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you this help from herbut only from her alone, not from Dmitri, who has abandoned her. Nor from me, his brother, nor from any one else, but from her, only from her! She entreats you to accept her help. You have both been insulted by the same man. She thought of you only when she had just received a similar insult from himsimilar in its cruelty, I mean. She comes like a sister to help a brother in misfortune. She told me to persuade you to take these two hundred roubles from her, as from a sister, knowing that you are in such need. No one will know of it, it can give rise to no unjust slander. There are the two hundred roubles, and I swear you must take them unlessunless all men are to be enemies on earth! But there are brothers even on earth. You have a generous heart, you must see that, you must, and Alyosha held out two new rainbow-coloured hundred-rouble notes. They were both standing at the time by the great stone close to the fence, and there was no one near. The notes seemed to produce a tremendous impression on the captain. He started, but at first only from astonishment. Such an outcome of their conversation was the last thing he expected. Nothing could have been further from his dreams than help from any oneand such a sum! He took the notes, and for a minute he was almost unable to answer, quite a new expression came into his face. That for me? So much moneytwo hundred roubles! Good heavens! Why, I havent seen so much money for the last four years! Mercy on us! And she says she is a sister And is that the truth? I swear that all I told you is the truth, cried Alyosha. The captain flushed red. Listen, my dear, listen. If I take it, I shant be behaving like a scoundrel? In your eyes, Alexey Fyodorovitch, I shant be a scoundrel? No, Alexey Fyodorovitch, listen, listen, he hurried, touching Alyosha with both his hands. You are persuading me to take it, saying that its a sister sends it, but inwardly, in your heart wont you feel contempt for me if I take it, eh? No, no, on my salvation I swear I shant! And no one will ever know but meI, you and she, and one other lady, her great friend. Never mind the lady! Listen, Alexey Fyodorovitch, at a moment like this you must listen, for you cant understand what these two hundred roubles mean to me now. The poor fellow went on rising gradually into a sort of incoherent, almost wild enthusiasm. He was thrown off his balance and talked extremely fast, as though afraid he would not be allowed to say all he had to say. Besides its being honestly acquired from a sister, so highly respected and revered, do you know that now I can look after mamma and Nina, my hunchback angel daughter? Doctor Herzenstube came to me in the kindness of his heart and was examining them both for a whole hour. I can make nothing of it, said he, but he prescribed a mineral water which is kept at a chemists here. He said it would be sure to do her good, and he ordered baths, too, with some medicine in them. The mineral water costs thirty kopecks, and shed need to drink forty bottles perhaps; so I took the prescription and laid it on the shelf under the ikons, and there it lies. And he ordered hot baths for Nina with something dissolved in them, morning and evening. But how can we carry out such a cure in our mansion, without servants, without help, without a bath, and without water? Nina is rheumatic all over, I dont think I told you that. All her right side aches at night, she is in agony, and, would you believe it, the angel bears it without groaning for fear of waking us. We eat what we can get, and shell only take the leavings, what youd scarcely give to a dog. I am not worth it, I am taking it from you, I am a burden on you, thats what her angel eyes try to express. We wait on her, but she doesnt like it. I am a useless cripple, no good to any one. As though she were not worth it, when she is the saving of all of us with her angelic sweetness. Without her, without her gentle word it would be hell among us! She softens even Varvara. And dont judge Varvara harshly either, she is an angel too, she, too, has suffered wrong. She came to us for the summer, and she brought sixteen roubles she had earned by lessons and saved up, to go back |
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