Latest / Brothers Karamazov / 047 - Book Eight Chapter One
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter forty seven of The Brothers Karamatzov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
- 0:10Speaker 1: translated by Constance Garnet. This LibriVox recording is in the
- 0:16Speaker 1: public domain recording by Tony Addison, Book eight Michya, Chapter
- 0:28Speaker 1: one Kutzma Samsunov. But Dmitri, to whom Grushenka, flying away
- 0:40Speaker 1: to a new life, had loved, her last greetings, bidding
- 0:45Speaker 1: him remember the hour of her love, for ever knew
- 0:50Speaker 1: nothing of what had happened to her, and was at
- 0:53Speaker 1: that moment in a condition of feverish agitation and activity.
- 0:59Speaker 1: For the last two days, he had been in such
- 1:02Speaker 1: an inconceivable state of mind that he might easily have
- 1:06Speaker 1: fallen ill with brain fever, as he said himself afterwards.
- 1:11Speaker 1: Alyosha had not been able to find him the morning before,
- 1:15Speaker 1: and Ivan had not succeeded in meeting him at the
- 1:18Speaker 1: tavern on the same day. The people at his lodgings,
- 1:23Speaker 1: by his orders, concealed his movements. He had spent those
- 1:29Speaker 1: two days literally rushing in all directions, struggling with his
- 1:35Speaker 1: destiny and chrying to save himself, as he expressed it
- 1:40Speaker 1: himself afterwards, and for some hours he even made a
- 1:45Speaker 1: dash out of the town on urgent business, terrible as
- 1:50Speaker 1: it was to him to lose sight of Grushenka for
- 1:53Speaker 1: a moment. All this was explained afterwards in detail and
- 1:59Speaker 1: confirmed by documentary evidence, But for the present we will
- 2:04Speaker 1: only note the most essential incidents of those two terrible days,
- 2:11Speaker 1: immediately preceding the awful catastrophe that broke so suddenly upon him.
- 2:20Speaker 1: Though a Grushenka had, it is true, loved him for
- 2:25Speaker 1: an hour, genuinely and sincerely, yet she tortured him, sometimes
- 2:32Speaker 1: cruelly and mercilessly. The worst of it was that he
- 2:37Speaker 1: could never tell what she meant to do. To prevail
- 2:40Speaker 1: upon her by force or kindness was also impossible. She
- 2:44Speaker 1: would yield to nothing, She would only have become angry
- 2:49Speaker 1: and turned away from him altogether. He knew that well already.
- 2:54Speaker 1: He suspected quite correctly, that she too was passing through
- 2:59Speaker 1: an inn struggle and was in a state of extraordinary indecision,
- 3:05Speaker 1: that she was making up her mind to something and
- 3:09Speaker 1: unable to determine upon it. And so not without good reason,
- 3:16Speaker 1: he divined with a sinking heart that at moments she
- 3:21Speaker 1: must simply hate him and his passion and so perhaps
- 3:27Speaker 1: it was. But what was distressing Grushenka he did not understand.
- 3:33Speaker 1: For him. The whole tormenting question lay between him and
- 3:40Speaker 1: Fayodor Pavlovitch. Here we must note by the way one
- 3:47Speaker 1: certain fact. He was firmly persuaded that Fayodor Pavlovitch would offer,
- 3:54Speaker 1: or perhaps had offered, Grushenka lawful wedlock, and did not
- 4:00Speaker 1: not for a moment believe that the old voluptuary hoped
- 4:04Speaker 1: to gain his object for three thousand roubles. Mitya had
- 4:10Speaker 1: reached this conclusion from his knowledge of Grushenka and her character.
- 4:18Speaker 1: That was how it was that he could believe at
- 4:21Speaker 1: times that all Grushenka's uneasiness rose from not knowing which
- 4:26Speaker 1: of them to choose which was most to her advantage.
- 4:31Speaker 1: Strange to say a, during those days, it never occurred
- 4:37Speaker 1: to him to think of the approaching return of the officer,
- 4:41Speaker 1: that is, that the man who had been such a
- 4:45Speaker 1: fatal influence in Grushenka's life, and whose arrival she was
- 4:50Speaker 1: expecting with such emotion and dread. It is true that
- 4:55Speaker 1: of late Grushenka had been very silent about it. Yet
- 5:00Speaker 1: he was perfectly aware of a letter she had received
- 5:03Speaker 1: a month ago from her seducid, and had heard of
- 5:07Speaker 1: it from her own lips. He partly knew too what
- 5:12Speaker 1: the letter contained. In a moment of spite, Grushenka had
- 5:17Speaker 1: shown him that letter, but to her astonishment, he attached
- 5:22Speaker 1: hardly any consequence to it. It would be hard to
- 5:26Speaker 1: say why. This was perhaps weighed down by all the
- 5:31Speaker 1: hideous horror of his struggle with his own father. For
- 5:36Speaker 1: this woman, he was incapable of imagining any danger more terrible.
