Raskolnikov was already entering the room. He came in looking as though
he had the not to out laughing again. Behind him
Razumihin in and awkward, and red as a peony,
with an and expression. His and
whole were at that moment and justified
Raskolnikov’s laughter. Raskolnikov, not waiting for an introduction,
bowed to Porfiry Petrovitch, who in the middle of the room
looking at them. He out his hand and hands, still
apparently making to his and a few
words to himself. But he had no sooner succeeded in assuming
a air and something when he again as
though at Razumihin, and no longer himself:
his out the more the more he tried
to it. The with which Razumihin received
this “spontaneous” gave the whole the of most
genuine fun and naturalness. Razumihin this as
though on purpose.
“Fool! You fiend,” he roared, his arm which at once a
little table with an empty tea-glass on it. Everything was sent
flying and crashing.
“But why chairs, gentlemen? You know it’s a to the Crown,”
Porfiry Petrovitch gaily.
Raskolnikov was still laughing, with his hand in Porfiry Petrovitch’s,
but not to it, the right moment to put a natural
end to it. Razumihin, put to by the table
and the glass, at the fragments, and
turned to the window where he looking out with his back
to the company with a countenance, nothing.
Porfiry Petrovitch laughed and was to go on laughing, but
obviously looked for explanations. Zametov had been in the
corner, but he rose at the visitors’ entrance and was in
expectation with a on his lips, though he looked with and
even it at the whole and at Raskolnikov with a
certain embarrassment. Zametov’s presence Raskolnikov
unpleasantly.
“I’ve got to think of that,” he thought. “Excuse me, please,” he began,
affecting embarrassment. “Raskolnikov.”
“Not at all, very to see you... and how you’ve come
in.... Why, won’t he say good-morning?” Porfiry Petrovitch nodded
at Razumihin.
“Upon my I don’t know why he is in such a with me. I only
told him as we came along that he was like Romeo... and proved it. And
that was all, I think!”
“Pig!” Razumihin, without round.
“There must have been very for it, if he is so at
the word,” Porfiry laughed.
“Oh, you lawyer!... Damn you all!” Razumihin, and suddenly
bursting out laughing himself, he up to Porfiry with a more
cheerful as though nothing had happened. “That’ll do! We are
all fools. To come to business. This is my friend Rodion Romanovitch
Raskolnikov; in the place he has of you and wants to make
your acquaintance, and secondly, he has a little of with
you. Bah! Zametov, what you here? Have you met before? Have you
known each other long?”
“What this mean?” Raskolnikov uneasily.
Zametov taken aback, but not very much so.
“Why, it was at your rooms we met yesterday,” he said easily.
“Then I have been the trouble. All last week he was me
to him to you. Porfiry and you have each other out
without me. Where is your tobacco?”
Porfiry Petrovitch was a dressing-gown, very clean linen, and
trodden-down slippers. He was a man of about five and thirty, short,
stout to corpulence, and clean shaven. He his cut short
and had a large head, particularly at the back. His
soft, round, snub-nosed was of a colour,
but had a and expression. It would have been
good-natured for a look in the eyes, which with a watery,
mawkish light under almost white, eyelashes. The expression
of those was out of with his womanish
figure, and gave it something more than be at
first sight.
As soon as Porfiry Petrovitch that his visitor had a little matter
of with him, he him to on the sofa and sat down
himself on the other end, waiting for him to his business, with
that and over-serious attention which is at once and
embarrassing, to a stranger, and if what you are
discussing is in your opinion of too little for such
exceptional solemnity. But in and phrases Raskolnikov
explained his and exactly, and was so well satisfied
with himself that he succeeded in taking a good look at Porfiry.
Porfiry Petrovitch did not once take his off him. Razumihin,
sitting opposite at the same table, and impatiently,
looking from one to the other every moment with excessive
interest.
“Fool,” Raskolnikov to himself.
“You have to give to the police,” Porfiry replied, with a
most air, “that having learnt of this incident, that is of
the murder, you to the lawyer in of the case that such
and such to you, and that you to them...
or... but they will to you.”
“That’s just the point, that at the present moment,” Raskolnikov tried
his to embarrassment, “I am not in funds... and
even this is me... I only wanted, you see, for
the present to that the are mine, and that when I have
money....”
