with nervous haste. "And that's not all. Her legs are stronger. This
morning she got up well; she had slept all night. Look at her rosy cheeks,
her bright eyes! She used to be always crying, but now she laughs and is
gay and happy. This morning she insisted on my letting her stand up, and
she stood up for a whole minute without any support. She wagers that in a
fortnight she'll be dancing a quadrille. I've called in Doctor
Herzenstube. He shrugged his shoulders and said, 'I am amazed; I can make
nothing of it.' And would you have us not come here to disturb you, not
fly here to thank you? Lise, thank him--thank him!"

Lise's pretty little laughing face became suddenly serious. She rose in
her chair as far as she could and, looking at the elder, clasped her hands
before him, but could not restrain herself and broke into laughter.

"It's at him," she said, pointing to Alyosha, with childish vexation at
herself for not being able to repress her mirth.

If any one had looked at Alyosha standing a step behind the elder, he
would have caught a quick flush crimsoning his cheeks in an instant. His
eyes shone and he looked down.

"She has a message for you, Alexey Fyodorovitch. How are you?" the mother
went on, holding out her exquisitely gloved hand to Alyosha.

The elder turned round and all at once looked attentively at Alyosha. The
latter went nearer to Lise and, smiling in a strangely awkward way, held
out his hand to her too. Lise assumed an important air.

"Katerina Ivanovna has sent you this through me." She handed him a little
note. "She particularly begs you to go and see her as soon as possible;
that you will not fail her, but will be sure to come."

"She asks me to go and see her? Me? What for?" Alyosha muttered in great
astonishment. His face at once looked anxious. "Oh, it's all to do with
Dmitri Fyodorovitch and--what has happened lately," the mother explained
hurriedly. "Katerina Ivanovna has made up her mind, but she must see you
about it.... Why, of course, I can't say. But she wants to see you at
once. And you will go to her, of course. It is a Christian duty."

"I have only seen her once," Alyosha protested with the same perplexity.

"Oh, she is such a lofty, incomparable creature! If only for her
suffering.... Think what she has gone through, what she is enduring now!
Think what awaits her! It's all terrible, terrible!"

"Very well, I will come," Alyosha decided, after rapidly scanning the
brief, e