Page 994 - the-brothers-karamazov
P. 994

A captivating little foot,
         Though swollen and red and tender!
         The doctors come and plasters put,
          But still they cannot mend her.
         Yet, ‘tis not for her foot I dread-
         A theme for Pushkin’s muse more fit-
          It’s not her foot, it is her head:
          I tremble for her loss of wit!
          For as her foot swells, strange to say,
          Her intellect is on the wane-
          Oh, for some remedy I pray
         That may restore both foot and brain!
          He  is  a  pig,  a  regular  pig,  but  he’s  very  arch,  the  ras-
       cal! And he really has put in a progressive idea. And wasn’t
       he angry when she kicked him out! He was gnashing his
       teeth!’
         ‘He’s taken his revenge already,’ said Alyosha. ‘He’s writ-
       ten a paragraph about Madame Hohlakov.’
         And  Alyosha  told  him  briefly  about  the  paragraph  in
       Gossip.
         ‘That’s his doing, that’s his doing!’ Mitya assented, frown-
       ing. ‘That’s him! These paragraphs... I know... the insulting
       things  that  have  been  written  about  Grushenka,  for  in-
       stance.... And about Katya, too.... H’m!
          He walked across the room with a harassed air.
         ‘Brother, I cannot stay long,’ Alyosha said, after a pause.
       ‘To-morrow will be a great and awful day for you, the judg-
       ment of God will be accomplished... I am amazed at you,
       you walk about here, talking of I don’t know what..’
   989   990   991   992   993   994   995   996   997   998   999