Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com lovya station. This was how the fact came to be remembered
and established that ‘at midday, on the day before the event,
Mitya had not a farthing, and that he had sold his watch to
get money and had borrowed three roubles from his land-
lord, all in the presence of witnesses.’
I note this fact, later on it will be apparent why I do so.
Though he was radiant with the joyful anticipation that
he would at last solve all his difficulties, yet, as he drew near
Volovya station, he trembled at the thought of what Grush-
enka might be doing in his absence. What if she made up
her mind to-day to go to Fyodor Pavlovitch? This was why
he had gone off without telling her and why he left orders
with his landlady not to let out where he had gone, if anyone
came to inquire for him.
‘I must, I must get back to-night,’ he repeated, as he was
jolted along in the cart, ‘and I dare say I shall have to bring
this Lyagavy back here... to draw up the deed.’ So mused
Mitya, with a throbbing heart, but alas! his dreams were not
fated to be carried out.
To begin with, he was late, taking a short cut from Vo-
lovya station which turned out to be eighteen versts instead
of twelve. Secondly, he did not find the priest at home at
Ilyinskoe; he had gone off to a neighbouring village. While
Mitya, setting off there with the same exhausted horses,
was looking for him, it was almost dark.
The priest, a shy and amiable looking little man, in-
formed him at once that though Lyagavy had been staying
with him at first, he was now at Suhoy Possyolok, that he
was staying the night in the forester’s cottage, as he was