GRIGORY and Smerdyakov ran into the room after Dmitri. They had

been struggling with him in the passage, refusing to admit him, acting

on instructions given them by Fyodor Pavlovitch some days before.

Taking advantage of the fact that Dmitri stopped a moment on

entering the room to look about him, Grigory ran round the table,

closed the double doors on the opposite side of the room leading to

the inner apartments, and stood before the closed doors, stretching

wide his arms, prepared to defend the entrance, so to speak, with

the last drop of his blood. Seeing this, Dmitri uttered a scream

rather than a shout and rushed at Grigory.

    "Then she's there! She's hidden there! Out of the way, scoundrel!"

    He tried to pull Grigory away, but the old servant pushed him

back. Beside himself with fury, Dmitri struck out, and hit Grigory

with all his might. The old man fell like a log, and Dmitri, leaping

over him, broke in the door. Smerdyakov remained pale and trembling at

the other end of the room, huddling close to Fyodor Pavlovitch.

    "She's here!" shouted Dmitri. "I saw her turn towards the house

just now, but I couldn't catch her. Where is she? Where is she?"

    That shout, "She's here!" produced an indescribable effect on

Fyodor Pavlovitch. All his terror left him.

    "Hold him! Hold him!" he cried, and dashed after Dmitri. Meanwhile

Grigory had got up from the floor, but still seemed stunned. Ivan

and Alyosha ran after their father. In the third room something was

heard to fall on the floor with a ringing crash: it was a large

glass vase- not an expensive one- on a marble pedestal which Dmitri

had upset as he ran past it.

    "At him!" shouted the old man. "Help!"

    Ivan and Alyosha caught the old man and were forcibly bringing him

back.

    "Why do you run after him? He'll murder you outright," Ivan

cried wrathfully at his father.

    "Ivan! Alyosha! She must be here. Grushenka's here. He said he saw

her himself, running."

    He was choking. He was not expecting Grushenka at the time, and

the sudden news that she was here made him beside himself. He was

trembling all over. He seemed frantic.

    "But you've seen for yourself that she hasn't come," cried Ivan.

    "But she may have come by that other entrance."

    "You know that entrance is locked, and you have the key."

    Dmitri suddenly reappeared in the drawing-room. He had, of course,

found the other entrance locked, and the key actually was in Fyodor

Pavlovitch's pocket. The windows of all rooms were also closed, so

Grushenka could not have come in anywhere nor have run out anywhere.

    "Hold him!" shrieked Fyodor Pavlovitch, as soon as he saw him

again. "He's been stealing money in my bedroom." And tearing himself

from Ivan he rushed again at Dmitri. But Dmitri threw up both hands

and suddenly clutched the old man by the two tufts of hair that

remained on his temples, tugged at them, and flung him with a crash on

the floor. He kicked him two or three times with his heel in the face.

The old man moaned shrilly. Ivan, though not so strong as Dmitri,

threw his arms round him, and with all his might pulled him away.

Alyosha helped him with his slender strength, holding Dmitri in front.

    "Madman! You've killed him!" cried Ivan.

    "Serve him right!" shouted Dmitri breathlessly. "If I haven't

killed him, I'll come again and kill him. You can't protect him!"

    "Dmitri! Go away at once!" cried Alyosha commandingly.

    "Alexey! You tell me. It's only you I can believe; was she here

just now, or not? I saw her myself creeping this way by the fence from

the lane. I shouted, she ran away."

    "I swear she's not been here, and no one expected her."

    "But I saw her.... So she must... I'll find out at once where

she is.... Good-bye, Alexey! Not a word to Aesop about the money

now. But go to Katerina Ivanovna at once and be sure to say, 'He sends

his compliments to you!' Compliments, his compliments! just

compliments and farewell! Describe the scene to her."

    Meanwhile Ivan and Grigory had raised the old man and seated him

in an arm-chair. His face was covered with blood, but he was conscious

and listened greedily to Dmitri's cries. He was still fancying that

Grushenka really was somewhere in the house. Dmitri looked at him with

hatred as he went out.

    "I don't repent shedding your blood!" he cried. "Beware, old

man, beware of your dream, for I have my dream, too. I curse you,

and disown you altogether."

    He ran out of the room.

    "She's here. She must be here. Smerdyakov! Smerdyakov!" the old

man wheezed, scarcely audibly, beckoning to him with his finger.

    "No, she's not here, you old lunatic!" Ivan shouted at him

angrily. "Here, he's fainting? Water! A towel! Make haste,

Smerdyakov!"

    Smerdyakov ran for water. At last they got the old man

undressed, and put him to bed. They wrapped a wet towel round his

head. Exhausted by the brandy, by his violent emotion, and the blows

he had received, he shut his eyes and fell asleep as soon as his

head touched the pillow. Ivan and Alyosha went back to the

drawing-room. Smerdyakov removed the fragments of the broken vase,

while Grigory stood by the table looking gloomily at the floor.

    "Shouldn't you put a wet bandage on your head and go to bed, too?"

Alyosha said to him. "We'll look after him. My brother gave you a

terrible blow- on the head."

    "He's insulted me!" Grigory articulated gloomily and distinctly.

    "He's 'insulted' his father, not only you," observed Ivan with a

forced smile.

    "I used to wash him in his tub. He's insulted me," repeated

Grigory.

    "Damn it all, if I hadn't pulled him away perhaps he'd have

murdered him. It wouldn't take much to do for Aesop, would it?"

whispered Ivan to Alyosha.

