Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 111ity of your heart, and all its suffering is due to it. But thank
the Creator who has given you a lofty heart capable of such
suffering; of thinking and seeking higher things, for our
dwelling is in the heavens. God grant that your heart will
attain the answer on earth, and may God bless your path.’
The elder raised his hand and would have made the sign
of the cross over Ivan from where he stood. But the latter
rose from his seat, went up to him, received his blessing,
and kissing his hand went back to his place in silence. His
face looked firm and earnest. This action and all the pre-
ceding conversation, which was so surprising from Ivan,
impressed everyone by its strangeness and a certain solem-
nity, so that all were silent for a moment, and there was a
look almost of apprehension in Alyosha’s face. But Miusov
suddenly shrugged his shoulders. And at the same moment
Fyodor Pavlovitch jumped up from his seat.
‘Most pious and holy elder,’ he cried pointing to Ivan,
‘that is my son, flesh of my flesh, the dearest of my flesh!
He is my most dutiful Karl Moor, so to speak, while this
son who has just come in, Dmitri, against whom I am seek-
ing justice from you, is the undutiful Franz Moor — they
are both out of Schiller’s Robbers, and so I am the reigning
Count von Moor! Judge and save us! We need not only your
prayers but your prophecies!’
‘Speak without buffoonery, and don’t begin by insulting
the members of your family,’ answered the elder, in a faint,
exhausted voice. He was obviously getting more and more
fatigued, and his strength was failing.
‘An unseemly farce which I foresaw when I came here!’