The Brothers Karamazovproved that, in his love for the woman, there was an element
of something far higher than he himself imagined, that it
was not only a sensual passion, not only the ‘curve of her
body,’ of which he had talked to Alyosha. But, as soon as
Grushenka had gone, Mitya began to suspect her of all the
low cunning of faithlessness, and he felt no sting of con-
science at it.
And so jealousy surged up in him again. He had, in any
case, to make haste. The first thing to be done was to get
hold of at least a small, temporary loan of money. The nine
roubles had almost all gone on his expedition. And, as we
all know, one can’t take a step without money. But he had
thought over in the cart where he could get a loan. He had
a brace of fine duelling pistols in a case, which he had not
pawned till then because he prized them above all his pos-
sessions.
In the Metropolis tavern he had some time since made
acquaintance with a young official and had learnt that this
very opulent bachelor was passionately fond of weapons. He
used to buy pistols, revolvers, daggers, hang them on his
wall and show them to acquaintances. He prided himself on
them, and was quite a specialist on the mechanism of the
revolver. Mitya, without stopping to think, went straight to
him, and offered to pawn his pistols to him for ten roubles.
The official, delighted, began trying to persuade him to sell
them outright. But Mitya would not consent, so the young
man gave him ten roubles, protesting that nothing would
induce him to take interest. They parted friends.
Mitya was in haste; he rushed towards Fyodor Pav-