第252章

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? Iam ready to die at the very thought of to-morrow.Ready to die of curiosity....That doctor was with us yesterday and saw Lise....Ipaid 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 Iseem 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 Ihave 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 at his brother's crime.Another contradicted this, and stated that he and his elder, Father Zossima, had broken into the monastery chest and "made tracks from the monastery." The present paragraph in the paper Gossip was under the heading, "The Karamazov Case at Skotoprigonyevsk." (That, alas! was the name of our little town.I had hitherto kept it concealed.) It was brief, and Madame Hohlakov was not directly mentioned in it.No names appeared, in fact.

It was merely stated that the criminal, whose approaching trial was making such a sensation- retired army captain, an idle swaggerer, and reactionary bully- was continually involved in amorous intrigues, and particularly popular with certain ladies "who were pining in solitude." One such lady, a pining widow, who tried to seem young though she had a grown-up daughter, was so fascinated by him that only two hours before the crime she offered him three thousand roubles, on condition that he would elope with her to the gold mines.But the criminal, counting on escaping punishment, had preferred to murder his father to get the three thousand rather than go off to Siberia with the middle-aged charms of his pining lady.This playful paragraph finished, of course, with an outburst of generous indignation at the wickedness of parricide and at the lately abolished institution of serfdom.Reading it with curiosity, Alyosha folded up the paper and handed it back to Madame Hohlakov.