although the impudence of this attack, this public proclamation of intimacy, as it were, was doubtless premeditated, and had its special object, yet evgenie pavlovitch at first seemed to intend to make no show of observing either his tormentor or her words. but nastasia’s communication struck him with the force of a thunderclap. on hearing of his uncle’s death he suddenly grew as white as a sheet, and turned towards his informant.