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026 - Book Four Chapter Two · Brothers Karamazov

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty six of The Brother's Karamatza by Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
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  Speaker 1: translated by Constance Garnet. This LibriVox recording is in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain recording by Tony Addison, Chapter two. At his
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  Speaker 1: father's First of all, Alyosha went to his father. On
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  Speaker 1: the way, he remembered that his father had insisted the
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  Speaker 1: day before that he should come without his brother Ivan
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  Speaker 1: seeing him. Why so, Alyosha wondered, suddenly, even if my
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  Speaker 1: father has something to say to me alone, why should
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  Speaker 1: I go in unseen? Most likely, in his excitement yesterday
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  Speaker 1: he meant to say something different, he decided. Yet he
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  Speaker 1: was very glad when Marfa Ignatyevna, who opened the garden
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  Speaker 1: gate to him, Grigory, it appeared, was ill in bed
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  Speaker 1: in the lodge, told him, in answer to his question,
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  Speaker 1: that Ivan Fyodorovitch had gone out two hours ago, and
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  Speaker 1: my father he is up taking his coffee. Marfa answered
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  Speaker 1: somewhat dryly. Alyosha went in. The old man was sitting
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  Speaker 1: alone at the table, wearing slippers and a little old overcoat.
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  Speaker 1: He was amusing himself by looking through some accounts. Rather inattentive. However,
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  Speaker 1: he was quite alone in the house for Smadayakar too
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  Speaker 1: had gone out marketing. Though he had got up early
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  Speaker 1: and was trying to put a bold face on it,
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  Speaker 1: he looked tired and weak. His forehead, upon which huge
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  Speaker 1: purple bruises had come out during the night, was bandaged
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  Speaker 1: with a red handkerchief. His nose, too had swollen terribly
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  Speaker 1: in the night, and some smaller bruises covered it in patches,
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  Speaker 1: giving his whole face a peculiarly spiteful and irritable look.
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  Speaker 1: The old man was aware of this and turned a
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  Speaker 1: hostile glance on Alyosha as he came in. The coffee
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  Speaker 1: is cold, he cried, harsh. I won't offer you any
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  Speaker 1: I've ordered nothing but a lenten fish soup today and
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  Speaker 1: I don't invite anyone to share it. Why have you
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  Speaker 1: come to find out how you are? Said Alyosha. Yes, besides,
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  Speaker 1: I told you to come yesterday. It's all of no consequence.
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  Speaker 1: You need not have troubled but then you'd come poking
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  Speaker 1: in directly. He said this with almost hostile feeling. At
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  Speaker 1: the same time, he got up and looked anxiously in
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  Speaker 1: the looking glass, perhaps for the fortieth time that morning,
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  Speaker 1: at his nose. He began too, binding his red handkerchief
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  Speaker 1: more becomingly on his forehead. Bread's better. It's just like
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  Speaker 1: the hospital in a white one, he observed, sententiously. Well,
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  Speaker 1: how are things over there? How is your elder? He
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  Speaker 1: is very bad. He may die to day, answered Alyosha.
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  Speaker 1: But his father had not listened and had forgotten his
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  Speaker 1: own question at once. If Ann's gone out, he said suddenly.
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  Speaker 1: He is doing his utmost to carry off Mitya's betrothed.
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  Speaker 1: That's what he is staying here for, he added, maliciously,
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  Speaker 1: and twisting his mouth. Looked at Alyosha. Surely he did
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  Speaker 1: not tell you, so, asked Alyosha. Yes he did long ago.
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  Speaker 1: Would you believe it? He told me three weeks ago.
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  Speaker 1: You don't suppose he too came to murder me, do you?
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  Speaker 1: He must have had some object in coming. What do
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  Speaker 1: you mean, why do you say such things? Ms, said Alyosha. Trouble.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't ask for money, it's true, But yet you
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  Speaker 1: won't get a farthing from me. I intend living as
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  Speaker 1: long as possible. You may as well know, my dear
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  Speaker 1: Alexei Peryodorovitch, and so I need every farthing and the
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  Speaker 1: longer I live, the more I shall need it. He continued,
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  Speaker 1: pacing from one corner of the room to the other,
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  Speaker 1: keeping his hands in the pockets of his loose, greasy
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  Speaker 1: overcoat made of yellow cotton material. I can still pass
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  Speaker 1: for a man at five and fifty, but I want
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  Speaker 1: to pass for one for another twenty years as I
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  Speaker 1: get older. You know, I shan't be a pretty object.
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  Speaker 1: The wenches won't come to me at their own accord.
