Grushenka decides to meet her former lover after secretly awaiting news from him and misleading Dmitri about where she will spend the evening. When a messenger arrives from Mokroe with a note summoning her, she leaves at once, calling the decision the beginning of a new life. Her departure breaks Dmitri’s immediate hopes, but her final message insists that she has not chosen his rival because Dmitri lacks worth: she says she has fallen to a scoundrel rather than to his noble heart.

The Secret Appointment

Grushenka has told Dmitri that she will spend the evening with her old protector, Kuzma Kuzmitch Samsonov, counting his money, as she says she does one evening each week. The explanation gives her a plausible cover for waiting elsewhere, but she knows she has deceived Dmitri and has made him promise to believe her. The lie is not casual: she wants him away while she anticipates news that she describes as priceless.

Rakitin notices the unusual strain in her behavior and asks why she is so afraid of Dmitri that day. Grushenka answers that she is expecting important news and does not want Dmitri there. She suspects he does not believe her story about visiting Samsonov and may be hiding in an ambush behind Fyodor Pavlovich’s house, in the garden, watching. Thus the appointment is shadowed by Dmitri’s jealous vigilance even before its purpose is openly named.

The Former Lover’s Summons

Grushenka eventually tells Rakitin that her officer is coming. He is already at Mokroe, and she has received a letter saying that he will send a messenger from there. The news gives concrete shape to the expectation that has made her anxious: the former lover is not merely a memory, but a man nearby who has summoned her through a message and a waiting carriage.

When Fenya rushes in to announce that a messenger has arrived, Grushenka’s concealed prospect becomes immediate action. A carriage has come from Mokroe with Timofey the driver and three horses; the horses are being changed, and there is a letter for her. The relay of horses and the waiting vehicle make the choice urgent. The summons has arrived with the means to carry her away, leaving little space between news and departure.

A Sudden Departure

Grushenka takes the note to the candle and reads its few lines at once. Her face turns white and distorted, and she gives a wan smile. For a moment she stands as though uncertain; then the blood rushes to her head and her cheeks glow. The brief hesitation gives way to a decisive reversal: she announces that she will go, says goodbye, and declares that her fate is sealed.

She tells Alyosha and Rakitin to leave and asks them not to let her see them again. She describes herself as flying to a new life and asks Rakitin not to remember evil against her. Her words combine exhilaration with an awareness of the hurt she is causing. She does not present the departure as an easy escape: she says she is giving up five years of her life, marking the decision as a painful break with the past as well as a rush toward what awaits her at Mokroe.

The Message to Dmitri

After Alyosha and Rakitin have reached the bottom of the steps, Grushenka opens her bedroom window and calls after Alyosha. She asks him to give her greetings to his brother Dmitri and to tell him not to remember evil against her, although she has brought him misery. The message acknowledges the consequence of her departure rather than pretending it will leave Dmitri untouched.

She also gives Alyosha her own phrasing to carry back: Grushenka has fallen to a scoundrel, not to Dmitri, whom she calls a noble heart. The contrast separates her choice from a judgment that Dmitri is inferior or unworthy. She leaves for her former lover, but the last word she sends to Dmitri preserves tenderness and regret inside the rejection. The episode ends with departure, not reconciliation: her fate is declared sealed, while her message leaves Dmitri to receive both the wound and the esteem she still expresses for him.