Page 851 - the-brothers-karamazov

pay it back. To Nikolay Parfenovitch’s direct question, had
he noticed how much money Dmitri Fyodorovitch held in
his hand, as he must have been able to see the sum better
than anyone when he took the note from him, Maximov, in
the most positive manner, declared that there was twenty
thousand.
‘Have you ever seen so much as twenty thousand before,
then?’ inquired Nikolay Parfenovitch, with a smile.
‘To be sure I have, not twenty, but seven, when my wife
mortgaged my little property. She’d only let me look at it
from a distance, boasting of it to me. It was a very thick
bundle, all rainbow-coloured notes. And Dmitri Fyodoro-
vitch’s were all rainbow-coloured..’
He was not kept long. At last it was Grushenka’s turn.
Nikolay Parfenovitch was obviously apprehensive of the ef-
fect her appearance might have on Mitya, and he muttered
a few words of admonition to him, but Mitya bowed his
head in silence, giving him to understand ‘that he would
not make a scene.’ Mihail Makarovitch himself led Grush-
enka in. She entered with a stern and gloomy face, that
looked almost composed, and sat down quietly on the chair
offered her by Nikolay Parfenovitch. She was very pale, she
seemed to be cold, and wrapped herself closely in her mag-
nificent black shawl. She was suffering from a slight feverish
chill — the first symptom of the long illness which followed
that night. Her grave air, her direct earnest look and qui-
et manner made a very favourable impression on everyone.
Nikolay Parfenovitch was even a little bit ‘fascinated.’ He
admitted himself, when talking about it afterwards, that

0 The Brothers Karamazov