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All threatening POSSIBILITIES
suggested themselves to his mind; all forms of insult and outrage
which he had seen perpetrated at Kinesma filled his memory. The
suspense became at last worse than any probable reality. He wrote
to his father, announcing a speedy visit from himself and his wife;
and two days afterwards the pair left St. Petersburg in a large
travelling kibitka.

X.
When Prince Alexis received his son's letter, an expression of
fierce, cruel delight crept over his face, and there remained,
horribly illuminating its haggard features. The orders given for
swimming horses in the Volga--one of his summer diversions--were
immediately countermanded; he paced around the parapet of the
castle-wall until near midnight, followed by Sasha with a stone jug
of vodki. The latter had the useful habit, notwithstanding his
stupid face, of picking up the fragments of soliloquy which the
Prince dropped, and answering them as if talking to himself.
Thus he improved upon and perfected many a hint of cruelty, and was
too discreet ever to dispute his master's claim to the invention.


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