The Brothers Karamazovsmiling.
‘Um! I love you even without the brandy, but with scoun-
drels I am a scoundrel. Ivan is not going to Tchermashnya
— why is that? He wants to spy how much I give Grushenka
if she comes. They are all scoundrels! But I don’t recognise
Ivan, I don’t know him at all. Where does he come from?
He is not one of us in soul. As though I’d leave him any-
thing! I shan’t leave a will at all, you may as well know. And
I’ll crush Mitya like a beetle. I squash black-beetles at night
with my slipper; they squelch when you tread on them. And
your Mitya will squelch too. Your Mitya, for you love him.
Yes you love him and I am not afraid of your loving him.
But if Ivan loved him I should be afraid for myself at his lov-
ing him. But Ivan loves nobody. Ivan is not one of us. People
like Ivan are not our sort, my boy. They are like a cloud of
dust. When the wind blows, the dust will be gone.... I had
a silly idea in my head when I told you to come to-day; I
wanted to find out from you about Mitya. If I were to hand
him over a thousand or maybe two now, would the beggar-
ly wretch agree to take himself off altogether for five years
or, better still, thirty-five, and without Grushenka, and give
her up once for all, eh?’
‘I — I’ll ask him,’ muttered Alyosha. ‘If you would give
him three thousand, perhaps he-.’
‘That’s nonsense! You needn’t ask him now, no need!
I’ve changed my mind. It was a nonsensical idea of mine.
I won’t give him anything, not a penny, I want my money
myself,’ cried the old man, waving his hand. ‘I’ll crush him
like a beetle without it. Don’t say anything to him or else