CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN 38 page

seemed, involuntarily. "That's just what I feared, that you wouldn't

care about the mitigation of sentence."

Raskolnikov looked sadly and expressively at him.

"Ah, don't disdain life!" Porfiry went on. "You have a great deal of

it still before you. How can you say you don't want a mitigation of

sentence? You are an impatient fellow!"

"A great deal of what lies before me?"

"Of life. What sort of prophet are you, do you know much about it? Seek

and ye shall find. This may be God's means for bringing you to Him. And

it's not for ever, the bondage...."

"The time will be shortened," laughed Raskolnikov.

"Why, is it the bourgeois disgrace you are afraid of? It may be that you

are afraid of it without knowing it, because you are young! But anyway

_you_ shouldn't be afraid of giving yourself up and confessing."

"Ach, hang it!" Raskolnikov whispered with loathing and contempt, as

though he did not want to speak aloud.

He got up again as though he meant to go away, but sat down again in

evident despair.

"Hang it, if you like! You've lost faith and you think that I am

grossly flattering you; but how long has your life been? How much do

you understand? You made up a theory and then were ashamed that it broke

down and turned out to be not at all original! It turned out something

base, that's true, but you are not hopelessly base. By no means so base!

At least you didn't deceive yourself for long, you went straight to the

furthest point at one bound. How do I regard you? I regard you as one

of those men who would stand and smile at their torturer while he cuts

their entrails out, if only they have found faith or God. Find it and

you will live. You have long needed a change of air. Suffering, too,

is a good thing. Suffer! Maybe Nikolay is right in wanting to suffer.

I know you don't believe in it--but don't be over-wise; fling yourself

straight into life, without deliberation; don't be afraid--the flood

will bear you to the bank and set you safe on your feet again. What

bank? How can I tell? I only believe that you have long life before

you. I know that you take all my words now for a set speech prepared

beforehand, but maybe you will remember them after. They may be of use

some time. That's why I speak. It's as well that you only killed the

old woman. If you'd invented another theory you might perhaps have

done something a thousand times more hideous. You ought to thank God,

perhaps. How do you know? Perhaps God is saving you for something.

But keep a good heart and have less fear! Are you afraid of the great

expiation before you? No, it would be shameful to be afraid of it. Since

you have taken such a step, you must harden your heart. There is justice

in it. You must fulfil the demands of justice. I know that you don't

believe it, but indeed, life will bring you through. You will live it

down in time. What you need now is fresh air, fresh air, fresh air!"

Raskolnikov positively started.

"But who are you? what prophet are you? From the height of what majestic

calm do you proclaim these words of wisdom?"

"Who am I? I am a man with nothing to hope for, that's all. A man

perhaps of feeling and sympathy, maybe of some knowledge too, but my day

is over. But you are a different matter, there is life waiting for you.

Though, who knows? maybe your life, too, will pass off in smoke and come

to nothing. Come, what does it matter, that you will pass into another

class of men? It's not comfort you regret, with your heart! What of

it that perhaps no one will see you for so long? It's not time, but

yourself that will decide that. Be the sun and all will see you. The

sun has before all to be the sun. Why are you smiling again? At my being

such a Schiller? I bet you're imagining that I am trying to get round

you by flattery. Well, perhaps I am, he-he-he! Perhaps you'd better not

believe my word, perhaps you'd better never believe it altogether--I'm

made that way, I confess it. But let me add, you can judge for yourself,

I think, how far I am a base sort of man and how far I am honest."

"When do you mean to arrest me?"

"Well, I can let you walk about another day or two. Think it over, my

dear fellow, and pray to God. It's more in your interest, believe me."

"And what if I run away?" asked Raskolnikov with a strange smile.

"No, you won't run away. A peasant would run away, a fashionable

dissenter would run away, the flunkey of another man's thought, for

you've only to show him the end of your little finger and he'll be ready

to believe in anything for the rest of his life. But you've ceased to

believe in your theory already, what will you run away with? And what

would you do in hiding? It would be hateful and difficult for you, and

what you need more than anything in life is a definite position, an

atmosphere to suit you. And what sort of atmosphere would you have? If

you ran away, you'd come back to yourself. _You can't get on without

us._ And if I put you in prison--say you've been there a month, or two,

or three--remember my word, you'll confess of yourself and perhaps to

your own surprise. You won't know an hour beforehand that you are coming

with a confession. I am convinced that you will decide, 'to take your

suffering.' You don't believe my words now, but you'll come to it of

yourself. For suffering, Rodion Romanovitch, is a great thing. Never

mind my having grown fat, I know all the same. Don't laugh at it,

there's an idea in suffering, Nokolay is right. No, you won't run away,

Rodion Romanovitch."

