Page 639 - the-brothers-karamazov
P. 639

proved that, in his love for the woman, there was an element
            of something far higher than he himself imagined, that it
           was not only a sensual passion, not only the ‘curve of her
            body,’ of which he had talked to Alyosha. But, as soon as
           Grushenka had gone, Mitya began to suspect her of all the
            low cunning of faithlessness, and he felt no sting of con-
            science at it.
              And so jealousy surged up in him again. He had, in any
            case, to make haste. The first thing to be done was to get
           hold of at least a small, temporary loan of money. The nine
           roubles had almost all gone on his expedition. And, as we
            all know, one can’t take a step without money. But he had
           thought over in the cart where he could get a loan. He had
            a brace of fine duelling pistols in a case, which he had not
           pawned till then because he prized them above all his pos-
            sessions.
              In the Metropolis tavern he had some time since made
            acquaintance with a young official and had learnt that this
           very opulent bachelor was passionately fond of weapons. He
           used to buy pistols, revolvers, daggers, hang them on his
           wall and show them to acquaintances. He prided himself on
           them, and was quite a specialist on the mechanism of the
           revolver. Mitya, without stopping to think, went straight to
           him, and offered to pawn his pistols to him for ten roubles.
           The official, delighted, began trying to persuade him to sell
           them outright. But Mitya would not consent, so the young
           man gave him ten roubles, protesting that nothing would
           induce him to take interest. They parted friends.
              Mitya  was  in  haste;  he  rushed  towards  Fyodor  Pav-

                                           The Brothers Karamazov
   634   635   636   637   638   639   640   641   642   643   644