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Chapter 7

A Young Man Bent

on a Career

A

LYOSHA helped Father Zossima to his bedroom and

seated him on his bed. It was a little room furnished

with the bare necessities. There was a narrow iron bedstead,

with a strip of felt for a mattress. In the corner, under the

ikons, was a reading-desk with a cross and the Gospel lying

on it. The elder sank exhausted on the bed. His eyes glit-

tered and he breathed hard. He looked intently at Alyosha,

as though considering something.

‘Go, my dear boy, go. Porfiry is enough for me. Make

haste, you are needed there, go and wait at the Father Su-

perior’s table.’

‘Let me stay here,’ Alyosha entreated.

‘You are more needed there. There is no peace there. You

will wait, and be of service. If evil spirits rise up, repeat a

prayer. And remember, my son’ — the elder liked to call

him that — ‘this is not the place for you in the future. When

it is God’s will to call me, leave the monastery. Go away for

good.’