in horror. "You must be
marrying her solely out of FEAR, then! I can't make head or tail of it,
prince. Perhaps you don't even love her?"

"Oh, no; I love her with all my soul. Why, she is a child! She's a child
now--a real child. Oh! you know nothing about it at all, I see."

"And are you assured, at the same time, that you love Aglaya too?"

"Yes--yes--oh; yes!"

"How so? Do you want to make out that you love them BOTH?"

"Yes--yes--both! I do!"

"Excuse me, prince, but think what you are saying! Recollect yourself!"

"Without Aglaya--I--I MUST see Aglaya!--I shall die in my sleep very
soon--I thought I was dying in my sleep last night. Oh! if Aglaya only
knew all--I mean really, REALLY all! Because she must know ALL--that's
the first condition towards understanding. Why cannot we ever know all
about another, especially when that other has been guilty? But I
don't know what I'm talking about--I'm so confused. You pained me so
dreadfully. Surely--surely Aglaya has not the same expression now as
she had at the moment when she ran away? Oh, yes! I am guilty and I
know it--I know it! Probably I am in fault all round--I don't quite know
how--but I am in fault, no doubt. There is something else, but I cannot
explain it to you, Evgenie Pavlovitch. I have no words; but Aglaya will
understand. I have always believed Aglaya will understand--I am assured
she will."

"No, prince, she will not. Aglaya loved like a woman, like a human
being, not like an abstract spirit. Do you know what, my poor prince?
The most probable explanation of the matter is that you never loved
either the one or the other in reality."

"I don't know--perhaps you are right in much that you have said, Evgenie
Pavlovitch. You are very wise, Evgenie Pavlovitch--oh! how my head is
beginning to ache again! Come to her, quick--for God's sake, come!"

"But I tell you she is not in Pavlofsk! She's in Colmina."

"Oh, come to Colmina, then! Come--let us go at once!"

"No--no, impossible!" said Evgenie, rising.

"Look here--I'll write a letter--take a letter for me!"

"No--no, prince; you must forgive me, but I can't undertake any such
commissions! I really can't."

And so they parted.

Evgenie Pavlovitch left the house with strange convictions. He, too,
felt that the prince must be out of his mind.

"And what did he mean by that FACE--a face which he so fears, and yet
so loves? And meanwhile he really may die, as he says, without seeing
Aglaya, a