The Brothers Karamazov: Part II, Book IV (Chapter V-VII)

Chapter 5
A Laceration in the Drawing-Room

BUT in the drawing-room the conversation was already over.
Katerina Ivanovna was greatly excited, though she looked resolute.
At the moment Alyosha and Madame Hohlakov entered, Ivan Fyodorovitch
stood up to take leave. His face was rather pale, and Alyosha looked
at him anxiously. For this moment was to solve a doubt, a harassing
enigma which had for some time haunted Alyosha. During the preceding
month it had been several times suggested to him that his brother Ivan
was in love with Katerina Ivanovna, and, what was more, that he
meant "to carry her off from Dmitri. Until quite lately the idea
seemed to Alyosha monstrous, though it worried him extremely. He loved
both his brothers, and dreaded such rivalry between them. Meantime,
Dmitri had said outright on the previous day that he was glad that
Ivan was his rival, and that it was a great assistance to him, Dmitri.
In what way did it assist him? To marry Grushenka? But that Alyosha
considered the worst thing possible. Besides all this, Alyosha had
till the evening before implicitly believed that Katerina Ivanovna had
a steadfast and passionate love for Dmitri; but he had only believed
it till the evening before. He had fancied, too, that she was
incapable of loving a man like Ivan, and that she did love Dmitri, and
loved him just as he was, in spite of all the strangeness of such a
passion.
But during yesterday's scene with Grushenka another idea had
struck him. The word "lacerating," which Madame Hohlakov had just
uttered, almost made him start, because half waking up towards
daybreak that night he had cried out "Laceration, laceration,"
probably applying it to his dream. He had been dreaming all night of
the previous day's scene at Katerina Ivanovna's. Now Alyosha was
impressed by Madame Hohlakov's blunt and persistent assertion that
Katerina Ivanovna was in love with Ivan, and only deceived herself
through some sort of pose, from "self-laceration," and tortured
herself by her pretended love for Dmitri from some fancied duty of
gratitude. "Yes," he thought, "perhaps the whole truth lies in those
words." But in that case what was Ivan's position? Alyosha felt
instinctively that a character like Katerina Ivanovna's must dominate,
and she could only dominate someone like Dmitri, and never a man
like Ivan. For Dmitri might- at last submit to her domination "to
his own happiness" (which was what Alyosha would have desired), but
Ivan- no, Ivan could not submit to her, and such submission would
not give him happiness. Alyosha could not help believing that of Ivan.
And now all these doubts and reflections flitted through his mind as
he entered the drawing-room. Another idea, too, forced itself upon
him: "What if she loved neither of them- neither Ivan nor Dmitri?"
It must be noted that Alyosha felt as it were ashamed of his own
thoughts and blamed himself when they kept recurring to him during the
last month. "What do I know about love and women and how can I
decide such questions?" he thought reproachfully, after such doubts
and surmises. And yet it was impossible not to think about it. He felt
instinctively that this rivalry was of immense importance in his
brothers' lives and that a great deal depended upon it.
"One reptile will devour the other," Ivan had pronounced the day
before, speaking in anger of his father and Dmitri. So Ivan looked
upon Dmitri as a reptile, and perhaps long done so. Was it perhaps
since he had known Katerina Ivanovna? That phrase had, of course,
escaped Ivan unawares yesterday, but that only made it more important.
If he felt like that, what chance was there of peace? Were there
not, on the contrary, new grounds for hatred and hostility in their
family? And with which of them was Alyosha to sympathise? And what was
he to wish for each of them? He loved them both, but what could he
desire for each in the midst of these conflicting interests? He
might go quite astray in this maze, and Alyosha's heart could not
endure uncertainty, because his love was always of an active
character. He was incapable of passive love. If he loved anyone, he
set to work at once to help him. And to do so he must know what he was
aiming at; he must know for certain what was best for each, and having
ascertained this it was natural for him to help them both. But instead
of a definite aim, he found nothing but uncertainty and perplexity
on all sides. "It was lacerating," as was said just now. But what
could he understand even in this "laceration"? He did not understand
the first word in this perplexing maze.
Seeing Alyosha, Katerina Ivanovna said quickly and joyfully to
Ivan, who had already got up to go, "A minute! Stay another minute!
I want to hear the opinion of this person here whom I trust
absolutely. Don't go away," she added, addressing Madame Hohlakov. She
made Alyosha sit down beside her, and Madame Hohlakov sat opposite, by
Ivan.
"You are all my friends here, all I have in the world, dear
friends," she warmly, in a voice which quivered with genuine tears
of suffering, and Alyosha's heart warmed to her at once. "You,
Alexey Fyodorovitch, were witness yesterday of that abominable
scene, and saw what I did. You did not see it, Ivan Fyodorovitch, he
did. What he thought of me yesterday I don't know. I only know one
thing, that if it were repeated to-day, this minute, I should
express the same feelings again as yesterday- the same feelings, the
same words, the same actions. You remember my actions, Alexey
Fyodorovitch; you checked me in one of them"... (as she said that, she
flushed and her eyes shone). "I must tell you that I can't get over
it. Listen, Alexey Fyodorovitch. I don't even know whether I still
love him. I feel pity for him, and that is a poor sign of love. If I
loved him, if I still loved him, perhaps I shouldn't be sorry for
him now, but should hate him"
.Her voice quivered and tears glittered on her eyelashes.
Alyosha shuddered inwardly. "That girl is truthful and sincere," he
thought, "and she does not love Dmitri any more."
"That's true, that's true," cried Madame Hohlakov.
"Wait, dear. I haven't told you the chief, the final decision I
came to during the night. I feel that perhaps my decision is a
terrible one- for me, but I foresee that nothing will induce me to
change it- nothing. It will be so all my life. My dear, kind,
ever-faithful and generous adviser, the one friend I have in the
world, Ivan Fyodorovitch, with his deep insight into the heart,
approves and commends my decision. He knows it."
"Yes, I approve of it," Ivan assented, in a subdued but firm
voice.
"But I should like Alyosha, too (Ah! Alexey Fyodorovitch,
forgive my calling you simply Alyosha), I should like Alexey
Fyodorovitch, too, to tell me before my two friends whether I am
right. I feel instinctively that you, Alyosha, my dear brother (for
are a dear brother to me)," she said again ecstatically, taking his
cold hand in her hot one, "I foresee that your decision, your
approval, will bring me peace, in spite of all my sufferings, for,
after your words, I shall be calm and submit- I feel that."
"I don't know what you are asking me," said Alyosha, flushing.
"I only know that I love you and at this moment wish for your
happiness more than my own!... But I know nothing about such affairs,"
something impelled him to add hurriedly.
