know you and it’s the first time I’ve seen you,” Alyosha went on with the same serenity, “yet I must have done something to you—you wouldn’t have hurt me like this for nothing. So what have I done? How have I wronged you, tell me?”
Instead of answering, the boy broke into a loud tearful wail and ran away.
Alyosha walked slowly after him towards Mihailovsky Street, and for a long time he saw the child running in the distance as fast as ever, not turning his head, and no doubt still keeping up his tearful wail.
He made up his mind to find him out as soon as he had time, and to solve this mystery. Just now he had not the time.
IV
At the Hohlakovs’
Alyosha soon reached Madame Hohlakov’s house, a handsome stone house of two stories, one of the finest in our town. Though Madame