Page 254 - the-brothers-karamazov

She’ll go away — she’ll go at once.’
At that instant Katerina Ivanovna’s two aunts ran in at
her cry, and with them a maid-servant. All hurried to her.
‘I will go away,’ said Grushenka, taking up her mantle
from the sofa. ‘Alyosha, darling, see me home!’
‘Go away — go away, make haste!’ cried Alyosha, clasp-
ing his hands imploringly.
‘Dear little Alyosha, see me home! I’ve got a pretty lit-
tle story to tell you on the way. I got up this scene for your
benefit, Alyosha. See me home, dear, you’ll be glad of it af-
terwards.’
Alyosha turned away, wringing his hands. Grushenka
ran out of the house, laughing musically.
Katerina Ivanovna went into a fit of hysterics. She sobbed,
and was shaken with convulsions. Everyone fussed round
her.
‘I warned you,’ said the elder of her aunts. ‘I tried to pre-
vent your doing this. You’re too impulsive. How could you
do such a thing? You don’t know these creatures, and they
say she’s worse than any of them. You are too self-willed.’
‘She’s a tigress!’ yelled Katerina Ivanovna. ‘Why did you
hold me, Alexey Fyodorovitch? I’d have beaten her — beat-
en her!’
She could not control herself before Alyosha; perhaps
she did not care to, indeed.
‘She ought to be flogged in public on a scaffold!’
Alyosha withdrew towards the door.
‘But, my God!’ cried Katerina Ivanovna, clasping her
hands. ‘He! He! He could be so dishonourable, so inhuman!