Dunechka spoke in a rapid patter, and for a moment color rushed to her face.

“If you don't believe me, how did it happen that you risked coming alone to see me? Why did you come, then? Only out of curiosity?”

“Don't torment me—speak, speak!”

“You're a brave girl, needless to say. By God, I thought you'd ask Mr. Razumikhin to accompany you here. But he was not with you, or anywhere in the vicinity—I did check. That is courageous; it means you wanted to spare Rodion Romanych. But then, everything in you is divine...As for your brother, what can I tell you? You just saw him yourself. A nice sight?”

“But you're not just basing it on that?”

“No, not on that, but on his own words. For two evenings in a row he came here to see Sofya Semyonovna. I showed you where they were sitting. He told her his full confession. He is a murderer. He killed the old woman, the money-lender, the official's widow, to whom he had also pawned things; he killed her sister as well, a small-time dealer named Lizaveta, who chanced to walk in during her sister's murder. He killed them both with an axe, which he had brought with him. He killed them in order to rob them, and he did rob them; he took money and some things...He himself told it all word for word to Sofya Semyonovna; she's the only one who knows the secret, but she did not participate in the murder either by word or by deed, but, on the contrary, was as horrified as you are now. Don't worry, she won't betray him.”

“It cannot be!” Dunya murmured with pale, deadened lips; she was breathless. “It cannot be, there's no reason, not the slightest, no motive...It's a lie! A lie!”

“He robbed her, that's the whole reason. He took money and some things. True, according to his own confession, he did not put either the money or the things to any use, but went and hid them somewhere under a stone, where they're lying still. But that was because he didn't dare use them.”

“But is it conceivable that he could steal, rob, that he could even think of it?” Dunya cried out, jumping up from her chair. “You know him, you've seen him! Could he be a thief?”

It was as if she were imploring Svidrigailov; she forgot all her fear.

“There are thousands and millions of combinations and gradations here, Avdotya Romanovna. A thief steals, but then he knows in himself that he's a scoundrel; but I've heard of one gentleman who broke into the mail, and who can tell about him, maybe he really thought he was doing a decent thing! Naturally, I would not have believed it, just as you don't, if I'd been told it by some third person. But I did believe my own ears. He also explained all his reasons to Sofya Semyonovna; and at first she did not even believe her ears, but in the end she believed her eyes, her own eyes. Because he himself was telling it to her personally.”

“And what are...the reasons!”

“That's a long story, Avdotya Romanovna. What we have here is—how shall I express it for you—a theory of sorts; it's the same as if I should find, for example, that an isolated evildoing is permissible if the main purpose is good. A single evil and a hundred good deeds! Of course, it's also offensive for a young man of merit and measureless vanity to know that if he had, for example, a mere three thousand or so, his whole career, the whole future in terms of his life's purpose, would shape itself differently—and yet the three thousand aren't there. Add to that the vexations of hunger, cramped quarters, rags, and a lively sense of the beauty of his social position, as well as that of his sister and mother. But above all vanity, pride and vanity—though, God knows, perhaps even with good inclinations...I'm not blaming him, please don't think that; it's none of my business. There was also a certain little theory of his—a so-so theory—according to which people are divided, you see, into raw material and special people, meaning people for whom, owing to their high position, the law does not exist, people, on the contrary, who themselves devise laws for the rest, for the raw material—that is, for the trash. Not bad, a so-so little theory; une théorie comme une autre.^[145] He got terribly carried away with Napoleon—that is, essentially what carried him away was that a great many men of genius disregarded isolated evil and stepped over it without hesitation. He seems to have imagined that he, too, was a man of genius—that is, he was sure of it for a time. He suffered greatly, and suffers still, from the thought that though he knew how to devise the theory, he was unable to step over without hesitation and therefore is not a man of genius. Now that, for a vain young man, is truly humiliating, especially in our age...”

“And remorse of conscience? You mean you deny him all moral feeling? Is that what he's like?”

“Ah, Avdotya Romanovna, things have all become clouded now— though, by the way, they never were in any particular order. Russian people are generally broad people, Avdotya Romanovna, broad as their land, and greatly inclined to the fantastic, the disorderly; but it's disastrous to be broad without special genius. And do you remember how much you and I used to talk in the same way, and about the same subject, sitting by ourselves on the terrace, every evening after supper? You used to reproach me precisely with this broadness. Who knows, maybe at the same time as we were talking, he was lying here and thinking his thoughts. In our educated society, Avdotya Romanovna, we have no especially sacred traditions; except for what someone somehow pieces together from old books...or something drawn from the old chronicles. But they are mostly scholars and, you know, they're all dunces in their way, so that for a man of the world it's even indecent. However, you generally know my opinion; I'm certainly not accusing anyone. I myself am an idler and I keep to that. But we've already talked about it more than once. I even had the happiness of interesting you with my judgments...You are very pale, Avdotya Romanovna!”

“I know this theory of his. I read his article in a magazine, about people to whom everything is permitted...Razumikhin brought it to me . . .”

“Mr. Razumikhin? Your brother's article? In a magazine? Is there such an article? I didn't know. Now that is most certainly curious! But where are you going, Avdotya Romanovna?”

“I want to see Sofya Semyonovna,” Dunechka said in a weak voice. “How can I get to her? Maybe she's come back; I absolutely must see her now. Let her . . .”

Avdotya Romanovna could not finish; her breath literally failed her.

“Sofya Semyonovna will not come back before nightfall. So I suppose. She ought to have come very soon, but if not, it will be very late . . .”

“Ah, so you're lying! I see...you've been lying...it was all a lie! I don't believe you! I don't! I don't!” Dunechka cried out in a real frenzy, completely losing her head.^[146]

Almost in a faint, she fell onto the chair that Svidrigailov hastened to move towards her.

“Avdotya Romanovna, what's wrong? Come to your senses! Here's some water. Take a sip . . .”

He sprinkled her with water. Dunechka started and came to her senses.

“It's affected her strongly!” Svidrigailov muttered to himself, frowning. “Avdotya Romanovna, calm yourself! I assure you, he has friends. We will save him, rescue him. Do you want me to take him abroad? I have money; I can get a ticket in three days. And as for the murder, he'll still have time to do many good deeds, so it will all be made up for; calm yourself. He still may be a great man. How are you now? How do you feel?”

“Wicked man! He's still jeering! Let me . . .”

“Where are you going? Where?”

“To him. Where is he? Do you know? Why is this door locked? We came in this door, and now it's locked. When did you manage to lock it?”