ALYOSHA left his father's house feeling even more exhausted and

dejected in spirit than when he had entered it. His mind too seemed

shattered and unhinged, while he felt that he was afraid to put

together the disjointed fragments and form a general idea from all the

agonising and conflicting experiences of the day. He felt something

bordering upon despair, which he had never known till then. Towering

like a mountain above all the rest stood the fatal, insoluble

question: How would things end between his father and his brother

Dmitri with this terrible woman? Now he had himself been a witness

of it, he had been present and seen them face to face. Yet only his

brother Dmitri could be made unhappy, terribly, completely unhappy:

there was trouble awaiting him. It appeared too that there were

other people concerned, far more so than Alyosha could have supposed

before. There was something positively mysterious in it, too. Ivan had

made a step towards him, which was what Alyosha had been long

desiring. Yet now he felt for some reason that he was frightened at

it. And these women? Strange to say, that morning he had set out for

Katerina Ivanovna's in the greatest embarrassment; now he felt nothing

of the kind. On the contrary, he was hastening there as though

expecting to find guidance from her. Yet to give her this message

was obviously more difficult than before. The matter of the three

thousand was decided irrevocably, and Dmitri, feeling himself

dishonoured and losing his last hope, might sink to any depth. He had,

moreover, told him to describe to Katerina Ivanovna the scene which

had just taken place with his father.

    It was by now seven o'clock, and it was getting dark as Alyosha

entered the very spacious and convenient house in the High Street

occupied by Katerina Ivanovna. Alyosha knew that she lived with two

aunts. One of them, a woman of little education, was that aunt of

her half-sister Agafya Ivanovna who had looked after her in her

father's house when she came from boarding-school. The other aunt

was a Moscow lady of style and consequence, though in straitened

circumstances. It was said that they both gave way in everything to

Katerina Ivanovna, and that she only kept them with her as

chaperons. Katerina Ivanovna herself gave way to no one but her

benefactress, the general's widow, who had been kept by illness in

Moscow, and to whom she was obliged to write twice a week a full

account of all her doings.

    When Alyosha entered the hall and asked the maid who opened the

door to him to take his name up, it was evident that they were already

aware of his arrival. Possibly he had been noticed from the window. At

least, Alyosha heard a noise, caught the sound of flying footsteps and

rustling skirts. Two or three women, perhaps, had run out of the room.

    Alyosha thought it strange that his arrival should cause such

excitement. He was conducted, however, to the drawing-room at once. It

was a large room, elegantly and amply furnished, not at all in

provincial style. There were many sofas, lounges, settees, big and

little tables. There were pictures on the walls, vases and lamps on

the tables, masses of flowers, and even an aquarium in the window.

It was twilight and rather dark. Alyosha made out a silk mantle thrown

down on the sofa, where people had evidently just been sitting; and on

a table in front of the sofa were two unfinished cups of chocolate,

cakes, a glass saucer with blue raisins, and another with

sweetmeats. Alyosha saw that he had interrupted visitors, and frowned.

But at that instant the portiere was raised, and with rapid,

hurrying footsteps Katerina Ivanovna came in, holding out both hands

to Alyosha with a radiant smile of delight. At the same instant a

servant brought in two lighted candles and set them on the table.

    "Thank God! At last you have come too! I've been simply praying

for you all day! Sit down."

    Alyosha had been struck by Katerina Ivanovna's beauty when,

three weeks before, Dmitri had first brought him, at Katerina

Ivanovna's special request, to be introduced to her. There had been no

conversation between them at that interview, however. Supposing

Alyosha to be very shy, Katerina Ivanovna had talked all the time to

Dmitri to spare him. Alyosha had been silent, but he had seen a

great deal very clearly. He was struck by the imperiousness, proud

ease, and self-confidence of the haughty girl. And all that was

certain, Alyosha felt that he was not exaggerating it. He thought

her great glowing black eyes were very fine, especially with her pale,

even rather sallow, longish face. But in those eyes and in the lines

of her exquisite lips there was something with which his brother might

well be passionately in love, but which perhaps could not be loved for

long. He expressed this thought almost plainly to Dmitri when, after

the visit, his brother besought and insisted that he should not

conceal his impressions on seeing his betrothed.

    "You'll be happy with her, but perhaps not tranquilly happy."

    "Quite so, brother. Such people remain always the same. They don't

yield to fate. So you think I shan't love her for ever."

    "No; perhaps you will love her for ever. But perhaps you won't

always be happy with her."

