登陆注册
19593600000248

第248章

IvanChapter 1

At Grushenka'sALYOSHA went towards the cathedral square to the widow Morozov's house to see Grushenka, who had sent Fenya to him early in the morning with an urgent message begging him to come.Questioning Fenya, Alyosha learned that her mistress had been particularly distressed since the previous day.During the two months that had passed since Mitya's arrest, Alyosha had called frequently at the widow Morozov's house, both from his own inclination and to take messages for Mitya.Three days after Mitya's arrest, Grushenka was taken very ill and was ill for nearly five weeks.For one whole week she was unconscious.She was very much changed- thinner and a little sallow, though she had for the past fortnight been well enough to go out.But to Alyosha her face was even more attractive than before, and he liked to meet her eyes when he went in to her.A look of firmness and intelligent purpose had developed in her face.There were signs of a spiritual transformation in her, and a steadfast, fine and humble determination that nothing could shake could be discerned in her.

There was a small vertical line between her brows which gave her charming face a look of concentrated thought, almost austere at the first glance.There was scarcely a trace of her former frivolity.

It seemed strange to Alyosha, too, that in spite of the calamity that had overtaken the poor girl, betrothed to a man who had been arrested for a terrible crime, almost at the instant of their betrothal, in spite of her illness and the almost inevitable sentence hanging over Mitya, Grushenka had not yet lost her youthful cheerfulness.There was a soft light in the once proud eyes, though at times they gleamed with the old vindictive fire when she was visited by one disturbing thought stronger than ever in her heart.The object of that uneasiness was the same as ever- Katerina Ivanovna, of whom Grushenka had even raved when she lay in delirium.Alyosha knew that she was fearfully jealous of her.Yet Katerina Ivanovna had not once visited Mitya in his prison, though she might have done it whenever she liked.All this made a difficult problem for Alyosha, for he was the only person to whom Grushenka opened her heart and from whom she was continually asking advice.Sometimes he was unable to say anything.

Full of anxiety he entered her lodging.She was at home.She had returned from seeing Mitya half an hour before, and from the rapid movement with which she leapt up from her chair to meet him he saw that she had been expecting him with great impatience.A pack of cards dealt for a game of "fools" lay on the table.A bed had been made up on the leather sofa on the other side and Maximov lay, half reclining, on it.He wore a dressing-gown and a cotton nightcap, and was evidently ill and weak, though he was smiling blissfully.When the homeless old man returned with Grushenka from Mokroe two months before, he had simply stayed on and was still staying with her.He arrived with her in rain and sleet, sat down on the sofa, drenched and scared, and gazed mutely at her with a timid, appealing smile.

Grushenka, who was in terrible grief and in the first stage of fever, almost forgot his existence in all she had to do the first half hour after her arrival.Suddenly she chanced to look at him intently: he laughed a pitiful, helpless little laugh.She called Fenya and told her to give him something to eat.All that day he sat in the same place, almost without stirring.When it got dark and the shutters were closed, Fenya asked her mistress:

"Is the gentleman going to stay the night, mistress?""Yes; make him a bed on the sofa," answered Grushenka.

Questioning him more in detail, Grushenka learned from him that he had literally nowhere to go, and that "Mr.Kalganov, my benefactor, told me straight that he wouldn't receive me again and gave me five roubles.""Well, God bless you, you'd better stay, then," Grushenka decided in her grief, smiling compassionately at him.Her smile wrung the old man's heart and his lips twitched with grateful tears.

And so the destitute wanderer had stayed with her ever since.He did not leave the house even when she was ill.Fenya and her grandmother, the cook, did not turn him out, but went on serving him meals and making up his bed on the sofa.Grushenka had grown used to him, and coming back from seeing Mitya (whom she had begun to visit in prison before she was really well) she would sit down and begin talking to "Maximushka" about trifling matters, to keep her from thinking of her sorrow.The old man turned out to be a good story-teller on occasions, so that at last he became necessary to her.

Grushenka saw scarcely anyone else beside Alyosha, who did not come every day and never stayed long.Her old merchant lay seriously ill at this time, "at his last gasp" as they said in the town, and he did, in fact, die a week after Mitya's trial.Three weeks before his death, feeling the end approaching, he made his sons, their wives and children, come upstairs to him at last and bade them not leave him again.From that moment he gave strict orders to his servants not to admit Grushenka and to tell her if she came, "The master wishes you long life and happiness and tells you to forget him." But Grushenka sent almost every day to inquire after him.

