The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (reading an ebook TXT) 📗
- Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Performer: 0140449248
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said very little to me these last two months. And whenever I go to see
him, he seems vexed at my coming, so I’ve not been to him for the last
three weeks. H’m!… if he was there a week ago… there certainly has
been a change in Mitya this week.”
“There has been a change,” Grushenka assented quickly. “They
have a secret, they have a secret! Mitya told me himself there was a
secret, and such a secret that Mitya can’t rest. Before then, he was
cheerful-and, indeed, he is cheerful now-but when he shakes his head
like that, you know, and strides about the room and keeps pulling at
the hair on his right temple with his right hand, I know there is
something on his mind worrying him…. I know! He was cheerful before,
though, indeed, he is cheerful to-day.”
“But you said he was worried.”
“Yes, he is worried and yet cheerful. He keeps on being
irritable for a minute and then cheerful and then irritable again. And
you know, Alyosha, I am constantly wondering at him-with this awful
thing hanging over him, he sometimes laughs at such trifles as
though he were a baby himself.”
“And did he really tell you not to tell me about Ivan? Did he say,
‘Don’t tell him’?”
“Yes, he told me, ‘Don’t tell him.’ It’s you that Mitya’s most
afraid of. Because it’s a secret: he said himself it was a secret.
Alyosha, darling, go to him and find out what their secret is and come
and tell me,” Grushenka besought him with sudden eagerness. “Set my
mind at rest that I may know the worst that’s in store for me.
That’s why I sent for you.”
“You think it’s something to do with you? If it were, he
wouldn’t have told you there was a secret.”
“I don’t know. Perhaps he wants to tell me, but doesn’t dare to.
He warns me. There is a secret, he tells me, but he won’t tell me what
it is.”
“What do you think yourself?”
“What do I think? It’s the end for me, that’s what I think. They
all three have been plotting my end, for Katerina’s in it. It’s all
Katerina, it all comes from her. She is this and that, and that
means that I am not. He tells me that beforehand-warns me. He is
planning to throw me over, that’s the whole secret. They’ve planned it
together, the three of them-Mitya, Katerina, and Ivan Fyodorovitch.
Alyosha, I’ve been wanting to ask you a long time. A week ago he
suddenly told me that Ivan was in love with Katerina, because he often
goes to see her. Did he tell me the truth or not? Tell me, on your
conscience, tell me the worst.”
“I won’t tell you a lie. Ivan is not in love with Katerina
Ivanovna, I think.”
“Oh, that’s what I thought! He is lying to me, shameless deceiver,
that’s what it is! And he was jealous of me just now, so as to put the
blame on me afterwards. He is stupid, he can’t disguise what he is
doing; he is so open, you know…. But I’ll give it to him, I’ll
give it to him! ‘You believe I did it,’ he said. He said that to me,
to me. He reproached me with that! God forgive him! You wait, I’ll
make it hot for Katerina at the trial! I’ll just say a word then…
I’ll tell everything then!” And again she cried bitterly.
“This I can tell you for certain, Grushenka,” Alyosha said,
getting up. “First, that he loves you, loves you more than anyone in
the world, and you only, believe me. I know. I do know. The second
thing is that I don’t want to worm his secret out of him, but if he’ll
tell me of himself to-day, I shall tell him straight out that I have
promised to tell you. Then I’ll come to you to-day and tell you.
Only… I fancy… Katerina Ivanovna has nothing to do with it, and
that the secret is about something else. That’s certain. It isn’t
likely it’s about Katerina Ivanovna, it seems to me. Goodbye for
now.”
Alyosha shook hands with her. Grushenka was still crying. He saw
that she put little faith in his consolation, but she was better for
having had her sorrow out, for having spoken of it. He was sorry to
leave her in such a state of mind, but he was in haste. He had a great
many things to do still.
The Injured Foot
THE first of these things was at the house of Madame Hohlakov, and
he hurried there to get it over as quickly as possible and not be
too late for Mitya. Madame Hohlakov had been slightly ailing for the
last three weeks: her foot had for some reason swollen up, and
though she was not in bed, she lay all day half-reclining on the couch
in her boudoir, in a fascinating but decorous deshabille. Alyosha
had once noted with innocent amusement that, in spite of her
illness, Madame Hohlakov had begun to be rather dressy-topknots,
ribbons, loose wrappers had made their appearance, and he had an
inkling of the reason, though he dismissed such ideas from his mind as
frivolous. During the last two months the young official, Perhotin,
had become a regular visitor at the house.
