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And why were you so surly with Alyosha just now? He is a dear; Ive treated him badly over Father Zossima. Dont talk of Alyosha! How dare you, you flunkey! Ivan laughed again. You scold me, but you laughthats a good sign. But you are ever so much more polite than you were last time and I know why: that great resolution of yours Dont speak of my resolution, cried Ivan, savagely. I understand, I understand, cest noble, cest charmant, you are going to defend your brother and to sacrifice yourself Cest chevaleresque. Hold your tongue, Ill kick you! I shant be altogether sorry, for then my object will be attained. If you kick me, you must believe in my reality, for people dont kick ghosts. Joking apart, it doesnt matter to me, scold if you like, though its better to be a trifle more polite even to me. Fool, flunkey! what words! Scolding you, I scold myself, Ivan laughed again, you are myself, myself, only with a different face. You just say what I am thinking and are incapable of saying anything new! If I am like you in my way of thinking, its all to my credit, the gentleman declared, with delicacy and dignity. You choose out only my worst thoughts, and whats more, the stupid ones. You are stupid and vulgar. You are awfully stupid. No, I cant put up with you! What am I to do, what am I to do! Ivan said through his clenched teeth. My dear friend, above all things I want to behave like a gentleman and to be recognised as such, the visitor began in an access of deprecating and simple-hearted pride, typical of a poor relation. I am poor, but I wont say very honest, but its an axiom generally accepted in society that I am a fallen angel. I certainly cant conceive how I can ever have been an angel. If I ever was, it must have been so long ago that theres no harm in forgetting it. Now I only prize the reputation of being a gentlemanly person and live as I can, trying to make myself agreeable. I love men genuinely, Ive been greatly calumniated! Here when I stay with you from time to time, my life gains a kind of reality and thats what I like most of all. You see, like you, I suffer from the fantastic and so I love the realism of earth. Here, with you, everything is circumscribed, here all is formulated and geometrical, while we have nothing but indeterminate equations! I wander about here dreaming. I like dreaming. Besides, on earth I become superstitious. Please dont laugh, thats just what I like, to become superstitious. I adopt all your habits here: Ive grown fond of going to the public baths, would you believe it? and I go and steam myself with merchants and priests. What I dream of is becoming incarnate once for all and irrevocably in the form of some merchants wife weighing eighteen stone, and of believing all she believes. My ideal is to go to church and offer a candle in simple-hearted faith, upon my word it is. Then there would be an end to my sufferings. I like being doctored too; in the spring there was an outbreak of smallpox and I went and was vaccinated in a foundling hospitalif only you knew how I enjoyed myself that day. I subscribed ten roubles to the cause of the Slavs! But you are not listening. Do you know, you are not at all well this evening? I know you went yesterday to that doctor well, what about your health? What did the doctor say? Fool! Ivan snapped out. But you are clever, anyway. You are scolding again? I didnt ask out of sympathy. You neednt answer. Now rheumatism has come in again Fool! repeated Ivan. |
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