“Pay back the three thousand.”
“Where can we get it from? I say, I have two thousand. Ivan will give you another thousand—that makes three. Take it and pay it back.”
“And when would you get it, your three thousand? You’re not of age, besides, and you must—you absolutely must—take my farewell to her to‐day, with the money or without it, for I can’t drag on any longer, things have come to such a pass. To‐morrow is too late. I shall send you to father.”
“To father?”
“Yes, to father first. Ask him for three thousand.”
“But, Mitya, he won’t give it.”
“As though he would! I know he won’t. Do you know the meaning of despair, Alexey?”
“Yes.”
“Listen. Legally he owes me nothing. I’ve had it all from him, I know that. But morally he owes me something, doesn’t he? You know he started with twenty‐eight thousand of my mother’s money and made a hundred thousand with it. Let him give me back only three out of the twenty‐eight thousand, and he’ll draw my soul out of hell, and it will atone for many of his sins. For that three thousand—I give you my solemn word—I’ll make an end of everything, and he shall hear nothing more of me. For the last time I give him the chance to be a father. Tell him God Himself sends him this chance.”
“Mitya, he won’t give it for anything.”