That's my position.
And though I'm a beggar, as fate would have it, I had three thousand just then in my pocket.
I drove with Grushenka to Mokroe, a place twenty-five versts from here. I got Gypsies there and champagne and made all the peasants there drunk on it, and all the women and girls. I sent the thousands flying.
In three days' time I was stripped bare, but a hero.
Do you suppose the hero had gained his end?
Not a sign of it from her.
I tell you that rogue, Grushenka, has a supple curve all over her body. You can see it in her little foot, even in her little toe.
I saw it, and kissed it, but that was all, I swear!
'I'll marry you if you like,' she said, 'you're a beggar, you know.
Say that you won't beat me, and will let me do anything I choose, and perhaps I will marry you.' She laughed, and she's laughing still!"
Dmitri leapt up with a sort of fury. He seemed all at once as though he were drunk.
His eyes became suddenly bloodshot.
"And do you really mean to marry her?"
"At once, if she will. And if she won't, I shall stay all the same. I'll be the porter at her gate.
Alyosha!" he cried. He stopped short before him, and taking him by the shoulders began shaking him violently. "Do you know, you innocent boy, that this is all delirium, senseless delirium, for there's a tragedy here.
Let me tell you, Alexey, that I may be a low man, with low and degraded passions, but a thief and a pickpocket Dmitri Karamazov never can be.
Well, then; let me tell you that I am a thief and a pickpocket.
That very morning, just before I went to beat Grushenka, Katerina Ivanovna sent for me, and in strict secrecy (why I don't know, I suppose she had some reason) asked me to go to the chief town of the province and to post three thousand roubles to Agafya Ivanovna in Moscow, so that nothing should be known of it in the town here.
So I had that three thousand roubles in my pocket when I went to see Grushenka, and it was that money we spent at Mokroe.
Afterwards I pretended I had been to the town, but did not show her the post office receipt. I said I had sent the money and would bring the receipt, and so far I haven't brought it. I've forgotten it.
Now what do you think you're going to her to-day to say?
'He sends his compliments,' and she'll ask you,
'What about the money?'
You might still have said to her,
'He's a degraded sensualist, and a low creature, with uncontrolled passions.
He didn't send your money then, but wasted it, because, like a low brute, he couldn't control himself.' But still you might have added,
'He isn't a thief though. Here is your three thousand; he sends it back. Send it yourself to Agafya Ivanovna. But he told me to say "he sends his compliments."
But, as it is, she will ask,
'But where is the money?'"
"Mitya, you are unhappy, yes!
But not as unhappy as you think. Don't worry yourself to death with despair."
"What, do you suppose I'd shoot myself because I can't get three thousand to pay back?
That's just it. I shan't shoot myself.
I haven't the strength now. Afterwards, perhaps. But now I'm going to Grushenka. I don't care what happens."
"And what then?"
"I'll be her husband if she deigns to have me, and when lovers come, I'll go into the next room.
I'll clean her friends' goloshes, blow up their samovar, run their errands."
"Katerina Ivanovna will understand it all," Alyosha said solemnly. "She'll understand how great this trouble is and will forgive.
She has a lofty mind, and no one could be more unhappy than you. She'll see that for herself."
"She won't forgive everything," said Dmitri, with a grin. "There's something in it, brother, that no woman could forgive.
Do you know what would be the best thing to do?"
"What?"
"Pay back the three thousand."
"Where can we get it from?
I say, I have two thousand. Ivan will give you another thousand- that makes three. Take it and pay it back."
"And when would you get it, your three thousand?
You're not of age, besides, and you must- you absolutely must- take my farewell to her to-day, with the money or without it, for I can't drag on any longer, things have come to such a pass.
To-morrow is too late.
I shall send you to father."
"To father?"