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Animal Review Main | Nell | Avner |
[Aglaya Yepanchin,
having rejected the idiot Prince Myshkin for beating her at cards, makes
him the gift of a hedgehog.] Mrs. Yepanchin was completely stunned by
this news. Not that it amounted to anything, but simply because she
happened to be in that kind of mood. Her alarm was aroused to quite an
acute degree, and chiefly about the hedgehog. What was the meaning of
the hedgehog? What was their understanding about it? What mystery lay
hidden in it? What sort of sign? What sort of message? ... The prince, who had returned home
ridiculed and banished by Aglaya, sat for half an hour in the blackest
despair, when Kolya suddenly appeared with the hedgehog. At once the sky
cleared; the prince looked as though he had risen from the dead; he
questioned Kolya closely, hung on every word he uttered, asking him the
same question over and over again, laughing like a child and again and
again pressing the hands of the laughing boy who gazed at him with such
bright eyes. It seemed clear that Aglaya forgave him and that he could
go and see her again that very evening, adn was not only the most
important thing for him -- it was everything. "What children we still are, Kolya!"
he cried at last ecstatically. "And -- how lovely it is that we are
still children!" "It simply means that she's in
love with you, Prince, and that's all there is to it!" Kolya
replied, impressively and with authority. [The Prince returns to the Yepanchin
home.] Aglaya came in, calmly and with an air of importance, bowed
ceremoniously to the prince, and solemnly took up the most conspicuous
position at the round table. She looked questioningly at the prince.
They all realized that the moment had arrived when all their
perplexities were to be removed. "Did you get my hedgehog?"
she asked firmly and almost crossly. "I did," answered the prince,
blushing and with a sinking heart. "Will you kindly explain at once
what you think about it? This is necessary for the peace of mind of
Mother and the whole family." [Aglaya then demands a marriage
proposal from the prince as well as a financial report. Disappointed
with the numbers, she flees the room.]
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