The Brothers Karamazov‘And did he really tell you not to tell me about Ivan? Did
he say, ‘Don’t tell him’?’
‘Yes, he told me, ‘Don’t tell him.’ It’s you that Mitya’s most
afraid of. Because it’s a secret: he said himself it was a secret.
Alyosha, darling, go to him and find out what their secret is
and come and tell me,’ Grushenka besought him with sud-
den eagerness. ‘Set my mind at rest that I may know the
worst that’s in store for me. That’s why I sent for you.’
‘You think it’s something to do with you? If it were, he
wouldn’t have told you there was a secret.’
‘I don’t know. Perhaps he wants to tell me, but doesn’t
dare to. He warns me. There is a secret, he tells me, but he
won’t tell me what it is.’
‘What do you think yourself?’
‘What do I think? It’s the end for me, that’s what I think.
They all three have been plotting my end, for Katerina’s in
it. It’s all Katerina, it all comes from her. She is this and
that, and that means that I am not. He tells me that before-
hand — warns me. He is planning to throw me over, that’s
the whole secret. They’ve planned it together, the three of
them — Mitya, Katerina, and Ivan Fyodorovitch. Alyosha,
I’ve been wanting to ask you a long time. A week ago he sud-
denly told me that Ivan was in love with Katerina, because
he often goes to see her. Did he tell me the truth or not? Tell
me, on your conscience, tell me the worst.’
‘I won’t tell you a lie. Ivan is not in love with Katerina
Ivanovna, I think.’
‘Oh, that’s what I thought! He is lying to me, shameless
deceiver, that’s what it is! And he was jealous of me just now,