Page 132 - the-brothers-karamazov
P. 132

‘I believe it, since you say so, but confound you, and your
       brother Ivan with you. Don’t you understand that one might
       very well dislike him, apart from Katerina Ivanovna. And
       why the devil should I like him? He condescends to abuse
       me, you know. Why haven’t I a right to abuse him?’
         ‘I never heard of his saying anything about you, good or
       bad. He doesn’t speak of you at all.’
         ‘But  I  heard  that  the  day  before  yesterday  at  Katerina
       Ivanovna’s he was abusing me for all he was worth — you
       see what an interest he takes in your humble servant. And
       which is the jealous one after that, brother, I can’t say. He
       was so good as to express the opinion that, if I don’t go in
       for the career of an archimandrite in the immediate future
       and don’t become a monk, I shall be sure to go to Peters-
       burg and get on to some solid magazine as a reviewer, that
       I shall write for the next ten years, and in the end become
       the owner of the magazine, and bring it out on the liberal
       and atheistic side, with a socialistic tinge, with a tiny gloss
       of socialism, but keeping a sharp lookout all the time, that
       is, keeping in with both sides and hoodwinking the fools.
       According to your brother’s account, the tinge of socialism
       won’t hinder me from laying by the proceeds and invest-
       ing them under the guidance of some Jew, till at the end
       of my career I build a great house in Petersburg and move
       my publishing offices to it, and let out the upper stories to
       lodgers. He has even chosen the place for it, near the new
       stone bridge across the Neva, which they say is to be built
       in Petersburg.’
         ‘Ah,  Misha,  that’s  just  what  will  really  happen,  every

                                                     1 1
   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137