Page 376 - the-brothers-karamazov

‘But I simply asked whether you do know?’ Alyosha ex-
plained.
‘I know nothing of his whereabouts and don’t want to.’
‘But my brother told me that you let him know all that
goes on in the house, and promised to let him know when
Agrafena Alexandrovna comes.’
Smerdyakov turned a deliberate, unmoved glance upon
him.
‘And how did you get in this time, since the gate was bolt-
ed an hour ago?’ he asked, looking at Alyosha.
‘I came in from the back-alley, over the fence, and went
straight to the summer-house. I hope you’ll forgive me, he
added addressing Marya Kondratyevna. ‘I was in a hurry to
find my brother.’
‘Ach, as though we could take it amiss in you!’ drawled
Marya Kondratyevna, flattered by Alyosha’s apology. ‘For
Dmitri Fyodorovitch often goes to the summer-house in
that way. We don’t know he is here and he is sitting in the
summer-house.’
‘I am very anxious to find him, or to learn from you
where he is now. Believe me, it’s on business of great impor-
tance to him.’
‘He never tells us,’ lisped Marya Kondratyevna.
‘Though I used to come here as a friend,’ Smerdyakov
began again, ‘Dmitri Fyodorovitch has pestered me in a
merciless way even here by his incessant questions about
the master. ‘What news?’ he’ll ask. ‘What’s going on in there
now? Who’s coming and going?’ and can’t I tell him some-
thing more. Twice already he’s threatened me with death