- 5:42Speaker 1: At any rate, for the time, he simply did not
- 5:46Speaker 1: believe in a suitor who suddenly turned up again after
- 5:50Speaker 1: five years disappearance, still less in his speedy arrival. Moreover,
- 5:58Speaker 1: in the officer's first letter, which had been shown to Mitya,
- 6:03Speaker 1: the possibility of his new rival's visit was very vaguely suggested.
- 6:10Speaker 1: The letter was very indefinite, high flown, and full of sentimentality.
- 6:17Speaker 1: It must be noted that Grushenka had concealed from him
- 6:22Speaker 1: the last lines of the letter in which his return
- 6:26Speaker 1: was alluded to. More definitely, he had, besides noticed at
- 6:32Speaker 1: that moment he remembered afterwards a certain involuntary, proud contempt
- 6:40Speaker 1: for this missive from Siberia on Grushenka's face. Grushenka told
- 6:46Speaker 1: him nothing of what had passed later between her and
- 6:51Speaker 1: his rival, so that by degrees he had completely forgotten
- 6:56Speaker 1: the officer's existence. He felt that whatever might come later,
- 7:04Speaker 1: whatever turn things might take, his final conflict with Fayoda Pablo,
- 7:09Speaker 1: which was close upon him and must be decided before
- 7:13Speaker 1: anything else. With a sinking heart, he was expecting every
- 7:19Speaker 1: moment Grushenka's decision, always believing that it would come suddenly,
- 7:25Speaker 1: on the impulse of the moment, all of a sudden,
- 7:29Speaker 1: she would say to him, take me, I'm yours for ever,
- 7:33Speaker 1: and it would all be over. He would seize her
- 7:37Speaker 1: and bear her away at once to the ends of
- 7:40Speaker 1: the earth. Ah. Then he would bear her away at
- 7:45Speaker 1: once as far far away as possible, to the farthest
- 7:49Speaker 1: end of Russia, if not of the earth. Then he
- 7:52Speaker 1: would marry her and settle down with her incognito, so
- 7:56Speaker 1: that no one would know anything about them there, here
- 7:59Speaker 1: or any where. Then, of then a new life would
- 8:03Speaker 1: begin at once, of this different, reformed and virtuous life.
- 8:11Speaker 1: It must, it must be virtuous, he dreamed feverishly. At
- 8:17Speaker 1: every moment he thirsted for that reformation and renewal. The
- 8:25Speaker 1: filthy morass in which he had sunk of his own
- 8:29Speaker 1: free will was too revolting to him, and like very
- 8:34Speaker 1: many men in such cases, he put faith above all
- 8:38Speaker 1: in change of place. If only it were not for
- 8:42Speaker 1: these people, if only it were not for these circumstances,
- 8:47Speaker 1: if only he could fly away from this accursed place,
- 8:52Speaker 1: he would be altogether regenerated, would enter on a new path.
- 8:58Speaker 1: That was what he believed in and what he was
- 9:01Speaker 1: yearning for. But all this could only be on condition
- 9:06Speaker 1: of the first, the happy solution of the question. There
- 9:11Speaker 1: was another possibility, a different and awful ending. Suddenly, she
- 9:16Speaker 1: might say to him, go away, I have just come
- 9:20Speaker 1: to terms with Bayota Pavlovitch. I am going to marry
- 9:23Speaker 1: him and don't want you. And then but then, but
- 9:29Speaker 1: Mitya did not know what would happen then, up to
- 9:33Speaker 1: the last hour, he didn't know. That must be said.
- 9:36Speaker 1: To his credit, he had no definite intentions, had planned
- 9:41Speaker 1: no crime. He was simply watching and spying in agony
- 9:46Speaker 1: while he prepared himself for the first happy solution of
- 9:51Speaker 1: his destiny. He drove away any other idea. In fact,
- 9:57Speaker 1: but for that ending, A quite different anxiety arose. A new, incidental,
- 10:04Speaker 1: but yet fatal and insoluble difficulty presented itself. If she
- 10:12Speaker 1: were to say to him, I'm yours, take me away?
- 10:17Speaker 1: How could he take her away? Where had he the
- 10:20Speaker 1: means the money to do it. It was just at
- 10:23Speaker 1: this time that all sources of revenue from Fayodor Pavlovitch doles,
- 10:29Speaker 1: which had gone on without interruption for so many years, ceased.