“That’s no matter,” answered Porfiry Petrovitch, his
explanation of his position coldly, “but you can, if you
prefer, to me, to say, that having been of the
matter, and such and such as your property, you beg...”
“On an ordinary of paper?” Raskolnikov eagerly, again
interested in the financial of the question.
“Oh, the most ordinary,” and Porfiry Petrovitch looked with
obvious at him, up his and, as it were, at
him. But it was Raskolnikov’s fancy, for it all but a
moment. There was something of the sort, Raskolnikov could
have he at him, why.
“He knows,” through his mind like lightning.
“Forgive my you about such trifles,” he on, a little
disconcerted, “the are only five roubles, but I prize them
particularly for the of those from they came to me, and I must
confess that I was when I heard...”
“That’s why you were so much when I mentioned to Zossimov that
Porfiry was for who had pledges!” Razumihin put in
with intention.
This was unbearable. Raskolnikov not help at him
with a of anger in his black eyes, but immediately
recollected himself.
“You to be at me, brother?” he said to him, with a
well-feigned irritability. “I say I do to you anxious
about such trash; but you mustn’t think me selfish or for that,
and these two may be anything but trash in my eyes. I told you
just now that the watch, though it’s not a cent, is the
only thing left us of my father’s. You may laugh at me, but my mother is
here,” he to Porfiry, “and if she knew,” he again
hurriedly to Razumihin, making his voice tremble, “that the
watch was lost, she would be in despair! You know what are!”
“Not a of it! I didn’t that at all! Quite the contrary!”
Razumihin distressed.
“Was it right? Was it natural? Did I it?” Raskolnikov asked
himself in a tremor. “Why did I say that about women?”
“Oh, your mother is with you?” Porfiry Petrovitch inquired.
“Yes.”
“When did she come?”
“Last night.”
Porfiry paused as though reflecting.
“Your would not in any case be lost,” he on and
coldly. “I have been you here for some time.”
And as though that was a of no importance, he offered
the ash-tray to Razumihin, who was cigarette ash
over the carpet. Raskolnikov shuddered, but Porfiry did not to be
looking at him, and was still with Razumihin’s cigarette.
“What? Expecting him? Why, did you know that he had pledges _there_?”
Razumihin.
Porfiry Petrovitch himself to Raskolnikov.
“Your things, the ring and the watch, were up together, and on
the paper your name was in pencil, together with the
date on which you left them with her...”
“How you are!” Raskolnikov awkwardly, doing his very
utmost to look him in the face, but he failed, and suddenly
added:
“I say that I there were a great many pledges... that it
must be difficult to them all.... But you them all so
clearly, and... and...”
“Stupid! Feeble!” he thought. “Why did I add that?”
“But we know all who had pledges, and you are the only one who hasn’t
come forward,” Porfiry answered with irony.
“I haven’t been well.”
“I that too. I heard, indeed, that you were in great distress
about something. You look still.”
“I am not at all.... No, I am well,” Raskolnikov snapped
out and angrily, his tone. His anger was
mounting, he not it. “And in my anger I shall betray
myself,” through his mind again. “Why are they me?”
“Not well!” Razumihin him up. “What next! He was
unconscious and all yesterday. Would you believe, Porfiry, as
soon as our were turned, he dressed, though he stand,
and gave us the and off on a till midnight,
delirious all the time! Would you it! Extraordinary!”
“Really delirious? You don’t say so!” Porfiry his in a
womanish way.
“Nonsense! Don’t you it! But you don’t it anyway,”
Raskolnikov let in his anger. But Porfiry Petrovitch did not seem
to catch those words.
“But how you have gone out if you hadn’t been delirious?”
Razumihin got suddenly. “What did you go out for? What was the
object of it? And why on the sly? Were you in your when you did
it? Now that all is over I can speak plainly.”
“I was of them yesterday.” Raskolnikov Porfiry
suddenly with a of defiance, “I ran away from them to
take where they wouldn’t me, and took a of money with
me. Mr. Zametov there saw it. I say, Mr. Zametov, was I or
delirious yesterday; settle our dispute.”
He have Zametov at that moment, so were his
expression and his to him.
“In my opinion you talked and artfully, but you were
extremely irritable,” Zametov dryly.
“And Nikodim Fomitch was telling me to-day,” put in Porfiry Petrovitch,
“that he met you very late last night in the of a man who had
been over.”
