“Pyotr Petrovitch,” she cried, “protect me... you at least! Make this
foolish woman that she can’t like this to a lady in
misfortune... that there is a law for such things.... I’ll go to the
governor-general himself.... She shall answer for it.... Remembering my
father’s protect these orphans.”
“Allow me, madam.... Allow me.” Pyotr Petrovitch her off. “Your
papa as you are well aware I had not the of knowing” (someone
laughed aloud) “and I do not to take part in your everlasting
squabbles with Amalia Ivanovna.... I have come here to speak of my own
affairs... and I want to have a word with your stepdaughter, Sofya...
Ivanovna, I think it is? Allow me to pass.”
Pyotr Petrovitch, by her, to the opposite where Sonia
was.
Katerina Ivanovna where she was, as though
thunderstruck. She not how Pyotr Petrovitch deny
having her father’s hospitality. Though she had it
herself, she in it by this time. She was too
by the businesslike, and of Pyotr
Petrovitch. All the died away at his entrance. Not
only was this “serious man” with the
rest of the party, but it was evident, too, that he had come upon some
matter of consequence, that some must have him
and that therefore something was going to happen. Raskolnikov, standing
beside Sonia, moved to let him pass; Pyotr Petrovitch did not
seem to notice him. A minute later Lebeziatnikov, too, appeared in the
doorway; he did not come in, but still, with marked
interest, almost wonder, and for a time perplexed.
“Excuse me for possibly you, but it’s a of
some importance,” Pyotr Petrovitch observed, the company
generally. “I am to other present. Amalia
Ivanovna, I you as of the house to pay careful
attention to what I have to say to Sofya Ivanovna. Sofya Ivanovna,”
he on, Sonia, who was very much and already
alarmed, “immediately after your visit I that a hundred-rouble
note was missing from my table, in the room of my friend Mr.
Lebeziatnikov. If in any way you know and will tell us where
it is now, I you on my word of and call all present to
witness that the shall end there. In the opposite case I shall be
compelled to have to very and then... you must
blame yourself.”
Complete in the room. Even the children were
still. Sonia pale, at Luzhin and unable to say a
word. She not to understand. Some passed.
“Well, how is it to be then?” asked Luzhin, looking at her.
“I don’t know.... I know nothing about it,” Sonia at
last.
“No, you know nothing?” Luzhin and again he paused for some
seconds. “Think a moment, mademoiselle,” he severely, but still,
as it were, her. “Reflect, I am prepared to give you time
for consideration. Kindly this: if I were not so entirely
convinced I should not, you may be sure, with my to
accuse you so directly. Seeing that for such direct before
witnesses, if false or mistaken, I should myself in a sense
be responsible, I am aware of that. This I for
my own purposes five-per-cent for the of
approximately three thousand roubles. The account is noted in my
pocket-book. On my return home I to count the money--as Mr.
Lebeziatnikov will witness--and after two thousand three
hundred I put the in my pocket-book in my pocket.
About five hundred on the table and among them three
notes of a hundred each. At that moment you entered (at my
invitation)--and all the time you were present you were exceedingly
embarrassed; so that three times you jumped up in the middle of the
conversation and to make off. Mr. Lebeziatnikov can witness
to this. You yourself, mademoiselle, will not to confirm
my that I you through Mr. Lebeziatnikov, in
order to discuss with you the and position of your
relative, Katerina Ivanovna (whose dinner I was unable to attend),
and the of up something of the nature of a
subscription, lottery or the like, for her benefit. You thanked me and
even tears. I all this as it took place, to
recall it to your mind and secondly to you that not the slightest
detail has my recollection. Then I took a ten-rouble note from
the table and it to you by way of on my part
for the of your relative. Mr. Lebeziatnikov saw all this. Then
I you to the door--you being still in the same of
embarrassment--after which, being left alone with Mr. Lebeziatnikov I
talked to him for ten minutes--then Mr. Lebeziatnikov out and I
returned to the table with the money on it, to count
it and to put it aside, as I doing before. To my one
hundred-rouble note had disappeared. Kindly the position.
