“Mama, I had no idea he was coming. It wasn’t because of him at all that I wanted to move to this room.”

“That is not true, Lise. Yulia ran to tell you that Alexei Fyodorovich was coming; she was keeping watch for you.”

“Dear, darling mama, that is terribly unwitty on your part. And if you want to make up for it now and say something very intelligent, dear mama, then please tell my dear sir, the newly arrived Alexei Fyodorovich, that he has shown his complete lack of wit by this alone, that he has ventured to come to us today after what happened yesterday, and despite the fact that everyone is laughing at him.”

“Lise, you are going too far, and I assure you that I shall finally take strict measures. Who is laughing at him? I am very glad that he has come, I need him, I cannot do without him. Oh, Alexei Fyodorovich, I’m extremely unhappy!”

“But what is the matter with you, mama darling?”

“Ah, these caprices of yours, Lise, your fickleness, your illness, this terrible night of fever, this terrible and eternal Herzenstube most of all, eternal, eternal, eternal! And, then, everything, everything ... And then even this miracle! Oh, how it struck me, how it shook me, this miracle, dear Alexei Fyodorovich! And now this tragedy there in the drawing room, which I cannot bear, I cannot, I declare to you beforehand that I cannot! A comedy, perhaps, not a tragedy. Tell me, the elder Zosima will live until tomorrow, won’t he? Oh, my God! What is happening to me? I close my eyes every moment and see that it’s all nonsense, all nonsense.”

“I should like very much to ask you,” Alyosha suddenly interrupted, “for a clean rag to wrap my finger with. I injured it badly, and it hurts very much now.”

Alyosha unwrapped his bitten finger. The handkerchief was soaked with blood. Madame Khokhlakov screamed and shut her eyes tightly.

“God, what a wound, it’s terrible!”

But Lise, as soon as she saw Alyosha’s finger through the crack, immediately swung the door open.

“Come in, come in here to me,” she cried insistently and commandingly. “And no foolishness now! Oh, Lord, why did you stand there all this time and say nothing? He might have bled to death, mama! Where did you do it? How did you do it? Water, water first of all! The wound should be washed, just put it in cold water to stop the pain, and keep it there, keep it there ... Water, quick, quick, mama, in a basin. Hurry!” she finished nervously. She was completely frightened. Alyosha’s wound struck her terribly.

“Shouldn’t we send for Herzenstube?” cried Madame Khokhlakov.

“Mama, you’ll be the death of me! Your Herzenstube will come and say he can make nothing of it! Water, water! Mama, for God’s sake, go yourself, make Yulia hurry! She’s bogged down somewhere, and can never come quickly! Please hurry, mama, or I’ll die...”

“But it’s nothing!” Alyosha exclaimed, frightened by their fright.

Yulia came running in with water. Alyosha put his finger in it.

“Mama, for God’s sake, bring some lint; lint and that stingy, muddy lotion—what’s it called?—for cuts! We have it, we do, we do ... Mama, you know where the bottle is, it’s in your bedroom, in the little cabinet on the right, a big bottle next to the lint...”

“I’ll bring everything right away, Lise, only don’t shout so, and don’t worry. See how firmly Alexei Fyodorovich endures his misfortune. Where could you have gotten such a terrible wound, Alexei Fyodorovich?”

Madame Khokhlakov hastened from the room. This was just what Lise was waiting for.

“First of all, answer the question,” she began talking quickly to Alyosha, “where did you manage to get yourself such a wound? And then I shall speak with you about quite different matters. Well?”

Alyosha, feeling instinctively that the time before her mama’s return was precious to her, hastily, with many omissions and abbreviations, but nonetheless precisely and clearly, told her of his mysterious encounter with the schoolboys. Having heard him out, Lise clasped her hands:

“But how could you, how could you get involved with schoolboys—and in that dress, too!” she cried angrily, as if she had some rights over him. “You’re just a boy yourself after that, the littlest boy there could be! But you must find out for me somehow about this bad boy, and tell me the whole story, because there’s some secret in it. Now for the second thing—but first a question: are you able, Alexei Fyodorovich, despite the pain you are suffering, to speak about perfect trifles, but to speak sensibly?”

“Perfectly able. And there’s not so much pain now.”

“That’s because you’ve kept your finger in water. It should be changed right now, because it gets warm immediately. Yulia, bring a piece of ice from the cellar at once, and a fresh basin of water. Well, now that she’s gone, I’ll get to business: this instant, dear Alexei Fyodorovich, be so good as to give me back the letter I sent you yesterday—this instant, because mama may come back any minute, and I don’t want...”

“I haven’t got the letter with me.”

“It’s not true, you do have it with you. I just knew you’d say that. You have it there in your pocket. I so regretted this silly joke all night! Return the letter to me right now, give it back!”

“I left it there.”

“But you must consider me a girl, a little, little girl after such a silly joke as that letter! I ask your forgiveness for the silly joke, but you must bring me the letter, if you really don’t have it—bring it today, you must, you must!”

“Today I simply cannot, because I’ll be going back to the monastery, and won’t be able to visit you for another two, three, maybe four days, because the elder Zosima ...”

“Four days? What nonsense! Listen, did you laugh at me very much?”

“I didn’t laugh a bit.”

“Why not?”

“Because I believed everything completely.” “You’re insulting me!”

“Not at all. As soon as I read it, I thought at once that that was how everything would be, because as soon as the elder Zosima dies, I must immediately leave the monastery. Then I’ll finish my studies and pass the exam, and when the legal time comes, we’ll get married. I will love you. Though I haven’t had much time to think yet, I don’t think I could find a better wife than you, and the elder told me to get married...”

“But I’m a freak, I’m driven around in a wheelchair!” Liza laughed, a blush coming to her cheeks.

“I’ll wheel you around myself, but I’m sure you’ll be well by then.”

“But you’re crazy,” Liza said nervously, “to make such nonsense suddenly out of such a joke! Ah, here’s mama, maybe just in time. Mama, you’re always late, how can you take so long! Here’s Yulia with the ice!”

“Oh, Lise, do not shout—above all, do not shout. All this shouting makes me ... I cannot help it if you yourself stuck the lint somewhere else ... I’ve been hunting and hunting ... I suspect you did it on purpose.”

“But how could I know he’d come with a bitten finger, otherwise maybe I really would have done it on purpose. Angel mama, you’re beginning to say extremely witty things.”

“They may be witty, Lise, but what a to-do over Alexei Fyodorovich’s finger and all that! Oh, my dear Alexei Fyodorovich, it’s not the particulars that are killing me, not some Herzenstube, but all of it together, the whole of it, that is what I cannot bear!”

“Enough, mama, enough about Herzenstube,” Liza laughed gaily. “Give me the lint quickly, mama, and the lotion. This is just Goulard’s water, Alexei Fyodorovich, now I remember the name, but it’s wonderful water. Imagine, mama, on his way here he had a fight with some boys and one of the boys bit him, now isn’t he a little, little fellow himself, and how can he get married after that, mama, because imagine, mama, he wants to get married! Imagine him married—isn’t it funny, isn’t it terrible?”

And Lise kept laughing her nervous little laugh, looking coyly at Alyosha.