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Fyodorovitch, you didnt know, but I must tell you, that we all, allboth her aunts, I and all of us, Lise, evenhave been hoping and praying for nothing for the last month but that she may give up your favourite Dmitri, who takes no notice of her and does not care for her, and may marry Ivan Fyodorovitchsuch an excellent and cultivated young man, who loves her more than anything in the world. We are in a regular plot to bring it about, and I am even staying on here perhaps on that account. But she has been cryingshe has been wounded again, cried Alyosha. Never trust a womans tears, Alexey Fyodorovitch. I am never for the women in such cases. I am always on the side of the men. Mamma, you are spoiling him, Lises little voice cried from behind the door. No, it was all my fault. I am horribly to blame, Alyosha repeated unconsoled, hiding his face in his hands in an agony of remorse for his indiscretion. Quite the contrary; you behaved like an angel, like an angel. I am ready to say so a thousand times over. Mamma, how has he behaved like an angel? Lises voice was heard again. I somehow fancied all at once, Alyosha went on as though he had not heard Lise, that she loved Ivan, and so I said that stupid thing. What will happen now? To whom, to whom? cried Lise. Mamma, you really want to be the death of me. I ask you and you dont answer. At the moment the maid ran in. Katerina Ivanovna is ill. She is crying, struggling, hysterics. What is the matter? cried Lise, in a tone of real anxiety. Mamma, I shall be having hysterics, and not she! Lise, for mercys sake, dont scream, dont persecute me. At your age one cant know everything that grown-up people know. Ill come and tell you everything you ought to know. Oh, mercy on us! I am coming, I am coming Hysterics is a good sign, Alexey Fyodorovitch; its an excellent thing that she is hysterical. Thats just as it ought to be. In such cases I am always against the woman, against all these feminine tears and hysterics. Run and say, Yulia, that Ill fly to her. As for Ivan Fyodorovitchs going away like that, its her own fault. But he wont go away. Lise, for mercys sake, dont scream! Oh, yes; you are not screaming. Its I am screaming. Forgive your mamma; but I am delighted, delighted, delighted! Did you notice, Alexey Fyodorovitch, how young, how young Ivan Fyodorovitch was just now when he went out, when he said all that and went out? I thought he was so learned, such a savant, and all of a sudden he behaved so warmly, openly, and youthfully, with such youthful inexperience, and it was all so fine, like you. And the way he repeated that German verse, it was just like you! But I must fly, I must fly! Alexey Fyodorovitch, make haste to carry out her commission, and then make haste back. Lise, do you want anything now? For mercys sake, dont keep Alexey Fyodorovitch a minute. He will come back to you at once. Madame Hohlakov at last ran off. Before leaving, Alyosha would have opened the door to see Lise. On no account, cried Lise. On no account now. Speak through the door. How have you come to be an angel? Thats the only thing I want to know. For an awful piece of stupidity, Lise! Good-bye! |
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