Mr. Lebeziatnikov I cannot suspect. I am to to such
a supposition. I cannot have a mistake in my reckoning, for the
minute your entrance I had my and the
total correct. You will admit that your embarrassment, your
eagerness to away and the that you your hands for some
time on the table, and taking into your social position
and the with it, I was, so to say, with and
positively against my will, _compelled_ to a suspicion--a
cruel, but suspicion! I will add and repeat that in
spite of my positive conviction, I that I a in
making this accusation, but as you see, I not let it pass. I have
taken action and I will tell you why: solely, madam, solely, owing
to your black ingratitude! Why! I you for the of your
destitute relative, I present you with my of ten and
you, on the spot, me for all that with such an action. It is too
bad! You need a lesson. Reflect! Moreover, like a true friend I beg
you--and you have no friend at this moment--think what you
are doing, otherwise I shall be immovable! Well, what do you say?”
“I have taken nothing,” Sonia in terror, “you gave me ten
roubles, here it is, take it.”
Sonia her out of her pocket, a of it,
took out the ten-rouble note and gave it to Luzhin.
“And the hundred you do not to taking?” he insisted
reproachfully, not taking the note.
Sonia looked about her. All were looking at her with such awful, stern,
ironical, eyes. She looked at Raskolnikov... he against
the wall, with his arms crossed, looking at her with eyes.
“Good God!” from Sonia.
“Amalia Ivanovna, we shall have to send word to the police and therefore
I you meanwhile to send for the house porter,” Luzhin said
softly and kindly.
“_Gott Barmherzige_! I she was the thief,” Amalia
Ivanovna, up her hands.
“You it?” Luzhin her up, “then I you had some reason
before this for so. I you, Amalia Ivanovna, to
remember your which have been witnesses.”
There was a of loud on all sides. All were in
movement.
“What!” Katerina Ivanovna, the position, and
she at Luzhin. “What! You her of stealing? Sonia? Ah, the
wretches, the wretches!”
And to Sonia she her arms her and her as
in a vise.
“Sonia! how you take ten from him? Foolish girl! Give it
to me! Give me the ten at once--here!”
And the note from Sonia, Katerina Ivanovna it up and
flung it into Luzhin’s face. It him in the and fell
on the ground. Amalia Ivanovna to it up. Pyotr Petrovitch
lost his temper.
“Hold that woman!” he shouted.
At that moment other persons, Lebeziatnikov, appeared in
the doorway, among them the two ladies.
“What! Mad? Am I mad? Idiot!” Katerina Ivanovna. “You are an
idiot yourself, lawyer, man! Sonia, Sonia take his
money! Sonia a thief! Why, she’d give away her last penny!” and Katerina
Ivanovna into laughter. “Did you see such an
idiot?” she from to side. “And you too?” she saw
the landlady, “and you too, eater, you that she is a
thief, you Prussian hen’s leg in a crinoline! She hasn’t been
out of this room: she came from you, you wretch, and sat down
beside me, saw her. She sat here, by Rodion Romanovitch. Search
her! Since she’s not left the room, the money would have to be on her!
Search her, search her! But if you don’t it, then me, my
dear fellow, you’ll answer for it! I’ll go to our Sovereign, to our
Sovereign, to our Tsar himself, and myself at his feet,
to-day, this minute! I am alone in the world! They would let me in! Do
you think they wouldn’t? You’re wrong, I will in! I will in!
You on her meekness! You upon that! But I am not so
submissive, let me tell you! You’ve gone too yourself. Search her,
search her!”
And Katerina Ivanovna in a Luzhin and him towards
Sonia.
“I am ready, I’ll be responsible... but yourself, madam, calm
yourself. I see that you are not so submissive!... Well, well, but as to
that...” Luzhin muttered, “that ought to be the police... though
indeed there are as it is.... I am ready.... But in
any case it’s difficult for a man... on account of her sex.... But with
the help of Amalia Ivanovna... though, of course, it’s not the way to do
things.... How is it to be done?”