"In such affairs, Alexey Fyodorovitch, in such affairs, the
chief thing is honour and duty and something higher- I don't know what
but higher perhaps even than duty. I am conscious of this irresistible
feeling in my heart, and it compels me irresistibly. But it may all be
put in two words. I've already decided, even if he marries that-
creature," she began solemnly, "whom I never, never can forgive,
even then I will not abandon him. Henceforward I will never, never
abandon him!" she cried, breaking into a sort of pale, hysterical
ecstasy. "Not that I would run after him continually, get in his way
and worry him. Oh, no! I will go away to another town- where you like-
but I will watch over him all my life- I will watch over him all my
life unceasingly. When he becomes unhappy with that woman, and that is
bound to happen quite soon, let him come to me and he will find a
friend, a sister... Only a sister, of course, and so for ever; but
he will learn at least that that sister is really his sister, who
loves him and has sacrificed all her life to him. I will gain my
point. I will insist on his knowing me confiding entirely in me,
without reserve," she cried, in a sort of frenzy. "I will be a god
to whom he can pray- and that, at least, he owes me for his
treachery and for what I suffered yesterday through him. And let him
see that all my life I will be true to him and the promise I gave him,
in spite of his being untrue and betraying me. I will- I will become
nothing but a means for his happiness, or- how shall I say?- an
instrument, a machine for his happiness, and that for my whole life,
my whole life, and that he may see that all his life! That's my
decision. Ivan Fyodorovitch fully approves me."
She was breathless. She had perhaps intended to express her idea
with more dignity, art and naturalness, but her speech was too hurried
and crude. It was full of youthful impulsiveness, it betrayed that she
was still smarting from yesterday's insult, and that her pride
craved satisfaction. She felt this herself. Her face suddenly
darkened, an unpleasant look came into her eyes. Alyosha at once saw
it and felt a pang of sympathy. His brother Ivan made it worse by
adding:
"I've only expressed my own view," he said. "From anyone else,
this would have been affected and over-strained, but from you- no. Any
other woman would have been wrong, but you are right. I don't know how
to explain it, but I see that you are absolutely genuine and,
therefore, you are right."
"But that's only for the moment. And what does this moment stand
for? Nothing but yesterday's insult." Madame Hohlakov obviously had
not intended to interfere, but she could not refrain from this very
just comment.
"Quite so, quite so," cried Ivan, with peculiar eagerness,
obviously annoyed at being interrupted, "in anyone else this moment
would be only due to yesterday's impression and would be only a
moment. But with Katerina Ivanovna's character, that moment will
last all her life. What for anyone else would be only a promise is for
her an everlasting burdensome, grim perhaps, but unflagging duty.
And she will be sustained by the feeling of this duty being fulfilled.
Your life, Katerina Ivanovna, will henceforth be spent in painful
brooding over your own feelings, your own heroism, and your own
suffering; but in the end that suffering will be softened and will
pass into sweet contemplation of the fulfilment of a bold and proud
design. Yes, proud it certainly is, and desperate in any case, but a
triumph for you. And the consciousness of it will at last be a
source of complete satisfaction and will make you resigned to
everything else."
This was unmistakably said with some malice and obviously with
intention; even perhaps with no desire to conceal that he spoke
ironically and with intention.
"Oh, dear, how mistaken it all is!" Madame Hohlakov cried again.
"Alexey Fyodorovitch, you speak. I want dreadfully to know what
you will say!" cried Katerina Ivanovna, and burst into tears.
Alyosha got up from the sofa.
"It's nothing, nothing!" she went on through her tears. "I'm
upset, I didn't sleep last night. But by the side of two such
friends as you and your brother I still feel strong- for I know you
two will never desert me."
"Unluckily I am obliged to return to Moscow- perhaps to-morrow-
and to leave you for a long time- and, unluckily, it's unavoidable,"
Ivan said suddenly.
"To-morrow- to Moscow!" her face was suddenly contorted; "but-
but, dear me, how fortunate!" she cried in a voice suddenly changed.
In one instant there was no trace left of her tears. She underwent
an instantaneous transformation, which amazed Alyosha. Instead of a
poor, insulted girl, weeping in a sort of "laceration," he saw a woman
completely self-possessed and even exceedingly pleased, as though
something agreeable had just happened.
"Oh, not fortunate that I am losing you, of course not," she
collected herself suddenly, with a charming society smile. "Such a
friend as you are could not suppose that. I am only too unhappy at
losing you." She rushed impulsively at Ivan, and seizing both his
hands, pressed them warmly. "But what is fortunate is that you will be
able in Moscow to see auntie and Agafya and to tell them all the
horror of my present position. You can speak with complete openness to
Agafya, but spare dear auntie. You will know how to do that. You can't
think how wretched I was yesterday and this morning, wondering how I
could write them that dreadful letter- for one can never tell such
things in a letter... Now it will be easy for me to write, for you
will see them and explain everything. Oh, how glad I am! But I am only
glad of that, believe me. Of course, no one can take your place....
I will run at once to write the letter," she finished suddenly, and
took a step as though to go out of the room.
"And what about Alyosha and his opinion, which you were so
desperately anxious to hear?" cried Madame Hohlakov. There was a
sarcastic, angry note in her voice.
"I had not forgotten that," cried Katerina Ivanovna, coming to a
sudden standstill, "and why are you so antagonistic at such a moment?"
she added, with warm and bitter reproachfulness. "What I said, I
repeat. I must have his opinion. More than that, I must have his
decision! As he says, so it shall be. You see how anxious I am for
your words, Alexey Fyodorovitch... But what's the matter?"
"I couldn't have believed it. I can't understand it!" Alyosha
cried suddenly in distress.
"He is going to Moscow, and you cry out that you are glad. You
said that on purpose! And you begin explaining that you are not glad
of that but sorry to be- losing a friend. But that was acting, too-
you were playing a part as in a theatre!"
"In a theatre? What? What do you mean?" exclaimed Katerina
Ivanovna, profoundly astonished, flushing crimson, and frowning.
"Though you assure him you are sorry to lose a friend in him,
you persist in telling him to his face that it's fortunate he is
going," said Alyosha breathlessly. He was standing at the table and
did not sit down.
"What are you talking about? I don't understand."
"I don't understand myself.... I seemed to see in a flash... I
know I am not saying it properly, but I'll say it all the same,"
Alyosha went on in the same shaking and broken voice. "What I see is
that perhaps you don't love Dmitri at all... and never have, from
the beginning.... And Dmitri, too, has never loved you... and only
esteems you.... I really don't know how I dare to say all this, but
somebody must tell the truth... for nobody here will tell the truth."
"What truth?" cried Katerina Ivanovna,and there was an
hysterical ring in her voice.
"I'll tell you," Alyosha went on with desperate haste, as though
he were jumping from the top of a house. "Call Dmitri; I will fetch
him and let him come here and take your hand and take Ivan's and
join your hands. For you're torturing Ivan, simply because you love
him- and torturing him, because you love Dmitri through
'self-laceration'-with an unreal love- because you've persuaded
yourself."
Alyosha broke off and was silent.
"You... you... you are a little religious idiot- that's what you
are!" Katerina Ivanovna snapped. Her face was white and her lips
were moving with anger.
Ivan suddenly laughed and got up. His hat was in his hand.
