Brothers -- Fiction; Didactic fiction; Fathers and sons -- Fiction; Russia -- Social life and customs -- 1533-1917 -- Fiction
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 the 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.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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