"Your brother Ivan declared once that I was a 'liberal booby with no talents whatsoever.' Once you, too, could not resist letting me know I was 'dishonourable.' Well! I should like to see what your talents and sense of honour will do for you now." This phrase Rakitin finished to himself in a whisper.
"Listen!" he said aloud, "Let's go by the path beyond the monastery straight to the town.H'm! I ought to go to Madame Hohlakov's by the way.Only fancy, I've written to tell her everything that happened, and would you believe it, she answered me instantly in pencil (the lady has a passion for writing notes) that 'she would never have expected such conduct from a man of such a reverend character as Father Zossima.' That was her very word: 'conduct.' She is angry too.Eh, you are a set! Stay!" he cried suddenly again.He suddenly stopped and taking Alyosha by the shoulder made him stop too.
"Do you know, Alyosha," he peeped inquisitively into his eyes, absorbed in a sudden new thought which had dawned on him, and though he was laughing outwardly he was evidently afraid to utter that new idea aloud, so difficult he still found it to believe in the strange and unexpected mood in which he now saw Alyosha."Alyosha, do you know where we had better go?" he brought out at last timidly, and insinuatingly.
"I don't care...where you like."
"Let's go to Grushenka, eh? Will you come?" pronounced Rakitin at last, trembling with timid suspense.
"Let's go to Grushenka," Alyosha answered calmly, at once, and this prompt and calm agreement was such a surprise to Rakitin that he almost started back.
"Well! I say!" he cried in amazement, but seizing Alyosha firmly by the arm be led him along the path, still dreading that he would change his mind.
They walked along in silence; Rakitin was positively afraid to talk.
"And how glad she will be, how delighted!" he muttered, but lapsed into silence again.And indeed it was not to please Grushenka he was taking Alyosha to her.He was a practical person and never undertook anything without a prospect of gain for himself.His object in this case was twofold, first a revengeful desire to see "the downfall of the righteous," and Alyosha's fall "from the saints to the sinners,"over which he was already gloating in his imagination, and in the second place he had in view a certain material gain for himself, of which more will be said later.
"So the critical moment has come," he thought to himself with spiteful glee, "and we shall catch it on the hop, for it's just what we want."Chapter 3
An OnionGRUSHENKA lived in the busiest part of the town, near the cathedral square, in a small wooden lodge in the courtyard belonging to the house of the widow Morozov.The house was a large stone building of two stories, old and very ugly.The widow led a secluded life with her two unmarried nieces, who were also elderly women.She had no need to let her lodge, but everyone knew that she had taken in Grushenka as a lodger, four years before, solely to please her kinsman, the merchant Samsonov, who was known to the girl's protector.
It was said that the jealous old man's object in placing his "favourite" with the widow Morozov was that the old woman should keep a sharp eye on her new lodger's conduct.But this sharp eye soon proved to be unnecessary, and in the end the widow Morozov seldom met Grushenka and did not worry her by looking after her in any way.
It is true that four years had passed since the old man had brought the slim, delicate, shy, timid, dreamy, and sad girl of eighteen from the chief town of the province, and much had happened since then.
Little was known of the girl's history in the town and that little was vague.Nothing more had been learnt during the last four years, even after many persons had become interested in the beautiful young woman into whom Agrafena Alexandrovna had meanwhile developed.There were rumours that she had been at seventeen betrayed by someone, some sort of officer, and immediately afterwards abandoned by him.The officer had gone away and afterwards married, while Grushenka had been left in poverty and disgrace.It was said, however, that though Grushenka had been raised from destitution by the old man, Samsonov, she came of a respectable family belonging to the clerical class, that she was the daughter of a deacon or something of the sort.
And now after four years the sensitive, injured and pathetic little orphan had become a plump, rosy beauty of the Russian type, a woman of bold and determined character, proud and insolent.She had a good head for business, was acquisitive, saving and careful, and by fair means or foul had succeeded, it was said, in amassing a little fortune.There was only, one point on which all were agreed.Grushenka was not easily to be approached and, except her aged protector, there had not been one man who could boast of her favours during those four years.It was a positive fact, for there had been a good many, especially during the last two years, who had attempted to obtain those favours.But all their efforts had been in vain and some of these suitors had been forced to beat an undignified and even comic retreat, owing to the firm and ironical resistance they met from the strong-willed young person.It was known, too, that the young person had, especially of late, been given to what is called "speculation,"and that she had shown marked abilities in that direction, so that many people began to say that she was no better than a Jew.It was not that she lent money on interest, but it was known, for instance, that she had for some time past, in partnership with old Karamazov, actually invested in the purchase of bad debts for a trifle, a tenth of their nominal value, and afterwards had made out of them ten times their value.