Pagina 45 di 1294

And Sonia comes to us now, mostly after dark; she comforts

Katerina Ivanovna and gives her all she can.... She has a room at

the Kapernaumovs' the tailors, she lodges with them; Kapernaumov

is a lame man with a cleft palate and all of his numerous family

have cleft palates too. And his wife, too, has a cleft palate.

They all live in one room, but Sonia has her own, partitioned

off.... Hm... yes... very poor people and all with cleft

palates... yes. Then I got up in the morning, and put on my rags,

lifted up my hands to heaven and set off to his excellency Ivan

Afanasyvitch. His excellency Ivan Afanasyvitch, do you know him?

No? Well, then, it's a man of God you don't know. He is wax...

wax before the face of the Lord; even as wax melteth!... His eyes

were dim when he heard my story. 'Marmeladov, once already you

have deceived my expectations...