10 The Brothers Karamazov
black ribbon. On the middle finger of his right hand was a
massive gold ring with a cheap opal stone in it.
Ivan was angrily silent and would not begin the conver-
sation. The visitor waited and sat exactly like a poor relation
who had come down from his room to keep his host compa-
ny at tea, and was discreetly silent, seeing that his host was
frowning and preoccupied. But he was ready for any affable
conversation as soon as his host should begin it. All at once
his face expressed a sudden solicitude.
‘I say,’ he began to Ivan, ‘excuse me, I only mention it to
remind you. You went to Smerdyakov’s to find out about
Katerina Ivanovna, but you came away without finding out
anything about her, you probably forgot-.’
‘Ah, yes.’ broke from Ivan and his face grew gloomy with
uneasiness. ‘Yes, I’d forgotten... but it doesn’t matter now,
never mind, till to-morrow,’ he muttered to himself, ‘and
you,’ he added, addressing his visitor, ‘I should have remem-
bered that myself in a minute, for that was just what was
tormenting me! Why do you interfere, as if I should believe
that you prompted me, and that I didn’t remember it of my-
self?’
‘Don’t believe it then,’ said the gentleman, smiling am-
icably, ‘what’s the good of believing against your will?
Besides, proofs are no help to believing, especially material
proofs. Thomas believed, not because he saw Christ risen,
but because he wanted to believe, before he saw. Look at the
spiritualists, for instance.... I am very fond of them... only
fancy, they imagine that they are serving the cause of re-
ligion, because the devils show them their horns from the