- 10:34Speaker 1: Grushenka had money, of course, but with regard to this
- 10:39Speaker 1: Mitya suddenly evinced extraordinary pride. He wanted to carry her
- 10:45Speaker 1: away and begin the new life with her himself, at
- 10:48Speaker 1: his own expense, not at hers. He could not conceive
- 10:53Speaker 1: of taking her money, and the very idea caused him
- 10:56Speaker 1: a pang of intense repulsion. I won't enlarge on this
- 11:01Speaker 1: fact or analyze it here, but confine myself to remarking
- 11:07Speaker 1: that this was his attitude at the moment. All this
- 11:12Speaker 1: may have arisen indirectly and unconsciously from the secret stings
- 11:19Speaker 1: of his conscience for the money of Katerina Ivanovna that
- 11:24Speaker 1: he had dishonestly appropriated. I've been a scoundrel to one
- 11:29Speaker 1: of them, and I shall be a scoundrel again to
- 11:33Speaker 1: the other directly was his feeling then, as he explained
- 11:37Speaker 1: after and when Grushenka knows she won't care for such
- 11:42Speaker 1: a scoundrel, where then was he to get the means?
- 11:47Speaker 1: Where was he to get the faithful money? Without it
- 11:51Speaker 1: all would be lost and nothing could be done. And
- 11:55Speaker 1: only because I hadn't a money, all the aim of
- 12:00Speaker 1: it to anticipate things. He did perhaps know where to
- 12:09Speaker 1: get the money, knew perhaps where it lay at that moment.
- 12:17Speaker 1: I will say no more of this here, as it
- 12:20Speaker 1: will all be clear later. But his cheap trouble I
- 12:25Speaker 1: must explain, however, obscurely, lay in the fact that to
- 12:31Speaker 1: have that sum he knew of to have the right
- 12:34Speaker 1: to take it, he must first restore Katerina Ivanovna's three thousand.
- 12:41Speaker 1: If not, I'm a common pickpocket, I'm a scoundrel, and
- 12:44Speaker 1: I don't want to begin a new life as a scoundrel.
- 12:48Speaker 1: Mitya decided, and so he made up his mind to
- 12:53Speaker 1: move heaven and earth to return Katerina Ivanovna that three
- 13:00Speaker 1: thousand and that first of all, the final stage of
- 13:06Speaker 1: this decision, so to say, had been reached only during
- 13:11Speaker 1: the last hours that is, after his last interview with
- 13:15Speaker 1: Alyosha two days before on the high road on the
- 13:19Speaker 1: evening when Grushenka had insulted Katerina Ivanovna, and Mitya, after
- 13:26Speaker 1: hearing Alyosha's account of it, had admitted that he was
- 13:30Speaker 1: a scoundrel and told him to tell Katerina Ivanovna so
- 13:35Speaker 1: if it could be any comfort to her. After parting
- 13:39Speaker 1: from his brother on that night, he had felt in
- 13:42Speaker 1: his frenzy that it would be better to murder and
- 13:45Speaker 1: rub someone than failed to pay my debt to catch her.
- 13:50Speaker 1: I'd rather everyone thought me a rubber and a murderer.
- 13:53Speaker 1: I'd rather go to Siberia than the should have the
- 13:57Speaker 1: right to say that I deceived her and all her money,
- 14:01Speaker 1: induced her money to run away with Grushenka and begin
- 14:04Speaker 1: a new life that I can't do. So, Mitya decided,
- 14:11Speaker 1: grinding his teeth, and he might well fancy at times
- 14:15Speaker 1: that his brain would give way. But meanwhile he went
- 14:20Speaker 1: on struggling, strange to said, though one would have supposed
- 14:27Speaker 1: there was nothing left for him but despair, for what
- 14:30Speaker 1: chance had he with nothing in the world to raise
- 14:34Speaker 1: such a sum. Yet to the very end he persisted
- 14:39Speaker 1: in hoping that he would get that three thousand, that
- 14:43Speaker 1: the money would a summer come to him of itself,
- 14:47Speaker 1: as though it might drop from heaven. That is just
- 14:51Speaker 1: how it is with people who, like Dmitri, have never
- 14:55Speaker 1: had anything to do with money except to squander what
- 14:59Speaker 1: has come to them by inheritance without any effort of
- 15:03Speaker 1: their own, and have no notion how money is obtained.
- 15:08Speaker 1: A whirl of the most fantastic notions to possession of
- 15:12Speaker 1: his brain immediately after he had parted with Alyosha two
- 15:17Speaker 1: days before, and threw his thoughts into a tangle of confusion.
