at the prince
did not know the game, and Aglaya had beaten him easily; that she had
been in a wonderfully merry mood, and had laughed at the prince, and
chaffed him so unmercifully that one was quite sorry to see his wretched
expression.

She had then asked him to play cards--the game called "little fools."
At this game the tables were turned completely, for the prince had shown
himself a master at it. Aglaya had cheated and changed cards, and stolen
others, in the most bare-faced way, but, in spite of everything the
prince had beaten her hopelessly five times running, and she had been
left "little fool" each time.

Aglaya then lost her temper, and began to say such awful things to the
prince that he laughed no more, but grew dreadfully pale, especially
when she said that she should not remain in the house with him, and that
he ought to be ashamed of coming to their house at all, especially at
night, "AFTER ALL THAT HAD HAPPENED."

So saying, she had left the room, banging the door after her, and the
prince went off, looking as though he were on his way to a funeral, in
spite of all their attempts at consolation.

Suddenly, a quarter of an hour after the prince's departure, Aglaya had
rushed out of her room in such a hurry that she had not even wiped her
eyes, which were full of tears. She came back because Colia had brought
a hedgehog. Everybody came in to see the hedgehog. In answer to their
questions Colia explained that the hedgehog was not his, and that he had
left another boy, Kostia Lebedeff, waiting for him outside. Kostia was
too shy to come in, because he was carrying a hatchet; they had bought
the hedgehog and the hatchet from a peasant whom they had met on the
road. He had offered to sell them the hedgehog, and they had paid fifty
copecks for it; and the hatchet had so taken their fancy that they had
made up their minds to buy it of their own accord. On hearing this,
Aglaya urged Colia to sell her the hedgehog; she even called him "dear
Colia," in trying to coax him. He refused for a long time, but at last
he could hold out no more, and went to fetch Kostia Lebedeff. The latter
appeared, carrying his hatchet, and covered with confusion. Then it came
out that the hedgehog was not theirs, but the property of a schoolmate,
one Petroff, who had given them some money to buy Schlosser's History
for him, from another schoolfellow who at that moment was driven to
raising money by the sale of his books. Colia and