yes, directly; I’ll go away directly. I’ll—”
Suddenly he embraced Muishkin.
“Perhaps you think I am mad, eh?” he asked him, laughing very strangely.
“No, but you—”
“Directly, directly! Stand still a moment, I wish to look in your eyes; don’t speak—stand so—let me look at you! I am bidding farewell to mankind.”
He stood so for ten seconds, gazing at the prince, motionless, deadly pale, his temples wet with perspiration; he held the prince’s hand in a strange grip, as though afraid to let him go.
“Hippolyte, Hippolyte, what is the matter with you?” cried Muishkin.