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strangely awkward way, held out his hand to her too. Lise
assumed an important air.
‘Katerina Ivanovna has sent you this through me.’ She
handed him a little note. ‘She particularly begs you to go
and see her as soon as possible; that you will not fail her, but
will be sure to come.’
‘She asks me to go and see her? Me? What for?’ Alyo-
sha muttered in great astonishment. His face at once looked
anxious.
‘Oh, it’s all to do with Dmitri Fyodorovitch and — what
has happened lately,’ the mother explained hurriedly. ‘Kat-
erina Ivanovna has made up her mind, but she must see you
about it.... Why, of course, I can’t say. But she wants to see
you at once. And you will go to her, of course. It is a Chris-
tian duty.’
‘I have only seen her once,’ Alyosha protested with the
same perplexity.
‘Oh, she is such a lofty, incomparable creature If only for
her suffering.... Think what she has gone through, what she
is enduring now Think what awaits her! It’s all terrible, ter-
rible!
‘Very well, I will come,’ Alyosha decided, after rapidly
scanning the brief, enigmatic note, which consisted of an
urgent entreaty that he would come, without any sort of ex-
planation.
‘Oh, how sweet and generous that would be of you’ cried
Lise with sudden animation. ‘I told mamma you’d be sure
not to go. I said you were saving your soul. How splendid
you are I’ve always thought you were splendid. How glad I