Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 1‘She won’t forgive everything,’ said Dmitri, with a grin.
‘There’s something in it, brother, that no woman could for-
give. Do you know what would be the best thing to do?’
‘What?’
‘Pay back the three thousand.’
‘Where can we get it from? I say, I have two thousand.
Ivan will give you another thousand — that makes three.
Take it and pay it back.’
‘And when would you get it, your three thousand? You’re
not of age, besides, and you must — you absolutely must
— take my farewell to her to-day, with the money or without
it, for I can’t drag on any longer, things have come to such a
pass. To-morrow is too late. I shall send you to father.’
‘To father?’
‘Yes, to father first. Ask him for three thousand.’
‘But, Mitya, he won’t give it.’
‘As though he would! I know he won’t. Do you know the
meaning of despair, Alexey?’
‘Yes.’
‘Listen. Legally he owes me nothing. I’ve had it all from
him, I know that. But morally he owes me something,
doesn’t he? You know he started with twenty-eight thou-
sand of my mother’s money and made a hundred thousand
with it. Let him give me back only three out of the twenty-
eight thousand, and he’ll draw my soul out of hell, and it
will atone for many of his sins. For that three thousand — I
give you my solemn word — I’ll make an end of everything,
and he shall hear nothing more of me. For the last time I
give him the chance to be a father. Tell him God Himself