Raskolnikov got up and took his cap. Porfiry Petrovitch also rose.

"Are you going for a walk? The evening will be fine, if only we don't

have a storm. Though it would be a good thing to freshen the air."

He, too, took his cap.

"Porfiry Petrovitch, please don't take up the notion that I have

confessed to you to-day," Raskolnikov pronounced with sullen insistence.

"You're a strange man and I have listened to you from simple curiosity.

But I have admitted nothing, remember that!"

"Oh, I know that, I'll remember. Look at him, he's trembling! Don't

be uneasy, my dear fellow, have it your own way. Walk about a bit, you

won't be able to walk too far. If anything happens, I have one request

to make of you," he added, dropping his voice. "It's an awkward one, but

important. If anything were to happen (though indeed I don't believe

in it and think you quite incapable of it), yet in case you were taken

during these forty or fifty hours with the notion of putting an end to

the business in some other way, in some fantastic fashion--laying hands

on yourself--(it's an absurd proposition, but you must forgive me for

it) do leave a brief but precise note, only two lines, and mention the

stone. It will be more generous. Come, till we meet! Good thoughts and

sound decisions to you!"

Porfiry went out, stooping and avoiding looking at Raskolnikov. The

latter went to the window and waited with irritable impatience till he

calculated that Porfiry had reached the street and moved away. Then he

too went hurriedly out of the room.

CHAPTER III

He hurried to Svidrigailov's. What he had to hope from that man he

did not know. But that man had some hidden power over him. Having once

recognised this, he could not rest, and now the time had come.

On the way, one question particularly worried him: had Svidrigailov been

to Porfiry's?

As far as he could judge, he would swear to it, that he had not. He

pondered again and again, went over Porfiry's visit; no, he hadn't been,

of course he hadn't.

But if he had not been yet, would he go? Meanwhile, for the present he

fancied he couldn't. Why? He could not have explained, but if he could,

he would not have wasted much thought over it at the moment. It all

worried him and at the same time he could not attend to it. Strange to

say, none would have believed it perhaps, but he only felt a faint vague

anxiety about his immediate future. Another, much more important anxiety

tormented him--it concerned himself, but in a different, more vital way.

Moreover, he was conscious of immense moral fatigue, though his mind was

working better that morning than it had done of late.

And was it worth while, after all that had happened, to contend with

these new trivial difficulties? Was it worth while, for instance, to

manoeuvre that Svidrigailov should not go to Porfiry's? Was it worth

while to investigate, to ascertain the facts, to waste time over anyone

like Svidrigailov?

Oh, how sick he was of it all!

And yet he was hastening to Svidrigailov; could he be expecting

something _new_ from him, information, or means of escape? Men will

catch at straws! Was it destiny or some instinct bringing them together?

Perhaps it was only fatigue, despair; perhaps it was not Svidrigailov

but some other whom he needed, and Svidrigailov had simply presented

himself by chance. Sonia? But what should he go to Sonia for now? To beg

her tears again? He was afraid of Sonia, too. Sonia stood before him as

an irrevocable sentence. He must go his own way or hers. At that moment

especially he did not feel equal to seeing her. No, would it not be

better to try Svidrigailov? And he could not help inwardly owning that

he had long felt that he must see him for some reason.

But what could they have in common? Their very evil-doing could not

be of the same kind. The man, moreover, was very unpleasant, evidently

depraved, undoubtedly cunning and deceitful, possibly malignant. Such

stories were told about him. It is true he was befriending Katerina

Ivanovna's children, but who could tell with what motive and what it

meant? The man always had some design, some project.

There was another thought which had been continually hovering of late

about Raskolnikov's mind, and causing him great uneasiness. It was so

painful that he made distinct efforts to get rid of it. He sometimes

thought that Svidrigailov was dogging his footsteps. Svidrigailov had

found out his secret and had had designs on Dounia. What if he had them

still? Wasn't it practically certain that he had? And what if, having

learnt his secret and so having gained power over him, he were to use it

as a weapon against Dounia?

