The Valet's Dangerous Game — The Brothers Karamazov

After parting from Alyosha, Ivan walks home in deepening depression he cannot name: not only loathing for his father's house or vexation after the Grand Inquisitor, but something external nagging like a misplaced object until he sees Smerdyakov on the bench and knows the valet is what his soul loathes.

Ivan means to pass in silence yet asks if his father is awake and sits down, furious at his own curiosity. Smerdyakov speaks with affected surprise, suggests Tchermashnya, and draws out the war between father and Dmitri over Grushenka, the threats, and his own terror of being blamed as accomplice.

He reveals Fyodor's secret knock code for Grushenka, admits he told the signals to Dmitri, plans an epileptic fit tomorrow while Marfa will drug Grigory unconscious, and names the sealed three thousand roubles. When Ivan asks why he advised Tchermashnya if Ivan's absence will let disaster happen, Smerdyakov answers precisely so; Ivan calls him an awful scoundrel, nearly attacks him, and blurts that he leaves for Moscow tomorrow.

Smerdyakov's gaze asks for something more to add; Ivan breaks into a frantic laugh and walks away. The chapter shows complicity by suggestion: Ivan never agrees to harm, but his exit answers the hint Smerdyakov planted after the tavern talk with Alyosha.