“Hush! don’t talk so loud! The comedy of humbugging _you_. This morning, when you went away with the prince, Maria Alexandrovna spent a whole hour talking Zina over into marrying the old man! She told her that nothing was easier than to lure the prince into marrying her; and all sorts of other things that were enough to make one sick! Zina agreed. You should have heard the pretty way in which _you_ were spoken of! They think you simply a fool! Zina said plump out that she would never marry you! Listen now, listen!” “Why—why—it would be most godless cunning,” Paul stammered, looking sheepishly into Nastasia’s eyes. “Well, just you listen—you’ll hear that, and more besides!” “But how am I to listen?” “Here, bend down here. Do you see that keyhole!” “Oh! but, Nastasia Petrovna, I can’t eavesdrop, you know!” “Oh, nonsense, nonsense! Put your pride in your pocket! You’ve come, and you must listen now!” “Well, at all events——” “Oh! if you can’t bear to be an eavesdropper, let it alone, and be made a fool of! One goes out of one’s way solely out of pity for you, and you must needs make difficulties! What is it to me? I’m not doing this for myself! _I_ shall leave the house before night, in any case!” Paul, steeling his heart, bent to the keyhole. His pulses were raging and throbbing. He did not realise what was going on, or what he was doing, or where he was. CHAPTER VIII. “So you were very gay, prince, at Natalia Dimitrievna’s?” asked Maria Alexandrovna, surveying the battlefield before her; she was anxious to begin the conversation as innocently as possible; but her heart beat loud with hope and agitation. After dinner the Prince had been carried off to the salon, where he was first received in the morning. Maria Alexandrovna prided herself on this room, and always used it on state occasions. The old man, after his six glasses of champagne, was not very steady on his legs; but he talked away all the more, for the same reason. Surveying the field of battle before the fray, Maria Alexandrovna had observed with satisfaction that the voluptuous old man had already begun to regard Zina with great tenderness, and her maternal heart beat high with joy. “Oh! ch—charming—very gay indeed!” replied the prince, “and, do you know, Nat—alia Dimitrievna is a wo—wonderful woman, a ch—charming woman!” Howsoever busy with her own high thoughts and exalted ideas, Maria Alexandrovna’s heart waxed wrathful to hear such a loud blast of praise on her rival’s account. “Oh! Prince,” she began, with flashing eyes, “if Natalia Dimitrievna is a charming woman in your eyes, then I really don’t know _what_ to think! After such a statement, dear Prince, you must not claim to know society here—no, no!” “Really! You sur—pr—prise me!”