CHAPTER II
It was nearly eight o'clock. The two young men hurried to Bakaleyev's,to arrive before Luzhin.
"Why, who was that?" asked Razumihin, as soon as they were in thestreet.
"It was Svidrigailov, that landowner in whose house my sister wasinsulted when she was their governess. Through his persecuting her withhis attentions, she was turned out by his wife, Marfa Petrovna. ThisMarfa Petrovna begged Dounia's forgiveness afterwards, and she's justdied suddenly. It was of her we were talking this morning. I don'tknow why I'm afraid of that man. He came here at once after his wife'sfuneral. He is very strange, and is determined on doing something.... Wemust guard Dounia from him... that's what I wanted to tell you, do youhear?"
"Guard her! What can he do to harm Avdotya Romanovna? Thank you, Rodya,for speaking to me like that.... We will, we will guard her. Where doeshe live?"
"I don't know."
"Why didn't you ask? What a pity! I'll find out, though."
"Did you see him?" asked Raskolnikov after a pause.
"Yes, I noticed him, I noticed him well."
"You did really see him? You saw him clearly?" Raskolnikov insisted.
"Yes, I remember him perfectly, I should know him in a thousand; I havea good memory for faces."
They were silent again.
"Hm!... that's all right," muttered Raskolnikov. "Do you know, Ifancied... I keep thinking that it may have been an hallucination."
"What do you mean? I don't understand you."
"Well, you all say," Raskolnikov went on, twisting his mouth into asmile, "that I am mad. I thought just now that perhaps I really am mad,and have only seen a phantom."
"What do you mean?"
"Why, who can tell? Perhaps I am really mad, and perhaps everything thathappened all these days may be only imagination."
"Ach, Rodya, you have been upset again!... But what did he say, what didhe come for?"
Raskolnikov did not answer. Razumihin thought a minute.
"Now let me tell you my story," he began, "I came to you, you wereasleep. Then we had dinner and then I went to Porfiry's, Zametov wasstill with him. I tried to begin, but it was no use. I couldn't speak inthe right way. They don't seem to understand and can't understand, butare not a bit ashamed. I drew Porfiry to the window, and began talkingto him, but it was still no use. He looked away and I looked away. Atlast I shook my fist in his ugly face, and told him as a cousin I'dbrain him. He merely looked at me, I cursed and came away. That wasall. It was very stupid. To Zametov I didn't say a word. But, you see, Ithought I'd made a mess of it, but as I went downstairs a brilliant ideastruck me: why should we trouble? Of course if you were in any dangeror anything, but why need you care? You needn't care a hang for them. Weshall have a laugh at them afterwards, and if I were in your place I'dmystify them more than ever. How ashamed they'll be afterwards! Hangthem! We can thrash them afterwards, but let's laugh at them now!"
"To be sure," answered Raskolnikov. "But what will you say to-morrow?"he thought to himself. Strange to say, till that moment it had neveroccurred to him to wonder what Razumihin would think when he knew. As hethought it, Raskolnikov looked at him. Razumihin's account of his visitto Porfiry had very little interest for him, so much had come and gonesince then.
In the corridor they came upon Luzhin; he had arrived punctuallyat eight, and was looking for the number, so that all three went intogether without greeting or looking at one another. The young menwalked in first, while Pyotr Petrovitch, for good manners, lingered alittle in the passage, taking off his coat. Pulcheria Alexandrovna cameforward at once to greet him in the doorway, Dounia was welcoming herbrother. Pyotr Petrovitch walked in and quite amiably, though withredoubled dignity, bowed to the ladies. He looked, however, as thoughhe were a little put out and could not yet recover himself. PulcheriaAlexandrovna, who seemed also a little embarrassed, hastened to makethem all sit down at the round table where a samovar was boiling. Douniaand Luzhin were facing one another on opposite sides of the table.Razumihin and Raskolnikov were facing Pulcheria Alexandrovna, Razumihinwas next to Luzhin and Raskolnikov was beside his sister.
A moment's silence followed. Pyotr Petrovitch deliberately drew out acambric handkerchief reeking of scent and blew his nose with an air ofa benevolent man who felt himself slighted, and was firmly resolved toinsist on an explanation. In the passage the idea had occurred to him tokeep on his overcoat and walk away, and so give the two ladies a sharpand emphatic lesson and make them feel the gravity of the position.But he could not bring himself to do this. Besides, he could not endureuncertainty, and he wanted an explanation: if his request had been soopenly disobeyed, there was something behind it, and in that case it wasbetter to find it out beforehand; it rested with him to punish them andthere would always be time for that.
"I trust you had a favourable journey," he inquired officially ofPulcheria Alexandrovna.
"Oh, very, Pyotr Petrovitch."
"I am gratified to hear it. And Avdotya Romanovna is not over-fatiguedeither?"
"I am young and strong, I don't get tired, but it was a great strain formother," answered Dounia.