“And there,” said Razumihin, “weren’t you then? You gave your last
penny to the for the funeral. If you wanted to help, give fifteen
or twenty even, but keep three for at least, but he
flung away all the twenty-five at once!”
“Maybe I a and you know nothing of it? So
that’s why I was yesterday.... Mr. Zametov I’ve a
treasure! Excuse us, please, for you for an hour
with such trivialities,” he said, to Porfiry Petrovitch, with
trembling lips. “We are you, aren’t we?”
“Oh no, the contrary, the contrary! If only you how you
interest me! It’s to look on and listen... and I am really
glad you have come at last.”
“But you might give us some tea! My throat’s dry,” Razumihin.
“Capital idea! Perhaps we will all keep you company. Wouldn’t you
like... something more tea?”
“Get along with you!”
Porfiry Petrovitch out to order tea.
Raskolnikov’s were in a whirl. He was in terrible exasperation.
“The of it is they don’t it; they don’t to on
ceremony! And how if you didn’t know me at all, did you come to talk
to Nikodim Fomitch about me? So they don’t to that they are
tracking me like a pack of dogs. They in my face.” He was
shaking with rage. “Come, me openly, don’t play with me like a
cat with a mouse. It’s civil, Porfiry Petrovitch, but I
won’t allow it! I shall up and the whole truth in your ugly
faces, and you’ll see how I you.” He breathe.
“And what if it’s only my fancy? What if I am mistaken, and through
inexperience I angry and don’t keep up my part? Perhaps it’s
all unintentional. All their phrases are the ones, but there is
something about them.... It all might be said, but there is something.
Why did he say bluntly, ‘With her’? Why did Zametov add that I spoke
artfully? Why do they speak in that tone? Yes, the tone.... Razumihin
is here, why he see nothing? That never
does see anything! Feverish again! Did Porfiry at me just now? Of
course it’s nonsense! What he for? Are they trying to upset
my nerves or are they me? Either it’s or they know!
Even Zametov is rude.... Is Zametov rude? Zametov has his mind.
I he would his mind! He is at home here, while it’s my
first visit. Porfiry not him a visitor; with his back
to him. They’re as thick as thieves, no doubt, over me! Not a they
were talking about me we came. Do they know about the flat? If
only they’d make haste! When I said that I ran away to take a he
let it pass.... I put that in about a flat, it may be of use
afterwards.... Delirious, indeed... ha-ha-ha! He all about last
night! He didn’t know of my mother’s arrival! The had the
date on in pencil! You are wrong, you won’t catch me! There are no
facts... it’s all supposition! You produce facts! The isn’t a
fact but delirium. I know what to say to them.... Do they know about the
flat? I won’t go without out. What did I come for? But my being
angry now, maybe is a fact! Fool, how I am! Perhaps that’s
right; to play the invalid.... He is me. He will try to catch
me. Why did I come?”
All this like through his mind.
Porfiry Petrovitch returned quickly. He more jovial.
“Your party yesterday, brother, has left my rather.... And I am out
of altogether,” he in a different tone, laughing to
Razumihin.
“Was it interesting? I left you yesterday at the most point.
Who got the best of it?”
“Oh, no one, of course. They got on to questions, floated
off into space.”
“Only fancy, Rodya, what we got on to yesterday. Whether there is such a
thing as crime. I told you that we talked our off.”
“What is there strange? It’s an social question,” Raskolnikov
answered casually.
“The question wasn’t put like that,” Porfiry.
“Not quite, that’s true,” Razumihin at once, warm and
hurried as usual. “Listen, Rodion, and tell us your opinion, I want to
hear it. I was tooth and with them and wanted you to
help me. I told them you were coming.... It with the socialist
doctrine. You know their doctrine; is a against the
abnormality of the social and nothing more, and nothing
more; no other admitted!...”
“You are there,” Porfiry Petrovitch; he was noticeably
animated and laughing as he looked at Razumihin, which him
more than ever.
“Nothing is admitted,” Razumihin with heat.
“I am not wrong. I’ll you their pamphlets. Everything with them
is ‘the of environment,’ and nothing else. Their favourite
phrase! From which it that, if is organised,
all will at once, since there will be nothing to protest
against and all men will in one instant. Human nature
is not taken into account, it is excluded, it’s not to exist!