- 15:24Speaker 1: This is how it was. He pitched first on a
- 15:28Speaker 1: perfectly wild enterprise, and perhaps the men of that kind,
- 15:34Speaker 1: in such circumstances, the most impossible, fantastic schemes occur first
- 15:41Speaker 1: and seem most practical. He suddenly determined to go to
- 15:48Speaker 1: sampson Up, the merchant who was Grushenka's protector, and to
- 15:54Speaker 1: propose a scheme to him, and by means of it,
- 15:59Speaker 1: to obtain from him at once the whole of the
- 16:03Speaker 1: sum required. Of the commercial value of his scheme, he
- 16:08Speaker 1: had no doubt, not the slightest, and was only uncertain
- 16:13Speaker 1: as Samsonov would look upon his freak, supposing he were
- 16:17Speaker 1: to consider it from any but the commercial point of view.
- 16:22Speaker 1: Though Mitya knew the merchant by sight, he was not
- 16:25Speaker 1: acquainted with him and had never spoken a word to him.
- 16:30Speaker 1: But for some unknown reason, he had long entertained the
- 16:34Speaker 1: conviction that the old reprobate, who was lying at death's door,
- 16:40Speaker 1: would perhaps not at all object now to Grushenka's securing
- 16:46Speaker 1: a respectable position and a marrying a man to be
- 16:52Speaker 1: depended upon. And he believed not only that he would
- 16:56Speaker 1: not object, but that this was what he desired, and
- 17:01Speaker 1: if opportunity arose, that he would be ready to help.
- 17:06Speaker 1: From some rumor, or perhaps from some stray word of Grushenka's,
- 17:12Speaker 1: he had gathered further that the old man would perhaps
- 17:16Speaker 1: prefer him to Fayodor Pavlovitch for Grushenka. Possibly, and many
- 17:23Speaker 1: of the readers of my novel, I will feel that
- 17:26Speaker 1: in reckoning on such assistance and being ready to take
- 17:30Speaker 1: his bride as so to speak, from the hands of
- 17:34Speaker 1: her protector Dmitri, showed great coarseness and want of delicacy.
- 17:41Speaker 1: I will only observe that Mitya looked upon Grushenka's past
- 17:47Speaker 1: as something completely over. He looked on that past with
- 17:51Speaker 1: infinite pity, and resolved with all the fervor of his
- 17:56Speaker 1: passion that when once Grushenka told him she loved him
- 18:00Speaker 1: and would marry him, it would mean the beginning of
- 18:04Speaker 1: a new Grushenka and a new Dmitri. Free from ever revice.
- 18:10Speaker 1: They would forgive one another and would begin their lives afresh.
- 18:15Speaker 1: As for Kutzma Sansunov, Dmitri looked upon him as a
- 18:20Speaker 1: man who had exercised a faithful influence in that remote
- 18:25Speaker 1: past of Grushenka's, though she had never loved him, and
- 18:30Speaker 1: who was now himself a thing of the past, completely
- 18:33Speaker 1: done with and so to say, non existent. Besides, Mitya
- 18:39Speaker 1: hardly looked upon him as a man at all, for
- 18:42Speaker 1: it was known to everyone in the town that he
- 18:45Speaker 1: was only a shattered wreck whose relations with Grushenka had
- 18:49Speaker 1: changed their character and were now simply paternal, and that
- 18:53Speaker 1: this had been so for a long time. In any case,
- 18:59Speaker 1: there was much simil implicity on Mitya's part in all this,
- 19:03Speaker 1: for in spite of all his vices, he was a
- 19:06Speaker 1: very simple hearted man. It was an instance of this
- 19:11Speaker 1: simplicity that Mitya was seriously persuaded that, being on the
- 19:17Speaker 1: eve of his departure for the next world, old Kutzma
- 19:22Speaker 1: must sincerely repent of his past relations with Grushenka, and
- 19:27Speaker 1: that she had no more devoted friend and protector in
- 19:31Speaker 1: the world than this now harmless old man. After his
- 19:39Speaker 1: conversation with Alyosha at the cross roads, he hardly slept
- 19:43Speaker 1: all night, and at ten o'clock next morning he was
- 19:47Speaker 1: at the house of Samsonov and telling the servant to
- 19:51Speaker 1: announce It was a very large and gloomy old house
- 19:55Speaker 1: of two stories, with a lodge and outhouses. In the
- 20:00Speaker 1: lower story lived Samsonov's two married sons with their families,
- 20:05Speaker 1: his old sister and his unmarried daughter. In the lodge
- 20:11Speaker 1: lived two of his clerks, one of whom also had
- 20:15Speaker 1: a large family. Both the lodge and the lower story
- 20:20Speaker 1: were overcrowded, but the old man kept the upper floor
- 20:24Speaker 1: to himself and would not even let the daughter live
- 20:27Speaker 1: there with him, though she waited upon him, and in
- 20:31Speaker 1: spite of her Asthma was obliged at certain fixed hours
- 20:35Speaker 1: and at any time he might call her to run
- 20:38Speaker 1: upstairs to him from below. This upper floor contained a
- 20:44Speaker 1: number of large rooms kept purely for show, furnished in
- 20:49Speaker 1: the old fashioned merchant style, who with long monotonous rows
- 20:55Speaker 1: of clumsy mahogany chairs along the walls, with glass shad
- 21:00Speaker 1: and aliers under shades, and gloomy mirrors on the walls.