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  Speaker 1: So I shall want my money. So I am saving
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  Speaker 1: up more and more simply by myself, My dear san Alexei,
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  Speaker 1: by Yodorovitch, you may as well know, for I mean
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  Speaker 1: to go on in my sin to the end. Let
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  Speaker 1: me tell you, for sinnis sweet. All abuse it, but
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  Speaker 1: all men live in it. Only others do it on
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  Speaker 1: the sly, and I openly, And so all the other
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  Speaker 1: sinners fall upon me for being so simple. And your paradise, Alexi,
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  Speaker 1: by your doobitch, is not to my taste, let me
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  Speaker 1: tell you that. And it's not the proper place, but
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  Speaker 1: a gentleman your paradise, even if it exists, I believe
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  Speaker 1: that I fall asleep and don't wake up again, And
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  Speaker 1: that's all you can pray for my soul if you like,
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  Speaker 1: and if you don't want to, don't damn you. That's
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  Speaker 1: my philosophy. Ivanne talked well here yesterday, though we were
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  Speaker 1: old drum. Ivan is a conceited Tuscombe. But he has
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  Speaker 1: no particular learning nor education either. He sits silent and
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  Speaker 1: smiles at one with speaking. That's what pulls him through
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  Speaker 1: al You should listen to him in silence. Why won't
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  Speaker 1: he talk to me? If he does speak, he gives
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  Speaker 1: himself airs your Ivan is a scoundrel, and I'll marry
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  Speaker 1: Gushenka in a minute if I want to. For if
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  Speaker 1: you have money, Alexai by Yodaravich, you have only to
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  Speaker 1: want a thing and you can have it. That's what
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  Speaker 1: Ivan is afraid of. He is on the watch to
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  Speaker 1: prevent me getting married, and that's why he is egging
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  Speaker 1: on Mitya to marry Gushenka himself. He hopes to keep
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  Speaker 1: me from Grushenka by that, as though I should leave
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  Speaker 1: him my money if I don't marry her. Besides, if
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  Speaker 1: Mitya marries Grushenka, Ivan will carry off his rich betrothed.
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  Speaker 1: That's what he's reckoning on. He is a scoundrel, your Evan.
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  Speaker 1: How cross you are, it's because of yesterday you had
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  Speaker 1: better lie to said Alyosha. There you say that the
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  Speaker 1: old man observed suddenly as though it had struck him
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  Speaker 1: for the first time. And I am not angry with you,
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  Speaker 1: But if Ivan said it, I should be angry with them.
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  Speaker 1: It is only with you I have good moments. Else
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  Speaker 1: you know, I am an ill natured man. You are
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  Speaker 1: not ill natured, but distorted, said Alyosha with a smile. Listen,
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  Speaker 1: I meant this morning to get that Ruppian Mitya locked up,
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  Speaker 1: and I don't know now what I shall decide about it.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, in these fashionable days, fathers and mothers are
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  Speaker 1: looked upon as a prejudice. But even now, the law
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  Speaker 1: does not allow you to drag your old father about
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  Speaker 1: by the hair, to kick him in the face in
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  Speaker 1: his own house, and brag of murdering him outright, all
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  Speaker 1: in the presence of witnesses. If I liked, I could
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  Speaker 1: crush him and could have him locked up at once
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  Speaker 1: for what he did yesterday, then you don't mean to
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  Speaker 1: take proceedings. Ivan has dissuaded me. I shouldn't care about Ivan,
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  Speaker 1: but that's another thing. And bending down to Alyosha, he
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  Speaker 1: went on in a confidential half whisper, if I send
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  Speaker 1: the ruffian to prison, shield hear of it and run
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  Speaker 1: to see him at once. But if she hears that
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  Speaker 1: he has beaten me, a weak old man within an
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  Speaker 1: inch of my life, she may give him up and
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  Speaker 1: come to me. For that's a way everything by contraries.
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  Speaker 1: I know her through and through. Won't have a drop
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  Speaker 1: of brandy. Take some cold coffe, and our poor a
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  Speaker 1: coulter of a glass of brandy into it. It's delicious,
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  Speaker 1: my boy, No thank you. I'll take that roll with
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  Speaker 1: me if I may, said Alyosha, and taking an uppenny
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  Speaker 1: French roll, he put it in the pocket of his cassock.
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  Speaker 1: And you'd better not have brandy either, he suggested, apprehensibly,
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  Speaker 1: looking into the old man's face. You are quite right.
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  Speaker 1: It irritates my nerves instead of soothing them. Only one
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  Speaker 1: little glass, I'll get it out of the cupboard. He
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  Speaker 1: unlocked the cupboard, poured out a glass, drank it, then
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  Speaker 1: locked the cupboard and put the key back in his pocket.
