But perhaps that constellation is only a chemical molecule. There's a constellation of the Lion and the Sun. Don't you know it?"
"Brother, sit down," said Alyosha in alarm. "For goodness' sake, sit down on the sofa!
You are delirious; put your head on the pillow, that's right.
Would you like a wet towel on your head?
Perhaps it will do you good."
"Give me the towel: it's here on the chair. I just threw it down there."
"It's not here.
Don't worry yourself. I know where it is- here," said Alyosha, finding a clean towel, folded up and unused, by Ivan's dressing-table in the other corner of the room.
Ivan looked strangely at the towel: recollection seemed to come back to him for an instant.
"Stay"- he got up from the sofa- "an hour ago I took that new towel from there and wetted it.
I wrapped it round my head and threw it down here... How is it it's dry?
There was no other."
"You put that towel on your head?" asked Alyosha.
"Yes, and walked up and down the room an hour ago... Why have the candles burnt down so?
What's the time?"
"Nearly twelve"
"No, no, no!" Ivan cried suddenly. "It was not a dream.
He was here; he was sitting here, on that sofa.
When you knocked at the window, I threw a glass at him... this one. Wait a minute. I was asleep last time, but this dream was not a dream.
It has happened before.
I have dreams now, Alyosha... yet they are not dreams, but reality. I walk about, talk and see... though I am asleep.
But he was sitting here, on that sofa there.... He is frightfully stupid, Alyosha, frightfully stupid." Ivan laughed suddenly and began pacing about the room.
"Who is stupid?
Of whom are you talking, brother?" Alyosha asked anxiously again.
"The devil!
He's taken to visiting me.
He's been here twice, almost three times.
He taunted me with being angry at his being a simple devil and not Satan, with scorched wings, in thunder and lightning.
But he is not Satan: that's a lie.
He is an impostor.
He is simply a devil- a paltry, trivial devil.
He goes to the baths.
If you undressed him, you'd be sure to find he had a tail, long and smooth like a Danish dog's, a yard long, dun colour.... Alyosha, you are cold. You've been in the snow. Would you like some tea?
What? Is it cold?
Shall I tell her to bring some? C'est a ne pas mettre un chien dehors..."
Alyosha ran to the washing-stand, wetted the towel, persuaded Ivan to sit down again, and put the wet towel round his head.
He sat down beside him.
"What were you telling me just now about Lise?" Ivan began again. (He was becoming very talkative.) "I like Lise.
I said something nasty about her.
It was a lie. I like her... I am afraid for Katya to-morrow. I am more afraid of her than of anything.
On account of the future.
She will cast me off to-morrow and trample me under foot.
She thinks that I am ruining Mitya from jealousy on her account!
Yes, she thinks that!
But it's not so.
To-morrow the cross, but not the gallows.
No, I shan't hang myself.
Do you know, I can never commit suicide, Alyosha.
Is it because I am base?
I am not a coward.