"Madam, will you really be so good!" he cried, with strong feeling."Good God, you've saved me! You have saved a man from a violent death, from a bullet....My eternal gratitude "I will give you more, infinitely more than three thousand!" cried Madame Hohlakov, looking with a radiant smile at Mitya's ecstasy.
"Infinitely? But I don't need so much.I only need that fatal three thousand, and on my part I can give security for that sum with infinite gratitude, and I propose a plan which-""Enough, Dmitri Fyodorovitch, it's said and done." Madame Hohlakov cut him short, with the modest triumph of beneficence."I have promised to save you, and I will save you.I will save you as I did Belmesov.What do you think of the gold mines, Dmitri Fyodorovitch?""Of the gold mines, madam? I have never thought anything about them.""But I have thought of them for you.Thought of them over and over again.I have been watching you for the last month.I've watched you a hundred times as you've walked past, saying to myself: That's a man of energy who ought to be at the gold mines.I've studied your gait and come to the conclusion: that's a man who would find gold.""From my gait, madam?" said Mitya, smiling.
"Yes, from your gait.You surely don't deny that character can be told from the gait, Dmitri Fyodorovitch? Science supports the idea.
I'm all for science and realism now.After all this business with Father Zossima, which has so upset me, from this very day I'm a realist and I want to devote myself to practical usefulness.I'm cured.'Enough!' as Turgeney says.""But madam, the three thousand you so generously promised to lend me-""It is yours, Dmitri Fyodorovitch," Madame Hohlakov cut in at once."The money is as good as in your pocket, not three thousand, but three million, Dmitri Fyodorovitch, in less than no time.I'll make you a present of the idea: you shall find gold mines, make millions, return and become a leading man, and wake us up and lead us to better things.Are we to leave it all to the Jews? You will found institutions and enterprises of all sorts.You will help the poor, and they will bless you.This is the age of railways, Dmitri Fyodorovitch.
You'll become famous and indispensable to the Department of Finance, which is so badly off at present.The depreciation of the rouble keeps me awake at night, Dmitri Fyodorovitch; people don't know that side of me-""Madam, madam! Dmitri interrupted with an uneasy presentiment.
"I shall indeed, perhaps, follow your advice, your wise advice, madam....I shall perhaps set off...to the gold mines....I'll come and see you again about it...many times, indeed...but now, that three thousand you so generously...oh, that would set me free, and if you could to-day...you see, I haven't a minute, a minute to lose to-day-""Enough, Dmitri Fyodorovitch, enough!" Madame Hohlakov interrupted emphatically."The question is, will you go to the gold mines or not; have you quite made up your mind? Answer yes or no.""I will go, madam, afterwards....I'll go where you like...but now-""Wait!" cried Madame Hohlakov.And jumping up and running to a handsome bureau with numerous little drawers, she began pulling out one drawer after another, looking for something with desperate haste.
"The three thousand," thought Mitya, his heart almost stopping, "and at the instant...without any papers or formalities...that's doing things in gentlemanly style! She's a splendid woman, if only she didn't talk so much!""Here!" cried Madame Hohlakov, running back joyfully to Mitya, "here is what I was looking for!"It was a tiny silver ikon on a cord, such as is sometimes worn next the skin with a cross.
"This is from Kiev, Dmitri Fyodorovitch," she went on reverently, "from the relics of the Holy Martyr, Varvara.Let me put it on your neck myself, and with it dedicate you to a new life, to a new career."And she actually put the cord round his neck, and began arranging it.In extreme embarrassment, Mitya bent down and helped her, and at last he got it under his neck-tie and collar through his shirt to his chest.
"Now you can set off," Madame Hohlakov pronounced, sitting down triumphantly in her place again.
"Madam, I am so touched.I don't know how to thank you, indeed...for such kindness, but...If only you knew how precious time is to me....That sum of money, for which I shall be indebted to your generosity...Oh, madam, since you are so kind, so touchingly generous to me," Mitya exclaimed impulsively, "then let me reveal to you...though, of course, you've known it a long time...that I love somebody here....I have been false to Katya...Katerina Ivanovna Ishould say....Oh, I've behaved inhumanly, dishonourably to her, but Ifell in love here with another woman...a woman whom you, madam, perhaps, despise, for you know everything already, but whom I cannot leave on any account, and therefore that three thousand now-""Leave everything, Dmitri Fyodorovitch," Madame Hohlakov interrupted in the most decisive tone."Leave everything, especially women.Gold mines are your goal, and there's no place for women there.
Afterwards, when you come back rich and famous, you will find the girl of your heart in the highest society.That will be a modern girl, a girl of education and advanced ideas.By that time the dawning woman question will have gained ground, and the new woman will have appeared.""Madam, that's not the point, not at all....Mitya clasped his hands in entreaty.