Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 101 Doctor Herzenstube, ‘that his reason would be impaired for
a considerable period, if not permanently.’ On Ivan’s asking
impatiently whether that meant that he was now mad, they
told him that this was not yet the case, in the full sense of
the word, but that certain abnormalities were perceptible.
Ivan decided to find out for himself what those abnormali-
ties were.
At the hospital he was at once allowed to see the patient.
Smerdyakov was lying on a truckle-bed in a separate ward.
There was only one other bed in the room, and in it lay a
tradesman of the town, swollen with dropsy, who was ob-
viously almost dying; he could be no hindrance to their
conversation. Smerdyakov grinned uncertainly on seeing
Ivan, and for the first instant seemed nervous. So at least
Ivan fancied. But that was only momentary. For the rest of
the time he was struck, on the contrary, by Smerdyakov’s
composure. From the first glance Ivan had no doubt that
he was very ill. He was very weak; he spoke slowly, seem-
ing to move his tongue with difficulty; he was much thinner
and sallower.Throughout the interview, which lasted twen-
ty minutes, he kept complaining of headache and of pain
in all his limbs. His thin emasculate face seemed to have
become so tiny; his hair was ruffled, and his crest of curls
in front stood up in a thin tuft. But in the left eye, which
was screwed up and seemed to be insinuating something,
Smerdyakov showed himself unchanged. ‘It’s always worth
while speaking to a clever man.’ Ivan was reminded of that
at once. He sat down on the stool at his feet. Smerdyakov,
with painful effort, shifted his position in bed, but he was