0 The Brothers Karamazov
‘Whose then? Whose then? Whose then?’
‘It’s Trifon Nikititch’s business, not yours.’
‘What Trifon Nikititch?’ asked the youth, staring with
loutish amazement at Kolya, but still as angry as ever.
Kolya scanned him gravely.
‘Have you been to the Church of the Ascension?’ he sud-
denly asked him, with stern emphasis.
‘What Church of Ascension? What for? No, I haven’t,’
said the young man, somewhat taken aback.
‘Do you know Sabaneyev?’ Kolya went on even more em-
phatically and even more severely.
‘What Sabaneyev? No, I don’t know him.’
‘Well then you can go to the devil,’ said Kolya, cut-
ting short the conversation; and turning sharply to the
right he strode quickly on his way as though he disdained
further conversation with a dolt who did not even know Sa-
baneyev.
‘Stop, heigh! What Sabaneyev?’ the young man recovered
from his momentary stupefaction and was as excited as be-
fore. ‘What did he say?’ He turned to the market women
with a silly stare.
The women laughed.
‘You can never tell what he’s after,’ said one of them.
‘What Sabaneyev is it he’s talking about?’ the young man
repeated, still furious and brandishing his right arm.
‘It must be a Sabaneyev who worked for the Kuzmitchovs,
that’s who it must be,’ one of the women suggested.
The young man stared at her wildly.
‘For the Kuzmitchovs?’ repeated another woman. ‘But