; his heart was beating
painfully.

"I knew you would not misunderstand me," she said, triumphantly. "Prince
S. and Evgenie Pavlovitch and Alexandra don't understand anything about
these two kinds of mind, but, just fancy, mamma does!"

"You are very like Lizabetha Prokofievna."

"What! surely not?" said Aglaya.

"Yes, you are, indeed."

"Thank you; I am glad to be like mamma," she said, thoughtfully. "You
respect her very much, don't you?" she added, quite unconscious of the
naiveness of the question.

"VERY much; and I am so glad that you have realized the fact."

"I am very glad, too, because she is often laughed at by people. But
listen to the chief point. I have long thought over the matter, and at
last I have chosen you. I don't wish people to laugh at me; I don't wish
people to think me a 'little fool.' I don't want to be chaffed. I felt
all this of a sudden, and I refused Evgenie Pavlovitch flatly, because
I am not going to be forever thrown at people's heads to be married. I
want--I want--well, I'll tell you, I wish to run away from home, and I
have chosen you to help me."

"Run away from home?" cried the prince.

"Yes--yes--yes! Run away from home!" she repeated, in a transport of
rage. "I won't, I won't be made to blush every minute by them all! I
don't want to blush before Prince S. or Evgenie Pavlovitch, or
anyone, and therefore I have chosen you. I shall tell you everything,
EVERYTHING, even the most important things of all, whenever I like,
and you are to hide nothing from me on your side. I want to speak to at
least one person, as I would to myself. They have suddenly begun to say
that I am waiting for you, and in love with you. They began this before
you arrived here, and so I didn't show them the letter, and now they all
say it, every one of them. I want to be brave, and be afraid of nobody.
I don't want to go to their balls and things--I want to do good. I have
long desired to run away, for I have been kept shut up for twenty years,
and they are always trying to marry me off. I wanted to run away when I
was fourteen years old--I was a little fool then, I know--but now I have
worked it all out, and I have waited for you to tell me about foreign
countries. I have never seen a single Gothic cathedral. I must go to
Rome; I must see all the museums; I must study in Paris. All this last
year I have been preparing and reading forbidden books. Alexandra and
Adelaida are allowed to read anything the