Page 1279 - the-brothers-karamazov

Chapter 1

Plans for Mitya’s Escape

ERY early, at nine o’clock in the morning, five days after
Vthe trial, Alyosha went to Katerina Ivanovna’s to talk
over a matter of great importance to both of them, and to
give her a message. She sat and talked to him in the very
room in which she had once received Grushenka. In the
next room Ivan Fyodorovitch lay unconscious in a high fe-
ver. Katerina Ivanovna had immediately after the scene at
the trial ordered the sick and unconscious man to be car-
ried to her house, disregarding the inevitable gossip and
general disapproval of the public. One of two relations who
lived with her had departed to Moscow immediately after
the scene in court, the other remained. But if both had gone
away, Katerina Ivanovna would have adhered to her reso-
lution, and would have gone on nursing the sick man and
sitting by him day and night. Varvinsky and Herzenstube
were attending him. The famous doctor had gone back to
Moscow, refusing to give an opinion as to the probable end
of the illness. Though the doctors encouraged Katerina Iva-
novna and Alyosha, it was evident that they could not yet
give them positive hopes of recovery.

1 The Brothers Karamazov