Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com A captivating little foot,
Though swollen and red and tender!
The doctors come and plasters put,
But still they cannot mend her.
Yet, ‘tis not for her foot I dread-
A theme for Pushkin’s muse more fit-
It’s not her foot, it is her head:
I tremble for her loss of wit!
For as her foot swells, strange to say,
Her intellect is on the wane-
Oh, for some remedy I pray
That may restore both foot and brain!
He is a pig, a regular pig, but he’s very arch, the ras-
cal! And he really has put in a progressive idea. And wasn’t
he angry when she kicked him out! He was gnashing his
teeth!’
‘He’s taken his revenge already,’ said Alyosha. ‘He’s writ-
ten a paragraph about Madame Hohlakov.’
And Alyosha told him briefly about the paragraph in
Gossip.
‘That’s his doing, that’s his doing!’ Mitya assented, frown-
ing. ‘That’s him! These paragraphs... I know... the insulting
things that have been written about Grushenka, for in-
stance.... And about Katya, too.... H’m!
He walked across the room with a harassed air.
‘Brother, I cannot stay long,’ Alyosha said, after a pause.
‘To-morrow will be a great and awful day for you, the judg-
ment of God will be accomplished... I am amazed at you,
you walk about here, talking of I don’t know what..’