The Brothers Karamazov

“Krasotkin!” one of the boys suddenly cried, the first to notice that Kolya had come in. There was visible excitement, the boys stepped back and stood on either side of the little bed, so that suddenly Ilyushechka was in full view. The captain rushed impetuously to meet Kolya.

“Come in, come in ... dear guest!”he prattled to him. “Ilyushechka, Mr. Krasotkin has come to see you ...”

But Krasotkin, having given him a quick handshake, at once also displayed his extraordinary knowledge of social propriety. Immediately and before anything else, he addressed the captain’s wife, sitting in her chair (who just at that moment was terribly displeased and was grumbling because the boys were standing in front of Ilyusha’s bed and would not let her look at the new dog), and with extraordinary courtesy bent before her, and then, turning to Ninochka, gave her, as a lady, the same sort of bow. This courteous behavior made a remarkably pleasing impression on the sick lady.

“One can always tell at once a well-bred young man,” she spoke loudly, spreading her arms, “not like our other visitors: they come riding in on each other.”

“How do you mean, mama, how do they come riding in on each other?” the captain murmured, tenderly but still a little apprehensive about “mama.”

“They just ride right in. One sits on another’s shoulders in the entryway, and they come riding in like that, to see respectable people. What sort of visitor is that?”

“But who, who came in like that, mama, who was it?”

“This boy came riding in on that boy today, and this one on that one...”

But Kolya was already standing by Ilyusha’s little bed. The sick boy turned visibly pale. He rose on his bed and looked very, very attentively at Kolya. It was two months since Kolya had seen his former little friend, and he suddenly stopped before him, completely struck: he could not even have imagined seeing such a thin and yellow little face, such eyes, which burned with fever and seemed to have become terribly big, such thin arms. With sorrowful surprise he noticed how heavily and rapidly Ilyusha breathed, how dry his lips were. He took a step towards him, gave him his hand, and, almost completely at a loss, said:

“Well, so, old man ... how are you?”

But his voice broke, he could not muster enough nonchalance, his face somehow suddenly twitched, and something trembled around his lips. Ilyusha kept smiling wanly, still unable to say a word. Kolya suddenly reached out and for some reason stroked Ilyusha’s hair with his hand.

“Never mind!” he murmured softly to him, perhaps to encourage him, or else not knowing himself why he said it. They were silent for another minute.

“What’s this, a new puppy?” Kolya suddenly asked, in a most unfeeling voice.

“Ye-e-es!” Ilyusha answered in a long whisper, breathlessly.

“A black nose means he’s a fierce sort, a watchdog,” Kolya observed imposingly and firmly, as if everything had to do precisely with the puppy and its black nose. But the main thing was that he was still trying with all his might to overcome the emotion he felt and not to start crying like a “little boy,” and still could not overcome it. “When he grows up, you’ll have to keep him on a chain, I can tell you that.”

“He’ll be huge!” one boy in the group exclaimed.

“He sure will, he’s a mastiff, huge, like this, big as a calf,” several voices were suddenly heard.

“Big as a calf, a real calf,” the captain jumped over to them. “I picked one like that on purpose, the fiercest, and his parents are huge, too, and really fierce, this high off the ground ... Sit down, sir, here on Ilyusha’s bed, or else on the bench here. Welcome, our dear guest, our long-awaited guest ... Did you come with Alexei Fyodorovich, sir?”

Krasotkin sat down on the bed at Ilyusha’s feet. Though he had perhaps prepared a way of casually beginning the conversation while coming there, he had now decidedly lost the thread.

“No ... I came with Perezvon ... I have a dog now, named Perezvon. A Slavic name. He’s waiting outside ... A whistle from me, and he’ll come flying in. I came with a dog, too,” he suddenly turned to Ilyusha. “Do you remember Zhuchka, old man?” he suddenly hit him with the question.

Ilyushechka’s face twisted. He looked with suffering at Kolya. Alyosha, who was standing by the door, frowned and shook his head at Kolya on the sly that he should not begin talking about Zhuchka, but he either did not notice or did not want to notice.

“Where is ... Zhuchka?” Ilyusha asked in a strained voice.

“Well, brother, your Zhuchka—whe-ew! Your Zhuchka’s a goner!”

Ilyusha said nothing, but once more looked very, very attentively at Kolya. Alyosha, catching Kolya’s eye, again shook his head as hard as he could, but again Kolya looked away and pretended not to notice.

“She ran off somewhere and died. How could she not, after such an appetizer,” Kolya slashed mercilessly, at the same time becoming breathless himself for some reason. “But I’ve got Perezvon instead ... A Slavic name ... I’ve brought him for you ...”