made his way up to the second storey. The place was
dark and gloomy-looking; the walls of the stone staircase were painted
a dull red. Rogojin and his mother and brother occupied the whole of
the second floor. The servant who opened the door to Muishkin led him,
without taking his name, through several rooms and up and down many
steps until they arrived at a door, where he knocked.

Parfen Rogojin opened the door himself.

On seeing the prince he became deadly white, and apparently fixed to the
ground, so that he was more like a marble statue than a human being. The
prince had expected some surprise, but Rogojin evidently considered his
visit an impossible and miraculous event. He stared with an expression
almost of terror, and his lips twisted into a bewildered smile.

"Parfen! perhaps my visit is ill-timed. I-I can go away again if you
like," said Muishkin at last, rather embarrassed.

"No, no; it's all right, come in," said Parfen, recollecting himself.

They were evidently on quite familiar terms. In Moscow they had had many
occasions of meeting; indeed, some few of those meetings were but too
vividly impressed upon their memories. They had not met now, however,
for three months.

The deathlike pallor, and a sort of slight convulsion about the lips,
had not left Rogojin's face. Though he welcomed his guest, he was still
obviously much disturbed. As he invited the prince to sit down near the
table, the latter happened to turn towards him, and was startled by the
strange expression on his face. A painful recollection flashed into
his mind. He stood for a time, looking straight at Rogojin, whose eyes
seemed to blaze like fire. At last Rogojin smiled, though he still
looked agitated and shaken.

"What are you staring at me like that for?" he muttered. "Sit down."

The prince took a chair.

"Parfen," he said, "tell me honestly, did you know that I was coming to
Petersburg or no?"

"Oh, I supposed you were coming," the other replied, smiling
sarcastically, "and I was right in my supposition, you see; but how was I
to know that you would come TODAY?"

A certain strangeness and impatience in his manner impressed the prince
very forcibly.

"And if you had known that I was coming today, why be so irritated about
it?" he asked, in quiet surprise.

"Why did you ask me?"

"Because when I jumped out of the train this morning, two eyes glared at
me just as yours did a moment since."

"Ha! and whose eyes may the