"You are mistaken, my good Alyosha," he said, with an expression
Alyosha had never seen in his face before- an expression of youthful
sincerity and strong, irresistibly frank feeling. "Katerina Ivanovna
has never cared for me! She has known all the time that I cared for
her- though I never said a word of my love to her- she knew, but she
didn't care for me. I have never been her friend either, not for one
moment; she is too proud to need my friendship. She kept me at her
side as a means of revenge. She revenged with me and on me all the
insults which she has been continually receiving from Dmitri ever
since their first meeting. For even that first meeting has rankled
in her heart as an insult- that's what her heart is like! She has
talked to me of nothing but her love for him. I am going now; but,
believe me, Katerina Ivanovna, you really love him. And the more he
insults you, the more you love him- that's your 'laceration.' You love
him just as he is; you love him for insulting you. If he reformed,
you'd give him up at once and cease to love him. But you need him so
as to contemplate continually your heroic fidelity and to reproach him
for infidelity. And it all comes from your pride. Oh, there's a
great deal of humiliation and self-abasement about it, but it all
comes from pride.... I am too young and I've loved you too much. I
know that I ought not to say this, that it would be more dignified
on my part simply to leave you, and it would be less offensive for
you. But I am going far away, and shall never come back.... It is
for ever. I don't want to sit beside a 'laceration.'... But I don't
know how to speak now. I've said everything.... Good-bye, Katerina
Ivanovna; you can't be angry with me, for I am a hundred times more
severely punished than you, if only by the fact that I shall never see
you again. Good-bye! I don't want your hand. You have tortured me
too deliberately for me to be able to forgive you at this moment. I
shall forgive you later, but now I don't want your hand. Den Dank,
Dame, begehr ich nicht,"* he added, with a forced smile, showing,
however, that he could read Schiller, and read him till he knew him by
heart- which Alyosha would never have believed. He went out of the
room without saying good-bye even to his hostess, Madame Hohlakov.
Alyosha clasped his hands.

* Thank you, madam, I want nothing.

"Ivan!" he cried desperately after him. "Come back, Ivan! No,
nothing will induce him to come back now!" he cried again, regretfully
realising it; "but it's my fault, my fault. I began it! Ivan spoke
angrily, wrongly. Unjustly and angrily. He must come back here, come
back," Alyosha kept exclaiming frantically.
Katerina Ivanovna went suddenly into the next room.
"You have done no harm. You behaved beautifully, like an angel,"
Madame Hohlakov whispered rapidly and ecstatically to Alyosha. "I will
do my utmost to prevent Ivan Fyodorovitch from going."
Her face beamed with delight, to the great distress of Alyosha,
but Katerina Ivanovna suddenly returned. She had two hundred-rouble
notes in her hand.
"I have a great favour to ask of you, Alexey Fyodorovitch," she
began, addressing Alyosha with an apparently calm and even voice, as
though nothing had happened. "A week- yes, I think it was a week
ago- Dmitri Fyodorovitch was guilty of a hasty and unjust action- a
very ugly action. There is a low tavern here, and in it he met that
discharged officer, that captain, whom your father used to employ in
some business. Dmitri Fyodorovitch somehow lost his temper with this
captain, seized him by the beard and dragged him out into the street
and for some distance along it, in that insulting fashion. And I am
told that his son, a boy, quite a child, who is at the school here,
saw it and ran beside them crying and begging for his father,
appealing to everyone to defend him, while everyone laughed. You
must forgive me, Alexey Fyodorovitch, I cannot think without
indignation of that disgraceful action of his... one of those
actions of which only Dmitri Fyodorovitch would be capable in his
anger... and in his passions! I can't describe it even.... I can't
find my words. I've made inquiries about his victim, and find he is
quite a poor man. His name is Snegiryov. He did something wrong in the
army and was discharged. I can't tell you what. And now he has sunk
into terrible destitution, with his family- an unhappy family of
sick children, and, I believe, an insane wife. He has been living here
a long time; he used to work as a copying clerk, but now he is getting
nothing. I thought if you... that is I thought... I don't know. I am
so confused. You see, I wanted to ask you, my dear Alexey
Fyodorovitch, to go to him, to find some excuse to go to them- I
mean to that captain- oh, goodness, how badly I explain it!- and
delicately, carefully, as only you know how to" (Alyosha blushed),
"manage to give him this assistance, these two hundred roubles. He
will be sure to take it.... I mean, persuade him to take it.... Or,
rather, what do I mean? You see it's not by way of compensation to
prevent him from taking proceedings (for I believe he meant to), but
simply a token of sympathy, of a desire to assist him from me,
Dmitri Fyodorovitch's betrothed, not from himself.... But you know....
I would go myself, but you'll know how to do it ever so much better.
He lives in Lake Street in the house of a woman called Kalmikov....
For God's sake, Alexey Fyodorovitch, do it for me, and now... now I am
rather... tired... Good-bye!"
She turned and disappeared behind the portiere so quickly that
Alyosha had not time to utter a word, though he wanted to speak. He
longed to beg her pardon, to blame himself, to say something, for
his heart was full and he could not bear to go out of the room without
it. But Madame Hohlakov took him by the hand and drew him along with
her. In the hall she stopped him again as before.
"She is proud, she is struggling with herself; but kind, charming,
generous, "she exclaimed, in a half-whisper. "Oh, how I love her,
especially sometimes, and how glad I am again of everything! Dear
Alexey Fyodorovitch, you didn't know, but I must tell you, that we
all, all- both her aunts, I and all of us, Lise, even- have been
hoping and praying for nothing for the last month but that she may
give up your favourite Dmitri, who takes no notice of her and does not
care for her, and may marry Ivan Fyodorovitch- such an excellent and
cultivated young man, who loves her more than anything in the world.
We are in a regular plot to bring it about, and I am even staying on
here perhaps on that account."
"But she has been crying- she has been wounded again," cried
Alyosha.
"Never trust a woman's tears, Alexey Fyodorovitch. I am never
for the women in such cases. I am always on the side of the men."
"Mamma, you are spoiling him," Lise's little voice cried from
behind the door.
"No, it was all my fault. I am horribly to blame," Alyosha
repeated unconsoled, hiding his face in his hands in an agony of
remorse for his indiscretion.
"Quite the contrary; you behaved like an angel, like an angel. I
am ready to say so a thousand times over."
"Mamma, how has he behaved like an angel?" Lise's voice was
heard again.
"I somehow fancied all at once," Alyosha went on as though he
had not heard Lise, "that she loved Ivan, and so I said that stupid
thing.... What will happen now?"
"To whom, to whom?" cried Lise. "Mamma, you really want to be
the death of me. I ask you and you don't answer."
At the moment the maid ran in.
"Katerina Ivanovna is ill.... She is crying, struggling...
hysterics."
"What is the matter?" cried Lise, in a tone of real anxiety.
"Mamma, I shall be having hysterics, and not she!"
"Lise, for mercy's sake, don't scream, don't persecute me. At your
age one can't know everything that grown-up people know. I'll come and
tell you everything you ought to know. Oh, mercy on us! I am coming, I
am coming.... Hysterics is a good sign, Alexey Fyodorovitch; it's an
excellent thing that she is hysterical. That's just as it ought to be.
In such cases I am always against the woman, against all these
feminine tears and hysterics. Run and say, Yulia, that I'll fly to
her. As for Ivan Fyodorovitch's going away like that, it's her own
fault. But he won't go away. Lise, for mercy's sake, don't scream! Oh,
yes; you are not screaming. It's I am screaming. Forgive your mamma;
but I am delighted, delighted, delighted! Did you notice, Alexey
Fyodorovitch, how young, how young Ivan Fyodorovitch was just now when
he went out, when he said all that and went out? I thought he was so
learned, such a savant, and all of a sudden he behaved so warmly,
openly, and youthfully, with such youthful inexperience, and it was
all so fine, like you.... And the way he repeated that German verse,
it was just like you! But I must fly, I must fly! Alexey Fyodorovitch,
make haste to carry out her commission, and then make haste back.
Lise, do you want anything now? For mercy's sake, don't keep Alexey
Fyodorovitch a minute. He will come back to you at once."
