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so as to put the blame on me afterwards. He is stupid, he
can’t disguise what he is doing; he is so open, you know....
But I’ll give it to him, I’ll give it to him! ‘You believe I did it,’
he said. He said that to me, to me. He reproached me with
that! God forgive him! You wait, I’ll make it hot for Kateri-
na at the trial! I’ll just say a word then... I’ll tell everything
then!’ And again she cried bitterly.
‘This I can tell you for certain, Grushenka,’ Alyosha said,
getting up. ‘First, that he loves you, loves you more than
anyone in the world, and you only, believe me. I know. I do
know. The second thing is that I don’t want to worm his se-
cret out of him, but if he’ll tell me of himself to-day, I shall
tell him straight out that I have promised to tell you. Then
I’ll come to you to-day and tell you. Only... I fancy... Kateri-
na Ivanovna has nothing to do with it, and that the secret is
about something else. That’s certain. It isn’t likely it’s about
Katerina Ivanovna, it seems to me. Good-bye for now.’
Alyosha shook hands with her. Grushenka was still cry-
ing. He saw that she put little faith in his consolation, but
she was better for having had her sorrow out, for having
spoken of it. He was sorry to leave her in such a state of
mind, but he was in haste. He had a great many things to
do still.