And my heart’s in a flutter all the time: I keep expecting him to get angry and curse her once for all.
I haven’t heard a curse from him yet ... well, that’s what I’m afraid of, that he’ll put his curse upon her.
And what will happen then?
God’s punishment falls on the child the father has cursed.
So I’m trembling with terror every day.
And you ought to be ashamed, too, Ivan Petrovitch, to think you’ve grown up in our family, and been treated like a son by both of us, and yet you can speak of her being delightful too.
But their Marya Vassilyevna knows better. I may have done wrong, but I asked her in to coffee one day when my good man had gone out for the whole morning. She told me all the ins and outs of it.
The prince, Alyosha’s father, is in shocking relations with this countess.
They say the countess keeps reproaching him with not marrying her, but he keeps putting it off.
This fine countess was talked about for her shameless behaviour while her husband was living.
When her husband died she went abroad: she used to have all sorts of Italians and Frenchmen about her, and barons of some sort – it was there she caught Prince Pyotr Alexandrovitch.
And meantime her stepdaughter, the child of her first husband, the spirit contractor, has been growing up.
This countess, the stepmother, has spent all she had, but the stepdaughter has been growing up, and the two millions her father had left invested for her have been growing too.
Now, they say, she has three millions. The prince has got wind of it, so he’s keen on the match for Alyosha. (He’s a sharp fellow!
He won’t let a chance slip!) The count, their relative, who’s a great gentleman at court you remember, has given his approval too: a fortune of three millions is worth considering.
‘Excellent’, he said, ‘talk it over with the countess.’
So the prince told the countess of his wishes.
She opposed it tooth and nail. She’s an unprincipled woman, a regular termagant, they say!
They say some people won’t receive her here; it’s very different from abroad.
‘No,’ she says, ‘you marry me, prince, instead of my stepdaughter’s marrying Alyosha.’
And the girl, they say, gives way to her stepmother in everything; she almost worships her and always obeys her.
She’s a gentle creature, they say, a perfect angel!
The prince sees how it is and tells the countess not to worry herself.
‘You’ve spent all your money,’ says he, ‘and your debts you can never pay.
But as soon as your stepdaughter marries Alyosha there’ll be a pair of them; your innocent and my little fool. We’ll take them under our wing and be their guardians together. Then you’ll have plenty of money, What’s the good of you’re marrying me?’
He’s a sharp fellow, a regular mason!
Six months ago the countess wouldn’t make up her mind to it, but since then they say they’ve been staying at Warsaw, and there they’ve come to an agreement.
That’s what I’ve heard.
All this Marya Vassilyevna told me from beginning to end. She heard it all on good authority.
So you see it’s all a question of money and millions, and not her being delightful!”
Anna Andreyevna’s story impressed me.
It fitted in exactly with all I had heard myself from Alyosha.
When he talked of it he had stoutly declared that he would never marry for money.
But he had been struck and attracted by Katerina Fyodorovna.
I had heard from Alyosha, too, that his father was contemplating marriage, though he denied all rumour of it to avoid irritating the countess prematurely.
I have mentioned already that Alyosha was very fond of his father, admired him and praised him; and believed in him as though he were an oracle.
“She’s not of a count’s family, you know, the girl you call delightful!” Anna Andreyevna went on, deeply resenting my praise of the young prince’s future fiancee.
“Why, Natasha would be a better match for him.
She’s a spiritdealer’s daughter, while Natasha is a wellborn girl of a good old family.
Yesterday (I forgot to tell you) my old man opened his boxyou know, the wroughtiron one; he sat opposite me the whole evening, sorting out our old family papers.
And he sat so solemnly over it.
I was knitting a stocking, and I didn’t look at him; I was afraid to.
When he saw I didn’t say a word he got cross, and called me himself, and he spent the whole evening telling me about our pedigree.
And do you know, it seems that the Ichmenyevs were noblemen in the days of Ivan the Terrible, and that my family, the Shumilovs, were wellknown even in the days of Tsar Alexey Mihalovitch; we’ve the documents to prove it, and it’s mentioned in Karamzin’s history too, so you see, my dear boy, we’re as good as other people on that side.
As soon as my old man began talking to me I saw what was in his mind.
It was clear he felt bitterly Natasha’s being slighted.
It’s only through their wealth they’re set above us.
That robber, Pyotr Alexandrovitch, may well make a fuss about money; everyone knows he’s a coldhearted, greedy soul.
They say he joined the Jesuits in secret when he was in Warsaw.
Is it true?”