The Brothers Karamazovbrother Mitya and then tells him to remember it all his life!
What ferocity!’
Alyosha made no reply, he seemed not to have heard. He
walked fast beside Rakitin as though in a terrible hurry.
He was lost in thought and moved mechanically. Rakitin
felt a sudden twinge as though he had been touched on an
open wound. He had expected something quite different by
bringing Grushenka and Alyosha together. Something very
different from what he had hoped for had happened.
‘He is a Pole, that officer of hers,’ he began again, restrain-
ing himself; ‘and indeed he is not an officer at all now. He
served in the customs in Siberia, somewhere on the Chinese
frontier, some puny little beggar of a Pole, I expect. Lost his
job, they say. He’s heard now that Grushenka’s saved a little
money, so he’s turned up again — that’s the explanation of
the mystery.’
Again Alyosha seemed not to hear. Rakitin could not
control himself.
‘Well, so you’ve saved the sinner?’ he laughed spitefully.
‘Have you turned the Magdalene into the true path? Driven
out the seven devils, eh? So you see the miracles you were
looking out for just now have come to pass!’
‘Hush, Rakitin,’ Alyosha, answered with an aching
heart.
‘So you despise me now for those twenty-five roubles?
I’ve sold my friend, you think. But you are not Christ, you
know, and I am not Judas.’
‘Oh, Rakitin, I assure you I’d forgotten about it,’ cried
Alyosha, ‘you remind me of it yourself..’