"That's unavoidable! our national railways are of terrible length.'Mother Russia,' as they say, is a vast country.... In spite of all mydesire to do so, I was unable to meet you yesterday. But I trust allpassed off without inconvenience?"
"Oh, no, Pyotr Petrovitch, it was all terribly disheartening," PulcheriaAlexandrovna hastened to declare with peculiar intonation, "and ifDmitri Prokofitch had not been sent us, I really believe by God Himself,we should have been utterly lost. Here, he is! Dmitri ProkofitchRazumihin," she added, introducing him to Luzhin.
"I had the pleasure... yesterday," muttered Pyotr Petrovitch with ahostile glance sidelong at Razumihin; then he scowled and was silent.
Pyotr Petrovitch belonged to that class of persons, on the surface verypolite in society, who make a great point of punctiliousness, but who,directly they are crossed in anything, are completely disconcerted, andbecome more like sacks of flour than elegant and lively men of society.Again all was silent; Raskolnikov was obstinately mute, AvdotyaRomanovna was unwilling to open the conversation too soon. Razumihin hadnothing to say, so Pulcheria Alexandrovna was anxious again.
"Marfa Petrovna is dead, have you heard?" she began having recourse toher leading item of conversation.
"To be sure, I heard so. I was immediately informed, and I have come tomake you acquainted with the fact that Arkady Ivanovitch Svidrigailovset off in haste for Petersburg immediately after his wife's funeral. Soat least I have excellent authority for believing."
"To Petersburg? here?" Dounia asked in alarm and looked at her mother.
"Yes, indeed, and doubtless not without some design, having in view therapidity of his departure, and all the circumstances preceding it."
"Good heavens! won't he leave Dounia in peace even here?" criedPulcheria Alexandrovna.
"I imagine that neither you nor Avdotya Romanovna have any grounds foruneasiness, unless, of course, you are yourselves desirous of gettinginto communication with him. For my part I am on my guard, and am nowdiscovering where he is lodging."
"Oh, Pyotr Petrovitch, you would not believe what a fright you havegiven me," Pulcheria Alexandrovna went on: "I've only seen him twice,but I thought him terrible, terrible! I am convinced that he was thecause of Marfa Petrovna's death."
"It's impossible to be certain about that. I have precise information. Ido not dispute that he may have contributed to accelerate the course ofevents by the moral influence, so to say, of the affront; but as to thegeneral conduct and moral characteristics of that personage, I amin agreement with you. I do not know whether he is well off now, andprecisely what Marfa Petrovna left him; this will be known to me withina very short period; but no doubt here in Petersburg, if he has anypecuniary resources, he will relapse at once into his old ways. He isthe most depraved, and abjectly vicious specimen of that class of men.I have considerable reason to believe that Marfa Petr
ovna, who was sounfortunate as to fall in love with him and to pay his debts eight yearsago, was of service to him also in another way. Solely by her exertionsand sacrifices, a criminal charge, involving an element of fantasticand homicidal brutality for which he might well have been sentenced toSiberia, was hushed up. That's the sort of man he is, if you care toknow."
"Good heavens!" cried Pulcheria Alexandrovna. Raskolnikov listenedattentively.
"Are you speaking the truth when you say that you have good evidence ofthis?" Dounia asked sternly and emphatically.
"I only repeat what I was told in secret by Marfa Petrovna. I mustobserve that from the legal point of view the case was far from clear.There was, and I believe still is, living here a woman called Resslich,a foreigner, who lent small sums of money at interest, and did othercommissions, and with this woman Svidrigailov had for a long while closeand mysterious relations. She had a relation, a niece I believe, livingwith her, a deaf and dumb girl of fifteen, or perhaps not more thanfourteen. Resslich hated this girl, and grudged her every crust; sheused to beat her mercilessly. One day the girl was found hanging inthe garret. At the inquest the verdict was suicide. After the usualproceedings the matter ended, but, later on, information was given thatthe child had been... cruelly outraged by Svidrigailov. It is true, thiswas not clearly established, the information was given by another Germanwoman of loose character whose word could not be trusted; no statementwas actually made to the police, thanks to Marfa Petrovna's money andexertions; it did not get beyond gossip. And yet the story is a verysignificant one. You heard, no doubt, Avdotya Romanovna, when you werewith them the story of the servant Philip who died of ill treatment hereceived six years ago, before the abolition of serfdom."
"I heard, on the contrary, that this Philip hanged himself."
"Quite so, but what drove him, or rather perhaps disposed him,to suicide was the systematic persecution and severity of Mr.Svidrigailov."
"I don't know that," answered Dounia, dryly. "I only heard a queer storythat Philip was a sort of hypochondriac, a sort of domestic philosopher,the servants used to say, 'he read himself silly,' and that he hangedhimself partly on account of Mr. Svidrigailov's mockery of him and nothis blows. When I was there he behaved well to the servants, and theywere actually fond of him, though they certainly did blame him forPhilip's death."
