Page 448 - the-brothers-karamazov

don’t get to sleep till midnight, but am on the watch, get-
ting up and walking about the yard, waiting for Agrafena
Alexandrovna to come. For the last few days he’s been per-
fectly frantic expecting her. What he argues is, she is afraid
of him, Dmitri Fyodorovitch (Mitya, as he calls him), ‘and
so,’ says he, ‘she’ll come the back-way, late at night, to me.
You look out for her,’ says he, ‘till midnight and later; and if
she does come, you run up and knock at my door or at the
window from the garden. Knock at first twice, rather gently,
and then three times more quickly, then,’ says he, ‘I shall un-
derstand at once that she has come, and will open the door
to you quietly.’ Another signal he gave me in case anything
unexpected happens. At first, two knocks, and then, after
an interval, another much louder. Then he will understand
that something has happened suddenly and that I must see
him, and he will open to me so that I can go and speak to
him. That’s all in case Agrafena Alexandrovna can’t come
herself, but sends a message. Besides, Dmitri Fyodorovitch
might come, too, so I must let him know he is near. His hon-
our is awfully afraid of Dmitri Fyodorovitch, so that even if
Agrafena Alexandrovna had come and were locked in with
him, and Dmitri Fyodorovitch were to turn up anywhere
near at the time, I should be bound to let him know at once,
knocking three times. So that the first signal of five knocks
means Agrafena Alexandrovna has come, while the second
signal of three knocks means ‘something important to tell
you.’ His honour has shown me them several times and ex-
plained them. And as in the whole universe no one knows
of these signals but myself and his honour, so he’d open the