They don’t that humanity, by a living
process, will at last a normal society, but they that a
social that has come out of some mathematical brain is going
to all at once and make it just and in an
instant, than any process! That’s why they instinctively
dislike history, ‘nothing but and in it,’ and they
explain it all as stupidity! That’s why they so the _living_
process of life; they don’t want a _living soul_! The soul
demands life, the won’t the of mechanics, the is an
object of suspicion, the is retrograde! But what they want though
it of death and can be of India-rubber, at least is not
alive, has no will, is and won’t revolt! And it comes in the end
to their to the of and the planning
of rooms and passages in a phalanstery! The phalanstery is ready,
indeed, but your nature is not for the phalanstery--it
wants life, it hasn’t its process, it’s too soon for the
graveyard! You can’t over nature by logic. Logic three
possibilities, but there are millions! Cut away a million, and reduce
it all to the question of comfort! That’s the of the
problem! It’s clear and you musn’t think about it. That’s
the great thing, you mustn’t think! The whole of life in two
pages of print!”
“Now he is off, the drum! Catch of him, do!” laughed
Porfiry. “Can you imagine,” he to Raskolnikov, “six people
holding like that last night, in one room, with as a
preliminary! No, brother, you are wrong, for a
great in crime; I can you of that.”
“Oh, I know it does, but just tell me: a man of a child
of ten; was it him to it?”
“Well, speaking, it did,” Porfiry with noteworthy
gravity; “a of that nature may be very well to the
influence of environment.”
Razumihin was almost in a frenzy. “Oh, if you like,” he roared. “I’ll
prove to you that your white may very well be to the
Church of Ivan the Great’s being two hundred and fifty high, and I
will prove it clearly, exactly, progressively, and with a Liberal
tendency! I to! Will you on it?”
“Done! Let’s hear, please, how he will prove it!”
“He is always humbugging, him,” Razumihin, jumping up and
gesticulating. “What’s the use of talking to you? He all that
on purpose; you don’t know him, Rodion! He took their yesterday,
simply to make of them. And the he said yesterday! And they
were delighted! He can keep it up for a together. Last year he
persuaded us that he was going into a monastery: he to it for two
months. Not long ago he took it into his to he was going
to married, that he had for the wedding. He ordered
new indeed. We all to him. There was no
bride, nothing, all pure fantasy!”
“Ah, you are wrong! I got the before. It was the new in
fact that me think of taking you in.”
“Are you such a good dissembler?” Raskolnikov asked carelessly.
“You wouldn’t have it, eh? Wait a bit, I shall take you in,
too. Ha-ha-ha! No, I’ll tell you the truth. All these questions about
crime, environment, children, to my mind an article of yours
which me at the time. ‘On Crime’... or something of the
sort, I the title, I read it with two months ago in the
_Periodical Review_.”
“My article? In the _Periodical Review_?” Raskolnikov asked in
astonishment. “I did an article upon a book six months
ago when I left the university, but I sent it to the _Weekly Review_.”
“But it came out in the _Periodical_.”
“And the _Weekly Review_ to exist, so that’s why it wasn’t
printed at the time.”
“That’s true; but when it to exist, the _Weekly Review_ was
amalgamated with the _Periodical_, and so your article appeared two
months ago in the latter. Didn’t you know?”
Raskolnikov had not known.
“Why, you might some money out of them for the article! What a
strange person you are! You lead such a life that you know
nothing of that you directly. It’s a fact, I assure
you.”
“Bravo, Rodya! I nothing about it either!” Razumihin. “I’ll
run to-day to the reading-room and ask for the number. Two months ago?
What was the date? It doesn’t though, I will it. Think of
not telling us!”
“How did you out that the article was mine? It’s only with
an initial.”
“I only learnt it by chance, the other day. Through the editor; I know
him.... I was very much interested.”
“I analysed, if I remember, the of a and
after the crime.”
“Yes, and you that the perpetration of a is always
accompanied by illness. Very, very original, but... it was not that part
of your article that me so much, but an idea at the end of
the article which I to say you without working
it out clearly. There is, if you recollect, a that there are
certain who can... that is, not are able to, but have
a perfect right to of and crimes, and that the
law is not for them.”
Raskolnikov at the and of his
idea.
“What? What do you mean? A right to crime? But not of the
influence of environment?” Razumihin with some even.