- 21:05Speaker 1: All these rooms were entirely empty and unused, where the
- 21:10Speaker 1: old man kept to one room, a small, remote bedroom,
- 21:15Speaker 1: where he was waited upon by an old servant with
- 21:18Speaker 1: a kerchief on her head, and by a lad who
- 21:22Speaker 1: used to sit on the locker in the passage. Owing
- 21:26Speaker 1: to his swollen legs, the old man could hardly walk
- 21:30Speaker 1: at all, and was only rarely lifted from his mother
- 21:34Speaker 1: arm chair when the old woman supporting him led him
- 21:38Speaker 1: up and down the room once or twice. He was
- 21:43Speaker 1: morose and taciturn even with this old woman. When he
- 21:50Speaker 1: was informed of the arrival of the captain, he at
- 21:55Speaker 1: once refused to see him, but Mitya passed and sent
- 22:01Speaker 1: his name up again. Samsonop questioned the lad minutely what
- 22:07Speaker 1: he looked like, whether he was drunk, was he going
- 22:11Speaker 1: to make a row? The answer he received was that
- 22:16Speaker 1: he was sober, but wouldn't go away. The old man
- 22:21Speaker 1: again refused to see him. Then Mitya, who had foreseen
- 22:26Speaker 1: this and purposely brought pencil and paper with him, wrote
- 22:30Speaker 1: clearly on the piece of paper the words on most
- 22:35Speaker 1: important business closely concerning Agrafena Alexandrovna, and sent it up
- 22:42Speaker 1: to the old man. After thinking a little, a samsonop
- 22:49Speaker 1: told the lad to take the visitor to the drawing room,
- 22:54Speaker 1: and sent the old woman downstairs with a summons to
- 22:57Speaker 1: his younger son to come upstairs to him at once.
- 23:02Speaker 1: This younger son, a man over six foot and of
- 23:06Speaker 1: exceptional physical strength, who was closely shaven and dressed in
- 23:11Speaker 1: the European style, though his father still wore a captain
- 23:15Speaker 1: and a beard, came at once without a comment. All
- 23:20Speaker 1: the family tremble before the father. The old man had
- 23:25Speaker 1: sent for this giant, not because he was afraid of
- 23:29Speaker 1: the captain, he was by no means of a timorous temper,
- 23:34Speaker 1: but in order to have a witness in case of
- 23:37Speaker 1: any emergency. Supported by his son and the servant lad,
- 23:44Speaker 1: he waddled at last into the drawing room. It may
- 23:49Speaker 1: be assumed that he felt considerable curiosity the drawing room,
- 23:56Speaker 1: in which Mitscha was awaiting him. Was a va last
- 24:00Speaker 1: dreary room that laid a weight of depression on the heart.
- 24:06Speaker 1: It had a double row of windows, a gallery marbled walls,
- 24:13Speaker 1: and three immense chandeliers with glass lusters covered with shades.
