Page 292 - the-brothers-karamazov

Chapter 3

A Meeting with the

Schoolboys

HANK goodness he did not ask me about Grushen-
‘Tka,’ thought Alyosha, as he left his father’s house and
turned towards Madame Hohlakov’s, ‘or I might have had
to tell him of my meeting with Grushenka yesterday.’
Alyosha felt painfully that since yesterday both combat-
ants had renewed their energies, and that their hearts had
grown hard again. ‘Father is spiteful and angry, he’s made
some plan and will stick to it. And what of Dmitri? He too
will be harder than yesterday, he too must be spiteful and
angry, and he too, no doubt, has made some plan. Oh, I
must succeed in finding him to-day, whatever happens.’
But Alyosha had not long to meditate. An incident oc-
curred on the road, which, though apparently of little
consequence, made a great impression on him. just after he
had crossed the square and turned the corner coming out
into Mihailovsky Street, which is divided by a small ditch
from the High Street (our whole town is intersected by
ditches), he saw a group of schoolboys between the ages of

1