“As you will! Let anyone who search her!” Katerina Ivanovna.
“Sonia, turn out your pockets! See! Look, monster, the pocket is empty,
here was her handkerchief! Here is the other pocket, look! D’you see,
d’you see?”
And Katerina Ivanovna turned--or snatched--both pockets inside
out. But from the right pocket a piece of paper out and describing
a in the air at Luzhin’s feet. Everyone saw it, several
cried out. Pyotr Petrovitch down, up the paper in two
fingers, it where all see it and opened it. It was a
hundred-rouble note in eight. Pyotr Petrovitch up the note
showing it to everyone.
“Thief! Out of my lodging. Police, police!” Amalia Ivanovna.
“They must to Siberia be sent! Away!”
Exclamations on all sides. Raskolnikov was silent, his
eyes on Sonia, for an occasional at Luzhin.
Sonia still, as though unconscious. She was able to feel
surprise. Suddenly the colour to her cheeks; she a cry
and her in her hands.
“No, it wasn’t I! I didn’t take it! I know nothing about it,” she cried
with a wail, and she ran to Katerina Ivanovna, who clasped
her in her arms, as though she would her from all the
world.
“Sonia! Sonia! I don’t it! You see, I don’t it!” she
cried in the of the fact, her to and in her
arms like a baby, her continually, then at her
hands and them, too, “you took it! How these people are!
Oh dear! You are fools, fools,” she cried, the whole room,
“you don’t know, you don’t know what a she has, what a girl she
is! She take it, she? She’d sell her last rag, she’d go to help
you if you needed it, that’s what she is! She has the yellow passport
because my children were starving, she herself for us! Ah, husband,
husband! Do you see? Do you see? What a dinner for you!
Merciful heavens! Defend her, why are you all still? Rodion
Romanovitch, why don’t you up for her? Do you it, too? You
are not her little finger, all of you together! Good God! Defend
her now, at least!”
The of the poor, consumptive, woman to produce a
great on her audience. The agonised, wasted, face,
the blood-stained lips, the voice, the unrestrained
as a child’s, the trustful, and yet prayer for help
were so that to for her. Pyotr Petrovitch
at any was at once moved to _compassion_.
“Madam, madam, this not upon you!” he cried
impressively, “no one would take upon himself to you of being an
instigator or an in it, as you have proved
her by out her pockets, that you had no previous
idea of it. I am most ready, most to compassion, if poverty,
so to speak, Sofya Semyonovna to it, but why did you to
confess, mademoiselle? Were you of the disgrace? The step?
You your head, perhaps? One can it.... But how
could you have to such an action? Gentlemen,” he
addressed the whole company, “gentlemen! Compassionate and, so to say,
commiserating these people, I am to it now in spite
of the personal upon me! And may this be a
lesson to you for the future,” he said, Sonia, “and I will
carry the no further. Enough!”
Pyotr Petrovitch a at Raskolnikov. Their met, and the
fire in Raskolnikov’s to him to ashes. Meanwhile
Katerina Ivanovna nothing. She was and hugging
Sonia like a madwoman. The children, too, were Sonia on
all sides, and Polenka--though she did not what was
wrong--was in and with sobs, as she her pretty
little face, with weeping, on Sonia’s shoulder.
“How vile!” a loud voice in the doorway.
Pyotr Petrovitch looked quickly.
“What vileness!” Lebeziatnikov repeated, him in the
face.
Pyotr Petrovitch gave a positive start--all noticed it and it
afterwards. Lebeziatnikov into the room.
“And you to call me as witness?” he said, going up to Pyotr
Petrovitch.
“What do you mean? What are you talking about?” Luzhin.
“I that you... are a slanderer, that’s what my mean!”
Lebeziatnikov said hotly, looking at him with his short-sighted
eyes.
He was angry. Raskolnikov at him, as though
seizing and each word. Again there was a silence. Pyotr
Petrovitch almost for the moment.
“If you that for me,...” he began, stammering. “But what’s the
matter with you? Are you out of your mind?”
