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and love him instead of me..’
‘Hush, old man, you’ll get well,’ Krassotkin cried sudden-
ly, in a voice that sounded angry.
‘But don’t ever forget me, father,’ Ilusha went on, ‘come to
my grave...and father, bury me by our big stone, where we
used to go for our walk, and come to me there with Kras-
sotkin in the evening... and Perezvon... I shall expect you....
Father, father!’
His voice broke. They were all three silent, still embrac-
ing. Nina was crying, quietly in her chair, and at last seeing
them all crying, ‘mamma,’ too, burst into tears.
‘Ilusha! Ilusha!’ she exclaimed.
Krassotkin suddenly released himself from Ilusha’s em-
brace.
‘Good-bye, old man, mother expects me back to dinner,’
he said quickly. ‘What a pity I did not tell her! She will be
dreadfully anxious... But after dinner I’ll come back to you
for the whole day, for the whole evening, and I’ll tell you all
sorts of things, all sorts of things. And I’ll bring Perezvon,
but now I will take him with me, because he will begin to
howl when I am away and bother you. Good-bye!
And he ran out into the passage. He didn’t want to cry,
but in the passage he burst into tears. Alyosha found him
crying.
‘Kolya, you must be sure to keep your word and come,
or he will be terribly disappointed,’ Alyosha said emphati-
cally.
‘I will! Oh, how I curse myself for not having come before’
muttered Kolya, crying, and no longer ashamed of it.