Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com under the table, and it had remained in his clutches.
‘Trifon Borissovitch, I sent more than one thousand fly-
ing last time I was here. Do you remember?’
‘You did send it flying. I may well remember. You must
have left three thousand behind you.’
‘Well, I’ve come to do the same again, do you see?’
And he pulled out his roll of notes, and held them up be-
fore the innkeeper’s nose.
Now, listen and remember. In an hour’s time the wine
will arrive, savouries, pies, and sweets — bring them all up
at once. That box Andrey has got is to be brought up at once,
too. Open it, and hand champagne immediately. And the
girls, we must have the girls, Marya especially.’
He turned to the cart and pulled out the box of pistols.
‘Here, Andrey, let’s settle. Here’s fifteen roubles for the
drive, and fifty for vodka... for your readiness, for your
love.... Remember Karamazov!’
‘I’m afraid, sir,’ Andrey. ‘Give me five roubles extra, but
more I won’t take. Trifon Borissovitch, bear witness. For-
give my foolish words..’
‘What are you afraid of?’ asked Mitya, scanning him.
‘Well, go to the devil, if that’s it?’ he cried, flinging him five
roubles. ‘Now, Trifon Borissovitch, take me up quietly and
let me first get a look at them, so that they don’t see me.
Where are they? In the blue room?’
Trifon Borissovitch looked apprehensively at Mitya, but
at once obediently did his bidding. Leading him into the
passage, he went himself into the first large room, adjoin-
ing that in which the visitors were sitting, and took the light