- 24:22Speaker 1: Mitya was sitting on a little chair at the entrance,
- 24:27Speaker 1: awaiting his fate with nervous impatience. When the old man
- 24:33Speaker 1: appeared at the opposite door seventy feet Mitcha jumped up
- 24:38Speaker 1: at once, and with his long military stride, walked to
- 24:44Speaker 1: meet him. Mitya was well dressed in a frock coat,
- 24:48Speaker 1: buttoned up with a round hat and black gloves in
- 24:53Speaker 1: his hands, just as he had been three days before
- 24:56Speaker 1: at the Elders at the family meeting with his father
- 25:00Speaker 1: and brothers. The old man waited for him, standing dignified
- 25:06Speaker 1: and unbending, and Mitya felt at once that he had
- 25:10Speaker 1: looked him through and through. As he advanced, Mitya was
- 25:15Speaker 1: greatly impressed too with sam Sonob's immensely swollen face. His
- 25:22Speaker 1: lower lip, which had always been thick, hung down, now
- 25:26Speaker 1: looking like a bun. He bowed to his guest in
- 25:30Speaker 1: dignified silence, motioned him to a low chair by the sofa,
- 25:36Speaker 1: and leaning on his son's arm, he began lowering himself
- 25:42Speaker 1: on to the sofa opposite, groaning painfully, so that Mitya,
- 25:48Speaker 1: seeing his painful exertions, immediately felt remorseful and sensitively conscious
- 25:56Speaker 1: of his insignificance in the presence of the dignified person
- 26:02Speaker 1: he had ventured to disturb. What is it you want
- 26:06Speaker 1: of me, sir, said the old man deliberately, distinctly, severely,
- 26:12Speaker 1: but courteously. When he was at last seated, Mitya started
- 26:18Speaker 1: leapt up, but sat down again. Then he began at
- 26:22Speaker 1: once speaking with loud, nervous haste, gesticulating and in a
- 26:27Speaker 1: positive frenzy. He was unmistakably a man driven into a
- 26:33Speaker 1: corner on the brink of ruin, catching at the last straw,
- 26:37Speaker 1: ready to sink if he failed. Old sam Sunov probably
- 26:43Speaker 1: grasped all this in an instant, though his face remained
- 26:48Speaker 1: cold and immovable as a statue's most honored Sir, Kutzma, Kutzmitch,
- 26:57Speaker 1: you have no doubt heard more than once of my
- 27:00Speaker 1: disputes with my father by Yodor Pavlovitch Karamatzov, who rubbed
- 27:04Speaker 1: me of my inheritance from my mother seeing the whole
- 27:07Speaker 1: town is gossiping about it. For here everyone's gossiping of
- 27:11Speaker 1: what they shouldn't And besides, it might have breached you.
- 27:13Speaker 1: Through Grushenka, I begged your pardon through Agrappina Alexandrovna. Agruppina Alexandrovna,
- 27:19Speaker 1: the lady for whom I have the highest respect and esteem.
- 27:24Speaker 1: So Mitya began and broke down at the first sentence.
- 27:30Speaker 1: We will not reproduce his speech word for word, but
- 27:35Speaker 1: will only summarize the gist of it. Three months ago
- 27:40Speaker 1: he said he had of express intention a Mitya of
- 27:46Speaker 1: purposely used these words instead of intentionally consulted a lawyer
- 27:54Speaker 1: in the chief town of the province, a distinguished lawyer,
- 27:58Speaker 1: a Kutzma kutzmitch A pavel A, Pablo bitch a Konnopladov.
- 28:03Speaker 1: You have perhaps heard of him, a man of past intellect,
- 28:06Speaker 1: the mind of a statesman. He knows you too, spoke
- 28:09Speaker 1: of you in the highest tones. Mitchya broke down again,
- 28:14Speaker 1: but these brakes did not deter him. He leaped instantly
- 28:19Speaker 1: over the gaps, unstruggled, arm and arm. This corn pladoff.
- 28:28Speaker 1: After questioning him minutely and inspecting the documents he was
- 28:32Speaker 1: able to bring him. Mitya alluded somewhat vaguely to these documents,
- 28:38Speaker 1: and slurred over the subject with special haste, reported that
- 28:43Speaker 1: they certainly might take proceedings concerning the bullage of Chatmashnya,
- 28:49Speaker 1: which ought he said to have come to him Mitchya,
- 28:52Speaker 1: from his mother, And so checkmate the old woman his father,
- 28:57Speaker 1: because every door was not closed, and justice might still
- 29:01Speaker 1: find a loophole. In fact, he might reckon on an
- 29:06Speaker 1: additional sum of six or even seven thousand roubles from
- 29:11Speaker 1: Fayodor Pavlovitch. As Tchermashnya was worth at least twenty five thousand,
- 29:17Speaker 1: he might say twenty eight thousand in bag thirty thirty
- 29:21Speaker 1: Kuzma Kusmitch, And would you believe it? I didn't get
- 29:24Speaker 1: seventeen from that heartless man. So he Mitya, had thrown
- 29:30Speaker 1: the business up for the time, knowing nothing about the law,
- 29:35Speaker 1: But on coming here was struck dumb by a cross
- 29:38Speaker 1: claim made upon him. Here Mtya went adrift again and
- 29:44Speaker 1: again took a flying leap forward. So will not you,
- 29:48Speaker 1: excellent and honored Kutzma Kutzmitch, be willing to take up
- 29:52Speaker 1: all my claims against that unnatural monster and pay me
- 29:56Speaker 1: a sum down of only three thousand. You see, you
- 29:59Speaker 1: cannot in any case lose over it. On my honor,
- 30:02Speaker 1: On my honor, I swear that quite the contrary, you
- 30:06Speaker 1: may make six or seven thousand instead of three. Above all,
- 30:11Speaker 1: he wanted this concluded that very day I'll do the
- 30:16Speaker 1: business with you at a notaries or whatever it is.
