Page 157 - the-brothers-karamazov

Chapter 2

Lizaveta

HERE was one circumstance which struck Grigory par-
Tticularly, and confirmed a very unpleasant and revolting
suspicion. This Lizaveta was a dwarfish creature, ‘not five
foot within a wee bit,’ as many of the pious old women said
pathetically about her, after her death. Her broad, healthy,
red face had a look of blank idiocy and the fixed stare in
her eyes was unpleasant, in spite of their meek expression.
She wandered about, summer and winter alike, barefooted,
wearing nothing but a hempen smock. Her coarse, almost
black hair curled like lamb’s wool, and formed a sort of
huge cap on her head. It was always crusted with mud, and
had leaves; bits of stick, and shavings clinging to it, as she
always slept on the ground and in the dirt. Her father, a
homeless, sickly drunkard, called Ilya, had lost everything
and lived many years as a workman with some well-to-do
tradespeople. Her mother had long been dead. Spiteful and
diseased, Ilya used to beat Lizaveta inhumanly whenever
she returned to him. But she rarely did so, for everyone in
the town was ready to look after her as being an idiot, and so
specially dear to God. Ilya’s employers, and many others in

1 The Brothers Karamazov