Page 289 of 1294

He was not completely unconscious, however, all the time he was

ill; he was in a feverish state, sometimes delirious, sometimes

half conscious. He remembered a great deal afterwards. Sometimes

it seemed as though there were a number of people round him; they

wanted to take him away somewhere, there was a great deal of

squabbling and discussing about him. Then he would be alone in

the room; they had all gone away afraid of him, and only now and

then opened the door a crack to look at him; they threatened him,

plotted something together, laughed, and mocked at him. He

remembered Nastasya often at his bedside; he distinguished

another person, too, whom he seemed to know very well, though he

could not remember who he was, and this fretted him, even made

him cry. Sometimes he fancied he had been lying there a month; at

other times it all seemed part of the same day.