    Alyosha had given his opinion at the time, blushing, and angry

with himself for having yielded to his brother's entreaties and put

such "foolish" ideas into words. For his opinion had struck him as

awfully foolish immediately after he had uttered it. He felt ashamed

too of having given so confident an opinion about a woman. It was with

the more amazement that he felt now, at the first glance at Katerina

Ivanovna as she ran in to him, that he had perhaps been utterly

mistaken. This time her face was beaming with spontaneous good-natured

kindliness, and direct warm-hearted sincerity. The "pride and

haughtiness," which had struck Alyosha so much before, was only

betrayed now in a frank, generous energy and a sort of bright,

strong faith in herself. Alyosha realised at the first glance, at

the first word, that all the tragedy of her position in relation to

the man she loved so dearly was no secret to her; that she perhaps

already knew everything, positively everything. And yet, in spite of

that, there was such brightness in her face, such faith in the future.

Alyosha felt at once that he had gravely wronged her in his

thoughts. He was conquered and captivated immediately. Besides all

this, he noticed at her first words that she was in great

excitement, an excitement perhaps quite exceptional and almost

approaching ecstasy.

    "I was so eager to see you, because I can learn from you the whole

truth- from you and no one else."

    "I have come," muttered Alyosha confusedly, "I- he sent me."

    "Ah, he sent you I foresaw that. Now I know everything-

everything!" cried Katerina Ivanovna, her eyes flashing. "Wait a

moment, Alexey Fyodorovitch, I'll tell you why I've been so longing to

see you. You see, I know perhaps far more than you do yourself, and

there's no need for you to tell me anything. I'll tell you what I want

from you. I want to know your own last impression of him. I want you

to tell me most directly, plainly, coarsely even (oh, as coarsely as

you like!), what you thought of him just now and of his position after

your meeting with him to-day. That will perhaps be better than if I

had a personal explanation with him, as he does not want to come to

me. Do you understand what I want from you? Now, tell me simply,

tell me every word of the message he sent you with (I knew he would

send you)."

    "He told me to give you his compliments and to say that he would

never come again but to give you his compliments."

    "His compliments? Was that what he said his own expression?"

    "Yes."

    "Accidentally perhaps he made a mistake in the word, perhaps he

did not use the right word?"

    "No; he told me precisely to repeat that word. He begged me two or

three times not to forget to say so."

    Katerina Ivanovna flushed hotly.

    "Help me now, Alexey Fyodorovitch. Now I really need your help.

I'll tell you what I think, and you must simply say whether it's right

or not. Listen! If he had sent me his compliments in passing,

without insisting on your repeating the words, without emphasising

them, that would be the end of everything! But if he particularly

insisted on those words, if he particularly told you not to forget

to repeat them to me, then perhaps he was in excitement, beside

himself. He had made his decision and was frightened at it. He

wasn't walking away from me with a resolute step, but leaping

headlong. The emphasis on that phrase may have been simply bravado."

    "Yes, yes!" cried Alyosha warmly. "I believe that is it."

    "And, if so, he's not altogether lost. I can still save him. Stay!

Did he not tell you anything about money- about three thousand

roubles?"

    "He did speak about it, and it's that more than anything that's

crushing him. He said he had lost his honour and that nothing

matters now," Alyosha answered warmly, feeling a rush of hope in his

heart and believing that there really might be a way of escape and

salvation for his brother. "But do you know about the money?" he

added, and suddenly broke off.

    "I've known of it a long time; I telegraphed to Moscow to inquire,

and heard long ago that the money had not arrived. He hadn't sent

the money, but I said nothing. Last week I learnt that he was still in

need of money. My only object in all this was that he should know to

whom to turn, and who was his true friend. No, he won't recognise that

I am his truest friend; he won't know me, and looks on me merely as

a woman. I've been tormented all the week, trying to think how to

prevent him from being ashamed to face me because he spent that

three thousand. Let him feel ashamed of himself, let him be ashamed of

other people's knowing, but not of my knowing. He can tell God

everything without shame. Why is it he still does not understand how

much I am ready to bear for his sake? Why, why doesn't he know me? How

dare he not know me after all that has happened? I want to save him

for ever. Let him forget me as his betrothed. And here he fears that

he is dishonoured in my eyes. Why, he wasn't afraid to be open with

you, Alexey Fyodorovitch. How is it that I don't deserve the same?"

    The last words she uttered in tears. Tears gushed from her eyes.

    "I must tell you," Alyosha began, his voice trembling too, "what

happened just now between him and my father."

