Pagina 265 di 1294

Even as it was, everyone he met seemed to stare and look round,

as if they had nothing to do but to watch him. "Why is it, or can

it be my fancy?" he thought.

At last the thought struck him that it might be better to go to

the Neva. There were not so many people there, he would be less

observed, and it would be more convenient in every way, above all

it was further off. He wondered how he could have been wandering

for a good half-hour, worried and anxious in this dangerous past

without thinking of it before. And that half-hour he had lost

over an irrational plan, simply because he had thought of it in

delirium! He had become extremely absent and forgetful and he was

aware of it. He certainly must make haste.