Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 11 1

Chapter 4

Fortune Smiles on Mitya

I

T came quite as a surprise even to Alyosha himself. He

was not required to take the oath, and I remember that

both sides addressed him very gently and sympathetically.

It was evident that his reputation for goodness had pre-

ceded him. Alyosha gave his evidence modestly and with

restraint, but his warm sympathy for his unhappy brother

was unmistakable. In answer to one question, he sketched

his brother’s character as that of a man, violent-tempered

perhaps and carried away by his passions, but at the same

time honourable, proud and generous, capable of self-sacri-

fice, if necessary. He admitted, however, that, through his

passion for Grushenka and his rivalry with his father, his

brother had been of late in an intolerable position. But he

repelled with indignation the suggestion that his broth-

er might have committed a murder for the sake of gain,

though he recognised that the three thousand roubles had

become almost an obsession with Mitya; that upon them as

part of the inheritance he had been cheated of by his father,

and that, indifferent as he was to money as a rule, he could

not even speak of that three thousand without fury. As for