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Chapter 9

The Sensualists

G

RIGORY and Smerdyakov ran into the room after

Dmitri. They had been struggling with him in the

passage, refusing to admit him, acting on instructions giv-

en them by Fyodor Pavlovitch some days before. Taking

advantage of the fact that Dmitri stopped a moment on en-

tering the room to look about him, Grigory ran round the

table, closed the double doors on the opposite side of the

room leading to the inner apartments, and stood before the

closed doors, stretching wide his arms, prepared to defend

the entrance, so to speak, with the last drop of his blood.

Seeing this, Dmitri uttered a scream rather than a shout

and rushed at Grigory.

‘Then she’s there! She’s hidden there! Out of the way,

scoundrel!’

He tried to pull Grigory away, but the old servant pushed

him back. Beside himself with fury, Dmitri struck out, and

hit Grigory with all his might. The old man fell like a log,

and Dmitri, leaping over him, broke in the door. Smerdya-

kov remained pale and trembling at the other end of the

room, huddling close to Fyodor Pavlovitch.