But he did not give her time to speak.
"No? You don't understand? Very well." He had recovered his calm by a
miracle of will. "So you talked with Sophia Antonovna?"
"Yes. Sophia Antonovna told me...." Miss Haldin stopped, wonder
growing in her wide eyes.
"H'm. That's the respectable enemy," he muttered, as though he were
alone.
"The tone of her references to you was extremely friendly," remarked
Miss Haldin, after waiting for a while.
"Is that your impression? And she the most intelligent of the lot,
too. Things then are going as well as possible. Everything conspires
to...Ah! these conspirators," he said slowly, with an accent of scorn;
"they would get hold of you in no time! You know, Natalia Victorovna, I
have the greatest difficulty in saving myself from the superstition
of an active Providence. It's irresistible.... The alternative, of
course, would be the personal Devil of our simple ancestors. But, if
so, he has overdone it altogether--the old Father of Lies--our national
patron--our domestic god, whom we take with us when we go abroad. He has
overdone it. It seems that I am not simple enough.... That's it! I
ought to have known.... And I did know it," he added in a tone of
poignant distress which overcame my astonishment.
"This man is deranged," I said to myself, very much frightened.
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