|
||||||||
when, after the visit, his brother besought and insisted that he should not conceal his impressions on seeing his betrothed. Youll be happy with her, but perhapsnot tranquilly happy. Quite so, brother. Such people remain always the same. They dont yield to fate. So you think I shant love her for ever. No; perhaps you will love her for ever. But perhaps you wont always be happy with her. Alyosha had given his opinion at the time, blushing, and angry with himself for having yielded to his brothers entreaties and put such foolish ideas into words. For his opinion had struck him as awfully foolish immediately after he had uttered it. He felt ashamed too of having given so confident an opinion about a woman. It was with the more amazement that he felt now, at the first glance at Katerina Ivanovna as she ran in to him, that he had perhaps been utterly mistaken. This time her face was beaming with spontaneous good-natured kindliness, and direct warm-hearted sincerity. The pride and haughtiness, which had struck Alyosha so much before, was only betrayed now in a frank, generous energy and a sort of bright strong faith in herself. Alyosha realised at the first glance, at the first word, that all the tragedy of her position in relation to the man she loved so dearly was no secret to her; that she perhaps already knew everything, positively everything. And yet, in spite of that, there was such brightness in her face, such faith in the future. Alyosha felt at once that he had gravely wronged her in his thoughts. He was conquered and captivated immediately. Besides all this, he noticed at her first words that she was in great excitement, an excitement perhaps quite exceptional and almost approaching ecstasy. I was so eager to see you, because I can learn from you the whole truthfrom you and no one else. I have come, muttered Alyosha confusedly, Ihe sent me. Ah, he sent you! I foresaw that. Now I know everythingeverything! cried Katerina Ivanovna, her eyes flashing. Wait a moment, Alexey Fyodorovitch, Ill tell you why Ive been so longing to see you. You see, I know perhaps far more than you do yourself, and theres no need for you to tell me anything. Ill tell you what I want from you. I want to know your own last impression of him. I want you to tell me most directly, plainly, coarsely even (oh, as coarsely as you like!), what you thought of him just now and of his position after your meeting with him to-day. That will perhaps be better than if I had a personal explanation with him, as he does not want to come to me. Do you understand what I want from you? Now, tell me simply, tell me every word of the message he sent you with (I knew he would send you). He told me to give you his complimentsand to say that he would never come againbut to give you his compliments. His compliments? Was that what he saidhis own expression? Yes. Accidentally perhaps he made a mistake in the word, perhaps he did not use the right word? No; he told me precisely to repeat that word. He begged me two or three times not to forget to say so. Katerina Ivanovna flushed hotly. Help me now, Alexey Fyodorovitch. Now I really need your help. Ill tell you what I think, and you must simply say whether its right or not. Listen! If he had sent me his compliments in passing, without insisting on your repeating the words, without emphasising them, that would be the end of everything! But if he particularly insisted on those words, if he particularly told you not to forget to repeat them to me, then perhaps he was in excitement, beside himself. He had made his decision and was frightened at it. He |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
Copyright: All texts on Bibliomania are © Bibliomania.com Ltd, and may not be reproduced in any form without our written permission. See our FAQ for more details. | ||||||||