10 The Brothers Karamazov
say original things which had not entered your head before.
So I don’t repeat your ideas, yet I am only your nightmare,
nothing more.’
- It’s new, isn’t it?
‘You are lying, your aim is to convince me you exist apart
and are not my nightmare, and now you are asserting you
are a dream.’
‘My dear fellow, I’ve adopted a special method to-day, I’ll
explain it to you afterwards. Stay, where did I break off? Oh,
yes! I caught cold then, only not here but yonder.’
‘Where is yonder? Tell me, will you be here long. Can’t
you go away?’ Ivan exclaimed almost in despair. He ceased
walking to and fro, sat down on the sofa, leaned his elbows
on the table again and held his head tight in both hands. He
pulled the wet towel off and flung it away in vexation. It was
evidently of no use.
‘Your nerves are out of order,’ observed the gentleman,
with a carelessly easy, though perfectly polite, air. ‘You are
angry with me even for being able to catch cold, though it
happened in a most natural way. I was hurrying then to a
diplomatic soiree at the house of a lady of high rank in Pe-
tersburg, who was aiming at influence in the Ministry. Well,
an evening suit, white tie, gloves, though I was God knows
where and had to fly through space to reach your earth.... Of
course, it took only an instant, but you know a ray of light
from the sun takes full eight minutes, and fancy in an eve-
ning suit and open waistcoat. Spirits don’t freeze, but when
one’s in fleshly form, well... in brief, I didn’t think, and set
off, and you know in those ethereal spaces, in the water that