1 0 The Brothers Karamazov
‘No, I don’t,’ said Alyosha.
‘Of course he did not tell you. It was about that plan of
escape. He had told me the main idea three days before, and
we began quarrelling about it at once and quarrelled for
three days. We quarrelled because, when he told me that
if Dmitri Fyodorovitch were convicted he would escape
abroad with that creature, I felt furious at once — I can’t
tell you why, I don’t know myself why.... Oh, of course, I was
furious then about that creature, and that she, too, should
go abroad with Dmitri!’ Katerina Ivanovna exclaimed
suddenly, her lips quivering with anger. ‘As soon as Ivan
Fyodorovitch saw that I was furious about that woman, he
instantly imagined I was jealous of Dmitri and that I still
loved Dmitri. That is how our first quarrel began. I would
not give an explanation, I could not ask forgiveness. I could
not bear to think that such a man could suspect me of still
loving that... and when I myself had told him long before
that I did not love Dmitri, that I loved no one but him! It
was only resentment against that creature that made me an-
gry with him. Three days later, on the evening you came,
he brought me a sealed envelope, which I was to open at
once, if anything happened to him. Oh, he foresaw his ill-
ness! He told me that the envelope contained the details of
the escape, and that if he died or was taken dangerously ill,
I was to save Mitya alone. Then he left me money, nearly ten
thousand — those notes to which the prosecutor referred
in his speech, having learnt from someone that he had sent
them to be changed. I was tremendously impressed to find
that Ivan Fyodorovitch had not given up his idea of sav-