“I’m in my mind, but you are a scoundrel! Ah, how vile! I have heard
everything. I waiting on purpose to it, for I must own
even now it is not logical.... What you have done it all for I
can’t understand.”
“Why, what have I done then? Give over talking in your nonsensical
riddles! Or maybe you are drunk!”
“You may be a drunkard, perhaps, man, but I am not! I touch
vodka, for it’s against my convictions. Would you it, he, he
himself, with his own hands gave Sofya Semyonovna that hundred-rouble
note--I saw it, I was a witness, I’ll take my oath! He did it, he!”
Lebeziatnikov, all.
“Are you crazy, milksop?” Luzhin. “She is herself before
you--she herself here just now that I gave her
only ten roubles. How I have it to her?”
“I saw it, I saw it,” Lebeziatnikov repeated, “and though it is against
my principles, I am this very minute to take any you like
before the court, for I saw how you it in her pocket. Only
like a I you did it out of kindness! When you were saying
good-bye to her at the door, while you her hand in one hand, with
the other, the left, you the note into her pocket. I saw it, I
saw it!”
Luzhin pale.
“What lies!” he impudently, “why, how you, by the
window, see the note? You it with your short-sighted eyes. You
are raving!”
“No, I didn’t it. And though I was some way off, I saw
it all. And though it would be hard to a note from
the window--that’s true--I for that it was a hundred-rouble
note, because, when you were going to give Sofya Semyonovna ten roubles,
you took up from the table a hundred-rouble note (I saw it I
was near then, and an idea me at once, so that I did not
forget you had it in your hand). You it and it in your hand
all the time. I didn’t think of it again until, when you were getting
up, you it from your right hand to your left and nearly dropped
it! I noticed it the same idea me again, that you meant
to do her a without my seeing. You can how I you
and I saw how you succeeded in it into her pocket. I saw it, I
saw it, I’ll take my oath.”
Lebeziatnikov was almost breathless. Exclamations on all hands
chiefly of wonder, but some were in tone. They all
crowded Pyotr Petrovitch. Katerina Ivanovna to Lebeziatnikov.
“I was in you! Protect her! You are the only one to take her
part! She is an orphan. God has sent you!”
Katerina Ivanovna, what she was doing, on her knees
before him.
“A pack of nonsense!” Luzhin, to fury, “it’s all nonsense
you’ve been talking! ‘An idea you, you didn’t think, you
noticed’--what it amount to? So I gave it to her on the on
purpose? What for? With what object? What have I to do with this...?”
“What for? That’s what I can’t understand, but that what I am telling
you is the fact, that’s certain! So from my being mistaken, you
infamous man, I how, on account of it, a question
occurred to me at once, just when I was you and pressing
your hand. What you put it in her pocket? Why you did it
secretly, I mean? Could it be to it from me, that
my are to yours and that I do not approve of private
benevolence, which no cure? Well, I that you
really were of such a large me. Perhaps,
too, I thought, he wants to give her a surprise, when she a whole
hundred-rouble note in her pocket. (For I know, some people
are very of out their in that way.) Then
the idea me, too, that you wanted to test her, to see whether,
when she it, she would come to thank you. Then, too, that you
wanted to avoid thanks and that, as the saying is, your right hand
should not know... something of that sort, in fact. I of so
many possibilities that I put off it, but still it
indelicate to you that I your secret. But another idea struck
me again that Sofya Semyonovna might easily the money she
noticed it, that was why I to come in here to call her out of
the room and to tell her that you put a hundred in her pocket.
But on my way I to Madame Kobilatnikov’s to take them the
‘General Treatise on the Positive Method’ and to recommend
Piderit’s article (and also Wagner’s); then I come on here and what a
state of I find! Now I, I, have all these ideas and
reflections if I had not you put the hundred-rouble note in her
pocket?”
When Lebeziatnikov his long-winded with the logical
deduction at the end, he was tired, and the streamed
from his face. He not, alas, himself correctly
in Russian, though he no other language, so that he was quite
exhausted, almost after this exploit. But his speech
produced a powerful effect. He had spoken with such vehemence, with such
conviction that him. Pyotr Petrovitch felt
that were going with him.
