0 The Brothers Karamazov
wondering at a new and strange sensation in his heart. This
woman, this ‘dreadful’ woman, had no terror for him now,
none of that terror that had stirred in his soul at any passing
thought of woman. On the contrary, this woman, dreaded
above all women, sitting now on his knee, holding him in
her arms, aroused in him now a quite different, unexpected,
peculiar feeling, a feeling of the intensest and purest inter-
est without a trace of fear, of his former terror. That was
what instinctively surprised him.
‘You’ve talked nonsense enough,’ cried Rakitin, ‘you’d
much better give us some champagne. You owe it me, you
know you do!’
‘Yes, I really do. Do you know, Alyosha, I promised him
champagne on the top of everything, if he’d bring you? I’ll
have some too! Fenya, Fenya, bring us the bottle Mitya left!
Look sharp! Though I am so stingy, I’ll stand a bottle, not
for you, Rakitin, you’re a toadstool, but he is a falcon! And
though my heart is full of something very different, so be it,
I’ll drink with you. I long for some dissipation.’
‘But what is the matter with you? And what is this mes-
sage, may I ask, or is it a secret?’ Rakitin put in inquisitively,
doing his best to pretend not to notice the snubs that were
being continually aimed at him.
‘Ech, it’s not a secret, and you know it, too,’ Grushenka
said, in a voice suddenly anxious, turning her head towards
Rakitin, and drawing a little away from Alyosha, though
she still sat on his knee with her arm round his neck. ‘My
officer is coming, Rakitin, my officer is coming.’
‘I heard he was coming, but is he so near?’