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her to the house some time ago.’
‘She has been there, sir. She stayed a little while, and went
off again.’
‘What? Went away?’ cried Mitya. ‘When did she go?’
‘Why, as soon as she came. She only stayed a minute. She
only told Kuzma Kuzmitch a tale that made him laugh, and
then she ran away.’
‘You’re lying, damn you!’ roared Mitya.
‘Aie! Aie!’ shrieked the old woman, but Mitya had van-
ished.
He ran with all his might to the house where Grushenka
lived. At the moment he reached it, Grushenka was on her
way to Mokroe. It was not more than a quarter of an hour
after her departure.
Fenya was sitting with her grandmother, the old cook,
Matryona, in the kitchen when ‘the captain’ ran in. Fenya
uttered a piercing shriek on seeing him.
‘You scream?’ roared Mitya, ‘where is she?’
But without giving the terror-stricken Fenya time to ut-
ter a word, he fell all of a heap at her feet.
‘Fenya, for Christ’s sake, tell me, where is she?’
‘I don’t know. Dmitri Fyodorovitch, my dear, I don’t
know. You may kill me but I can’t tell you.’ Fenya swore and
protested. ‘You went out with her yourself not long ago-.’
‘She came back!’
‘Indeed she didn’t. By God I swear she didn’t come back.’
‘You’re lying!’ shouted Mitya. ‘From your terror I know
where she is.’
He rushed away. Fenya in her fright was glad she had got