Alyosha enters the drawing room carrying a month of dread: Ivan may love Katerina and mean to take her from Dmitri, yet Dmitri claimed yesterday that Ivan's rivalry helped him. Alyosha still believed Katerina loved Dmitri until Grushenka's scene; now Madame Hohlakov's word laceration matches his own nightmare. Ivan stands pale to leave as Katerina, resolute and tearful, asks Alyosha and Ivan to judge her decision.
She admits pity for Dmitri, not love, then vows never to abandon him even if he marries Grushenka: she will watch from another town, be a sister, a god to pray to, an instrument for his happiness forever. Ivan approves in a speech so polished it sounds like mockery, praising her martyrdom as a lifelong burden she will enjoy contemplating. Madame Hohlakov punctures the moment; Ivan snaps that with Katerina such a moment lasts a lifetime.
When Ivan says he must go to Moscow tomorrow, Katerina's grief turns in an instant to bright relief, then to a society smile. Alyosha cannot bear it: he says she played a part in a theater, then stammers that she may not love Dmitri, that Dmitri does not love her, that she tortures Ivan with a false love born of self-laceration. Katerina calls him a religious idiot. Ivan, suddenly young and frank, says she never cared for him, kept him for revenge, loves Dmitri because he insults her, quotes Schiller, refuses her hand, and leaves for good.
Alyosha blames himself and chases Ivan in vain. Katerina reappears composed, sends Alyosha with two hundred roubles for Captain Snegiryov, whom Dmitri dragged by the beard through the street, and vanishes behind the portiere. Madame Hohlakov calls Alyosha an angel, says tears mean nothing, and admits the household has prayed she would marry Ivan instead of Dmitri.
Coming Up in Chapter 30
Still burning with shame from the drawing room, Alyosha carries Katerina's money to Lake Street, fails to find Dmitri, and knocks at Captain Snegiryov's cottage where Ilusha, the boy who bit him, waits behind a curtain.