This idea sometimes even tormented his dreams, but it had never

presented itself so vividly to him as on his way to Svidrigailov.

The very thought moved him to gloomy rage. To begin with, this would

transform everything, even his own position; he would have at once to

confess his secret to Dounia. Would he have to give himself up perhaps

to prevent Dounia from taking some rash step? The letter? This morning

Dounia had received a letter. From whom could she get letters in

Petersburg? Luzhin, perhaps? It's true Razumihin was there to protect

her, but Razumihin knew nothing of the position. Perhaps it was his duty

to tell Razumihin? He thought of it with repugnance.

In any case he must see Svidrigailov as soon as possible, he decided

finally. Thank God, the details of the interview were of little

consequence, if only he could get at the root of the matter; but

if Svidrigailov were capable... if he were intriguing against

Dounia--then...

Raskolnikov was so exhausted by what he had passed through that month

that he could only decide such questions in one way; "then I shall kill

him," he thought in cold despair.

A sudden anguish oppressed his heart, he stood still in the middle of

the street and began looking about to see where he was and which way he

was going. He found himself in X. Prospect, thirty or forty paces from

the Hay Market, through which he had come. The whole second storey of

the house on the left was used as a tavern. All the windows were wide

open; judging from the figures moving at the windows, the rooms were

full to overflowing. There were sounds of singing, of clarionet and

violin, and the boom of a Turkish drum. He could hear women shrieking.

He was about to turn back wondering why he had come to the X. Prospect,

when suddenly at one of the end windows he saw Svidrigailov, sitting

at a tea-table right in the open window with a pipe in his mouth.

Raskolnikov was dreadfully taken aback, almost terrified. Svidrigailov

was silently watching and scrutinising him and, what struck Raskolnikov

at once, seemed to be meaning to get up and slip away unobserved.

Raskolnikov at once pretended not to have seen him, but to be looking

absent-mindedly away, while he watched him out of the corner of his eye.

His heart was beating violently. Yet, it was evident that Svidrigailov

did not want to be seen. He took the pipe out of his mouth and was on

the point of concealing himself, but as he got up and moved back his

chair, he seemed to have become suddenly aware that Raskolnikov had seen

him, and was watching him. What had passed between them was much the

same as what happened at their first meeting in Raskolnikov's room. A

sly smile came into Svidrigailov's face and grew broader and

broader. Each knew that he was seen and watched by the other. At last

Svidrigailov broke into a loud laugh.

"Well, well, come in if you want me; I am here!" he shouted from the

window.

Raskolnikov went up into the tavern. He found Svidrigailov in a tiny

back room, adjoining the saloon in which merchants, clerks and numbers

of people of all sorts were drinking tea at twenty little tables to the

desperate bawling of a chorus of singers. The click of billiard balls

could be heard in the distance. On the table before Svidrigailov stood

an open bottle and a glass half full of champagne. In the room he found

also a boy with a little hand organ, a healthy-looking red-cheeked girl

of eighteen, wearing a tucked-up striped skirt, and a Tyrolese hat with

ribbons. In spite of the chorus in the other room, she was singing some

servants' hall song in a rather husky contralto, to the accompaniment of

the organ.

"Come, that's enough," Svidrigailov stopped her at Raskolnikov's

entrance. The girl at once broke off and stood waiting respectfully.

She had sung her guttural rhymes, too, with a serious and respectful

expression in her face.

"Hey, Philip, a glass!" shouted Svidrigailov.

"I won't drink anything," said Raskolnikov.

"As you like, I didn't mean it for you. Drink, Katia! I don't want

anything more to-day, you can go." He poured her out a full glass, and

laid down a yellow note.

Katia drank off her glass of wine, as women do, without putting it down,

in twenty gulps, took the note and kissed Svidrigailov's hand, which he

allowed quite seriously. She went out of the room and the boy trailed

after her with the organ. Both had been brought in from the street.

Svidrigailov had not been a week in Petersburg, but everything about him

was already, so to speak, on a patriarchal footing; the waiter, Philip,

was by now an old friend and very obsequious.

The door leading to the saloon had a lock on it. Svidrigailov was at

home in this room and perhaps spent whole days in it. The tavern was

dirty and wretched, not even second-rate.

