nded off his chair in excitement. Rogojin
drew nearer to the table with a look on his face as if he knew what was
coming. Gania came nearer too; so did Lebedeff and the others--the paper
seemed to be an object of great interest to the company in general.

"What have you got there?" asked the prince, with some anxiety.

"At the first glimpse of the rising sun, prince, I will go to bed. I
told you I would, word of honour! You shall see!" cried Hippolyte.
"You think I'm not capable of opening this packet, do you?" He glared
defiantly round at the audience in general.

The prince observed that he was trembling all over.

"None of us ever thought such a thing!" Muishkin replied for all. "Why
should you suppose it of us? And what are you going to read, Hippolyte?
What is it?"

"Yes, what is it?" asked others. The packet sealed with red wax seemed
to attract everyone, as though it were a magnet.

"I wrote this yesterday, myself, just after I saw you, prince, and told
you I would come down here. I wrote all day and all night, and finished
it this morning early. Afterwards I had a dream."

"Hadn't we better hear it tomorrow?" asked the prince timidly.

"Tomorrow 'there will be no more time!'" laughed Hippolyte,
hysterically. "You needn't be afraid; I shall get through the whole
thing in forty minutes, at most an hour! Look how interested everybody
is! Everybody has drawn near. Look! look at them all staring at my
sealed packet! If I hadn't sealed it up it wouldn't have been half so
effective! Ha, ha! that's mystery, that is! Now then, gentlemen, shall
I break the seal or not? Say the word; it's a mystery, I tell you--a
secret! Prince, you know who said there would be 'no more time'? It was
the great and powerful angel in the Apocalypse."

"Better not read it now," said the prince, putting his hand on the
packet.

"No, don't read it!" cried Evgenie suddenly. He appeared so strangely
disturbed that many of those present could not help wondering.

"Reading? None of your reading now!" said somebody; "it's supper-time."
"What sort of an article is it? For a paper? Probably it's very
dull," said another. But the prince's timid gesture had impressed even
Hippolyte.

"Then I'm not to read it?" he whispered, nervously. "Am I not to read
it?" he repeated, gazing around at each face in turn. "What are you
afraid of, prince?" he turned and asked the latter suddenly.

"What should I be afraid of?"

"Has anyone a coin about t