Page 852 - the-brothers-karamazov

only then had he seen ‘how handsome the woman was,’ for,
though he had seen her several times he had always looked
upon her as something of a ‘provincial hetaira.’ ‘She has the
manners of the best society,’ he said enthusiastically, gossip-
ing about her in a circle of ladies. But this was received with
positive indignation by the ladies, who immediately called
him a ‘naughty man,’ to his great satisfaction.
As she entered the room, Grushenka only glanced for an
instant at Mitya, who looked at her uneasily. But her face re-
assured him at once. After the first inevitable inquiries and
warnings, Nikolay Parfenovitch asked her, hesitating a little,
but preserving the most courteous manner, on what terms
she was with the retired lieutenant, Dmitri Fyodorovitch
Karamazov. To this Grushenka firmly and quietly replied:
‘He was an acquaintance. He came to see me as an ac-
quaintance during the last month.’ To further inquisitive
questions she answered plainly and with complete frank-
ness, that, though ‘at times’ she had thought him attractive,
she had not loved him, but had won his heart as well as his
old father’s ‘in my nasty spite,’ that she had seen that Mitya
was very jealous of Fyodor Pavlovitch and everyone else;
but that had only amused her. She had never meant to go to
Fyodor Pavlovitch, she had simply been laughing at him. ‘I
had no thoughts for either of them all this last month. I was
expecting another man who had wronged me. But I think,’
she said in conclusion, ‘that there’s no need for you to in-
quire about that, nor for me to answer you, for that’s my
own affair.’
Nikolay Parfenovitch immediately acted upon this hint.

1