‘Your sister, you say----’
‘Yes, yes,’ Gagin cut me short. ‘I tell you, she’s mad, and she’ll
drive me mad. But happily she can’t tell a lie, and she confides in me.
Ah, what a soul there is in that little girl!… but she’ll be her own
ruin, that’s certain.’
‘But you’re making a mistake,’ I began.
‘No, I’m not making a mistake. Yesterday, you know, she was lying down
almost all day, she ate nothing, but she did not complain.… She never
does complain. I was not anxious, though towards evening she was in a
slight fever. At two o’clock last night I was wakened by our landlady;
“Go to your sister,” she said; “there’s something wrong with her.” I
ran in to Acia, and found her not undressed, feverish, and in tears;
her head was aching, her teeth were chattering. “What’s the matter with
you?” I said, “are you ill?” She threw herself on my neck and began
imploring me to take her away as soon as possible, if I want to keep
her alive.… I could make out nothing, I tried to soothe her.… Her sobs
grew more violent, … and suddenly through her sobs I made out … well,
in fact, I made out that she loves you. I assure you, you and I are
reasonable people, and we can’t imagine how deeply she feels and with
what incredible force her feelings show themselves; it has come upon
her as unexpectedly and irresistibly as a thunderstorm. You’re a very
nice person,’ Gagin pursued, ‘but why she’s so in love with you, I
confess I don’t understand. She says she has been drawn to you from
the first moment she saw you. That’s why she cried the other day when
she declared she would never love any one but me.--She imagines you
despise her, that you most likely know about her birth; she asked me
if I hadn’t told you her story,--I said, of course, that I hadn’t; but
her intuition’s simply terrible. She has one wish,--to get away, to
get away at once. I sat with her till morning; she made me promise we
should not be here to-morrow, and only then, she fell asleep. I have
been thinking and thinking, and at last I made up my mind to speak to
you. To my mind, Acia is right; the best thing is for us both to go
away from here. And I should have taken her away to-day, if I had not
been struck by an idea which made me pause. Perhaps … who knows? do you
like my sister? If so, what’s the object of my taking her away? And
so I decided to cast aside all reserve.… Besides, I noticed something
myself.… I made up my mind … to find out from you …’ Poor Gagin was
completely out of countenance. ‘Excuse me, please,’ he added, ‘I’m not
used to such bothers.’