It was at this time that the meeting, or, rather gathering of the mem- bers of this inharmonious family took place in the cell of the elder who had such an extraordinary influence on Alyosha.
He spoke of the happiness that was now certainly theirs, of the folly of not breaking sooner out of that magnificent prison of latter-day life, of the old romantic days that had passed from the world for ever.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
Have I come to Utopia to hear this sort of thing?
