110 The Brothers Karamazovbid, curiosity. A peculiar fact — established afterwards by
many observations — was that almost all the ladies, or, at
least the vast majority of them, were on Mitya’s side and in
favour of his being acquitted. This was perhaps chiefly ow-
ing to his reputation as a conqueror of female hearts. It was
known that two women rivals were to appear in the case.
One of them- Katerina Ivanovna — was an object of general
interest. All sorts of extraordinary tales were told about her,
amazing anecdotes of her passion for Mitya, in spite of his
crime. Her pride and ‘aristocratic connections’ were partic-
ularly insisted upon (she had called upon scarcely anyone in
the town). People said she intended to petition the Govern-
ment for leave to accompany the criminal to Siberia and to
be married to him somewhere in the mines. The appearance
of Grushenka in court was awaited with no less impatience.
The public was looking forward with anxious curiosity to
the meeting of the two rivals — the proud aristocratic girl
and ‘the hetaira.’ But Grushenka was a more familiar fig-
ure to the ladies of the district than Katerina Ivanovna.
They had already seen ‘the woman who had ruined Fyodor
Pavlovitch and his unhappy son,’ and all, almost without
exception, wondered how father and son could be so in love
with ‘such a very common, ordinary Russian girl, who was
not even pretty.’
In brief, there was a great deal of talk. I know for a fact
that there were several serious family quarrels on Mitya’s
account in our town. Many ladies quarrelled violently with
their husbands over differences of opinion about the dread-
ful case, and it was that the husbands of these ladies, far