the portiere so quickly that Alyosha had
not time to utter a word, though he wanted to speak. He longed to beg her
pardon, to blame himself, to say something, for his heart was full and he
could not bear to go out of the room without it. But Madame Hohlakov took
him by the hand and drew him along with her. In the hall she stopped him
again as before.

"She is proud, she is struggling with herself; but kind, charming,
generous," she exclaimed, in a half-whisper. "Oh, how I love her,
especially sometimes, and how glad I am again of everything! Dear Alexey
Fyodorovitch, you didn't know, but I must tell you, that we all, all--both
her aunts, I and all of us, Lise, even--have been hoping and praying for
nothing for the last month but that she may give up your favorite Dmitri,
who takes no notice of her and does not care for her, and may marry Ivan
Fyodorovitch--such an excellent and cultivated young man, who loves her
more than anything in the world. We are in a regular plot to bring it
about, and I am even staying on here perhaps on that account."

"But she has been crying--she has been wounded again," cried Alyosha.

"Never trust a woman's tears, Alexey Fyodorovitch. I am never for the
women in such cases. I am always on the side of the men."

"Mamma, you are spoiling him," Lise's little voice cried from behind the
door.

"No, it was all my fault. I am horribly to blame," Alyosha repeated
unconsoled, hiding his face in his hands in an agony of remorse for his
indiscretion.

"Quite the contrary; you behaved like an angel, like an angel. I am ready
to say so a thousand times over."

"Mamma, how has he behaved like an angel?" Lise's voice was heard again.

"I somehow fancied all at once," Alyosha went on as though he had not
heard Lise, "that she loved Ivan, and so I said that stupid thing.... What
will happen now?"

"To whom, to whom?" cried Lise. "Mamma, you really want to be the death of
me. I ask you and you don't answer."

At the moment the maid ran in.

"Katerina Ivanovna is ill.... She is crying, struggling ... hysterics."

"What is the matter?" cried Lise, in a tone of real anxiety. "Mamma, I
shall be having hysterics, and not she!"

"Lise, for mercy's sake, don't scream, don't persecute me. At your age one
can't know everything that grown-up people know. I'll come and tell you
everything you ought to know. Oh, mercy on us! I am coming, I am
coming.... Hysterics is a good sign, Alexey Fyodorovitch; it's