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Alyosha started.
‘What is it? This is not your place for the time. I bless you
for great service in the world. Yours will be a long pilgrim-
age. And you will have to take a wife, too. You will have to
bear all before you come back. There will be much to do.
But I don’t doubt of you, and so I send you forth. Christ is
with you. Do not abandon Him and He will not abandon
you. You will see great sorrow, and in that sorrow you will
be happy. This is my last message to you: in sorrow seek
happiness. Work, work unceasingly. Remember my words,
for although I shall talk with you again, not only my days
but my hours are numbered.’
Alyosha’s face again betrayed strong emotion. The cor-
ners of his mouth quivered.
‘What is it again?’ Father Zossima asked, smiling gently.
‘The worldly may follow the dead with tears, but here we re-
joice over the father who is departing. We rejoice and pray
for him. Leave me, I must pray. Go, and make haste. Be near
your brothers. And not near one only, but near both.’
Father Zossima raised his hand to bless him. Alyosha
could make no protest, though he had a great longing to
remain. He longed, moreover, to ask the significance of his
bowing to Dmitri, the question was on the tip of his tongue,
but he dared not ask it. He knew that the elder would have
explained it unasked if he had thought fit. But evidently it
was not his will. That action had made a terrible impression
on Alyosha; he believed blindly in its mysterious signifi-
cance. Mysterious, and perhaps awful.
As he hastened out of the hermatage precincts to reach

1 The Brothers Karamazov