"
Whatever acknowledgment Razumov was prepared for, he was not prepared
to have both his hands seized in the great man's grasp. The swiftness of
the movement was aggressive enough to startle. The burly feminist could
not have been quicker had his purpose been to jerk Razumov treacherously
up on the landing and bundle him behind one of the numerous closed
doors near by. This idea actually occurred to Razumov; his hands being
released after a darkly eloquent squeeze, he smiled, with a beating
heart, straight at the beard and the spectacles hiding that impenetrable
man.
He thought to himself (it stands confessed in his handwriting), "I won't
move from here till he either speaks or turns away. This is a duel."
Many seconds passed without a sign or sound.
"Yes, yes," the great man said hurriedly, in subdued tones, as if the
whole thing had been a stolen, breathless interview. "Exactly. Come
to see us here in a few days. This must be gone into deeply--deeply,
between you and me. Quite to the bottom. To the...And, by the by,
you must bring along Natalia Victorovna--you know, the Haldin girl....
"Am I to take this as my first instruction from you?" inquired Razumov
stiffly.
Peter Ivanovitch seemed perplexed by this new attitude.
"Ah! h'm! You are naturally the proper person--_la personne indiquee_.
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