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Grigory rushed to Marfa and sent her to Lizaveta, while
he ran to fetch an old midwife who lived close by. They
saved the baby, but Lizaveta died at dawn. Grigory took the
baby, brought it home, and making his wife sit down, put it
on her lap. ‘A child of God — an orphan is akin to all,’ he
said, ‘and to us above others. Our little lost one has sent us
this, who has come from the devil’s son and a holy innocent.
Nurse him and weep no more.’
So Marfa brought up the child. He was christened Pavel,
to which people were not slow in adding Fyodorovitch (son
of Fyodor). Fyodor Pavlovitch did not object to any of this,
and thought it amusing, though he persisted vigorously in
denying his responsibility. The townspeople were pleased
at his adopting the foundling. Later on, Fyodor Pavlovitch
invented a surname for the child, calling him Smerdyakov,
after his mother’s nickname.
So this Smerdyakov became Fyodor Pavlovitch’s second
servant, and was living in the lodge with Grigory and Mar-
fa at the time our story begins. He was employed as cook.
I ought to say something of this Smerdyakov, but I am
ashamed of keeping my readers’ attention so long occupied
with these common menials, and I will go back to my story,
hoping to say more of Smerdyakov in the course of it.