My dear Rodya, wrote his motherits two months since I last had a talk with you by letter which has
distressed me and even kept me awake at night, thinking. But I am sure you will not blame me for my
inevitable silence. You know how I love you; you are all we have to look to, Dounia and I, you are our all,
our one hope, our one stay. What a grief it was to me when I heard that you had given up the university
some months ago, for want of means to keep yourself and that you had lost your lessons and your other
work! How could I help you out of my hundred and twenty roubles a year pension? The fifteen roubles
I sent you four months ago I borrowed, as you know, on security of my pension, from Vassily Ivanovitch
Vahrushin a merchant of this town. He is a kind-hearted man and was a friend of your fathers too. But
having given him the right to receive the pension, I had to wait till the debt was paid off and that is only
just done, so that Ive been unable to send you anything all this time. But now, thank God, I believe
I shall be able to send you something more and in fact we may congratulate ourselves on our good
fortune now, of which I hasten to inform you. In the first place, would you have guessed, dear Rodya,
that your sister has been living with me for the last six weeks and we shall not be separated in the future.
Thank God, her sufferings are over, but I will tell you everything in order, so that you may know just how
everything has happened and all that we have hitherto concealed from you. When you wrote to me two
months ago that you had heard that Dounia had a great deal to put up with in the Svidrigrailovs house,
when you wrote that and asked me to tell you all about itwhat could I write in answer to you? If I had
written the whole truth to you, I dare say you would have thrown up everything and have come to us,
even if you had to walk all the way, for I know your character and your feelings, and you would not let
your sister be insulted. I was in despair myself, but what could I do? And, besides, I did not know the
whole truth myself then. What made it all so difficult was that Dounia received a hundred roubles in
advance when she took the place as governess in their family, on condition of part of her salary being
deducted every month, and so it was impossible to throw up the situation without repaying the debt.
This sum (now I can explain it all to you, my precious Rodya) she took chiefly in order to send you sixty
roubles, which you needed so terribly then and which you received from us last year. We deceived you
then, writing that this money came from Dounias savings, but that was not so, and now I tell you all
about it, because, thank God, things have suddenly changed for the better, and that you may know how
Dounia loves you and what a heart she has. At first indeed Mr. Svidrigailov treated her very rudely and
used to make disrespectful and jeering remarks at table.
But I dont want to go into all those painful
details, so as not to worry you for nothing when it is now all over. In short, in spite of the kind and generous
behaviour of Marfa Petrovna, Mr. Svidrigailovs wife, and all the rest of the household, Dounia had a
very hard time, especially when Mr. Svidrigailov, relapsing into his old regimental habits, was under the
influence of Bacchus. And how do you think it was all explained later on? Would you believe that the
crazy fellow had conceived a passion for Dounia from the beginning, but had concealed it under a show
of rudeness and contempt. Possibly he was ashamed and horrified himself at his own flighty hopes,
considering his years and his being the father of a family; and that made him angry with Dounia. And
possibly, too, he hoped by his rude and sneering behaviour to hide the truth from others. But at last he
lost all control and had the face to make Dounia an open and shameful proposal, promising her all sorts
of inducements and offering, besides, to throw up everything and take her to another estate of his, or
even abroad. You can imagine all she went through! To leave her situation at once was impossible not
only on account of the money debt, but also to spare the feelings of Marfa Petrovna, whose suspicions
would have been aroused: and then Dounia would have been the cause of a rupture in the family. And it
would have meant a terrible scandal for Dounia too; that would have been inevitable. There were various
other reasons owing to which Dounia could not hope to escape from that awful house for another six
weeks. You know Dounia, of course; you know how clever she is and what a strong will she has. Dounia
can endure a great deal and even in the most difficult cases she has the fortitude to maintain her firmness.
She did not even write to me about everything for fear of upsetting me, although we were constantly
in communication. It all ended very unexpectedly. Marfa Petrovna accidentally overheard her husband
imploring Dounia in the garden, and, putting quite a wrong interpretation on the position, threw the blame
upon her, believing her to be the cause of it all. An awful scene took place between them on the spot in
the garden; Marfa Petrovna went so far as to strike Dounia, refused to hear anything and was shouting
at her for a whole hour and then gave orders that Dounia should be packed off at once to me in a plain
peasants cart, into which they flung all her things, her linen and her clothes, all pell-mell, without folding