Madame Hohlakov at last ran off. Before leaving, Alyosha would
have opened the door to see Lise.
"On no account," cried Lise. "On no account now. Speak through the
door. How have you come to be an angel? That's the only thing I want
to know."
"For an awful piece of stupidity, Lise! Goodbye!"
"Don't dare to go away like that!" Lise was beginning.
"Lise, I have a real sorrow! I'll be back directly, but I have a
great, great sorrow!
And he ran out of the room.
Chapter 6
A Laceration in the Cottage

HE certainly was really grieved in a way he had seldom been
before. He had rushed in like a fool, and meddled in what? In a
love-affair. "But what do I know about it? What can I tell about
such things?" he repeated to himself for the hundredth time,
flushing crimson. "Oh, being ashamed would be nothing; shame is only
the punishment I deserve. The trouble is I shall certainly have caused
more unhappiness.... And Father Zossima sent me to reconcile and bring
them together. Is this the way to bring them together?" Then he
suddenly remembered how he had tried to join their hands, and he
felt fearfully ashamed again. "Though I acted quite sincerely, I
must be more sensible in the future," he concluded suddenly, and did
not even smile at his conclusion.
Katerina Ivanovna's commission took him to Lake Street, and his
brother Dmitri lived close by, in a turning out of Lake Street.
Alyosha decided to go to him in any case before going to the
captain, though he had a presentiment that he would not find his
brother. He suspected that he would intentionally keep out of his
way now, but he must find him anyhow. Time was passing: the thought of
his dying elder had not left Alyosha for one minute from the time he
set off from the monastery.
There was one point which interested him particularly about
Katerina Ivanovna's commission; when she had mentioned the captain's
son, the little schoolboy who had run beside his father crying, the
idea had at once struck Alyosha that this must be the schoolboy who
had bitten his finger when he, Alyosha, asked him what he had done
to hurt him. Now Alyosha felt practically certain of this, though he
could not have said why. Thinking of another subject was a relief, and
he resolved to think no more about the "mischief" he had done, and not
to torture himself with remorse, but to do what he had to do, let come
what would. At that thought he was completely comforted. Turning to
the street where Dmitri lodged, he felt hungry, and taking out of
his pocket the roll he had brought from his father's, he ate it. It
made him feel stronger.
Dmitri was not at home. The people of the house, an old
cabinet-maker, his son, and his old wife, looked with positive
suspicion at Alyosha. "He hasn't slept here for the last three nights.
Maybe he has gone away," the old man said in answer to Alyosha's
persistent inquiries. Alyosha saw that he was answering in
accordance with instructions. When he asked whether he were not at
Grushenka's or in hiding at Foma's (Alyosha spoke so freely on
purpose), all three looked at him in alarm. "They are fond of him,
they are doing their best for him," thought Alyosha. "That's good."
At last he found the house in Lake Street. It was a decrepit
little house, sunk on one side, with three windows looking into the
street, and with a muddy yard, in the middle of which stood a solitary
cow. He crossed the yard and found the door opening into the
passage. On the left of the passage lived the old woman of the house
with her old daughter. Both seemed to be deaf. In answer to his
repeated inquiry for the captain, one of them at last understood
that he was asking for their lodgers, and pointed to a door across the
passage. The captain's lodging turned out to be a simple cottage room.
Alyosha had his hand on the iron latch to open the door, when he was
struck by the strange hush within. Yet he knew from Katerina
Ivanovna's words that the man had a family. "Either they are all
asleep or perhaps they have heard me coming and are waiting for me
to open the door. I'd better knock first," and he knocked. An answer
came, but not at once, after an interval of perhaps ten seconds.
"Who's there?" shouted someone in a loud and very angry voice.
Then Alyosha opened the door and crossed the threshold. He found
himself in a regular peasant's room. Though it was large, it was
cumbered up with domestic belongings of all sorts, and there were
several people in it. On the left was a large Russian stove. From
the stove to the window on the left was a string running across the
room, and on it there were rags hanging. There was a bedstead
against the wall on each side, right and left, covered with knitted
quilts. On the one on the left was a pyramid of four print-covered
pillows, each smaller than the one beneath. On the other there was
only one very small pillow. The opposite corner was screened off by
a curtain or a sheet hung on a string. Behind this curtain could be
seen a bed made up on a bench and a chair. The rough square table of
plain wood had been moved into the middle window. The three windows,
which consisted each of four tiny greenish mildewy panes, gave
little light, and were close shut, so that the room was not very light
and rather stuffy. On the table was a frying pan with the remains of
some fried eggs, a half-eaten piece of bread, and a small bottle
with a few drops of vodka.
A woman of genteel appearance, wearing a cotton gown, was
sitting on a chair by the bed on the left. Her face was thin and
yellow, and her sunken cheeks betrayed at the first glance that she
was ill. But what struck Alyosha most was the expression in the poor
woman's eyes- a look of surprised inquiry and yet of haughty pride.
And while he was talking to her husband, her big brown eyes moved from
one speaker to the other with the same haughty and questioning
expression. Beside her at the window stood a young girl, rather plain,
with scanty reddish hair, poorly but very neatly dressed. She looked
disdainfully at Alyosha as he came in. Beside the other bed was
sitting another female figure. She was a very sad sight, a young
girl of about twenty, but hunchback and crippled "with withered legs,"
as Alyosha was told afterwards. Her crutches stood in the corner close
by. The strikingly beautiful and gentle eyes of this poor girl
looked with mild serenity at Alyosha. A man of forty-five was
sitting at the table, finishing the fried eggs. He was spare, small,
and weakly built. He had reddish hair and a scanty light-coloured
beard, very much like a wisp of tow (this comparison and the phrase "a
wisp of tow" flashed at once into Alyosha's mind for some reason, he
remembered it afterwards). It was obviously this gentleman who had
shouted to him, as there was no other man in the room. But when
Alyosha went in, he leapt up from the bench on which he was sitting,
and, hastily wiping his mouth with a ragged napkin, darted up to
Alyosha.
"It's a monk come to beg for the monastery. A nice place to come
to!" the girl standing in the left corner said aloud. The man spun
round instantly towards her and answered her in an excited and
breaking voice:
"No, Varvara, you are wrong. Allow me to ask," he turned again
to Alyosha, "what has brought you to our retreat?"
Alyosha looked attentively at him. It was the first time he had
seen him. There was something angular, flurried and irritable about
him. Though he had obviously just been drinking, he was not drunk.
There was extraordinary impudence in his expression, and yet,
strange to say, at the same time there was fear. He looked like a
man who had long been kept in subjection and had submitted to it,
and now had suddenly turned and was trying to assert himself. Or,
better still, like a man who wants dreadfully to hit you but is
horribly afraid you will hit him. In his words and in the intonation
of his shrill voice there was a sort of crazy humour, at times
spiteful and at times cringing, and continually shifting from one tone
to another. The question about "our retreat" he had asked, as it were,
quivering all over, rolling his eyes, and skipping up so close to
Alyosha that he instinctively drew back a step. He was dressed in a
very shabby dark cotton coat, patched and spotted. He wore checked
trousers of an extremely light colour, long out of fashion, and of
very thin material. They were so crumpled and so short that he
looked as though he had grown out of them like a boy.
"I am Alexey Karamazov," Alyosha began in reply.
