The Brothers Karamazovand in any way you like.’
‘So if I were to ask his highness to go down on his knees
before me in that very tavern — ‘The Metropolis’ it’s called
— or in the marketplace, he would do it?’
‘Yes, he would even go down on his knees.’
‘You’ve pierced me to the heart, sir. Touched me to tears
and pierced me to the heart! I am only too sensible of your
brother’s generosity. Allow me to introduce my family, my
two daughters and my son — my litter. If I die, who will
care for them, and while I live who but they will care for a
wretch like me? That’s a great thing the Lord has ordained
for every man of my sort, sir. For there must be someone
able to love even a man like me.’
‘Ah, that’s perfectly true!’ exclaimed Alyosha.
‘Oh, do leave off playing the fool! Some idiot comes in,
and you put us to shame!’ cried the girl by the window,
suddenly turning to her father with a disdainful and con-
temptuous air.
‘Wait a little, Varvara!’ cried her father, speaking pe-
remptorily but looking at them quite approvingly. ‘That’s
her character,’ he said, addressing Alyosha again.
‘And in all nature there was naught
That could find favour in his eyes-
or rather in the feminine — that could find favour in
her eyes —. But now let me present you to my wife, Arina
Petrovna. She is crippled, she is forty-three; she can move,
but very little. She is of humble origin. Arina Petrovna,
compose your countenance. This is Alexey Fyodorovitch
Karamazov. Get up, Alexey Fyodorovitch.’ He took him by