touched by his story. Alyosha described Ilusha with warm feeling. When he finished describing how the luckless man trampled on the money, Lise could not help clasping her hands and crying out:
“So you didn’t give him the money! So you let him run away! Oh, dear, you ought to have run after him!”
“No, Lise; it’s better I didn’t run after him,” said Alyosha, getting up from his chair and walking thoughtfully across the room.
“How so? How is it better? Now they are without food and their case is hopeless?”
“Not hopeless, for the two hundred roubles will still come to them. He’ll take the money tomorrow. Tomorrow he will be sure to take it,” said Alyosha, pacing up and down, pondering.
“You see, Lise,” he went on, stopping suddenly before her, “I made one blunder, but that, even that, is all for the best.”
“What blunder, and why is it for the best?”
“I’ll tell you. He is a man of