Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 1‘You say that because I blushed,’ Alyosha said suddenly.
‘I wasn’t blushing at what you were saying or at what you’ve
done. I blushed because I am the same as you are.’
‘You? Come, that’s going a little too far!’
‘No, it’s not too far,’ said Alyosha warmly (obviously the
idea was not a new one). ‘The ladder’s the same. I’m at the
bottom step, and you’re above, somewhere about the thir-
teenth. That’s how I see it. But it’s all the same. Absolutely
the same in kind. Anyone on the bottom step is bound to
go up to the top one.’
‘Then one ought not to step on at all.’
‘Anyone who can help it had better not.’
‘But can you?’
‘I think not.’
‘Hush, Alyosha, hush, darling! I could kiss your hand, you
touch me so. That rogue Grushenka has an eye for men. She
told me once that she’d devour you one day. There, there, I
won’t! From this field of corruption fouled by flies, let’s pass
to my tragedy, also befouled by flies, that is, by every sort
of vileness. Although the old man told lies about my seduc-
ing innocence, there really was something of the sort in my
tragedy, though it was only once, and then it did not come
off. The old man who has reproached me with what never
happened does not even know of this fact; I never told any-
one about it. You’re the first, except Ivan, of course — Ivan
knows everything. He knew about it long before you. But
Ivan’s a tomb.’
‘Ivan’s a tomb?’
Alyosha listened with great attention.