"How am I to know about Dmitri Fyodorovitch? It's not as if I were his keeper," answered Smerdyakov quietly, distinctly, and superciliously.
"But I simply asked whether you do know?" Alyosha explained.
"I know nothing of his whereabouts and don't want to.""But my brother told me that you let him know all that goes on in the house, and promised to let him know when Agrafena Alexandrovna comes."Smerdyakov turned a deliberate, unmoved glance upon him.
"And how did you get in this time, since the gate was bolted an hour ago?" he asked, looking at Alyosha.
"I came in from the back-alley, over the fence, and went straight to the summer-house.I hope you'll forgive me, he added addressing Marya Kondratyevna."I was in a hurry to find my brother.""Ach, as though we could take it amiss in you!" drawled Marya Kondratyevna, flattered by Alyosha's apology."For Dmitri Fyodorovitch often goes to the summer-house in that way.We don't know he is here and he is sitting in the summer-house.""I am very anxious to find him, or to learn from you where he is now.Believe me, it's on business of great importance to him.""He never tells us," lisped Marya Kondratyevna.
"Though I used to come here as a friend," Smerdyakov began again, "Dmitri Fyodorovitch has pestered me in a merciless way even here by his incessant questions about the master.'What news?' he'll ask.'What's going on in there now? Who's coming and going?' and can't I tell him something more.Twice already he's threatened me with death"With death?" Alyosha exclaimed in surprise.
"Do you suppose he'd think much of that, with his temper, which you had a chance of observing yourself yesterday? He says if I let Agrafena Alexandrovna in and she passes the night there, I'll be the first to suffer for it.I am terribly afraid of him, and if I were not even more afraid of doing so, I ought to let the police know.God only knows what he might not do!""His honour said to him the other day, 'I'll pound you in a mortar!'" added Marya Kondratyevna.
"Oh, if it's pounding in a mortar, it may be only talk,"observed Alyosha."If I could meet him, I might speak to him about that too.""Well, the only thing I can tell you is this," said Smerdyakov, as though thinking better of it; "I am here as an old friend and neighbour, and it would be odd if I didn't come.On the other hand, Ivan Fyodorovitch sent me first thing this morning to your brother's lodging in Lake Street, without a letter, but with a message to Dmitri Fyodorovitch to go to dine with him at the restaurant here, in the marketplace.I went, but didn't find Dmitri Fyodorovitch at home, though it was eight o'clock.'He's been here, but he is quite gone,'
those were the very words of his landlady.It's as though there was an understanding between them.Perhaps at this moment he is in the restaurant with Ivan Fyodorovitch, for Ivan Fyodorovitch has not been home to dinner and Fyodor Pavlovitch dined alone an hour ago, and is gone to lie down.But I beg you most particularly not to speak of me and of what I have told you, for he'd kill me for nothing at all.""Brother Ivan invited Dmitri to the restaurant to-day?" repeated Alyosha quickly.
"That's so."
"The Metropolis tavern in the marketplace?""The very same."
"That's quite likely," cried Alyosha, much excited."Thank you, Smerdyakov; that's important.I'll go there at once.""Don't betray me," Smerdyakov called after him.
"Oh, no, I'll go to the tavern as though by chance.Don't be anxious.""But wait a minute, I'll open the gate to you," cried Marya Kondratyevna.
"No; it's a short cut, I'll get over the fence again."What he had heard threw Alyosha into great agitation.He ran to the tavern.It was impossible for him to go into the tavern in his monastic dress, but he could inquire at the entrance for his brothers and call them down.But just as he reached the tavern, a window was flung open, and his brother Ivan called down to him from it.
"Alyosha, can't you come up here to me? I shall be awfully grateful.""To be sure I can, only I don't quite know whether in this dress- ""But I am in a room apart.Come up the steps; I'll run down to meet you."A minute later Alyosha was sitting beside his brother.Ivan was alone dining.
Chapter 3
The Brothers Make FriendsIVAN was not, however, in a separate room, but only in a place shut off by a screen, so that it was unseen by other people in the room.It was the first room from the entrance with a buffet along the wall.Waiters were continually darting to and fro in it.The only customer in the room was an old retired military man drinking tea in a corner.But there was the usual bustle going on in the other rooms of the tavern; there were shouts for the waiters, the sound of popping corks, the click of billiard balls, the drone of the organ.
Alyosha knew that Ivan did not usually visit this tavern and disliked taverns in general.So he must have come here, he reflected, simply to meet Dmitri by arrangement.Yet Dmitri was not there.
"Shall I order you fish, soup, or anything.You don't live on tea alone, I suppose," cried Ivan, apparently delighted at having got hold of Alyosha.He had finished dinner and was drinking tea.
"Let me have soup, and tea afterwards, I am hungry," said Alyosha gaily.
"And cherry jam? They have it here.You remember how you used to love cherry jam when you were little?""You remember that? Let me have jam too, I like it still."Ivan rang for the waiter and ordered soup, jam, and tea.