I smiled at him. All my morbid fear and dislike of him, even as all my sudden insensate infatuation for Naumoff, was spent. Nothing remained of the storm my soul and senses had passed through but a limitless weakness and languor. I yearned to rest, to sleep, to sink out of life and be no more....
A few moments later they announced Naumoff, who had brought me some roses. I was neither glad nor sorry to see him. Punctually when an hour had elapsed Elise Perrier sent my visitors away and put me to bed again.
I fell asleep almost immediately.
When I reopened my eyes, twilight filled my room with shadows and there was Prilukoff, sitting beside my bed, talking to himself about murder, revenge and poison.
XXXIV
Every day my fear of Prilukoff increased. I had only one thought—to escape from him, to go far away where he could never find me; better still, to hide with Tioka and Elise in some distant spot, where neither this terrible maniac nor yet Naumoff, nor even Kamarowsky, could ever reach me.
I thought of Otrada, my home. But how could my unhappy father protect me against the loving persistence of Kamarowsky, against Naumoff's passionate daring, or Prilukoff's diabolic designs?
In the rare moments when I was alone with Elise, we talked it over. In trembling whispers, glancing constantly round lest the Scorpion should be on the watch, we concerted the manner of our flight.
We made a thousand different plans, all equally extravagant and impracticable. In our luxurious hotel rooms we were imprisoned like mice in a trap. We never opened a door without finding a maid awaiting our orders, or a zealous and obsequious waiter bowing to us, or Kamarowsky asking for news, or Naumoff waiting with a bunch of flowers in his hand.