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‘Where... is Zhutchka?’ Ilusha asked in a broken voice.
‘Oh well, my boy, your Zhutchka’s lost and done for!’
Ilusha did not speak, but he fixed an intent gaze once
more on Kolya. Alyosha, catching Kolya’s eye, signed to him
vigourously again, but he turned away his eyes pretending
not to have noticed.
‘It must have run away and died somewhere. It must have
died after a meal like that,’ Kolya pronounced pitilessly,
though he seemed a little breathless. ‘But I’ve got a dog, Per-
ezvon... A Slavonic name... I’ve brought him to show you.’
‘I don’t want him!’ said Ilusha suddenly.
‘No, no, you really must see him... it will amuse you. I
brought him on purpose.... He’s the same sort of shaggy
dog.... You allow me to call in my dog, madam?’ He sud-
denly addressed Madame Snegiryov, with inexplicable
excitement in his manner.
‘I don’t want him, I don’t want him!’ cried Ilusha, with a
mournful break in his voice. There was a reproachful light
in his eyes.
‘You’d better,’ the captain started up from the chest by
the wall on which he had just sat down, ‘you’d better... an-
other time,’ he muttered, but Kolya could not be restrained.
He hurriedly shouted to Smurov, ‘Open the door,’ and as
soon as it was open, he blew his whistle. Perezvon dashed
headlong into the room.
‘Jump, Perezvon, beg! Beg!’ shouted Kolya, jumping up,
and the dog stood erect on its hind-legs by Ilusha’s bedside.
What followed was a surprise to everyone: Ilusha started,
lurched violently forward, bent over Perezvon and gazed at