第223章

"Why, look here, he might have grabbed not two thousand, but four or six, for it.He would have put his lawyers, Poles and Jews, on to the job, and might have got, not three thousand, but the whole property out of the old man."The evidence of Pan Mussyalovitch was, of course, entered in the protocol in the fullest detail.Then they let the Poles go.The incident of the cheating at cards was hardly touched upon.Nikolay Parfenovitch was too well pleased with them, as it was, and did not want to worry them with trifles, moreover, it was nothing but a foolish, drunken quarrel over cards.There had been drinking and disorder enough, that night....So the two hundred roubles remained in the pockets of the Poles.

Then old Maximov was summoned.He came in timidly, approached with little steps, looking very dishevelled and depressed.He had, all this time, taken refuge below with Grushenka, sitting dumbly beside her, and "now and then he'd begin blubbering over her and wiping his eyes with a blue check handkerchief," as Mihail Makarovitch described afterwards.So that she herself began trying to pacify and comfort him.The old man at once confessed that he had done wrong, that he had borrowed "ten roubles in my poverty," from Dmitri Fyodorovitch, and that he was ready to pay it back.To Nikolay Parfenovitch's direct question, had he noticed how much money Dmitri Fyodorovitch held in his hand, as he must have been able to see the sum better than anyone when he took the note from him, Maximov, in the most positive manner, declared that there was twenty thousand.

"Have you ever seen so much as twenty thousand before, then?"inquired Nikolay Parfenovitch, with a smile.

"To be sure I have, not twenty, but seven, when my wife mortgaged my little property.She'd only let me look at it from a distance, boasting of it to me.It was a very thick bundle, all rainbow-coloured notes.And Dmitri Fyodorovitch's were all rainbow-coloured..."He was not kept long.At last it was Grushenka's turn.Nikolay Parfenovitch was obviously apprehensive of the effect her appearance might have on Mitya, and he muttered a few words of admonition to him, but Mitya bowed his head in silence, giving him to understand "that he would not make a scene." Mihail Makarovitch himself led Grushenka in.She entered with a stern and gloomy face, that looked almost composed, and sat down quietly on the chair offered her by Nikolay Parfenovitch.She was very pale, she seemed to be cold, and wrapped herself closely in her magnificent black shawl.She was suffering from a slight feverish chill- the first symptom of the long illness which followed that night.Her grave air, her direct earnest look and quiet manner made a very favourable impression on everyone.Nikolay Parfenovitch was even a little bit "fascinated." He admitted himself, when talking about it afterwards, that only then had he seen "how handsome the woman was," for, though he had seen her several times he had always looked upon her as something of a "provincial hetaira." "She has the manners of the best society," he said enthusiastically, gossiping about her in a circle of ladies.But this was received with positive indignation by the ladies, who immediately called him a "naughty man," to his great satisfaction.

As she entered the room, Grushenka only glanced for an instant at Mitya, who looked at her uneasily.But her face reassured him at once.After the first inevitable inquiries and warnings, Nikolay Parfenovitch asked her, hesitating a little, but preserving the most courteous manner, on what terms she was with the retired lieutenant, Dmitri Fyodorovitch Karamazov.To this Grushenka firmly and quietly replied:

"He was an acquaintance.He came to see me as an acquaintance during the last month." To further inquisitive questions she answered plainly and with complete frankness, that, though "at times" she had thought him attractive, she had not loved him, but had won his heart as well as his old father's "in my nasty spite,"that she had seen that Mitya was very jealous of Fyodor Pavlovitch and everyone else; but that had only amused her.She had never meant to go to Fyodor Pavlovitch, she had simply been laughing at him."I had no thoughts for either of them all this last month.I was expecting another man who had wronged me.But I think," she said in conclusion, "that there's no need for you to inquire about that, nor for me to answer you, for that's my own affair."Nikolay Parfenovitch immediately acted upon this hint.He again dismissed the "romantic" aspect of the case and passed to the serious one, that is, to the question of most importance, concerning the three thousand roubles.Grushenka confirmed the statement that three thousand roubles had certainly been spent on the first carousal at Mokroe, and, though she had not counted the money herself, she had heard that it was three thousand from Dmitri Fyodorovitch's own lips.

"Did he tell you that alone, or before someone else, or did you only hear him speak of it to others in your presence?" the prosecutor inquired immediately.

To which Grushenka replied that she had heard him say so before other people, and had heard him say so when they were alone.

"Did he say it to you alone once, or several times?" inquired the prosecutor, and learned that he had told Grushenka so several times.

Ippolit Kirillovitch was very well satisfied with this piece of evidence.Further examination elicited that Grushenka knew, too, where that money had come from, and that Dmitri Fyodorovitch had got it from Katerina Ivanovna.

"And did you never, once, hear that the money spent a month ago was not three thousand, but less, and that Dmitri Fyodorovitch had saved half that sum for his own use?""No, I never heard that," answered Grushenka.

It was explained further that Mitya had, on the contrary, often told her that he hadn't a farthing.

"He was always expecting to get some from his father," said Grushenka in conclusion.