Page 866 - the-brothers-karamazov

Chapter 1

Kolya Krassotkin

T was the beginning of November. There had been a hard
Ifrost, eleven degrees Reaumur, without snow, but a lit-
tle dry snow had fallen on the frozen ground during the
night, and a keen dry wind was lifting and blowing it along
the dreary streets of our town, especially about the market-
place. It was a dull morning, but the snow had ceased.
Not far from the market-place, close to Plotnikov’s
shop, there stood a small house, very clean both without
and within. It belonged to Madame Krassotkin, the wid-
ow of a former provincial secretary, who had been dead for
fourteen years. His widow, still a nice-looking woman of
thirty-two, was living in her neat little house on her pri-
vate means. She lived in respectable seclusion; she was of a
soft but fairly cheerful disposition. She was about eighteen
at the time of her husband’s death; she had been married
only a year and had just borne him a son. From the day
of his death she had devoted herself heart and soul to the
bringing up of her precious treasure, her boy Kolya. Though
she had loved him passionately those fourteen years, he had
caused her far more suffering than happiness. She had been