irl of good family from a high-class boarding-school; goodness and
brains are not enough for her. She is young, and, you, Alyosha, are
not so young, and are not good-looking."

To soften the last words, she stroked his head and said:

"You're not good-looking, but you're a dear."

She was so agitated that a faint flush came into her cheeks, and
she began discussing eagerly whether it would be the proper thing
for her to bless Alyosha with the ikon at the wedding. She was, she
reasoned, his elder sister, and took the place of his mother; and
she kept trying to convince her dejected brother that the wedding
must be celebrated in proper style, with pomp and gaiety, so that
no one could find fault with it.

Then he began going to the Byelavins' as an accepted suitor, three
or four times a day; and now he never had time to take Sasha's place
and read aloud the historical novel. Yulia used to receive him in
her two rooms, which were at a distance from the drawing-room and
her father's study, and he liked them very much. The walls in them
were dark; in the corner stood a case of ikons; and there was a
smell of good scent and of the oil in the holy lamp. Her rooms were
at the furthest end of the house; her bedstead and dressing-table
were shut off by a screen. The doors of the bookcase were covered
on the inside with a green curtain, and there were rugs on the
floor, so that her footsteps were noiseless--and from this he
concluded that she was of a reserved character, and that she liked
a quiet, peaceful, secluded life. In her own home she was treated
as though she were not quite grown up. She had no money of her own,
and sometimes when they were out for walks together, she was overcome
with confusion at not having a farthing. Her father allowed her
very little for dress and books, hardly ten pounds a year. And,
indeed, the doctor himself had not much money in spite of his good
practice. He played cards every night at the club, and always lost.
Moreover, he bought mortgaged houses through a building society,
and let them. The tenants were irregular in paying the rent, but
he was convinced that such speculations were profitable. He had
mortgaged his own house in which he and his daughter were living,
and with the money so raised had bought a piece of waste ground,
and had already begun to build on it a large two-storey house,
meaning to mortgage it, too, as soon as it was finished.

Laptev now lived in a sort of cloud, fee