"I quite understand that, sir," the gentleman snapped out at
once to assure him that he knew who he was already. "I am Captain
Snegiryov, sir, but I am still desirous to know precisely what has led
you- "
"Oh, I've come for nothing special. I wanted to have a word with
you- if only you allow me."
"In that case, here is a chair, sir; kindly be seated. That's what
they used to say in the old comedies, 'kindly be seated,'" and with
a rapid gesture he seized an empty chair (it was a rough wooden chair,
not upholstered) and set it for him almost in the middle of the
room; then, taking another similar chair for himself, he sat down
facing Alyosha, so close to him that their knees almost touched.
"Nikolay Ilyitch Snegiryov, sir, formerly a captain in the Russian
infantry, put to shame for his vices, but still a captain. Though I
might not be one now for the way I talk; for the last half of my
life I've learnt to say 'sir.' It's a word you use when you've come
down in the world."
"That's very true," smiled Alyosha. "But is it used
involuntarily or on purpose?"
"As God's above, it's involuntary, and I usen't to use it! I
didn't use the word 'sir' all my life, but as soon as I sank into
low water I began to say 'sir.' It's the work of a higher power. I see
you are interested in contemporary questions, but how can I have
excited your curiosity, living as I do in surroundings impossible
for the exercise of hospitality?"
"I've come- about that business."
"About what business?" the captain interrupted impatiently.
"About your meeting with my brother Dmitri Fyodorovitch,"
Alyosha blurted out awkwardly.
"What meeting, sir? You don't mean that meeting? About my 'wisp of
tow,' then?" He moved closer so that his knees positively knocked
against Alyosha. His lips were strangely compressed like a thread.
"What wisp of tow?" muttered Alyosha.
"He is come to complain of me, father!" cried a voice familiar
to Alyosha- the voice of the schoolboy- from behind the curtain. "I
bit his finger just now." The curtain was pulled, and Alyosha saw
his assailant lying on a little bed made up on the bench and the chair
in the corner under the ikons. The boy lay covered by his coat and
an old wadded quilt. He was evidently unwell, and, judging by his
glittering eyes, he was in a fever. He looked at Alyosha without fear,
as though he felt he was at home and could not be touched.
"What! Did he bite your finger?" The captain jumped up from his
chair. "Was it your finger he bit?"
"Yes. He was throwing stones with other schoolboys. There were six
of them against him alone. I went up to him, and he threw a stone
at me and then another at my head. I asked him what I had done to him.
And then he rushed at me and bit my finger badly, I don't know why."
"I'll thrash him, sir, at once- this minute!" The captain jumped
up from his seat.
"But I am not complaining at all, I am simply telling you.... I
don't want him to be thrashed. Besides, he seems to be ill."
"And do you suppose I'd thrash him? That I'd take my Ilusha and
thrash him before you for your satisfaction? Would you like it done at
once, sir?" said the captain, suddenly turning to Alyosha, as though
he were going to attack him. "I am sorry about your finger, sir; but
instead of thrashing Ilusha, would you like me to chop off my four
fingers with this knife here before your eyes to satisfy your just
wrath? I should think four fingers would be enough to satisfy your
thirst for vengeance. You won't ask for the fifth one too?" He stopped
short with a catch in his throat. Every feature in his face was
twitching and working; he looked extremely defiant. He was in a sort
of frenzy.
"I think I understand it all now," said Alyosha gently and
sorrowfully, still keeping his seat. "So your boy is a good boy, he
loves his father, and he attacked me as the brother of your
assailant.... Now I understand it," he repeated thoughtfully. "But
my brother Dmitri Fyodorovitch regrets his action, I know that, and if
only it is possible for him to come to you, or better still, to meet
you in that same place, he will ask your forgiveness before
everyone- if you wish it."
"After pulling out my beard, you mean, he will ask my forgiveness?
And he thinks that will be a satisfactory finish, doesn't he?"
"Oh, no! On the contrary, he will do anything you like and in
any way you like."
"So if I were to ask his highness to go down on his knees before
me in that very tavern- 'The Metropolis' it's called- or in the
marketplace, he would do it?"
"Yes, he would even go down on his knees."
"You've pierced me to the heart, sir. Touched me to tears and
pierced me to the heart! I am only too sensible of your brother's
generosity. Allow me to introduce my family, my two daughters and my
son- my litter. If I die, who will care for them, and while I live who
but they will care for a wretch like me? That's a great thing the Lord
has ordained for every man of my sort, sir. For there must be
someone able to love even a man like me."
"Ah, that's perfectly true!" exclaimed Alyosha.
"Oh, do leave off playing the fool! Some idiot comes in, and you
put us to shame!" cried the girl by the window, suddenly turning to
her father with a disdainful and contemptuous air.
"Wait a little, Varvara!" cried her father, speaking
peremptorily but looking at them quite approvingly. "That's her
character," he said, addressing Alyosha again.

"And in all nature there was naught
That could find favour in his eyes-

or rather in the feminine- that could find favour in her eyes- . But
now let me present you to my wife, Arina Petrovna. She is crippled,
she is forty-three; she can move, but very little. She is of humble
origin. Arina Petrovna, compose your countenance. This is Alexey
Fyodorovitch Karamazov. Get up, Alexey Fyodorovitch." He took him by
the hand and with unexpected force pulled him up. "You must stand up
to be introduced to a lady. It's not the Karamazov, mamma, who...
h'm... etcetera, but his brother, radiant with modest virtues. Come,
Arina Petrovna, come, mamma, first your hand to be kissed."
And he kissed his wife's hand respectfully and even tenderly.
The girl at the window turned her back indignantly on the scene; an
expression of extraordinary cordiality came over the haughtily
inquiring face of the woman.
"Good morning! Sit down, Mr. Tchernomazov," she said.
"Karamazov, mamma, Karamazov. We are of humble origin," he
whispered again.
"Well, Karamazov, or whatever it is, but I always think of
Tchermomazov.... Sit down. Why has he pulled you up? He calls me
crippled, but I am not, only my legs are swollen like barrels, and I
am shrivelled up myself. Once I used to be so fat, but now it's as
though I had swallowed a needle."
"We are of humble origin," the captain muttered again.
"Oh, father, father!" the hunchback girl, who had till then been
silent on her chair, said suddenly, and she hid her eyes in her
handkerchief.
"Buffoon!" blurted out the girl at the window.
"Have you heard our news?" said the mother, pointing at her
daughters. "It's like clouds coming over; the clouds pass and we
have music again. When we were with the army, we used to have many
such guests. I don't mean to make any comparisons; everyone to their
taste. The deacon's wife used to come then and say, 'Alexandr
Alexandrovitch is a man of the noblest heart, but Nastasya
Petrovna,' she would say, 'is of the brood of hell.' 'Well,' I said,
'that's a matter of taste; but you are a little spitfire.' 'And you
want keeping in your place;' says she. 'You black sword,' said I, 'who
asked you to teach me?' 'But my breath,' says she, 'is clean, and
yours is unclean.' 'You ask all the officers whether my breath is
unclean.' And ever since then I had it in my mind. Not long ago I
was sitting here as I am now, when I saw that very general come in who
came here for Easter, and I asked him: 'Your Excellency,' said I, 'can
a lady's breath be unpleasant?' 'Yes,' he answered; 'you ought to open
a window-pane or open the door, for the air is not fresh here.' And
they all go on like that! And what is my breath to them? The dead
smell worse still!. 'I won't spoil the air,' said I, 'I'll order
some slippers and go away.' My darlings, don't blame your own
mother! Nikolay Ilyitch, how is it I can't please you? There's only
Ilusha who comes home from school and loves me. Yesterday he brought
me an apple. Forgive your own mother- forgive a poor lonely
creature! Why has my breath become unpleasant to you?"