    And he described the whole scene, how Dmitri had sent him to get

the money, how he had broken in, knocked his father down, and after

that had again specially and emphatically begged him to take his

compliments and farewell. "He went to that woman," Alyosha added

softly.

    "And do you suppose that I can't put up with that woman? Does he

think I can't? But he won't marry her," she suddenly laughed

nervously. "Could such a passion last for ever in a Karamazov? It's

passion, not love. He won't marry her because she won't marry him."

Again Katerina Ivanovna laughed strangely.

    "He may marry her," said Alyosha mournfully, looking down.

    "He won't marry her, I tell you. That girl is an angel. Do you

know that? Do you know that?" Katerina Ivanovna exclaimed suddenly

with extraordinary warmth. "She is one of the most fantastic of

fantastic creatures. I know how bewitching she is, but I know too that

she is kind, firm, and noble. Why do you look at me like that,

Alexey Fyodorovitch? Perhaps you are wondering at my words, perhaps

you don't believe me? Agrafena Alexandrovna, my angel!" she cried

suddenly to someone, peeping into the next room, "come in to us.

This is a friend. This is Alyosha. He knows all about our affairs.

Show yourself to him."

    "I've only been waiting behind the curtain for you to call me,"

said a soft, one might even say sugary, feminine voice.

    The portiere was raised and Grushenka herself, smiling and

beaming, came up to the table. A violent revulsion passed over

Alyosha. He fixed his eyes on her and could not take them off. Here

she was, that awful woman, the "beast," as Ivan had called her half an

hour before. And yet one would have thought the creature standing

before him most simple and ordinary, a good-natured, kind woman,

handsome certainly, but so like other handsome ordinary women! It is

true she was very, very good-looking with that Russian beauty so

passionately loved by many men. She was a rather tall woman, though

a little shorter than Katerina Ivanovna, who was exceptionally tall.

She had a full figure, with soft, as it were, noiseless, movements,

softened to a peculiar over-sweetness, like her voice. She moved,

not like Katerina Ivanovna, with a vigorous, bold step, but

noiselessly. Her feet made absolutely no sound on the floor. She

sank softly into a low chair, softly rustling her sumptuous black silk

dress, and delicately nestling her milk-white neck and broad shoulders

in a costly cashmere shawl. She was twenty-two years old, and her face

looked exactly that age. She was very white in the face, with a pale

pink tint on her cheeks. The modelling of her face might be said to be

too broad, and the lower jaw was set a trifle forward. Her upper lip

was thin, but the slightly prominent lower lip was at least twice as

full, and looked pouting. But her magnificent, abundant dark brown

hair, her sable-coloured eyebrows and charming greyblue eyes with

their long lashes would have made the most indifferent person, meeting

her casually in a crowd in the street, stop at the sight of her face

and remember it long after. What struck Alyosha most in that face

was its expression of childlike good nature. There was a childlike

look in her eyes, a look of childish delight. She came up to the

table, beaming with delight and seeming to expect something with

childish, impatient, and confiding curiosity. The light in her eyes

gladdened the soul- Alyosha felt that. There was something else in her

which he could not understand, or would not have been able to

define, and which yet perhaps unconsciously affected him. It was

that softness, that voluptuousness of her bodily movements, that

catlike noiselessness. Yet it was a vigorous, ample body. Under the

shawl could be seen full broad shoulders, a high, still quite

girlish bosom. Her figure suggested the lines of the Venus of Milo,

though already in somewhat exaggerated proportions. That could be

divined. Connoisseurs of Russian beauty could have foretold with

certainty that this fresh, still youthful beauty would lose its

harmony by the age of thirty, would "spread"; that the face would

become puffy, and that wrinkles would very soon appear upon her

forehead and round the eyes; the complexion would grow coarse and

red perhaps- in fact, that it was the beauty of the moment, the

fleeting beauty which is so often met with in Russian women.

Alyosha, of course, did not think of this; but though he was

fascinated, yet he wondered with an unpleasant sensation, and as it

were regretfully, why she drawled in that way and could not speak

naturally. She did so, evidently feeling there was a charm in the

exaggerated, honeyed modulation of the syllables. It was, of course,

only a bad, underbred habit that showed bad education and a false idea

of good manners. And yet this intonation and manner of speaking

impressed Alyosha as almost incredibly incongruous with the childishly

simple and happy expression of her face, the soft, babyish joy in

her eyes. Katerina Ivanovna at once made her sit down in an

arm-chair facing Alyosha, and ecstatically kissed her several times on

her smiling lips. She seemed quite in love with her.