    "God forbid!" cried Alyosha.

    "Why should He forbid?" Ivan went on in the same whisper, with a

malignant grimace. "One reptile will devour the other. And serve

them both right, too."

    Alyosha shuddered.

    "Of course I won't let him be murdered as I didn't just now.

Stay here, Alyosha, I'll go for a turn in the yard. My head's begun to

ache."

    Alyosha went to his father's bedroom and sat by his bedside behind

the screen for about an hour. The old man suddenly opened his eyes and

gazed for a long while at Alyosha, evidently remembering and

meditating. All at once his face betrayed extraordinary excitement.

    "Alyosha," he whispered apprehensively, "where's Ivan?"

    "In the yard. He's got a headache. He's on the watch."

    "Give me that looking-glass. It stands over there. Give it me."

    Alyosha gave him a little round folding looking-glass which

stood on the chest of drawers. The old man looked at himself in it;

his nose was considerably swollen, and on the left side of his

forehead there was a rather large crimson bruise.

    "What does Ivan say? Alyosha, my dear, my only son, I'm afraid

of Ivan. I'm more afraid of Ivan than the other. You're the only one

I'm not afraid of...."

    "Don't be afraid of Ivan either. He is angry, but he'll defend

you."

    "Alyosha, and what of the other? He's run to Grushenka. My

angel, tell me the truth, was she here just now or not?"

    "No one has seen her. It was a mistake. She has not been here."

    "You know Mitya wants to marry her, to marry her."

    "She won't marry him."

    "She won't. She won't. She won't. She won't on any account!"

    The old man fairly fluttered with joy, as though nothing more

comforting could have been said to him. In his delight he seized

Alyosha's hand and pressed it warmly to his heart. Tears positively

glittered in his eyes.

    "That image of the Mother of God of which I was telling you just

now," he said. "Take it home and keep it for yourself. And I'll let

you go back to the monastery.... I was joking this morning, don't be

angry with me. My head aches, Alyosha.... Alyosha, comfort my heart.

Be an angel and tell me the truth!"

    "You're still asking whether she has been here or not?" Alyosha

said sorrowfully.

    "No, no, no. I believe you. I'll tell you what it is: you go to

Grushenka yourself, or see her somehow; make haste and ask her; see

for yourself, which she means to choose, him or me. Eh? What? Can

you?"

    "If I see her I'll ask her," Alyosha muttered, embarrassed.

    "No, she won't tell you," the old man interrupted, "she's a rogue.

She'll begin kissing you and say that it's you she wants. She's a

deceitful, shameless hussy. You mustn't go to her, you mustn't!"

    "No father, and it wouldn't be suitable, it wouldn't be right at

all."

    "Where was he sending you just now? He shouted 'Go' as he ran

away."

    "For money? To ask her for money?"

    "No. Not for money."

    "He's no money; not a farthing. I'll settle down for the night,

and think things over, and you can go. Perhaps you'll meet her....

Only be sure to come to me to-morrow in the morning. Be sure to. I

have a word to say to you to-morrow. Will you come?"

    "When you come, pretend you've come of your own accord to ask

after me. Don't tell anyone I told you to. Don't say a word to Ivan."

     "Very well."

     "Good-bye, my angel. You stood up for me, just now. I shall never

forget it. I've a word to say to you to-morrow- but I must think about

it."

    "And how do you feel now?"

    "I shall get up to-morrow and go out, perfectly well, perfectly

well!"

    Crossing the yard Alyosha found Ivan sitting on the bench at the

gateway. He was sitting writing something in pencil in his notebook.

Alyosha told Ivan that their father had waked up, was conscious, and

had let him go back to sleep at the monastery.

    "Alyosha, I should be very glad to meet you to-morrow morning,"

said Ivan cordially, standing up. His cordiality was a complete

surprise to Alyosha.

    "I shall be at the Hohlakovs' to-morrow," answered Alyosha, "I may

be at Katerina Ivanovna's, too, if I don't find her now."

    "But you're going to her now, anyway? For that 'compliments and

farewell,'" said Ivan smiling. Alyosha was disconcerted.

    "I think I quite understand his exclamations just now, and part of

what went before. Dmitri has asked you to go to her and say that he-

well, in fact- takes his leave of her?"

    "Brother, how will all this horror end between father and Dmitri?"

exclaimed Alyosha.

    "One can't tell for certain. Perhaps in nothing: it may all fizzle

out. That woman is a beast. In any case we must keep the old man

indoors and not let Dmitri in the house."

    "Brother, let me ask one thing more: has any man a right to look

at other men and decide which is worthy to live?"

    "Why bring in the question of worth? The matter is most often

decided in men's hearts on other grounds much more natural. And as for

rights- who has not the right to wish?"

    "Not for another man's death?"

    "What even if for another man's death? Why lie to oneself since

all men live so and perhaps cannot help living so. Are you referring

to what I said just now- that one reptile will devour the other? In

that case let me ask you, do you think me like Dmitri capable of

shedding Aesop's blood, murdering him, eh?"

    "What are you saying, Ivan? Such an idea never crossed my mind.

I don't think Dmitri is capable of it, either."

    "Thanks, if only for that," smiled Ivan. "Be sure, I should always

defend him. But in my wishes I reserve myself full latitude in this

case. Good-bye till to-morrow. Don't condemn me, and don't look on

me as a villain," he added with a smile.

    They shook hands warmly as they had never done before. Alyosha

felt that his brother had taken the first step towards him, and that

he had certainly done this with some definite motive.