The Missing Money Mystery — The Idiot

Arrived at her house, Lizabetha Prokofievna paused in the first room. She could go no farther. Don't suppose I have brought you here to ask questions. After last night I am not so anxious to see you at all. We met at the green bench, punctually at seven, according to an agreement. We conversed for an hour about matters concerning Aglaya Ivanovna herself, and that's all. Well done, prince, capital, cries Aglaya, entering. Thank you for assuming that I would not demean myself with lies. Good-bye, prince. I trust you will rest assured of my unalterable esteem. Today he bowed like Evgenie Pavlovitch. It is the heart which is the best teacher of refinement, not the dancing-master.

At home, about nine, he asks for a nap on the verandah. Vera begs him not to turn Hippolyte out, and not to laugh. That is the chief thing. He covers his face. He produces the three letters. Colia comes in and he is glad of the respite. Then Lebedeff, important, hat in hand. I have lost four hundred roubles out of my side pocket. They searched Keller, sleeping like a top. A dirty handkerchief and a love-letter from some scullery-maid. It wasn't Keller. Then Ferdishenko. He left his address. This is finesse, thieves' finesse. The scent turns out to be false. Wilkin's is a sham. An hour after, someone had been hammering at the door and had smashed the bell.

Nor the general. Ha, ha, ha. The general bared his breast in the road. Search me, you searched Keller. Lebedeff would carry his own head on a dish for him. Then the fire, and five hundred thousand roubles in an English iron box with a secret lock. An absolute fabrication, though when he spoke of Nina Alexandrovna he wept. He has quite given up visiting the captain's widow, though sometimes he thinks sadly of her, especially in the morning, when he is putting on his boots. Colia told me. His father told him at about six this morning. There now, that's what we may call scent. Do act quietly. No one must know. In that case only, I will help you. You and I together. Softly. Softly.