    "This is the first time we've met, Alexey Fyodorovitch," she

said rapturously. "I wanted to know her, to see her. I wanted to go to

her, but I'd no sooner expressed the wish than she came to me. I

knew we should settle everything together- everything. My heart told

me so- I was begged not to take the step, but I foresaw it would be

a way out of the difficulty, and I was not mistaken. Grushenka has

explained everything to me, told me all she means to do. She flew here

like an angel of goodness and brought us peace and joy."

    "You did not disdain me, sweet, excellent young lady," drawled

Grushenka in her singsong voice, still with the same charming smile of

delight.

    "Don't dare to speak to me like that, you sorceress, you witch!

Disdain you! Here, I must kiss your lower lip once more. It looks as

though it were swollen, and now it will be more so, and more and more.

Look how she laughs, Alexey Fyodorovitch!

    Alyosha flushed, and faint, imperceptible shivers kept running

down him.

    "You make so much of me, dear young lady, and perhaps I am not

at all worthy of your kindness."

    "Not worthy! She's not worthy of it!" Katerina Ivanovna cried

again with the same warmth. "You know, Alexey Fyodorovitch, we're

fanciful, we're self-willed, but proudest of the proud in our little

heart. We're noble, we're generous, Alexey Fyodorovitch, let me tell

you. We have only been unfortunate. We were too ready to make every

sacrifice for an unworthy, perhaps, or fickle man. There was one

man- one, an officer too, we loved him, we sacrificed everything to

him. That was long ago, five years ago, and he has forgotten us, he

has married. Now he is a widower, he has written, he is coming here,

and, do you know, we've loved him, none but him, all this time, and

we've loved him all our life! He will come, and Grushenka will be

happy again. For the last five years she's been wretched. But who

can reproach her, who can boast of her favour? Only that bedridden old

merchant, but he is more like her father, her friend, her protector.

He found her then in despair, in agony, deserted by the man she loved.

She was ready to drown herself then, but the old merchant saved her-

saved her!"

    "You defend me very kindly, dear young lady. You are in a great

hurry about everything," Grushenka drawled again.

    "Defend you! Is it for me to defend you? Should I dare to defend

you? Grushenka, angel, give me your hand. Look at that charming soft

little hand, Alexey Fyodorovitch! Look at it! It has brought me

happiness and has lifted me up, and I'm going to kiss it, outside

and inside, here, here, here!"

    And three times she kissed the certainly charming, though rather

fat, hand of Grushenka in a sort of rapture. She held out her hand

with a charming musical, nervous little laugh, watched the "sweet

young lady," and obviously liked having her hand kissed.

    "Perhaps there's rather too much rapture," thought Alyosha. He

blushed. He felt a peculiar uneasiness at heart the whole time.

    "You won't make me blush, dear young lady, kissing my hand like

this before Alexey Fyodorovitch."

    "Do you think I meant to make you blush?" said Katerina

Ivanovna, somewhat surprised. "Ah my dear, how little you understand

me!

    "Yes, and you too perhaps quite misunderstand me, dear young lady.

Maybe I'm not so good as I seem to you. I've a bad heart; I will

have my own way. I fascinated poor Dmitri Fyodorovitch that day simply

for fun."

    "But now you'll save him. You've given me your word. You'll

explain it all to him. You'll break to him that you have long loved

another man, who is now offering you his hand."

    "Oh, no I didn't give you my word to do that. It was you kept

talking about that. I didn't give you my word."

    "Then I didn't quite understand you," said Katerina Ivanovna

slowly, turning a little pale. "You promised-"

    "Oh no, angel lady, I've promised nothing," Grushenka

interrupted softly and evenly, still with the same gay and simple

expression. "You see at once, dear young lady, what a wilful wretch

I am compared with you. If I want to do a thing I do it. I may have

made you some promise just now. But now again I'm thinking: I may take

Mitya again. I liked him very much once- liked him for almost a

whole hour. Now maybe I shall go and tell him to stay with me from

this day forward. You see, I'm so changeable."

    "Just now you said- something quite different," Katerina

Ivanovna whispered faintly.

    "Ah, just now! But, you know, I'm such a soft-hearted, silly

creature. Only think what he's gone through on my account! What if

when I go home I feel sorry for him? What then?"

    "I never expected-"

    "Ah, young lady, how good and generous you are compared with me!

Now perhaps you won't care for a silly creature like me, now you

know my character. Give me your sweet little hand, angelic lady,"

she said tenderly, and with a sort of reverence took Katerina

Ivanovna's hand.