"I was going to see you and looking for you," Raskolnikov began, "but

I don't know what made me turn from the Hay Market into the X. Prospect

just now. I never take this turning. I turn to the right from the Hay

Market. And this isn't the way to you. I simply turned and here you are.

It is strange!"

"Why don't you say at once 'it's a miracle'?"

"Because it may be only chance."

"Oh, that's the way with all you folk," laughed Svidrigailov. "You won't

admit it, even if you do inwardly believe it a miracle! Here you say

that it may be only chance. And what cowards they all are here, about

having an opinion of their own, you can't fancy, Rodion Romanovitch. I

don't mean you, you have an opinion of your own and are not afraid to

have it. That's how it was you attracted my curiosity."

"Nothing else?"

"Well, that's enough, you know," Svidrigailov was obviously exhilarated,

but only slightly so, he had not had more than half a glass of wine.

"I fancy you came to see me before you knew that I was capable of having

what you call an opinion of my own," observed Raskolnikov.

"Oh, well, it was a different matter. Everyone has his own plans. And

apropos of the miracle let me tell you that I think you have been asleep

for the last two or three days. I told you of this tavern myself, there

is no miracle in your coming straight here. I explained the way myself,

told you where it was, and the hours you could find me here. Do you

remember?"

"I don't remember," answered Raskolnikov with surprise.

"I believe you. I told you twice. The address has been stamped

mechanically on your memory. You turned this way mechanically and yet

precisely according to the direction, though you are not aware of

it. When I told you then, I hardly hoped you understood me. You give

yourself away too much, Rodion Romanovitch. And another thing, I'm

convinced there are lots of people in Petersburg who talk to themselves

as they walk. This is a town of crazy people. If only we had scientific

men, doctors, lawyers and philosophers might make most valuable

investigations in Petersburg each in his own line. There are few places

where there are so many gloomy, strong and queer influences on the soul

of man as in Petersburg. The mere influences of climate mean so much.

And it's the administrative centre of all Russia and its character must

be reflected on the whole country. But that is neither here nor there

now. The point is that I have several times watched you. You walk out

of your house--holding your head high--twenty paces from home you let it

sink, and fold your hands behind your back. You look and evidently see

nothing before nor beside you. At last you begin moving your lips and

talking to yourself, and sometimes you wave one hand and declaim, and at

last stand still in the middle of the road. That's not at all the thing.

Someone may be watching you besides me, and it won't do you any good.

It's nothing really to do with me and I can't cure you, but, of course,

you understand me."

"Do you know that I am being followed?" asked Raskolnikov, looking

inquisitively at him.

"No, I know nothing about it," said Svidrigailov, seeming surprised.

"Well, then, let us leave me alone," Raskolnikov muttered, frowning.

"Very good, let us leave you alone."

"You had better tell me, if you come here to drink, and directed me

twice to come here to you, why did you hide, and try to get away just

now when I looked at the window from the street? I saw it."

"He-he! And why was it you lay on your sofa with closed eyes and

pretended to be asleep, though you were wide awake while I stood in your

doorway? I saw it."

"I may have had... reasons. You know that yourself."

"And I may have had my reasons, though you don't know them."

Raskolnikov dropped his right elbow on the table, leaned his chin in the

fingers of his right hand, and stared intently at Svidrigailov. For a

full minute he scrutinised his face, which had impressed him before. It

was a strange face, like a mask; white and red, with bright red lips,

with a flaxen beard, and still thick flaxen hair. His eyes were somehow

too blue and their expression somehow too heavy and fixed. There was

something awfully unpleasant in that handsome face, which looked so

wonderfully young for his age. Svidrigailov was smartly dressed in light

summer clothes and was particularly dainty in his linen. He wore a huge

ring with a precious stone in it.

"Have I got to bother myself about you, too, now?" said Raskolnikov

suddenly, coming with nervous impatience straight to the point. "Even

though perhaps you are the most dangerous man if you care to injure me,

I don't want to put myself out any more. I will show you at once that I

don't prize myself as you probably think I do. I've come to tell you at

once that if you keep to your former intentions with regard to my sister

and if you think to derive any benefit in that direction from what has

been discovered of late, I will kill you before you get me locked up.