- 30:19Speaker 1: In fact, I'm ready to do anything, over all the deeds,
- 30:24Speaker 1: whatever you want, sign anything, and we could draw up
- 30:27Speaker 1: the agreement at once, and if it were possible, if
- 30:31Speaker 1: it were only possible, that very morning, you could pay
- 30:34Speaker 1: me that three thousand. For that isn't a capitalist in
- 30:38Speaker 1: this town to compare with you, and so would save
- 30:41Speaker 1: me from would save me, in fact, for a good
- 30:45Speaker 1: I might say, an honorable action, for I cherish the
- 30:49Speaker 1: most honorable feelings for a certain person whom you know
- 30:52Speaker 1: well and care for as a father. I would not
- 30:56Speaker 1: have come, indeed, if it had not been as a father.
- 30:59Speaker 1: And indeed it's a struggle of three in this business.
- 31:03Speaker 1: For it's fate. That's a fearful thing. Kutzma, Kutzmitch a tragedy.
- 31:09Speaker 1: Kutzma Kutzmitch a tragedy, and as you've dropped out long ago,
- 31:14Speaker 1: it's a tug of war between two I'm expressing it awkwardly, perhaps,
- 31:17Speaker 1: but I'm not a literary ma'am. You see, I'm on
- 31:22Speaker 1: the one side and that monster on the other. So
- 31:25Speaker 1: you must choose. It's either I or the monster. It
- 31:30Speaker 1: all lies in your hands, the fate of three lives
- 31:34Speaker 1: and the happiness of two. Excuse me, I'm making a
- 31:37Speaker 1: mess of it, but you understand. I see from your
- 31:40Speaker 1: venerable eyes that you understand. And if you don't understand,
- 31:43Speaker 1: I'm done for so you see. Mitya broke up his
- 31:49Speaker 1: clumsy speech with that, so you see, and jumping up
- 31:55Speaker 1: from his seat, awaited the answer to his foolish proposal.
- 32:00Speaker 1: At the last phrase, he had suddenly become hopelessly aware
- 32:06Speaker 1: that it had all fallen flat. Above all that he
- 32:09Speaker 1: had been talking utter nonsense. How strange it is. On
- 32:15Speaker 1: the way here, it seemed all right. Now it's nothing
- 32:17Speaker 1: but nonsense, the idea suddenly dawned on his despairing mind.
- 32:24Speaker 1: All the while he had been talking, the old man
- 32:27Speaker 1: sat motionless, watching him with an icy expression in his eyes.
- 32:32Speaker 1: After keeping him for a moment in suspense, Kutzmak Kutzmitch
- 32:38Speaker 1: pronounced at last, in the most positive and chilling tone,
- 32:43Speaker 1: excuse me, we don't undertake such business. Mitya suddenly felt
- 32:49Speaker 1: his legs growing weak under him. What am I to
- 32:54Speaker 1: do now, Kutzmak Kutzmitch, he muttered with a pale smile.
- 32:59Speaker 1: I pose it's all up with me. What do you think?
- 33:02Speaker 1: Excuse me? Mitya remains standing, stirring motionless. He suddenly noticed
- 33:11Speaker 1: a movement in the old man's face. He started, You see, sir,
- 33:18Speaker 1: business of that sort not in our line, said the
- 33:24Speaker 1: old man slowly. There's the court and the lawyers. It's
- 33:30Speaker 1: a perfect misery. But if you like, there is a
- 33:36Speaker 1: man here you might apply to good heavens. Who is it?
- 33:40Speaker 1: You're my salvation? Kutzma Kutzman faltered Mitya. He doesn't live here,
- 33:50Speaker 1: and he's not here just now. He is a peasant.
- 33:54Speaker 1: He does business and timber. His name is Leagivy. He's
- 34:00Speaker 1: been haggling with Fyodor Pavlovitch for the last year over
- 34:07Speaker 1: your cop ser Tchermashnya. They can't agree on the price.
