Page 727 - the-brothers-karamazov

before,’ when they had made merry there. All the girls who
had come had been there then; the Jewish band with fiddles
and zithers had come, too, and at last the long expected cart
had arrived with the wines and provisions.
Mitya bustled about. All sorts of people began coming
into the room to look on, peasants and their women, who
had been roused from sleep and attracted by the hopes of
another marvellous entertainment such as they had enjoyed
a month before. Mitya remembered their faces, greeting
and embracing everyone he knew. He uncorked bottles and
poured out wine for everyone who presented himself. Only
the girls were very eager for the champagne. The men pre-
ferred rum, brandy, and, above all, hot punch. Mitya had
chocolate made for all the girls, and ordered that three sam-
ovars should be kept boiling all night to provide tea and
punch for everyone to help himself.
An absurd chaotic confusion followed, but Mitya was
in his natural element, and the more foolish it became, the
more his spirits rose. If the peasants had asked him for mon-
ey at that moment, he would have pulled out his notes and
given them away right and left. This was probably why the
landlord, Trifon Borissovitch, kept hovering about Mitya to
protect him. He seemed to have given up all idea of going to
bed that night; but he drank little, only one glass of punch,
and kept a sharp look-out on Mitya’s interests after his own
fashion. He intervened in the nick of time, civilly and ob-
sequiously persuading Mitya not to give away ‘cigars and
Rhine wine,’ and, above all, money to the peasants as he had
done before. He was very indignant, too, at the peasant girls

The Brothers Karamazov