Page 650 - the-brothers-karamazov

‘Why, you said just now you said... you said it was as good
as in my hands-.’
‘Oh, no, you misunderstood me, Dmitri Fyodorovitch. In
that case you misunderstood me. I was talking of the gold
mines. It’s true I promised you more, infinitely more than
three thousand, I remember it all now, but I was referring
to the gold mines.’
‘But the money? The three thousand?’ Mitya exclaimed,
awkwardly.
‘Oh, if you meant money, I haven’t any. I haven’t a pen-
ny, Dmitri Fyodorovitch. I’m quarrelling with my steward
about it, and I’ve just borrowed five hundred roubles from
Miusov, myself. No, no, I’ve no money. And, do you know,
Dmitri Fyodorovitch, if I had, I wouldn’t give it to you. In
the first place I never lend money. Lending money means
losing friends. And I wouldn’t give it to you particularly. I
wouldn’t give it you, because I like you and want to save
you, for all you need is the gold mines, the gold mines, the
gold mines!’
‘Oh, the devil!’ roared Mitya, and with all his might
brought his fist down on the table.
‘Aie! Aie!’ cried Madame Hohlakov, alarmed, and she
flew to the other end of the drawing-room.
Mitya spat on the ground, and strode rapidly out of the
room, out of the house, into the street, into the darkness!
He walked like one possessed, and beating himself on the
breast, on the spot where he had struck himself two days
previously, before Alyosha, the last time he saw him in the
dark, on the road. What those blows upon his breast signi-