You can reckon on my word. You know that I can keep it. And in the

second place if you want to tell me anything--for I keep fancying all

this time that you have something to tell me--make haste and tell it,

for time is precious and very likely it will soon be too late."

"Why in such haste?" asked Svidrigailov, looking at him curiously.

"Everyone has his plans," Raskolnikov answered gloomily and impatiently.

"You urged me yourself to frankness just now, and at the first question

you refuse to answer," Svidrigailov observed with a smile. "You

keep fancying that I have aims of my own and so you look at me with

suspicion. Of course it's perfectly natural in your position. But

though I should like to be friends with you, I shan't trouble myself

to convince you of the contrary. The game isn't worth the candle and I

wasn't intending to talk to you about anything special."

"What did you want me, for, then? It was you who came hanging about me."

"Why, simply as an interesting subject for observation. I liked the

fantastic nature of your position--that's what it was! Besides you are

the brother of a person who greatly interested me, and from that person

I had in the past heard a very great deal about you, from which I

gathered that you had a great influence over her; isn't that enough?

Ha-ha-ha! Still I must admit that your question is rather complex, and

is difficult for me to answer. Here, you, for instance, have come to me

not only for a definite object, but for the sake of hearing something

new. Isn't that so? Isn't that so?" persisted Svidrigailov with a sly

smile. "Well, can't you fancy then that I, too, on my way here in the

train was reckoning on you, on your telling me something new, and on my

making some profit out of you! You see what rich men we are!"

"What profit could you make?"

"How can I tell you? How do I know? You see in what a tavern I spend all

my time and it's my enjoyment, that's to say it's no great enjoyment,

but one must sit somewhere; that poor Katia now--you saw her?... If only

I had been a glutton now, a club gourmand, but you see I can eat this."

He pointed to a little table in the corner where the remnants of a

terrible-looking beef-steak and potatoes lay on a tin dish.

"Have you dined, by the way? I've had something and want nothing more.

I don't drink, for instance, at all. Except for champagne I never touch

anything, and not more than a glass of that all the evening, and even

that is enough to make my head ache. I ordered it just now to wind

myself up, for I am just going off somewhere and you see me in a

peculiar state of mind. That was why I hid myself just now like a

schoolboy, for I was afraid you would hinder me. But I believe," he

pulled out his watch, "I can spend an hour with you. It's half-past

four now. If only I'd been something, a landowner, a father, a cavalry

officer, a photographer, a journalist... I am nothing, no specialty,

and sometimes I am positively bored. I really thought you would tell me

something new."

"But what are you, and why have you come here?"

"What am I? You know, a gentleman, I served for two years in the

cavalry, then I knocked about here in Petersburg, then I married Marfa

Petrovna and lived in the country. There you have my biography!"

"You are a gambler, I believe?"

"No, a poor sort of gambler. A card-sharper--not a gambler."

"You have been a card-sharper then?"

"Yes, I've been a card-sharper too."

"Didn't you get thrashed sometimes?"

"It did happen. Why?"

"Why, you might have challenged them... altogether it must have been

lively."

"I won't contradict you, and besides I am no hand at philosophy. I

confess that I hastened here for the sake of the women."

"As soon as you buried Marfa Petrovna?"

"Quite so," Svidrigailov smiled with engaging candour. "What of it? You

seem to find something wrong in my speaking like that about women?"

"You ask whether I find anything wrong in vice?"

"Vice! Oh, that's what you are after! But I'll answer you in order,

first about women in general; you know I am fond of talking. Tell me,

what should I restrain myself for? Why should I give up women, since I

have a passion for them? It's an occupation, anyway."

"So you hope for nothing here but vice?"

"Oh, very well, for vice then. You insist on its being vice. But anyway

I like a direct question. In this vice at least there is something

permanent, founded indeed upon nature and not dependent on fantasy,

something present in the blood like an ever-burning ember, for ever

setting one on fire and, maybe, not to be quickly extinguished, even

with years. You'll agree it's an occupation of a sort."

"That's nothing to rejoice at, it's a disease and a dangerous one."

"Oh, that's what you think, is it! I agree, that it is a disease like

everything that exceeds moderation. And, of course, in this one must

exceed moderation. But in the first place, everybody does so in one way

or another, and in the second place, of course, one ought to be moderate

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 650