Agraphena Petrovna shook her head. "See about the things? Why,
they'll be required again," she said.
"No, they won't, Agraphena Petrovna; I assure you they won't be
required," said Nekhludoff, in answer to what the shaking of her
head had expressed. "Please tell Corney also that I shall pay him
two months' wages, but shall have no further need of him."
"It is a pity, Dmitri Ivanovitch, that you should think of doing
this," she said. "Well, supposing you go abroad, still you'll
require a place of residence again."
"You are mistaken in your thoughts, Agraphena Petrovna; I am not
going abroad. If I go on a journey, it will be to quite a
different place." He suddenly blushed very red. "Yes, I must tell
her," he thought; "no hiding; everybody must be told."
"A very strange and important thing happened to me yesterday. Do
you remember my Aunt Mary Ivanovna's Katusha?"
"Oh, yes. Why, I taught her how to sew."
"Well, this Katusha was tried in the Court and I was on the
jury."
"Oh, Lord! What a pity!" cried Agraphena Petrovna. "What was she
being tried for?"
"Murder; and it is I have done it all."
"Well, now this is very strange; how could you do it all?"
"Yes, I am the cause of it all; and it is this that has altered
all my plans."
"What difference can it make to you?"
"This difference: that I, being the cause of her getting on to
that path, must do all I can to help her."
"That is just according to your own good pleasure; you are not
particularly in fault there. It happens to every one, and if
one's reasonable, it all gets smoothed over and forgotten," she
said, seriously and severely. "Why should you place it to your
account? There's no need. I had already heard before that she had
strayed from the right path. Well, whose fault is it?"
"Mine! that's why I want to put it right."
"It is hard to put right."
"That is my business. But if you are thinking about yourself,
then I will tell you that, as mamma expressed the wish--"
"I am not thinking about myself. I have been so bountifully
treated by the dear defunct, that I desire nothing. Lisenka" (her
married niece) "has been inviting me, and I shall go to her when
I am not wanted any longer. Only it is a pity you should take
this so to heart; it happens to everybody."