ns are fancy. I told her to her face she
was a fool. I am ready to repeat it at the day of judgment. And if it
hadn't been for Nicolas begging me to leave it for a time, I wouldn't
have come away without unmasking that false woman. She's been trying
to ingratiate herself with Count K. through Nicolas. She wants to
come between mother and son. But Liza's on our side, and I came to an
understanding with Praskovya. Do you know that Karmazinov is a relation
of hers?"

"What? A relation of Madame von Lembke?"

"Yes, of hers. Distant."

"Karmazinov, the novelist?"

"Yes, the writer. Why does it surprise you? Of course he considers
himself a great man. Stuck-up creature! She's coming here with him. Now
she's making a fuss of him out there. She's got a notion of setting up a
sort of literary society here. He's coming for a month, he wants to sell
his last piece of property here. I very nearly met him in Switzerland,
and was very anxious not to. Though I hope he will deign to recognise
me. He wrote letters to me in the old days, he has been in my house.
I should like you to dress better, Stepan Trofimovitch; you're growing
more slovenly every day.... Oh, how you torment me! What are you reading
now?"

"I... I..."

"I understand. The same as ever, friends and drinking, the club and
cards, and the reputation of an atheist. I don't like that reputation,
Stepan Trofimovitch; I don't care for you to be called an atheist,
particularly now. I didn't care for it in old days, for it's all nothing
but empty chatter. It must be said at last."

_"Mais, ma chere..."_

"Listen, Stepan Trofimovitch, of course I'm ignorant compared with you
on all learned subjects, but as I was travelling here I thought a great
deal about you. I've come to one conclusion."

"What conclusion?"

"That you and I are not the wisest people in the world, but that there
are people wiser than we are."

"Witty and apt. If there are people wiser than we are, then there are
people more right than we are, and we may be mistaken, you mean? _Mais,
ma bonne amie,_ granted that I may make a mistake, yet have I not the
common, human, eternal, supreme right of freedom of conscience? I have
the right not to be bigoted or superstitious if I don't wish to, and for
that I shall naturally be hated by certain persons to the end of time.
_Et puis, comme on trouve toujours plus de moines que de raison,_ and as I
thoroughly agree with that..."

"What, what did you say?"