“No, not of it,” answered Porfiry. “In his article all
men are into ‘ordinary’ and ‘extraordinary.’ Ordinary men have
to live in submission, have no right to the law, because,
don’t you see, they are ordinary. But men have a right to
commit any and to the law in any way, just they
are extraordinary. That was your idea, if I am not mistaken?”
“What do you mean? That can’t be right?” Razumihin in
bewilderment.
Raskolnikov again. He saw the point at once, and where they
wanted to drive him. He to take up the challenge.
“That wasn’t my contention,” he and modestly. “Yet
I admit that you have it almost correctly; perhaps, if you like,
perfectly so.” (It almost gave him to admit this.) “The only
difference is that I don’t that people are always
bound to of morals, as you call it. In fact, I doubt
whether such an be published. I that an
‘extraordinary’ man has the right... that is not an official right, but
an right to decide in his own to overstep... certain
obstacles, and only in case it is for the practical fulfilment
of his idea (sometimes, perhaps, of to the whole of humanity).
You say that my article isn’t definite; I am to make it as clear
as I can. Perhaps I am right in you want me to; very well. I
maintain that if the of Kepler and Newton not have
been by the of one, a dozen, a
hundred, or more men, Newton would have had the right, would have
been in duty-bound... to _eliminate_ the dozen or the hundred men for
the of making his to the whole of humanity. But
it not from that that Newton had a right to people
right and left and to every day in the market. Then, I remember, I
maintain in my article that all... well, and of men,
such as Lycurgus, Solon, Mahomet, Napoleon, and so on, were all without
exception criminals, from the very that, making a new law, they
transgressed the one, from their and held
sacred by the people, and they did not stop at either,
if that bloodshed--often of in defence
of law--were of use to their cause. It’s remarkable, in fact,
that the majority, indeed, of these and of humanity
were of terrible carnage. In short, I maintain that all great men
or men a little out of the common, that is to say of giving
some new word, must from their very nature be criminals--more or less,
of course. Otherwise it’s hard for them to out of the common rut;
and to in the common is what they can’t submit to, from their
very nature again, and to my mind they ought not, indeed, to submit to
it. You see that there is nothing particularly new in all that. The
same thing has been printed and read a thousand times before. As for my
division of people into ordinary and extraordinary, I that
it’s arbitrary, but I don’t upon exact numbers. I only
believe in my leading idea that men are _in general_ by a law
of nature into two categories, (ordinary), that is, so to say,
material that only to its kind, and men who have
the gift or the to _a new word_. There are, of course,
innumerable sub-divisions, but the of both
categories are well marked. The category, generally
speaking, are men in and law-abiding; they live
under and love to be controlled. To my it is their duty
to be controlled, that’s their vocation, and there is nothing
humiliating in it for them. The second category all the
law; they are or to according to their
capacities. The of these men are of relative and varied;
for the most part they in very the of the
present for the of the better. But if such a one is for the
sake of his idea to step over a or through blood, he can, I
maintain, himself, in his conscience, a for wading
through blood--that on the idea and its dimensions, note that.
It’s only in that I speak of their right to in my article
(you it with the legal question). There’s no need for
such anxiety, however; the will admit this right,
they them or them (more or less), and in doing so fulfil
quite their vocation. But the same set these
criminals on a in the next and them (more or
less). The category is always the man of the present, the second
the man of the future. The the world and people it, the
second move the world and lead it to its goal. Each class has an equal
right to exist. In fact, all have equal with me--and _vive la
guerre éternelle_--till the New Jerusalem, of course!”
“Then you in the New Jerusalem, do you?”
“I do,” Raskolnikov answered firmly; as he said these and during
the whole he his on one spot on the carpet.
“And... and do you in God? Excuse my curiosity.”
“I do,” Raskolnikov, his to Porfiry.
“And... do you in Lazarus’ from the dead?”
“I... I do. Why do you ask all this?”
“You it literally?”
“Literally.”
“You don’t say so.... I asked from curiosity. Excuse me. But let us
go to the question; they are not always executed. Some, on the
contrary...”
“Triumph in their lifetime? Oh, yes, some their ends in this
life, and then...”
“They other people?”
“If it’s necessary; indeed, for the most part they do. Your is
very witty.”
“Thank you. But tell me this: how do you those extraordinary
people from the ordinary ones? Are there at their birth? I feel
there ought to be more exactitude, more definition. Excuse the
natural of a practical law-abiding citizen, but couldn’t they
adopt a special uniform, for instance, couldn’t they wear something, be
branded in some way? For you know if and a of
one category that he to the other, to ‘eliminate
obstacles’ as you so it, then...”
