She
would not have believed Schmidt, had he told her that the Count was
sitting in an attitude of calm thought upon the edge of a broad wooden
bench, his hands quite free from chains and gyves, and occupied in rolling
cigarettes at regular intervals of half an hour--and this, in a clean and
well-ventilated room, lighted by a ground glass lantern. She would have
supposed that Schmidt was inventing a description of such comfort and
comparative luxury in order to calm her fears, and she would have been ten
times more afraid than before.
It is small wonder that she could not sleep. The Count's arrest alone
would have sufficed to keep her in an agony of wakefulness, and there were
other matters, besides that, which tormented the poor girl's brain. She
had been long accustomed to his singular madness and to hearing from him
the assurance of his returning to wealth. At first, with perfect
simplicity, she had believed every word of the story he told with such
evident certainty of its truth, and she had reproached her older
companions, as far as she dared, for their incredulity. But at last she
had herself been convinced of his madness as through the weeks, and
months, and years, the state of expectation returned on Tuesday evenings,
to be followed by the disappointments of Wednesday and by the oblivion
which ensued on Thursday morning. Vjera, like the rest, had come to regard
the regularly recurring delusion as being wholly groundless, and not to be
taken into account, except inasmuch as it deprived them of the Count's
company on Wednesdays, for on that day he stayed at home, in his garret
room, waiting for the high personages who were to restore to him his
wealth.
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