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I’ve always thought you were splendid. How glad I am to tell you so!” “Lise!” said her mother impressively, though she smiled after she had said it. “You have quite forgotten us, Alexey Fyodorovitch,” she said; “you never come to see us. Yet Lise has told me twice that she is never happy except with you.” Alyosha raised his downcast eyes and again flushed, and again smiled without knowing why.
“I will tell you; that’s perhaps why I asked you to come, for I don’t know now why I did ask you to come. Well, Ivan Fyodorovitch has been to see me twice, since he came back from Moscow. First time he came as a friend to call on me, and the second time Katya was here and he came because he heard she was here.
What do you think of the gold-mines, Dmitri Fyodorovitch?” “Of the gold-mines, madam? I have never thought anything about them.” “But I have thought of them for you. Thought of them over and over again. I have been watching you for the last month. I’ve watched you a hundred times as you’ve walked past, saying to myself: That’s a man of energy who ought to be at the gold-mines.
“It is yours, Dmitri Fyodorovitch,” Madame Hohlakov cut in at once. “The money is as good as in your pocket, not three thousand, but three million, Dmitri Fyodorovitch, in less than no time. I’ll make you a present of the idea: you shall find gold-mines, make millions, return and become a leading man, and wake us up and lead us to better things. Are we to leave it all to the Jews?
“More than a thousand went on them, Dmitri Fyodorovitch,” retorted Trifon Borissovitch firmly. “You flung it about at random and they picked it up. They were a rascally, thievish lot, horse-stealers, they’ve been driven away from here, or maybe they’d bear witness themselves how much they got from you.
For mercy’s sake, don’t keep Alexey Fyodorovitch a minute. He will come back to you at once.” Madame Hohlakov at last ran off. Before leaving, Alyosha would have opened the door to see Lise. “On no account,” cried Lise. “On no account now. Speak through the door. How have you come to be an angel? That’s the only thing I want to know.” “For an awful piece of stupidity, Lise! Good-by!”
All were silent. “Yes, the door!... It’s a nightmare! God is against me!” he exclaimed, staring before him in complete stupefaction. “Come, you see,” the prosecutor went on with dignity, “and you can judge for yourself, Dmitri Fyodorovitch. On the one hand we have the evidence of the open door from which you ran out, a fact which overwhelms you and us.
He scowled, he clenched his teeth, and his fixed stare became still more rigid, more concentrated, more terrible, when suddenly, with incredible rapidity, his wrathful, savage face changed, his tightly compressed lips parted, and Dmitri Fyodorovitch broke into uncontrolled, spontaneous laughter. He literally shook with laughter. For a long time he could not speak. “So she wouldn’t kiss her hand!
And now I can get a servant with this money, you understand, Alexey Fyodorovitch, I can get medicines for the dear creatures, I can send my student to Petersburg, I can buy beef, I can feed them properly. Good Lord, but it’s a dream!” Alyosha was delighted that he had brought him such happiness and that the poor fellow had consented to be made happy.
Mitya jumped out of the cart just as the innkeeper, on his way to bed, peeped out from the steps curious to see who had arrived. “Trifon Borissovitch, is that you?” The innkeeper bent down, looked intently, ran down the steps, and rushed up to the guest with obsequious delight. “Dmitri Fyodorovitch, your honor! Do I see you again?”
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