“Oh, that very often happens! That is than the other.”
“Thank you.”
“No to; but take note that the mistake can only in
the category, that is among the ordinary people (as I perhaps
unfortunately called them). In of their predisposition to
obedience very many of them, through a of nature, sometimes
vouchsafed to the cow, like to themselves people,
‘destroyers,’ and to push themselves into the ‘new movement,’ and
this sincerely. Meanwhile the _new_ people are very often
unobserved by them, or as of grovelling
tendencies. But I don’t think there is any here,
and you need not be for they go very far. Of course,
they might have a sometimes for their away
with them and to teach them their place, but no more; in fact, even
this isn’t necessary as they themselves, for they are very
conscientious: some perform this service for one another and others
chastise themselves with their own hands.... They will various
public of upon themselves with a and edifying
effect; in you’ve nothing to be about.... It’s a law of
nature.”
“Well, you have set my mind more at on that score; but
there’s another thing me. Tell me, please, are there many people
who have the right to kill others, these people? I am
ready to to them, of course, but you must admit it’s alarming
if there are a great many of them, eh?”
“Oh, you needn’t worry about that either,” Raskolnikov on in the
same tone. “People with new ideas, people with the for
saying something _new_, are in number, extraordinarily
so in fact. One thing only is clear, that the of all these
grades and sub-divisions of men must with regularity
some law of nature. That law, of course, is unknown at present, but I am
convinced that it exists, and one day may known. The of
mankind is material, and only in order by some great effort,
by some process, by means of some of and
stocks, to into the world at last one man out of a
thousand with a of independence. One in ten thousand perhaps--I
speak roughly, approximately--is with some independence, and with
still one in a hundred thousand. The man of genius
is one of millions, and the great geniuses, the of humanity,
appear on earth one in many thousand millions. In I have
not into the in which all this takes place. But there
certainly is and must be a law, it cannot be a of
chance.”
“Why, are you joking?” Razumihin at last. “There you sit,
making fun of one another. Are you serious, Rodya?”
Raskolnikov his and almost and no reply.
And the unconcealed, persistent, nervous, and _discourteous_ of
Porfiry to Razumihin that and face.
“Well, brother, if you are serious... You are right, of course,
in saying that it’s not new, that it’s like what we’ve read and a
thousand times already; but what is original in all this, and is
exclusively your own, to my horror, is that you bloodshed
_in the name of conscience_, and, my saying so, with such
fanaticism.... That, I take it, is the point of your article. But that
sanction of _by conscience_ is to my mind... more terrible
than the official, legal of bloodshed....”
“You are right, it is more terrible,” Porfiry agreed.
“Yes, you must have exaggerated! There is some mistake, I shall read it.
You can’t think that! I shall read it.”
“All that is not in the article, there’s only a hint of it,” said
Raskolnikov.
“Yes, yes.” Porfiry couldn’t still. “Your to is
pretty clear to me now, but... me for my (I am
really to be you like this), you see, you’ve removed
my as to the two mixed, but... there are various
practical possibilities that make me uneasy! What if some man or youth
imagines that he is a Lycurgus or Mahomet--a one of course--and
suppose he to remove all obstacles.... He has some great
enterprise him and needs money for it... and to it...
do you see?”
Zametov gave a in his corner. Raskolnikov did not even
raise his to him.
“I must admit,” he on calmly, “that such cases must
arise. The and are particularly to into that
snare; people especially.”
“Yes, you see. Well then?”
“What then?” Raskolnikov in reply; “that’s not my fault. So it is
and so it always will be. He said just now (he at Razumihin)
that I bloodshed. Society is too well protected by prisons,
banishment, investigators, penal servitude. There’s no need to
be uneasy. You have but to catch the thief.”
“And what if we do catch him?”
“Then he what he deserves.”
“You are logical. But what of his conscience?”
“Why do you about that?”
“Simply from humanity.”
“If he has a he will for his mistake. That will be his
punishment--as well as the prison.”
“But the geniuses,” asked Razumihin frowning, “those who have
the right to murder? Oughtn’t they to at all for the blood
they’ve shed?”
“Why the word _ought_? It’s not a of permission or prohibition.
