The Brothers Karamazov Read Online Free PDF Page B

things, she would comment to her lady companions: “It serves her right. God is making her pay for her ingratitude.”
    Exactly three months after Sofia’s death, the General’s widow suddenly appeared in our town, going straight to Mr. Karamazov’s house. Altogether, she spent only half an hour in town, but the amount she accomplished in that short time was amazing. When she arrived late in the afternoon, Fyodor Karamazov, whom she had not seen for eight years, came out to meet her in a rather besotted state. Without a word of explanation, she stepped up to him and slapped him, landing two mighty, resounding smacks on his face; then she caught him by the forelock, pulling it hard three times. Then, still without explanation, she went to Gregory’s cottage where she found the two little boys. Noticing right away that they were unwashed and that their shirts were dirty, she turned on Gregory and slapped his face too. She announced that she was taking the boys away with her and, leading them out just as they were, in their dirty shirts, sat them in her carriage, wrapped them in carriage rugs, and drove away to her own town.
    Gregory took the slap slavishly, without a word of recrimination, and as he saw the lady off to her carriage, he bowed deeply from the waist, solemnly pronouncing that the Lord would reward her for taking the orphans.
    “And you’re a blockhead all the same,” the old lady shouted at him as the carriage drove off.
    Later, after he had thought it over, Karamazov decided that it was all in his best interest and he made no difficulties when the General’s widow asked his formal consent to her taking charge of the boys’ education. As to the slaps he had received, he dashed all around the town, telling everyone about the incident himself.
    When the General’s widow died not long after, she bequeathed a thousand rubles to each boy “to be spent exclusively on his education,” but sparingly, so that it should last until their coming of age. She added that this sum was “more than adequate for children of such a background,” but that if anyone felt it was not, “let him untie his own purse strings,” and so on and so forth. I didn’t read her will myself, but I understand that it was something along these lines, eccentric and very strangely worded. However, the old woman’s principal heir, the Marshal of Nobility of the province, Efim Petrovich Polenov, turned out to be an extremely honorable man. He informed Fyodor Karamazov of the will but realized immediately that such a man would never contribute a kopek to the education of his own children (although Karamazov never refused directly, he always found reasons for delaying his contribution, occasionally even spouting sentimentalities). So Polenov decided to take care of the abandoned boys himself, and he grew quite fond of them, particularly of the younger, Alexei, who lived for a long time in his house as one of the family. It must be noted right here that if the young Karamazovs were indebted to anyone for their upbringing and education, it was above all to this Mr. Polenov, one of the most generous and honorable men to be found. He kept intact the original thousand left to each boy by the General’s widow so that, when they came of age, each of them would receive two thousand rubles, thanks to the accumulated interest. Polenov paid for their upkeep and education out of his own pocket, spending, incidentally, considerably more than a thousand rubles on each boy. Again, I won’t give a lengthy account of their childhood and school years, but will only outline the most important facts.
    Of the elder, Ivan, I will only say that he grew into a sullen and secretive boy, although by no means a timorous one. I gather that by the time he was ten or so he had become aware that he and his brother were not being brought up in their own home but were, in fact, living on other people’s charity, and that there was something about their father that made