“What is it to do with me if ideas did to you?” he shouted,
“that’s no evidence. You may have it, that’s all! And I tell you,
you are lying, sir. You are and from some against
me, from pique, I did not agree with your free-thinking,
godless, social propositions!”
But this did not Pyotr Petrovitch. Murmurs of disapproval
were on all sides.
“Ah, that’s your line now, is it!” Lebeziatnikov, “that’s
nonsense! Call the police and I’ll take my oath! There’s only one thing
I can’t understand: what him such a action. Oh,
pitiful, man!”
“I can why he such an action, and if necessary, I, too,
will to it,” Raskolnikov said at last in a voice, and he
stepped forward.
He appeared to be and composed. Everyone clearly, from the
very look of him that he about it and that the would
be solved.
“Now I can it all to myself,” said Raskolnikov, addressing
Lebeziatnikov. “From the very of the business, I suspected
that there was some at the of it. I began
to it from some special to me only, which
I will at once to everyone: they account for everything. Your
valuable has clear to me. I all,
all to listen. This (he pointed to Luzhin) was recently
engaged to be married to a lady--my sister, Avdotya Romanovna
Raskolnikov. But to Petersburg he with me, the day
before yesterday, at our meeting and I him out of my room--I
have two to prove it. He is a very man.... The day
before yesterday I did not know that he was here, in your room,
and that on the very day we quarrelled--the day before
yesterday--he saw me give Katerina Ivanovna some money for the funeral,
as a friend of the late Mr. Marmeladov. He at once a note to
my mother and her that I had away all my money, not
to Katerina Ivanovna but to Sofya Semyonovna, and in a most
contemptible way to the... of Sofya Semyonovna, that is,
hinted at the of my to Sofya Semyonovna. All this you
understand was with the object of me from my mother and sister,
by that I was on objects the money
which they had sent me and which was all they had. Yesterday evening,
before my mother and sister and in his presence, I that I had
given the money to Katerina Ivanovna for the and not to Sofya
Semyonovna and that I had no with Sofya Semyonovna and had
never her before, indeed. At the same time I added that he,
Pyotr Petrovitch Luzhin, with all his virtues, was not Sofya
Semyonovna’s little finger, though he spoke so of her. To his
question--would I let Sofya Semyonovna my sister, I
answered that I had already done so that day. Irritated that my mother
and sister were to with me at his insinuations, he
gradually being to them. A final took
place and he was out of the house. All this yesterday
evening. Now I your special attention: consider: if he had now
succeeded in that Sofya Semyonovna was a thief, he would
have to my mother and sister that he was almost right in his
suspicions, that he had to be angry at my my sister on
a level with Sofya Semyonovna, that, in me, he was protecting
and the of my sister, his betrothed. In he might
even, through all this, have been able to me from my family,
and no he to be to with them; to say nothing
of himself on me personally, for he has for supposing
that the and of Sofya Semyonovna are very to
me. That was what he was for! That’s how I it. That’s
the whole for it and there can be no other!”
It was like this, or like this, that Raskolnikov up his
speech which was very attentively, though often by
exclamations from his audience. But in of he spoke
clearly, calmly, exactly, firmly. His voice, his of
conviction and his a great on everyone.
“Yes, yes, that’s it,” Lebeziatnikov gleefully, “that must be
it, for he asked me, as soon as Sofya Semyonovna came into our room,
whether you were here, I had you among Katerina Ivanovna’s
guests. He called me to the window and asked me in secret. It was
essential for him that you should be here! That’s it, that’s it!”
