Page 894 - the-brothers-karamazov

‘Well, God forgive you!’
‘Do you forgive me, too?’
‘I quite forgive you. Go along.’
‘I say, you seem a clever peasant.’
‘Cleverer than you,’ the peasant answered unexpectedly,
with the same gravity.
‘I doubt it,’ said Kolya, somewhat taken aback.
‘It’s true, though.’
‘Perhaps it is.’
‘It is, brother.’
‘Good-bye, peasant!’
‘Good-bye!’
‘There are all sorts of peasants,’ Kolya observed to Smur-
ov after a brief silence. ‘How could I tell I had hit on a clever
one? I am always ready to recognise intelligence in the peas-
antry.’
In the distance the cathedral clock struck half-past
eleven. The boys made haste and they walked as far as Cap-
tain Snegiryov’s lodging, a considerable distance, quickly
and almost in silence. Twenty paces from the house Kolya
stopped and told Smurov to go on ahead and ask Karam-
azov to come out to him.
‘One must sniff round a bit first,’ he observed to Smurov.
‘Why ask him to come out?’ Smurov protested. ‘You go
in; they will be awfully glad to see you. What’s the sense of
making friends in the frost out here?’
‘I know why I want to see him out here in the frost,’ Kolya
cut him short in the despotic tone he was fond of adopting
with ‘small boys,’ and Smurov ran to do his bidding.