Page 1038 - the-brothers-karamazov

sixty thousand each. There’s not a doubt you did reckon on
Dmitri Fyodorovitch.’
‘What I put up with from you! Listen, scoundrel, if I had
reckoned on anyone then, it would have been on you, not
on Dmitri, and I swear I did expect some wickedness from
you... at the time.... I remember my impression!
‘I thought, too, for a minute, at the time, that you were
reckoning on me as well,’ said Smerdyakov, with a sarcas-
tic grin. ‘So that it was just by that more than anything you
showed me what was in your mind. For if you had a fore-
boding about me and yet went away, you as good as said to
me, ‘You can murder my parent, I won’t hinder you!‘
‘You scoundrel! So that’s how you understood it!’
‘It was all that going to Tchermashnya. Why! You were
meaning to go to Moscow and refused all your father’s en-
treaties to go to Tchermashnya — and simply at a foolish
word from me you consented at once! What reason had you
to consent to Tchermashnya? Since you went to Tchermash-
nya with no reason, simply at my word, it shows that you
must have expected something from me.’
No, I swear I didn’t!’ shouted Ivan, grinding his teeth.
‘You didn’t? Then you ought, as your father’s son, to have
had me taken to the lock-up and thrashed at once for my
words then... or at least, to have given me a punch in the
face on the spot, but you were not a bit angry, if you please,
and at once in a friendly way acted on my foolish word and
went away, which was utterly absurd, for you ought to have
stayed to save your parent’s life. How could I help drawing
my conclusions?’

10