Page 1182 - the-brothers-karamazov

acter and brilliant education. Oh, I do not venture to repeat
the details; you have only just heard them. Honour, self-sac-
rifice were shown there, and I will be silent. The figure of
the young officer, frivolous and profligate, doing homage
to true nobility and a lofty ideal, was shown in a very sym-
pathetic light before us. But the other side of the medal was
unexpectedly turned to us immediately after in this very
court. Again I will not venture to conjecture why it hap-
pened so, but there were causes. The same lady, bathed in
tears of long-concealed indignation, alleged that he, he of
all men, had despised her for her action, which, though in-
cautious, reckless perhaps, was still dictated by lofty and
generous motives. He, he, the girl’s betrothed, looked at her
with that smile of mockery, which was more insufferable
from him than from anyone. And knowing that he had al-
ready deceived her (he had deceived her, believing that she
was bound to endure everything from him, even treachery),
she intentionally offered him three thousand roubles, and
clearly, too clearly, let him understand that she was offering
him money to deceive her. ‘Well, will you take it or not, are
you so lost to shame?’ was the dumb question in her scru-
tinising eyes. He looked at her, saw clearly what was in her
mind (he’s admitted here before you that he understood it
all), appropriated that three thousand unconditionally, and
squandered it in two days with the new object of his affec-
tions.
‘What are we to believe then? The first legend of the young
officer sacrificing his last farthing in a noble impulse of gen-
erosity and doing reverence to virtue, or this other revolting

11 1