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you see with horror that in spite of all your efforts you are
getting farther from your goal instead of nearer to it — at
that very moment I predict that you will reach it and behold
clearly the miraculous power of the Lord who has been all
the time loving and mysteriously guiding you. Forgive me
for not being able to stay longer with you. They are waiting
for me. Good-bye.’
The lady was weeping.
‘Lise, Lise! Bless her — bless her!’ she cried, starting up
suddenly.
‘She does not deserve to be loved. I have seen her naugh-
tiness all along,’ the elder said jestingly. ‘Why have you been
laughing at Alexey?’
Lise had in fact been occupied in mocking at him all
the time. She had noticed before that Alyosha was shy and
tried not to look at her, and she found this extremely amus-
ing. She waited intently to catch his eye. Alyosha, unable
to endure her persistent stare, was irresistibly and suddenly
drawn to glance at her, and at once she smiled triumphantly
in his face. Alyosha was even more disconcerted and vexed.
At last he turned away from her altogether and hid behind
the elder’s back. After a few minutes, drawn by the same ir-
resistible force, he turned again to see whether he was being
looked at or not, and found Lise almost hanging out of her
chair to peep sideways at him, eagerly waiting for him to
look. Catching his eye, she laughed so that the elder could
not help saying, ‘Why do you make fun of him like that,
naughty girl?’
Lise suddenly and quite unexpectedly blushed. Her eyes

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