And the poor mad woman broke into sobs, and tears streamed down
her cheeks. The captain rushed up to her.
"Mamma, mamma, my dear, give over! You are not lonely. Everyone
loves you, everyone adores you." He began kissing both her hands again
and tenderly stroking her face; taking the dinner-napkin, he began
wiping away her tears. Alyosha fancied that he too had tears in his
eyes. "There, you see, you hear?" he turned with a sort of fury to
Alyosha, pointing to the poor imbecile.
"I see and hear," muttered Alyosha.
"Father, father, how can you- with him! Let him alone!" cried
the boy, sitting up in his bed and gazing at his father with glowing
eyes.
"Do give over fooling, showing off your silly antics which never
lead to anything! shouted Varvara, stamping her foot with passion.
"Your anger is quite just this time, Varvara, and I'll make
haste to satisfy you. Come, put on your cap, Alexey Fyodorovitch,
and I'll put on mine. We will go out. I have a word to say to you in
earnest, but not within these walls. This girl sitting here is my
daughter Nina; I forgot to introduce her to you. She is a heavenly
angel incarnate... who has flown down to us mortals,... if you can
understand."
"There he is shaking all over, as though he is in convulsions!"
Varvara went on indignantly.
"And she there stamping her foot at me and calling me a fool
just now, she is a heavenly angel incarnate too, and she has good
reason to call me so. Come along, Alexey Fyodorovitch, we must make an
end."
And, snatching Alyosha's hand, he drew him out of the room into
the street.
Chapter 7
And in the Open Air

"THE air is fresh, but in my apartment it is not so in any sense
of the word. Let us walk slowly, sir. I should be glad of your kind
interest."
"I too have something important to say to you," observed
Alyosha, "only I don't know how to begin."
"To be sure you must have business with me. You would never have
looked in upon me without some object. Unless you come simply to
complain of the boy, and that's hardly likely. And, by the way,
about the boy: I could not explain to you in there, but here I will
describe that scene to you. My tow was thicker a week ago- I mean my
beard. That's the nickname they give to my beard, the schoolboys
most of all. Well, your brother Dmitri Fyodorovitch was pulling me
by my beard, I'd done nothing, he was in a towering rage and
happened to come upon me. He dragged me out of the tavern into the
market place; at that moment the boys were coming out of school, and
with them Ilusha. As soon as he saw me in such a state he rushed up to
me. 'Father,' he cried, 'father!' He caught hold of me, hugged me,
tried to pull me away, crying to my assailant, 'Let go, let go, it's
my father, forgive him!'- yes, he actually cried 'forgive him.' He
clutched at that hand, that very hand, in his little hands and
kissed it.... I remember his little face at that moment, I haven't
forgotten it and I never shall!"
"I swear," cried Alyosha, "that my brother will express his most
deep and sincere regret, even if he has to go down on his knees in
that same market-place.... I'll make him or he is no brother of mine!
"Aha, then it's only a suggestion! And it does not come from him
but simply from the generosity of your own warm heart. You should have
said so. No, in that case allow me to tell you of your brother's
highly chivalrous soldierly generosity, for he did give expression
to it at the time. He left off dragging me by my beard and released
me: 'You are an officer,' he said, 'and I am an officer, if you can
find a decent man to be your second send me your challenge. I will
give satisfaction, though you are a scoundrel.' That's what he said. A
chivalrous spirit indeed! I retired with Ilusha, and that scene is a
family record imprinted forever on Ilusha's soul. No, it's not for
us to claim the privileges of noblemen. Judge for yourself. You've
just been in our mansion, what did you see there? Three ladies, one
a cripple and weak-minded, another a cripple and hunchback and the
third not crippled but far too clever. She is a student, dying to
get back to Petersburg, to work for the emancipation of the Russian
woman on the banks of the Neva. I won't speak of Ilusha, he is only
nine. I am alone in the world, and if I die, what will become of all
of them? I simply ask you that. And if I challenge him and he kills me
on the spot, what then? What will become of them? And worse still,
if he doesn't kill me but only cripples me: I couldn't work, but I
should still be a mouth to feed. Who would feed it and who would
feed them all? Must I take Ilusha from school and send him to beg in
the streets? That's what it means for me to challenge him to a duel.
It's silly talk and nothing else."
"He will beg your forgiveness, he will bow down at your feet in
the middle of the marketplace," cried Alyosha again, with glowing
eyes.
"I did think of prosecuting him," the captain went on, "but look
in our code, could I get much compensation for a personal injury?
And then Agrafena Alexandrovna* sent for me and shouted at me:
'Don't dare to dream of it! If you proceed against him, I'll publish
it to all the world that he beat you for your dishonesty, and then you
will be prosecuted.' I call God to witness whose was the dishonesty
and by whose commands I acted, wasn't it by her own and Fyodor
Pavlovitch's? And what's more,' she went on, 'I'll dismiss you for
good and you'll never earn another penny from me. I'll speak to my
merchant too' (that's what she calls her old man) 'and he will dismiss
you!' And if he dismisses me, what can I earn then from anyone?
Those two are all I have to look to, for your Fyodor Pavlovitch has
not only given over employing me, for another reason, but he means
to make use of papers I've signed to go to law against me. And so I
kept quiet, and you have seen our retreat. But now let me ask you: did
Ilusha hurt your finger much? I didn't like to go into it in our
mansion before him."

* Grushenka.

"Yes, very much, and he was in a great fury. He was avenging you
on me as a Karamazov, I see that now. But if only you had seen how
he was throwing stones at his schoolfellows! It's very dangerous. They
might kill him. They are children and stupid. A stone may be thrown
and break somebody's head."
"That's just what has happened. He has been bruised by a stone
to-day. Not on the head but on the chest, just above the heart. He
came home crying and groaning and now he is ill."
"And you know he attacks them first. He is bitter against them
on your account. They say he stabbed a boy called Krassotkin with a
penknife not long ago."
"I've heard about that too, it's dangerous. Krassotkin is an
official here, we may hear more about it."
"I would advise you," Alyosha went on warmly, "not to send him
to school at all for a time till he is calmer. and his anger is
passed."
"Anger!" the captain repeated, "that's just what it is. He is a
little creature, but it's a mighty anger. You don't know all, sir. Let
me tell you more. Since that incident all the boys have been teasing
him about the 'wisp of tow.' Schoolboys are a merciless race,
individually they are angels, but together, especially in schools,
they are often merciless. Their teasing has stiffed up a gallant
spirit in Ilusha. An ordinary boy, a weak son, would have submitted,
have felt ashamed of his father, sir, but he stood up for his father
against them all. For his father and for truth and justice. For what
he suffered when he kissed your brother's hand and cried to him
'Forgive father, forgive him,'- that only God knows- and I, his
father. For our children- not your children, but ours- the children of
the poor gentlemen looked down upon by everyone- know what justice
means, sir, even at nine years old. How should the rich know? They
don't explore such depths once in their lives. But at that moment in
the square when he kissed his hand, at that moment my Ilusha had
grasped all that justice means. That truth entered into him and
crushed him for ever, sir," the captain said hotly again with a sort
of frenzy, and he struck his right fist against his left palm as
though he wanted to show how "the truth" crushed Ilusha. "That very
day, sir, he fell ill with fever and was delirious all night. All that
day he hardly said a word to me, but I noticed he kept watching me
from the corner, though he turned to the window and pretended to be
learning his lessons. But I could see his mind was not on his lessons.