    "Here, dear young lady, I'll take your hand and kiss it as you did

mine. You kissed mine three times, but I ought to kiss yours three

hundred times to be even with you. Well, but let that pass. And then

it shall be as God wills. Perhaps I shall be your slave entirely and

want to do your bidding like a slave. Let it be as God wills,

without any agreements and promises. What a sweet hand- what a sweet

hand you have! You sweet young lady, you incredible beauty!"

    She slowly raised the hands to her lips, with the strange object

indeed of "being even" with her in kisses.

    Katerina Ivanovna did not take her hand away. She listened with

timid hope to the last words, though Grushenka's promise to do her

bidding like a slave was very strangely expressed. She looked intently

into her eyes; she still saw in those eyes the same simple-hearted,

confiding expression, the same bright gaiety.

    "She's perhaps too naive," thought Katerina Ivanovna, with a gleam

of hope.

    Grushenka meanwhile seemed enthusiastic over the "sweet hand." She

raised it deliberately to her lips. But she held it for two or three

minutes near her lips, as though reconsidering something.

    "Do you know, angel lady," she suddenly drawled in an even more

soft and sugary voice, "do you know, after all, I think I won't kiss

your hand?" And she laughed a little merry laugh.

    "As you please. What's the matter with you?" said Katerina

Ivanovna, starting suddenly.

    "So that you may be left to remember that you kissed my hand,

but I didn't kiss yours."

    There was a sudden gleam in her eyes. She looked with awful

intentness at Katerina Ivanovna.

    "Insolent creature!" cried Katerina Ivanovna, as though suddenly

grasping something. She flushed all over and leapt up from her seat.

    Grushenka too got up, but without haste.

    "So I shall tell Mitya how you kissed my hand, but I didn't kiss

yours at all. And how he will laugh!"

    "Vile slut! Go away!"

    "Ah, for shame, young lady! Ah, for shame! That's unbecoming for

you, dear young lady, a word like that."

    "Go away! You're a creature for sale" screamed Katerina

Ivanovna. Every feature was working in her utterly distorted face.

    "For sale indeed! You used to visit gentlemen in the dusk for

money once; you brought your beauty for sale. You see, I know."

    Katerina Ivanovna shrieked, and would have rushed at her, but

Alyosha held her with all his strength.

    "Not a step, not a word! Don't speak, don't answer her. She'll

go away- she'll go at once."

    At that instant Katerina Ivanovna's two aunts ran in at her cry,

and with them a maid-servant. All hurried to her.

    "I will go away," said Grushenka, taking up her mantle from the

sofa. "Alyosha, darling, see me home!"

    "Go away- go away, make haste!" cried Alyosha, clasping his

hands imploringly.

    "Dear little Alyosha, see me home! I've got a pretty little

story to tell you on the way. I got up this scene for your benefit,

Alyosha. See me home, dear, you'll be glad of it afterwards."

    Alyosha turned away, wringing his hands. Grushenka ran out of

the house, laughing musically.

    Katerina Ivanovna went into a fit of hysterics. She sobbed, and

was shaken with convulsions. Everyone fussed round her.

    "I warned you," said the elder of her aunts. "I tried to prevent

your doing this. You're too impulsive. How could you do such a

thing? You don't know these creatures, and they say she's worse than

any of them. You are too self-willed."

    "She's a tigress!" yelled Katerina Ivanovna. "Why did you hold me,

Alexey Fyodorovitch? I'd have beaten her- beaten her!"

    She could not control herself before Alyosha; perhaps she did

not care to, indeed.

    "She ought to be flogged in public on a scaffold!"

    Alyosha withdrew towards the door.

    "But, my God!" cried Katerina Ivanovna, clasping her hands. "He!

He! He could be so dishonourable, so inhuman! Why, he told that

creature what happened on that fatal, accursed day! 'You brought

your beauty for sale, dear young lady.' She knows it! Your brother's a

scoundrel, Alexey Fyodorovitch."

    Alyosha wanted to say something, but he couldn't find a word.

His heart ached.

    "Go away, Alexey Fyodorovitch! It's shameful, it's awful for me!

To-morrow, I beg you on my knees, come to-morrow. Don't condemm me.

Forgive me. I don't know what I shall do with myself now!"

    Alyosha walked out into the street reeling. He could have wept

as she did. Suddenly he was overtaken by the maid.

    "The young lady forgot to give you this letter from Madame

Hohlakov; it's been left with us since dinner-time."

    Alyosha took the little pink envelope mechanically and put it,

almost unconsciously, into his pocket.