- 34:14Speaker 1: Maybe you've heard now he's come back again, and he's
- 34:18Speaker 1: staying with the priest at Ilyinsko about twelve versts from
- 34:26Speaker 1: the Volovya station. He wrote to me too about the
- 34:31Speaker 1: business of the cops, asking my advice of Fyodor Pavlovitch
- 34:38Speaker 1: means to go and see Hi himself. So if you
- 34:42Speaker 1: were to be beforehand with Fyodor Pavlovitch and to make
- 34:47Speaker 1: lear Gavi the offer you've made me, he might possibly
- 34:54Speaker 1: a brilliant idea. Mitya interrupted ecstatically. He's the barbariman. Itould
- 35:00Speaker 1: just suit him. He's handling with him for it being
- 35:04Speaker 1: asked too much, and here he would have all the
- 35:07Speaker 1: documents entitling him to the property itself. Ha ha, and
- 35:13Speaker 1: Mitya suddenly went off into his short wooden laugh, startling
- 35:19Speaker 1: sam Sonov. How can I thank you, Kutzma Kutzmitch, cried
- 35:25Speaker 1: Mitya effusively. Don't mention it, said sam Sonov, inclining his head.
- 35:34Speaker 1: But you don't know you've saved me. Oh, it was
- 35:37Speaker 1: a true presentiment brought me to you. So now to
- 35:40Speaker 1: this priest, no need of thanks. I'll make haste and
- 35:46Speaker 1: plied bad. I'm afraid I've overtexed your strength. I shall
- 35:51Speaker 1: never forget it. It's a Russian, says that, Kutzma, Kutzmitch,
- 35:56Speaker 1: a Russian. To be sure, Mitya seized his hand to
- 36:02Speaker 1: press it, but there was a malignant gleam in the
- 36:06Speaker 1: old man's eye. Mitya drew back his hand, but at
- 36:11Speaker 1: once blamed himself for his mistrustfulness. It's because he's tired,
- 36:16Speaker 1: he thought, for her sake. For her sake, Kutzma, kutzmitch,
- 36:21Speaker 1: you understand that it's for her, he cried, his voice
- 36:25Speaker 1: ringing through the room. He bowed, turned sharply round, and
- 36:32Speaker 1: with the same long stride, walked to the door without
- 36:36Speaker 1: looking back. He was trembling with delight. Everything was on
- 36:43Speaker 1: the verge of ruin, and my guardian angel saved me,
- 36:47Speaker 1: was the thought in his mind. And if such a
- 36:51Speaker 1: business man as Samsonov, a most worthy old man, and
- 36:56Speaker 1: what dignity had suggested this cost, then then success was assured.
- 37:02Speaker 1: He would fly off immediately. I will be back before night.
- 37:07Speaker 1: I shall be back at night, and the thing is done.
- 37:11Speaker 1: Could the old man have been laughing at me? Exclaimed
- 37:14Speaker 1: Mitya as he strode towards his lodging. He could, of
- 37:18Speaker 1: course imagine nothing but that the advice was practical from
- 37:23Speaker 1: such a business man with an understanding of the business.
- 37:27Speaker 1: With an understanding of this, the younger bee curious surname
- 37:33Speaker 1: or the old man was laughing at him alas the
- 37:39Speaker 1: second alternative was the correct one. Long afterwards, when the
- 37:44Speaker 1: catastrophe had happened, Old Samsonov himself confessed, laughing that he
- 37:50Speaker 1: had made a fool of the captain. He was a cold,
- 37:54Speaker 1: spiteful and sarcastic man, liable to violent antipathies. Whether it
- 38:01Speaker 1: was the Captain's excited face or the foolish conviction of
- 38:05Speaker 1: the rake and spendthrip that he Samsonov could be taken
- 38:11Speaker 1: in by such a cock and bull story as his scheme,
- 38:15Speaker 1: or his jealousy of Grushenka, in whose name this scapegrace
- 38:20Speaker 1: had rushed in on him with such a tale to
- 38:23Speaker 1: get money. Which worked on the old man, I can't tell,
- 38:27Speaker 1: but at the instant when Mitya stood before him, feeling
- 38:31Speaker 1: his legs grow weak under him, and frantically exclaiming that
- 38:36Speaker 1: he was ruined. At that moment, the old man looked
- 38:40Speaker 1: at him with intense spite and resolved to make a
- 38:43Speaker 1: laughing stock of him. When Mitya had gone a kutzmak
- 38:48Speaker 1: Kutzmitch White, with rage, turned to his son and bade
- 38:53Speaker 1: him seat to it that that beggar be never seen again,
- 38:57Speaker 1: and never admitted even into the yard or else He
- 39:02Speaker 1: He did not utter his threat, but even his son,
- 39:06Speaker 1: who often saw him enraged, trembled with fear. For a
- 39:11Speaker 1: whole hour afterwards, the old man was shaken with anger,
- 39:17Speaker 1: and by evening he was worse, and sent for the doctor.
- 39:24Speaker 1: And of chapter forty seven