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Chapter 3

A Meeting with the

Schoolboys

‘T

HANK goodness he did not ask me about Grushen-

ka,’ thought Alyosha, as he left his father’s house and

turned towards Madame Hohlakov’s, ‘or I might have had

to tell him of my meeting with Grushenka yesterday.’

Alyosha felt painfully that since yesterday both combat-

ants had renewed their energies, and that their hearts had

grown hard again. ‘Father is spiteful and angry, he’s made

some plan and will stick to it. And what of Dmitri? He too

will be harder than yesterday, he too must be spiteful and

angry, and he too, no doubt, has made some plan. Oh, I

must succeed in finding him to-day, whatever happens.’

But Alyosha had not long to meditate. An incident oc-

curred on the road, which, though apparently of little

consequence, made a great impression on him. just after he

had crossed the square and turned the corner coming out

into Mihailovsky Street, which is divided by a small ditch

from the High Street (our whole town is intersected by

ditches), he saw a group of schoolboys between the ages of