11 The Brothers Karamazov
moment when the prisoner learnt that Grushenka had not
remained at Samsonov’s, the sudden frenzy of the luckless
man worn out with jealousy and nervous exhaustion, at
the thought that she had deceived him and was now with
his father, Ippolit Kirillovitch concluded by dwelling upon
the fatal influence of chance. ‘Had the maid told him that
her mistress was at Mokroe with her former lover, nothing
would have happened. But she lost her head, she could only
swear and protest her ignorance, and if the prisoner did not
kill her on the spot, it was only because he flew in pursuit of
his false mistress.
‘But note, frantic as he was, he took with him a brass pes-
tle. Why that? Why not some other weapon? But since he
had been contemplating his plan and preparing himself for
it for a whole month, he would snatch up anything like a
weapon that caught his eye. He had realised for a month
past that any object of the kind would serve as a weapon,
so he instantly, without hesitation, recognised that it would
serve his purpose. So it was by no means unconsciously, by
no means involuntarily, that he snatched up that fatal pes-
tle. And then we find him in his father’s garden — the coast
is clear, there are no witnesses, darkness and jealousy. The
suspicion that she was there, with him, with his rival, in his
arms, and perhaps laughing at him at that moment — took
his breath away. And it was not mere suspicion, the decep-
tion was open, obvious. She must be there, in that lighted
room, she must be behind the screen; and the unhappy
man would have us believe that he stole up to the window,
peeped respectfully in, and discreetly withdrew, for fear