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That bowing to your brother, Dmitri. And didnt he tap the ground with his forehead, too! You speak of Father Zossima? Yes, of Father Zossima. Tapped the ground? Ah, an irreverent expression! Well, what of it? Anyway, what does that vision mean? I dont know what it means, Misha. I knew he wouldnt explain it to you! Theres nothing wonderful about it, of course, only the usual holy mummery. But there was an object in the performance. All the pious people in the town will talk about it and spread the story through the province, wondering what it meant. To my thinking the old man really has a keen nose; he sniffed a crime. Your house stinks of it. What crime? Rakitin evidently had something he was eager to speak of. Itll be in your family, this crime. Between your brothers and your rich old father. So Father Zossima flopped down to be ready for what may turn up. If something happens later on, itll be: Ah, the holy man foresaw it, prophesied it! though its a poor sort of prophecy, flopping like that, Ah, but it was symbolic, theyll say, an allegory, and the devil knows what all! Itll be remembered to his glory: He predicted the crime and marked the criminal! Thats always the way with these crazy fanatics; they cross themselves at the tavern and throw stones at the temple. Like your elder, he takes a stick to a just man and falls at the feet of a murderer. What crime? What murderer? What do you mean? Alyosha stopped dead. Rakitin stopped, too. What murderer? As though you didnt know! Ill bet youve thought of it before. Thats interesting, too, by the way. Listen, Alyosha, you always speak the truth, though youre always between two stools. Have you thought of it or not? Answer. I have, answered Alyosha in a low voice. Even Rakitin was taken aback. What? Have you really? he cried. I Ive not exactly thought of it, muttered Alyosha, but directly you began speaking so strangely, I fancied I had thought of it myself. You see? (And how well you expressed it!) Looking at your father and your brother Mitya to-day you thought of a crime. Then Im not mistaken? But wait, wait a minute, Alyosha broke in uneasily, What has led you to see all this? Why does it interest you? Thats the first question. Two questions, disconnected, but natural. Ill deal with them separately. What led me to see it? I shouldnt have seen it, if I hadnt suddenly understood your brother Dmitri, seen right into the very heart of him all at once. I caught the whole man from one trait. These very honest but passionate people have a line which mustnt be crossed. If it were, hed run at your father with a knife. But your fathers a drunken and abandoned old sinner, who can never draw the lineif they both let themselves go, theyll both come to grief. |
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