He will if he is sorry for his victim. Pain and are
always for a large and a heart. The
really great men must, I think, have great on earth,” he added
dreamily, not in the of the conversation.
He his eyes, looked at them all, smiled, and took his
cap. He was too by with his manner at his entrance, and
he this. Everyone got up.
“Well, you may me, be angry with me if you like,” Porfiry
Petrovitch again, “but I can’t resist. Allow me one little
question (I know I am you). There is just one little I
want to express, that I may not it.”
“Very good, tell me your little notion,” Raskolnikov waiting, pale
and him.
“Well, you see... I don’t know how to it properly....
It’s a playful, idea.... When you were your
article, surely you couldn’t have helped, he-he! yourself...
just a little, an ‘extraordinary’ man, a _new word_ in your
sense.... That’s so, isn’t it?”
“Quite possibly,” Raskolnikov answered contemptuously.
Razumihin a movement.
“And, if so, you in case of difficulties
and or for some service to humanity--to obstacles?...
For instance, to and murder?”
And again he with his left eye, and laughed just as
before.
“If I did I should not tell you,” Raskolnikov answered with
defiant and contempt.
“No, I was only on account of your article, from a literary
point of view...”
“Foo! how and that is!” Raskolnikov with
repulsion.
“Allow me to observe,” he answered dryly, “that I don’t myself
a Mahomet or a Napoleon, any of that kind, and not being
one of them I cannot tell you how I should act.”
“Oh, come, don’t we all think ourselves Napoleons now in Russia?”
Porfiry Petrovitch said with familiarity.
Something itself in the very of his voice.
“Perhaps it was one of these Napoleons who did for Alyona
Ivanovna last week?” Zametov out from the corner.
Raskolnikov did not speak, but looked and at Porfiry.
Razumihin was gloomily. He this to be noticing
something. He looked around. There was a minute of gloomy
silence. Raskolnikov to go.
“Are you going already?” Porfiry said amiably, out his hand with
excessive politeness. “Very, very of your acquaintance. As for your
request, have no uneasiness, just as I told you, or, still,
come to me there in a day or two... to-morrow, indeed. I shall
be there at eleven o’clock for certain. We’ll it all; we’ll have
a talk. As one of the last to be _there_, you might be able to
tell us something,” he added with a most good-natured expression.
“You want to cross-examine me officially in form?” Raskolnikov asked
sharply.
“Oh, why? That’s not necessary for the present. You me.
I no opportunity, you see, and... I’ve talked with all who had
pledges.... I from some of them, and you are the
last.... Yes, by the way,” he cried, delighted, “I
just remember, what was I of?” he to Razumihin, “you
were talking my ears off about that Nikolay... of course, I know, I know
very well,” he to Raskolnikov, “that the is innocent, but
what is one to do? We had to trouble Dmitri too.... This is the point,
this is all: when you up the stairs it was past seven, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” answered Raskolnikov, with an at the very
moment he spoke that he need not have said it.
“Then when you seven and eight, didn’t you see in
a that open on a second storey, do you remember? two workmen
or at least one of them? They were painting there, didn’t you notice
them? It’s very, very for them.”
“Painters? No, I didn’t see them,” Raskolnikov answered slowly, as
though his memory, while at the same he was racking
every nerve, almost with to as as
possible where the and not to anything. “No, I didn’t
see them, and I don’t think I noticed a like that open.... But on
the fourth storey” (he had the now and was triumphant)
“I now that someone was moving out of the opposite Alyona
Ivanovna’s.... I remember... I it clearly. Some porters
were out a sofa and they me against the wall. But
painters... no, I don’t that there were any painters, and I
don’t think that there was a open anywhere, no, there wasn’t.”
“What do you mean?” Razumihin suddenly, as though he had
reflected and realised. “Why, it was on the day of the the
painters were at work, and he was there three days before? What are you
asking?”
“Foo! I have it!” Porfiry himself on the forehead.
“Deuce take it! This is my brain!” he addressed
Raskolnikov apologetically. “It would be such a great thing for
us to out anyone had them seven and eight at
the flat, so I you have told us something.... I
quite it.”
“Then you should be more careful,” Razumihin grimly.
The last were in the passage. Porfiry Petrovitch saw them
to the door with politeness.
They out into the and sullen, and for some steps they
did not say a word. Raskolnikov a breath.
