Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 1how can you call her a harlot? Is she... that sort of woman?’
Alyosha flushed suddenly. ‘I tell you again, I heard that she
was a relation of yours. You often go to see her, and you told
me yourself you’re not her lover. I never dreamed that you
of all people had such contempt for her! Does she really de-
serve it?’
‘I may have reasons of my own for visiting her. That’s not
your business. But as for relationship, your brother, or even
your father, is more likely to make her yours than mine.
Well, here we are. You’d better go to the kitchen. Hullo!
what’s wrong, what is it? Are we late? They can’t have fin-
ished dinner so soon! Have the Karamazovs been making
trouble again? No doubt they have. Here’s your father and
your brother Ivan after him. They’ve broken out from the
Father Superior’s. And look, Father Isidor’s shouting out
something after them from the steps. And your father’s
shouting and waving his arms. I expect he’s swearing. Bah,
and there goes Miusov driving away in his carriage. You see,
he’s going. And there’s old Maximov running! — there must
have been a row. There can’t have been any dinner. Surely
they’ve not been beating the Father Superior! Or have they,
perhaps, been beaten? It would serve them right!’
There was reason for Rakitin’s exclamations. There had
been a scandalous, an unprecedented scene. It had all come
from the impulse of a moment.