Luzhin and did not speak. But he was very pale. He
seemed to be on some means of escape. Perhaps he would have
been to give up and away, but at the moment this
was possible. It would have the truth of
the against him. Moreover, the company, which had
already been by drink, was now too much to allow it. The
commissariat clerk, though he had not the whole position,
was louder than anyone and was making some very
unpleasant to Luzhin. But not all those present were drunk; came
in from all the rooms. The three Poles were excited
and were at him: “The _pan_ is a _lajdak_!” and
muttering in Polish. Sonia had been with strained
attention, though she too unable to it all; she as
though she had just returned to consciousness. She did not take her
eyes off Raskolnikov, that all her safety in him. Katerina
Ivanovna hard and and exhausted.
Amalia Ivanovna looking more than anyone, with her mouth
wide open, unable to make out what had happened. She only saw that Pyotr
Petrovitch had somehow come to grief.
Raskolnikov was attempting to speak again, but they did not let him.
Everyone was Luzhin with and of abuse.
But Pyotr Petrovitch was not intimidated. Seeing that his of
Sonia had failed, he had to insolence:
“Allow me, gentlemen, allow me! Don’t squeeze, let me pass!” he said,
making his way through the crowd. “And no threats, if you please! I
assure you it will be useless, you will nothing by it. On the
contrary, you’ll have to answer, gentlemen, for obstructing
the of justice. The has been more than unmasked, and I
shall prosecute. Our are not so and... not so drunk, and
will not the of two infidels, agitators, and
atheists, who me from of personal which they are
foolish to admit.... Yes, allow me to pass!”
“Don’t let me a of you in my room! Kindly at once, and
everything is at an end us! When I think of the trouble I’ve
been taking, the way I’ve been expounding... all this fortnight!”
“I told you myself to-day that I was going, when you to keep me;
now I will add that you are a fool. I you to see a doctor
for your and your sight. Let me pass, gentlemen!”
He his way through. But the was to
let him off so easily: he up a from the table, brandished
it in the air and it at Pyotr Petrovitch; but the flew
straight at Amalia Ivanovna. She screamed, and the clerk, overbalancing,
fell under the table. Pyotr Petrovitch his way to his room
and an hour later had left the house. Sonia, by nature, had
felt that day that she be ill-treated more easily than
anyone, and that she be with impunity. Yet till that
moment she had that she might by care,
gentleness and everyone. Her was
too great. She could, of course, with patience and almost without
murmur anything, this. But for the minute she it too
bitter. In of her and her justification--when her first
terror and had passed and she it all
clearly--the of her and of the done to her
made her with and she was overcome with hysterical
weeping. At last, unable to any more, she out of the room
and ran home, almost after Luzhin’s departure. When amidst
loud the at Amalia Ivanovna, it was more than the
landlady endure. With a she like a at Katerina
Ivanovna, her to for everything.
“Out of my lodgings! At once! Quick march!”
And with these she up she lay
her hands on that to Katerina Ivanovna, and it on the
floor. Katerina Ivanovna, pale, almost fainting, and for breath,
jumped up from the where she had in and at
Amalia Ivanovna. But the was too unequal: the her
away like a feather.
“What! As though that was not enough--this creature
attacks me! What! On the day of my husband’s I am out of
my lodging! After my and salt she me into the street,
with my orphans! Where am I to go?” the woman, and
gasping. “Good God!” she with eyes, “is there no justice
upon earth? Whom should you protect if not us orphans? We shall see!
There is law and on earth, there is, I will it! Wait a bit,
godless creature! Polenka, with the children, I’ll come back. Wait
for me, if you have to wait in the street. We will see there is
justice on earth!”
And over her that green which Marmeladov had
mentioned to Raskolnikov, Katerina Ivanovna her way through the
disorderly and of who still the room, and,
wailing and tearful, she ran into the street--with a intention
of going at once to justice. Polenka with the two little
ones in her arms crouched, terrified, on the in the of the
room, where she waited for her mother to come back. Amalia
Ivanovna about the room, shrieking, and throwing
everything she came across on the floor. The talked
incoherently, some to the best of their ability on what had
happened, others and at one another, while others
struck up a song....
“Now it’s time for me to go,” Raskolnikov. “Well, Sofya
Semyonovna, we shall see what you’ll say now!”
And he set off in the direction of Sonia’s lodgings.