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  Speaker 1: That's enough. One glass won't kill me. You see, you
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  Speaker 1: are in a better human there said Alyosha, smiling, m
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  Speaker 1: I love you even with out the brandy, but with scoundrels,
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  Speaker 1: I am a scoundrel. If Van is not going to church, Mashnaya,
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  Speaker 1: why is that he wants to spy? How much I
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  Speaker 1: give Grushenka if she comes. They are all scoundrels. But
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  Speaker 1: I don't recognize Ivan. I don't know him at all.
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  Speaker 1: Where does he come from? He is not one of
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  Speaker 1: us in soul. As though I'd leave him anything, I
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  Speaker 1: sha'n't leave a will at all. You may as well know,
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  Speaker 1: and I'll crush Mitya like a beetle. I squash black
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  Speaker 1: beetles at night with my slipper. They squelch when you
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  Speaker 1: tread on them. And your mitya worth squelch too, your Mitya.
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  Speaker 1: For you love him, Yes, you love him, and I
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  Speaker 1: am not afraid of your loving him. But if if
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  Speaker 1: Van loved him, I should be afraid for myself, that
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  Speaker 1: is loving him. But if Van loves nobody, Ivan is
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  Speaker 1: not one of us. People like Yvan are not our sort,
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  Speaker 1: my boy. They are like a claud of dust. When
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  Speaker 1: the wind blows, the dust will be gone. I had
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  Speaker 1: a silly idea in my head. When I told you
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  Speaker 1: to come to day, I wanted to find out from
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  Speaker 1: you about Mitya. If I were to hunt him over
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  Speaker 1: a thousand or maybe two. Now, would the beggarly wretch
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  Speaker 1: agree to take himself off altogether for five years, or
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  Speaker 1: better still thirty five and with at Grashenki and give
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  Speaker 1: her up once for all? That? I ask him? Muttered Alyosha,
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  Speaker 1: if you would give him three thousand, perhaps that's nonsense.
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  Speaker 1: You needn't ask him now, no need. I've changed my mind.
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  Speaker 1: It was a nonsensical idea of mine. I won't give
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  Speaker 1: him anything, not a penny. I want my money myself,
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  Speaker 1: cried the old man, waving his hand. I'll crush him
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  Speaker 1: like a beetle without it. Don't say anything to him,
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  Speaker 1: or else he will begin hoping. There's nothing for you
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  Speaker 1: to do here. You needn't stay. Is that betrothed of his,
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  Speaker 1: Katerina Ivanovna, whom he has kept so carefully hidden from
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  Speaker 1: me all this time, going to marry him or not?
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  Speaker 1: You went to see her yesterday. I believe nothing will
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  Speaker 1: induce her to abandon him. There you see how dearly
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  Speaker 1: these fine young ladies love a reken a, scoundrel. They
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  Speaker 1: are poor creatures, I tell you, those pale young ladies
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  Speaker 1: very different from ah. If I had his youth and
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  Speaker 1: the looks I have then, but I was better looking
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  Speaker 1: than he at eight and twenty, I'd have been a
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  Speaker 1: conquering him just as he is. He is a low cad.
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  Speaker 1: But he shan't have Grushenka anyway, he shan't. I'll crash him.
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  Speaker 1: His anger had returned with the last words, you can go.
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  Speaker 1: There's nothing for you to do here today, he snapped harshly.
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  Speaker 1: Alyosha went up to say goodbye to him and kissed
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  Speaker 1: him on the shoulder. What's that for? The old man
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  Speaker 1: was a little surprised. We shall see each other again?
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  Speaker 1: Or do you think we shan't? Not at all? I
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  Speaker 1: didn't mean anything, nor did I I did not mean anything,
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  Speaker 1: said the old man, looking at him. Listen, listen, he
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  Speaker 1: shouted up to him. Make haste and come again, and
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  Speaker 1: I'll have a fish soup for you, a fine one,
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  Speaker 1: not like today. Be sure to come come tomorrow. Do
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  Speaker 1: you hear tomorrow? And as soon as Alyosha had gone
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  Speaker 1: out of the door, he went to the cupboard again
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  Speaker 1: and poured out another half glass I won't have more,
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  Speaker 1: he muttered, clearing his throat. And again he locked the
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  Speaker 1: cupboard and put the key in his pocket. Then he
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  Speaker 1: went into his bedroom, lay down on the bed, exhausted,
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  Speaker 1: and in one minute he was asleep. And of chapter
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  Speaker 1: twenty six,