Page 1033 - the-brothers-karamazov

so that there was a continual rustling from them. The fur-
niture was very scanty: two benches against each wall and
two chairs by the table. The table of plain wood was covered
with a cloth with pink patterns on it. There was a pot of
geranium on each of the two little windows. In the corner
there was a case of ikons. On the table stood a little copper
samovar with many dents in it, and a tray with two cups.
But Smerdyakov had finished tea and the samovar was out.
He was sitting at the table on a bench. He was looking at an
exercise-book and slowly writing with a pen. There was a
bottle of ink by him and a flat iron candlestick, but with a
composite candle. Ivan saw at once from Smerdyakov’s face
that he had completely recovered from his illness. His face
was fresher, fuller, his hair stood up jauntily in front, and
was plastered down at the sides. He was sitting in a parti-
coloured, wadded dressing-gown, rather dirty and frayed,
however. He had spectacles on his nose, which Ivan had
never seen him wearing before. This trifling circumstance
suddenly redoubled Ivan’s anger: ‘A creature like that and
wearing spectacles!’
Smerdyakov slowly raised his head and looked intently at
his visitor through his spectacles; then he slowly took them
off and rose from the bench, but by no means respectfully,
almost lazily, doing the least possible required by common
civility. All this struck Ivan instantly; he took it all in and
noted it at once — most of all the look in Smerdyakov’s eyes,
positively malicious, churlish and haughty. ‘What do you
want to intrude for?’ it seemed to say; ‘we settled everything
then; why have you come again?’ Ivan could scarcely con-

10 The Brothers Karamazov