Alyosha had not called for four days and he was in haste to go
straight to Lise, as it was with her he had to speak, for Lise had
sent a maid to him the previous day specially asking him to come to
her “about something very important,” a request which, for certain
reasons, had interest for Alyosha. But while the maid went to take his
name in to Lise, Madame Hohlakov heard of his arrival from someone,
and immediately sent to beg him to come to her “just for one
minute.” Alyosha reflected that it was better to accede to the mamma’s
request, or else she would be sending down to Lise’s room every minute
that he was there. Madame Hohlakov was lying on a couch. She was
particularly smartly dressed and was evidently in a state of extreme
nervous excitement. She greeted Alyosha with cries of rapture.
“It’s ages, ages, perfect ages since I’ve seen you! It’s a whole
week-only think of it! Ah, but you were here only four days ago, on
Wednesday. You have come to see Lise. I’m sure you meant to slip
into her room on tiptoe, without my hearing you. My dear, dear
Alexey Fyodorovitch, if you only knew how worried I am about her!
But of that later, though that’s the most important thing, of that
later. Dear Alexey Fyodorovitch, I trust you implicitly with my
Lise. Since the death of Father Zossima-God rest his soul!” (she
crossed herself)- “I look upon you as a monk, though you look charming
in your new suit. Where did you find such a tailor in these parts? No,
no, that’s not the chief thing-of that later. Forgive me for
sometimes calling you Alyosha; an old woman like me may take
liberties,” she smiled coquettishly; “but that will do later, too. The
important thing is that I shouldn’t forget what is important. Please
remind me of it yourself. As soon as my tongue runs away with me,
you just say ‘the important thing?’ Ach! how do I know now what is
of most importance? Ever since Lise took back her promise-her
childish promise, Alexey Fyodorovitch-to marry you, you’ve
realised, of course, that it was only the playful fancy of a sick
child who had been so long confined to her chair-thank God, she can
walk now!… that-new doctor Katya sent for from Moscow for your
unhappy brother, who will to-morrow- but why speak of to-morrow? I
am ready to die at the very thought of to-morrow. Ready to die of
curiosity…. That doctor was with us yesterday and saw Lise…. I
paid him fifty roubles for the visit. But that’s not the point, that’s
not the point again. You see, I’m mixing everything up. I am in such a
hurry. Why am I in a hurry? I don’t understand. It’s awful how I
seem growing unable to understand anything. Everything seems mixed
up in a sort of tangle. I am afraid you are so bored you will jump
up and run away, and that will be all I shall see of you. Goodness!
Why are we sitting here and no coffee? Yulia, Glafira, coffee!”
Alyosha made haste to thank her, and said that he had only just
had coffee.
“Where?”
“At Agrfena Alexandrovna’s.”
“At… at that woman’s? Ah, it’s she has brought ruin on everyone.
I know nothing about it though. They say she has become a saint,
though it’s rather late in the day. She had better have done it
before. What use is it now? Hush, hush, Alexey Fyodorovitch, for I
have so much to say to you that I am afraid I shall tell you
nothing. This awful trial… I shall certainly go, I am making
arrangements. I shall be carried there in my chair; besides I can
sit up. I shall have people with me. And, you know, I am a witness.
How shall I speak, how shall I speak? I don’t know what I shall say.
One has to take an oath, hasn’t one?”
“Yes; but I don’t think you will be able to go.”
“I can sit up. Ah, you put me out! Ah! this trial, this savage
act, and then they are all going to Siberia, some are getting married,
and all this so quickly, so quickly, everything’s changing, and at
last-nothing. All grow old and have death to look forward to. Well,
so be it! I am weary. This Katya, cette charmante personne, has
disappointed all my hopes. Now she is going to follow one of your
brothers to Siberia, and your other brother is going to follow her,
and will live in the nearest town, and they will all torment one
another. It drives me out of my mind. Worst of all-the publicity. The
story has been told a million times over in all the papers in Moscow
and Petersburg. Ah! yes, would you believe it, there’s a paragraph
that I was ‘a dear friend’ of your brother’s- , I can’t repeat the
horrid word. just fancy, just fancy!”
“Impossible! Where was the paragraph? What did it say?”
“I’ll show you directly. I got the paper and read it yesterday.
Here, in the Petersburg paper Gossip. The paper began coming out
this year. I am awfully fond of gossip, and I take it in, and now it
pays me out-this is what gossip comes to! Here it is, here, this
passage. Read it.”
And she handed Alyosha a sheet of newspaper which had been under
her pillow.
It was not exactly that she was upset, she seemed overwhelmed
and perhaps everything really was mixed up in a tangle in her head.
The paragraph was very typical, and must have been a great shock to
her, but, fortunately perhaps, she was unable to keep her mind fixed
on any one subject at that moment, and so might race off in a minute
to something else and quite forget the newspaper.
Alyosha was well aware that the story of the terrible case had
spread all over Russia. And, good heavens! what wild rumours about his
brother, about the Karamazovs, and about himself he had read in the
course of those two months, among other equally credible items! One
paper had even stated that he had gone into a monastery and become a
monk, in horror
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