1 The Brothers Karamazovsends him this chance.’
‘Mitya, he won’t give it for anything.’
‘I know he won’t. I know it perfectly well. Now, especially.
That’s not all. I know something more. Now, only a few days
ago, perhaps only yesterday he found out for the first time in
earnest (underline in earnest) that Grushenka is really per-
haps not joking, and really means to marry me. He knows
her nature; he knows the cat. And do you suppose he’s going
to give me money to help to bring that about when he’s cra-
zy about her himself? And that’s not all, either. I can tell you
more than that. I know that for the last five days he has had
three thousand drawn out of the bank, changed into notes
of a hundred roubles. packed into a large envelope, sealed
with five seals, and tied across with red tape. You see how
well I know all about it! On the envelope is written: ‘To my
angel, Grushenka, when she will come to me.’ He scrawled
it himself in silence and in secret, and no one knows that
the money’s there except the valet, Smerdyakov, whom he
trusts like himself. So now he has been expecting Grush-
enka for the last three or four days; he hopes she’ll come for
the money. He has sent her word of it, and she has sent him
word that perhaps she’ll come. And if she does go to the old
man, can I marry her after that? You understand now why
I’m here in secret and what I’m on the watch for.’
‘For her?’
‘Yes, for her. Foma has a room in the house of these sluts
here. Foma comes from our parts; he was a soldier in our
regiment. He does jobs for them. He’s watchman at night
and goes grouse-shooting in the day-time; and that’s how