Next day I got drunk to forget my troubles, sinful man as I am, and
I don't remember much. Mamma began crying, too- I am very fond of
mamma- well, I spent my last penny drowning my troubles. Don't despise
me for that, sir, in Russia men who drink are the best. The best men
amongst us are the greatest drunkards. I lay down and I don't remember
about Ilusha, though all that day the boys had been jeering at him
at school. 'Wisp of tow,' they shouted, 'your father was pulled out of
the tavern by his wisp of tow, you ran by and begged forgiveness.'
"On the third day when he came back from school, I saw he looked
pale and wretched. 'What is it?' I asked. He wouldn't answer. Well,
there's no talking in our mansion without mamma and the girls taking
part in it. What's more, the girls had heard about it the very first
day. Varvara had begun snarling. 'You fools and buffoons, can you ever
do anything rational?' 'Quite so,' I said,'can we ever do anything
rational?' For the time I turned it off like that. So in the evening I
took the boy out for a walk, for you must know we go for a walk
every evening, always the same way, along which we are going now- from
our gate to that great stone which lies alone in the road under the
hurdle, which marks the beginning of the town pasture. A beautiful and
lonely spot, sir. Ilusha and I walked along hand in hand as usual.
He has a little hand, his fingers are thin and cold- he suffers with
his chest, you know. 'Father,' said he, 'father!' 'Well?' said I. I
saw his eyes flashing. 'Father, how he treated you then!' 'It can't be
helped, Ilusha,' I said. 'Don't forgive him, father, don't forgive
him! At school they say that he has paid you ten roubles for it.'
'No Ilusha,' said I, 'I would not take money from him for anything.'
he began trembling all over, took my hand in both his and kissed it
again. 'Father,' he said, 'father, challenge him to a duel, at
school they say you are a coward and won't challenge him, and that
you'll accept ten roubles from him.' 'I can't challenge him to a duel,
Ilusha,' I answered. And I told briefly what I've just told you. He
listened. 'Father,' he said, anyway don't forgive it. When I grow up
I'll call him out myself and kill him.' His eyes shone and glowed. And
of course I am his father, and I had to put in a word: 'It's a sin
to kill,' I said, 'even in a duel.' 'Father,' he said, 'when I grow
up, I'll knock him down, knock the sword out of his hand, I'll fall on
him, wave my sword over him and say: "I could kill you, but I
forgive you, so there!"' You see what the workings of his little
mind have been during these two days; he must have been planning
that vengeance all day, and raving about it at night.
"But he began to come home from school badly beaten, I found out
about it the day before yesterday, and you are right, I won't send him
to that school any more. I heard that he was standing up against all
the class alone and defying them all, that his heart was full of
resentment, of bitterness- I was alarmed about him. We went for
another walk. 'Father,' he asked, 'are the rich people stronger than
anyone else on earth?' 'Yes, Ilusha,' I said, 'there are no people
on earth stronger than the rich.' 'Father,' he said, 'I will get rich,
I will become an officer and conquer everybody. The Tsar will reward
me, I will come back here and then no one will dare- ' Then he was
silent and his lips still kept trembling. 'Father,' he said, 'what a
horrid town this is.' 'Yes, Ilusha,' I said, 'it isn't a very nice
town.' 'Father, let us move into another town, a nice one,' he said,
'where people don't know about us.' 'We will move, we will, Ilusha,'
said I, 'only I must save up for it.' I was glad to be able to turn
his mind from painful thoughts, and we began to dream of how we
would move to another town, how we would buy a horse and cart. 'We
will put mamma and your sisters inside, we will cover them up and
we'll walk, you shall have a lift now and then, and I'll walk
beside, for we must take care of our horse, we can't all ride.
That's how we'll go.' He was enchanted at that, most of all at the
thought of having a horse and driving him. For of course a Russian boy
is born among horses. We chattered a long while. Thank God, I thought,
I have diverted his mind and comforted him.
"That was the day before yesterday, in the evening, but last night
everything was changed. He had gone to school in the morning, he
came back depressed, terribly depressed. In the evening I took him
by the hand and we went for a walk; he would not talk. There was a
wind blowing and no sun, and a feeling of autumn; twilight was
coming on. We walked along, both of us depressed. 'Well, my boy,' said
I, 'how about our setting off on our travels?' I thought I might bring
him back to our talk of the day before. He didn't answer, but I felt
his fingers trembling in my hand. Ah, I thought, it's a bad job;
there's something fresh. We had reached the stone where we are now.
I sat down on the stone. And in the air there were lots of kites
flapping and whirling. There were as many as thirty in sight. Of
course, it's just the season for the kites. 'Look, Ilusha,' said I,
'it's time we got out our last year's kite again. I'll mend it;
where have you put it away?' My boy made no answer. He looked away and
turned sideways to me. And then a gust of wind blew up the sand. He
suddenly fell on me, threw both his little arms round my neck and held
me tight. You know, when children are silent and proud, and try to
keep back their tears when they are in great trouble and suddenly
break down, their tears fall in streams. With those warm streams of
tears, he suddenly wetted my face. He sobbed and shook as though he
were in convulsions, and squeezed up against me as I sat on the stone.
'Father,' he kept crying, 'dear father, how he insulted you!' And I
sobbed too. We sat shaking in each other's arms. 'Ilusha,' I said to
him, 'Ilusha, darling.' No one saw us then. God alone saw us; I hope
He will record it to my credit. You must thank your brother, Alexey
Fyodorovitch. No, sir, I won't thrash my boy for your satisfaction."
He had gone back to his original tone of resentful buffoonery.
Alyosha felt, though, that he trusted him, and that if there had
been someone else in his, Alyosha's place, the man would not have
spoken so openly and would not have told what he had just told. This
encouraged Alyosha, whose heart was trembling on the verge of tears.
"Ah, how I would like to make friends with your boy!" he cried.
"If you could arrange it- "
"Certainly, sir," muttered the captain.
"But now listen to something quite different!" Alyosha went on. "I
have a message for you. That same brother of mine, Dmitri, has
insulted his betrothed, too, a noble-hearted girl of whom you have
probably heard. I have a right to tell you of her wrong; I ought to do
so, in fact, for, hearing of the insult done to you and learning all
about your unfortunate position, she commissioned me at once- just
now- to bring you this help from her- but only from her alone, not
from Dmitri, who has abandoned her. Nor from me, his brother, nor from
anyone else, but from her, only from her! She entreats you to accept
her help....You have both been insulted by the same man. She thought
of you only when she had just received a similar insult from him-
similar in its cruelty, I mean. She comes like a sister to help a
brother in misfortune.... She told me to persuade you to take these
two hundred roubles from her, as from a sister, knowing that you are
in such need. No one will know of it, it can give rise to no unjust
slander. There are the two hundred roubles, and I swear you must
take them unless- unless all men are to be enemies on earth! But there
are brothers even on earth.... You have a generous heart... you must
see that, you must," and Alyosha held out two new rainbow-coloured
hundred-rouble notes.
