Page 242 - the-brothers-karamazov

clearly. He was struck by the imperiousness, proud ease, and
self-confidence of the haughty girl. And all that was certain,
Alyosha felt that he was not exaggerating it. He thought her
great glowing black eyes were very fine, especially with her
pale, even rather sallow, longish face. But in those eyes and
in the lines of her exquisite lips there was something with
which his brother might well be passionately in love, but
which perhaps could not be loved for long. He expressed
this thought almost plainly to Dmitri when, after the visit,
his brother besought and insisted that he should not con-
ceal his impressions on seeing his betrothed.
‘You’ll be happy with her, but perhaps not tranquilly hap-
py.’
‘Quite so, brother. Such people remain always the same.
They don’t yield to fate. So you think I shan’t love her for
ever.’
‘No; perhaps you will love her for ever. But perhaps you
won’t always be happy with her.’
Alyosha had given his opinion at the time, blushing,
and angry with himself for having yielded to his brother’s
entreaties and put such ‘foolish’ ideas into words. For his
opinion had struck him as awfully foolish immediately af-
ter he had uttered it. He felt ashamed too of having given
so confident an opinion about a woman. It was with the
more amazement that he felt now, at the first glance at Kat-
erina Ivanovna as she ran in to him, that he had perhaps
been utterly mistaken. This time her face was beaming with
spontaneous good-natured kindliness, and direct warm-
hearted sincerity. The ‘pride and haughtiness,’ which had

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