Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 1peeped into the room just in time. She rushed in, flung her-
self upon him from behind, threw her arms round him, and
the gun went off, hit the ceiling, but hurt no one. The oth-
ers ran in, took away the gun, and held him by the arms. I
heard all about this afterwards. I was at home, it was get-
ting dusk, and I was just preparing to go out. I had dressed,
brushed my hair, scented my handkerchief, and taken up
my cap, when suddenly the door opened, and facing me in
the room stood Katerina Ivanovna.
‘It’s strange how things happen sometimes. No one had
seen her in the street, so that no one knew of it in the town.
I lodged with two decrepit old ladies, who looked after me.
They were most obliging old things, ready to do anything
for me, and at my request were as silent afterwards as two
cast-iron posts. Of course I grasped the position at once.
She walked in and looked straight at me, her dark eyes de-
termined, even defiant, but on her lips and round mouth I
saw uncertainty.
‘My sister told me,’ she began, ‘that you would give me
4500 roubles if I came to you for it — myself. I have come...
give me the money!’
‘She couldn’t keep it up. She was breathless, frightened,
her voice failed her, and the corners of her mouth and the
lines round it quivered. Alyosha, are you listening, or are
you asleep?’
‘Mitya, I know you will tell the whole truth, said Alyosha
in agitation.
‘I am telling it. If I tell the whole truth just as it happened
I shan’t spare myself. My first idea was a — Karamazov one.