They were both standing at the time by the great stone close to
the fence, and there was no one near. The notes seemed to produce a
tremendous impression on the captain. He started, but at first only
from astonishment. Such an outcome of their conversation was the
last thing he expected. Nothing could have been farther from his
dreams than help from anyone- and such a sum!
He took the notes, and for a minute he was almost unable to
answer, quite a new expression came into his face.
"That for me? So much money- two hundred roubles! Good heavens!
Why, I haven't seen so much money for the last four years! Mercy on
us! And she says she is a sister.... And is that the truth?"
"I swear that all I told you is the truth,"cried Alyosha.
The captain flushed red.
"Listen, my dear, listen. If I take it, I shan't be behaving
like a scoundrel? In your eyes, Alexey Fyodorovitch, I shan't be a
scoundrel? No, Alexey Fyodorovitch, listen, listen," he hurried,
touching Alyosha with both his hands. "You are persuading me to take
it, saying that it's a sister sends it, but inwardly, in your heart
won't you feel contempt for me if I take it, eh?"
"No, no, on my salvation I swear I shan't! And no one will ever
know but me- I, you and she, and one other lady, her great friend."
"Never mind the lady! Listen, Alexey Fyodorovitch, at a moment
like this you must listen, for you can't understand what these two
hundred roubles mean to me now." The poor fellow went on rising
gradually into a sort of incoherent, almost wild enthusiasm. He was
thrown off his balance and talked extremely fast, as though afraid
he would not be allowed to say all he had to say.
"Besides its being honestly acquired from a 'sister,' so highly
respected and revered, do you know that now I can look after mamma and
Nina, my hunchback angel daughter? Doctor Herzenstube came to me in
the kindness of his heart and was examining them both for a whole
hour. 'I can make nothing of it,' said he, but he prescribed a mineral
water which is kept at a chemist's here. He said it would be sure to
do her good, and he ordered baths, too, with some medicine in them.
The mineral water costs thirty copecks, and she'd need to drink
forty bottles perhaps: so I took the prescription and laid it on the
shelf under the ikons, and there it lies. And he ordered hot baths for
Nina with something dissolved in them, morning and evening. But how
can we carry out such a cure in our mansion, without servants, without
help, without a bath, and without water? Nina is rheumatic all over, I
don't think I told you that. All her right side aches at night, she is
in agony, and, would you believe it, the angel bears it without
groaning for fear of waking us. We eat what we can get, and she'll
only take the leavings, what you'd scarcely give to a dog. 'I am not
worth it, I am taking it from you, I am a burden on you,' that's
what her angel eyes try to express. We wait on her, but she doesn't
like it. 'I am a useless cripple, no good to anyone.' As though she
were not worth it, when she is the saving of all of us with her
angelic sweetness. Without her, without her gentle word it would be
hell among us! She softens even Varvara. And don't judge Varvara
harshly either, she is an angel too, she, too, has suffered wrong. She
came to us for the summer, and she brought sixteen roubles she had
earned by lessons and saved up, to go back with to Petersburg in
September, that is now. But we took her money and lived on it, so
now she has nothing to go back with. Though indeed she couldn't go
back, for she has to work for us like a slave. She is like an
overdriven horse with all of us on her back. She waits on us all,
mends and washes, sweeps the floor, puts mamma to bed. And mamma is
capricious and tearful and insane! And now I can get a servant with
this money, you understand, Alexey Fyodorovitch, I can get medicines
for the dear creatures, I can send my student to Petersburg, I can buy
beef, I can feed them properly. Good Lord, but it's a dream!"
Alyosha was delighted that he had brought him such happiness and
that the poor fellow had consented to be made happy.
"Stay, Alexey Fyodorovitch, stay," the captain began to talk
with frenzied rapidity, carried away by a new day-dream. "Do you
know that Ilusha and I will perhaps really carry out our dream. We
will buy a horse and cart, a black horse, he insists on its being
black, and we will set off as we pretended the other day. I have an
old friend, a lawyer in K. province, and I heard through a trustworthy
man that if I were to go he'd give me a place as clerk in his
office, so, who knows, maybe he would. So I'd just put mamma and
Nina in the cart, and Ilusha could drive, and I'd walk, I'd walk....
Why, if I only succeed in getting one debt paid that's owing me, I
should have perhaps enough for that too!"
"There would be enough!" cried Alyosha. "Katerina Ivanovna will
send you as much more as you need, and you know, I have money too,
take what you want, as you would from a brother, from a friend, you
can give it back later.... (You'll get rich. you'll get rich!) And you
know you couldn't have a better idea than to move to another province!
It would be the saving of you, especially of your boy and you ought to
go quickly, before the winter, before the cold. You must write to us
when you are there, and we will always be brothers... No, it's not a
dream!"
Alyosha could have hugged him, he was so pleased. But glancing
at him he stopped short. The man was standing with his neck
outstretched and his lips protruding, with a pale and frenzied face.
His lips were moving as though trying to articulate something; no
sound came, but still his lips moved. It was uncanny.
"What is it?" asked Alyosha, startled.
"Alexey Fyodorovitch... I... you," muttered the captain,
faltering, looking at him with a strange, wild, fixed stare, and an
air of desperate resolution. At the same time there was a sort of grin
on his lips. "I... you, sir... wouldn't you like me to show you a
little trick I know?" he murmured, suddenly, in a firm rapid
whisper, his voice no longer faltering.
"What trick?"
"A pretty trick," whispered the captain. His mouth was twisted
on the left side, his left eye was screwed up. He still stared at
Alyosha.
"What is the matter? What trick?" Alyosha cried, now thoroughly
alarmed.
"Why, look," squealed the captain suddenly, and showing him the
two notes which he had been holding by one corner between his thumb
and forefinger during the conversation, he crumpled them up savagely
and squeezed them tight in his right hand. "Do you see, do you see?"
he shrieked, pale and infuriated. And suddenly flinging up his hand,
he threw the crumpled notes on the sand. "Do you see?" he shrieked
again, pointing to them. "Look there!"
And with wild fury he began trampling them under his heel, gasping
and exclaiming as he did so:
"So much for your money! So much for your money! So much for
your money! So much for your money!"
Suddenly he darted back and drew himself up before Alyosha, and
his whole figure expressed unutterable pride.
"Tell those who sent you that the wisp of tow does not sell his
honour," he cried, raising his arm in the air. Then he turned
quickly and began to run; but he had not run five steps before he
turned completely round and kissed his hand to Alyosha. He ran another
five paces and then turned round for the last time. This time his face
was not contorted with laughter, but quivering all over with tears. In
a tearful, faltering, sobbing voice he cried:
"What should I say to my boy if I took money from you for our
shame?"
And then he ran on without turning. Alyosha looked after him,
inexpressibly grieved. Oh, he saw that till the very last moment the
man had not known he would crumple up and fling away the notes. He did
not turn back. Alyosha knew he would not. He would not follow him
and call him back, he knew why. When he was out of sight, Alyosha
picked up the two notes. They were very much crushed and crumpled, and
had been pressed into the sand, but were uninjured and even rustled
like new ones when Alyosha unfolded them and smoothed them out.
After smoothing them out, he folded them up, put them in his pocket
and went to Katerina Ivanovna to report on the success of her
commission.