“Hm. I love you even without cognac, but with scoundrels I’m a scoundrel. Vanka won’t go to Chermashnya—why? He’s got to spy on me, to see how much I’ll give Grushenka when she comes. They’re all scoundrels! I refuse to acknowledge Ivan. Where did he come from? He’s not our kind at all. Why should I leave him anything? I won’t even leave a will, let it be known to you. And Mitka I’ll squash like a cockroach. I squash black cockroaches at night with my slipper: they make a little pop when you step on them. And your Mitka will make a little pop, too.
“I ... I’ll ask him,”Alyosha murmured. “I fit were all three thousand, then maybe he...”
“Lies! There’s no need to ask him now, no need at all! I’ve changed my mind. It was yesterday that this foolishness crept into my noddle, out of foolishness. I’ll give him nothing, not a jot, I need my dear money myself,” the old man began waving his arm. “I’ll squash him like a cockroach even without that. Tell him nothing, or he’ll get his hopes up. And you can go, there’s absolutely nothing for you to do here. This fiancée, Katerina Ivanovna, that he’s been hiding from me so carefully all this time, is she going to marry him or not? You saw her yesterday, didn’t you?”
“She won’t leave him for anything.”
“These delicate young ladies love just his sort, rakes and scoundrels! They’re trash, let me tell you, these pale young ladies; a far cry from ... Ah! With his youth and the looks I had then (I was much better looking than he is at twenty-eight), I’d have just as many conquests.
With the last words he got into a rage again.
“And you can go, too, there’s nothing for you to do here today,” he snapped abruptly.
Alyosha went up to him to say good-bye and kissed him on the shoulder.
“What are you doing?” the old man was slightly astonished. “We’ll still see each other. Or do you think we won’t?”
“Not at all, I just did it for no reason.”
“And me, too, I just did it. . . ,” the old man looked at him. “Listen,” he called after him, “come sometime soon, do you hear? For fish soup, I’ll make fish soup, a special one, not like today. You must come! Listen, come tomorrow, I’ll see you tomorrow!”
And as soon as Alyosha stepped out the door, he again went to the little cupboard and tossed off another half-glass.
“No more!” he muttered, granting, and again locked the cupboard, and again put the key in his pocket. Then he went to the bedroom, lay exhausted on the bed, and the next moment was asleep.
Chapter 3:
“Thank God he didn’t ask me about Grushenka,” Alyosha thought for his part, as he left his father’s and headed for Madame Khokhlakov’s house, “otherwise I might have had to tell him about meeting Grushenka yesterday.” Alyosha felt painfully that the combatants had gathered fresh strength overnight and their hearts had hardened again with the new day: “Father is angry and irritated, he’s come up with something and he’s sticking to it. And Dmitri? He, too, has gained strength overnight; he, too, must be angry and irritated; and of course he, too, has thought up something ... Oh, I must find him today at all costs...”
