11 The Brothers Karamazov
money simply to send it off. I felt at the time that he was in
great need of money.... I gave him the three thousand on the
understanding that he should post it within the month if he
cared to. There was no need for him to worry himself about
that debt afterwards.’
I will not repeat all the questions asked her and all her
answers in detail. I will only give the substance of her evi-
dence.
‘I was firmly convinced that he would send off that sum
as soon as he got money from his father,’ she went on. ‘I
have never doubted his disinterestedness and his honesty...
his scrupulous honesty... in money matters. He felt quite
certain that he would receive the money from his father,
and spoke to me several times about it. I knew he had a
feud with his father and have always believed that he had
been unfairly treated by his father. I don’t remember any
threat uttered by him against his father. He certainly never
uttered any such threat before me. If he had come to me at
that time, I should have at once relieved his anxiety about
that unlucky three thousand roubles, but he had given up
coming to see me... and I myself was put in such a position...
that I could not invite him.... And I had no right, indeed, to
be exacting as to that money, she added suddenly, and there
was a ring of resolution in her voice. ‘I was once indebted to
him for assistance in money for more than three thousand,
and I took it, although I could not at that time foresee that I
should ever be in a position to repay my debt.’
There was a note of defiance in her voice. It was then Fe-
tyukovitch began his cross-examination.