The Brothers Karamazovpart.... There’s no doubt about that.’
‘Oh, where, where did you get that from? What fool have
you made friends with?’ exclaimed Alyosha.
‘Come, the truth will out! It has so chanced that I have
often talked to Mr. Rakitin, of course, but... old Byelinsky
said that, too, so they say.’
‘Byelinsky? I don’t remember. He hasn’t written that any-
where.’
‘If he didn’t write it, they say he said it. I heard that from
a... but never mind.’
‘And have you read Byelinsky?’
‘Well, no... I haven’t read all of him, but... I read the pas-
sage about Tatyana, why she didn’t go off with Onyegin.’
‘Didn’t go off with Onyegin? Surely you don’t... under-
stand that already?’
‘Why, you seem to take me for little Smurov,’ said Kolya,
with a grin of irritation. ‘But please don’t suppose I am such
a revolutionist. I often disagree with Mr. Rakitin. Though
I mention Tatyana, I am not at all for the emancipation of
women. I acknowledge that women are a subject race and
must obey. Les femmes tricottent,* Napoleon said.’ Kolya,
for some reason, smiled, ‘And on that question at least I am
quite of one mind with that pseudo-great man. I think, too,
that to leave one’s own country and fly to America is mean,
worse than mean — silly. Why go to America when one
may be of great service to humanity here? Now especially.
There’s a perfect mass of fruitful activity open to us. That’s
what I answered.’
- Let the women knit.