0 The Brothers Karamazov

Chapter 1

They Arrive at the

Monastery

I

T was a warm, bright day the end of August. The inter-

view with the elder had been fixed for half-past eleven,

immediately after late mass. Our visitors did not take part

in the service, but arrived just as it was over. First an el-

egant open carriage, drawn by two valuable horses, drove

up with Miusov and a distant relative of his, a young man

of twenty, called Pyotr Fomitch Kalganov. This young man

was preparing to enter the university. Miusov with whom

he was staying for the time, was trying to persuade him to

go abroad to the university of Zurich or Jena. The young

man was still undecided. He was thoughtful and absent-

minded. He was nice-looking, strongly built, and rather

tall. There was a strange fixity in his gaze at times. Like all

very absent-minded people he would sometimes stare at a

person without seeing him. He was silent and rather awk-

ward, but sometimes, when he was alone with anyone, he

became talkative and effusive, and would laugh at anything

or nothing. But his animation vanished as quickly as it ap-