同类推荐
  • URSULA

    URSULA

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 五代史补

    五代史补

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Middle Class Gentleman

    The Middle Class Gentleman

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 憨山老人梦游全集

    憨山老人梦游全集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • The Life of Francis Marion

    The Life of Francis Marion

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 绝世倾情:魔君的小妾

    绝世倾情:魔君的小妾

    身为神魔后裔的少年,带着好基友寻找母上大人。途中调戏各界美人,最终一个凡人为其钟爱,什么?竟然还是穿越来的!最为惊悚的是母上大人竟也是与之不同年代的穿越者。。。
  • 与TFBOYS的相遇

    与TFBOYS的相遇

    本人是一名四叶草,第一次写有关TFBOYS的小说,写的不太好,别介意哈!当然,行星饭的也可以进来看看,或许就能化解矛盾啦。但始终如此,行星饭和四叶草,TFBOYS和EXO都是一家人。我们都是一群理智粉。
  • 一个孤独散步者的遐想

    一个孤独散步者的遐想

    《一个孤独散步者的遐想》是卢梭继《忏悔录》之后另一本自传性质的著作,主要记录了卢梭的一些思想片段。由于这本书是在卢梭遭受长期迫害,身体虚弱不堪,又居无定所时完成的。书中的卢梭是一个细腻、敏感的人,别人任何一个微小的举动,无论它多么没有意义,都可能对卢梭造成影响。当他发现自己的行为因为过多地受到他人的影响,而变得不得不被动接受时,他感到自己失去了自由。面对这样的情况,卢梭不会像加缪一样以“抗争”与以回击,天主教背景和懦弱的个性使他最终选择了逃避。
  • 静南学院的秘密生活

    静南学院的秘密生活

    贵族学校静南学院之所以闻名全国,除了就读于这里的学子们不是某某集团的公子千金就是高官子弟外,还因为校内每个月的风云人物榜!无论你是以各种千奇百怪的理由登上榜单,你就能成为大家目光的焦点!你就是部落格里的明星!你的名字就会传遍校内校外的每一个角落!--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 全能帝尊

    全能帝尊

    少年林天,跌落悬崖,因祸得福。万象诀,包罗万象,集百家之长,创天地大道,成就无上帝尊之位。林天获得万象诀,强势崛起,势不可挡,攀登修途巅峰,成就帝尊之位。百家之道,无一不通,无一不精。唯,全能帝尊!
  • 命定太子妃

    命定太子妃

    一次偶遇,无欲无求的她结怨太子。赐婚、代嫁,她成了京城的笑话。不想接二连三有亲王、将军求亲,不是福,实为祸,一道凤旨下,她成了皇宫中低贱的烧火宫婢。从宫婢到太子妃,这一路充满挣扎……
  • 冰山总裁的双面娇娃

    冰山总裁的双面娇娃

    人前,她是温顺的小绵羊,可爱无害的小兔。人后,她是泼辣的母老虎,狡猾奸诈的狐狸。双重身份她转换自如,玩的滴水不漏,笑看世人糊涂入局。却不料,顶着张万年冰山脸的他早已看穿这一切,却不揭破,只静静的看她装逼,看她扮猪,看她演技爆表……直到玩到他头上,才从容淡定的压轴出场:老婆,该谢幕了!
  • 许你千年恋

    许你千年恋

    千年之间扶手而来,不知物是人非。穿梭千年间。
  • 中国远征军(上)

    中国远征军(上)

    中国青年学生在二战期间,跨国征战,抗击日寇,以血肉之躯保卫战时中国国际运输线的重大历史事件。故事展现了中国远征军从出征、失败到大反攻的艰苦卓绝的全过程,其中穿插了中、美、英青年军人的战斗友谊和爱情生活,显现了二战中史迪威、孙立人、戴安澜、杜幸明等一大批中外将领的个性和风采。书中宏大的战争场面及中西方文化的冲突细节,还有对缅甸、印度等东南亚国家的历史、文化、风土人情的生动描绘,集历史性、思想性、文学性于一炉,引人入胜,颇具收藏价值。
  • 宾退录

    宾退录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。