"I perceive, Avdotya Romanovna, that you seem disposed to undertake hisdefence all of a sudden," Luzhin observed, twisting his lips intoan ambiguous smile, "there's no doubt that he is an astute man, andinsinuating where ladies are concerned, of which Marfa Petrovna, who hasdied so strangely, is a terrible instance. My only desire has been to beof service to you and your mother with my advice, in view of the renewedefforts which may certainly be anticipated from him. For my part it'smy firm conviction, that he will end in a debtor's prison again.Marfa Petrovna had not the slightest intention of settling anythingsubstantial on him, having regard for his children's interests, and,if she left him anything, it would only be the merest sufficiency,something insignificant and ephemeral, which would not last a year for aman of his habits."
"Pyotr Petrovitch, I beg you," said Dounia, "say no more of Mr.Svidrigailov. It makes me miserable."
"He has just been to see me," said Raskolnikov, breaking his silence forthe first time.
There were exclamations from all, and they all turned to him. Even PyotrPetrovitch was roused.
"An hour and a half ago, he came in when I was asleep, waked me, andintroduced himself," Raskolnikov continued. "He was fairly cheerfuland at ease, and quite hopes that we shall become friends. He isparticularly anxious, by the way, Dounia, for an interview with you, atwhich he asked me to assist. He has a proposition to make to you, andhe told me about it. He told me, too, that a week before her death MarfaPetrovna left you three thousand roubles in her will, Dounia, and thatyou can receive the money very shortly."
"Thank God!" cried Pulcheria Alexandrovna, crossing herself. "Pray forher soul, Dounia!"
"It's a fact!" broke from Luzhin.
"Tell us, what more?" Dounia urged Raskolnikov.
"Then he said that he wasn't rich and all the estate was left to hischildren who are now with an aunt, then that he was staying somewherenot far from me, but where, I don't know, I didn't ask...."
"But what, what does he want to propose to Dounia?" cried PulcheriaAlexandrovna in a fright. "Did he tell you?"
"Yes."
"What was it?"
"I'll tell you afterwards."
Raskolnikov ceased speaking and turned his attention to his tea.
Pyotr Petrovitch looked at his watch.
"I am compelled to keep a business engagement, and so I shall not be inyour way," he added with an air of some pique and he began getting up.
"Don't go, Pyotr Petrovitch," said Dounia, "you intended to spendthe evening. Besides, you wrote yourself that you wanted to have anexplanation with mother."
"Precisely so, Avdotya Romanovna," Pyotr Petrovitch answeredimpressively, sitting down again, but still holding his hat. "Icertainly desired an explanation with you and your honoured mother upona very important point indeed. But as your brother cannot speak openlyin my presence of some proposals of Mr. Svidrigailov, I, too, do notdesire and am not able to speak openly... in the presence of others...of certain matters of the greatest gravity. Moreover, my most weightyand urgent request has been disregarded...."
Assuming an aggrieved air, Luzhin relapsed into dignified silence.
"Your request that my brother should not be present at our meeting wasdisregarded solely at my insistance," said Dounia. "You wrote that youhad been insulted by my brother; I think that this must be explained atonce, and you must be reconciled. And if Rodya really has insulted you,then he _should_ and _will_ apologise."
Pyotr Petrovitch took a stronger line.
"There are insults, Avdotya Romanovna, which no goodwill can make usforget. There is a line in everything which it is dangerous to overstep;and when it has been overstepped, there is no return."
"That wasn't what I was speaking of exactly, Pyotr Petrovitch," Douniainterrupted with some impatience. "Please understand that our wholefuture depends now on whether all this is explained and set right assoon as possible. I tell you frankly at the start that I cannot look atit in any other light, and if you have the least regard for me, all thisbusiness must be ended to-day, however hard that may be. I repeat thatif my brother is to blame he will ask your forgiveness."
"I am surprised at your putting the question like that," said Luzhin,getting more and more irritated. "Esteeming, and so to say, adoring you,I may at the same time, very well indeed, be able to dislike some memberof your family. Though I lay claim to the happiness of your hand, Icannot accept duties incompatible with..."
"Ah, don't be so ready to take offence, Pyotr Petrovitch," Douniainterrupted with feeling, "and be the sensible and generous man I havealways considered, and wish to consider, you to be. I've given you agreat promise, I am your betrothed. Trust me in this matter and, believeme, I shall be capable of judging impartially. My assuming the part ofjudge is as much a surprise for my brother as for you. When I insistedon his coming to our interview to-day after your letter, I toldhim nothing of what I meant to do. Understand that, if you are notreconciled, I must choose between you--it must be either you or he. Thatis how the question rests on your side and on his. I don't want to bemistaken in my choice, and I must not be. For your sake I must break offwith my brother, for my brother's sake I must break off with you. I canfind out for certain now whether he is a brother to me, and I want toknow it; and of you, whether I am dear to you, whether you esteem me,whether you are the husband for me."
"Avdotya Romanovna," Luzhin declared huffily, "your words are of toomuch consequence to me; I will say more, they are offensive in viewof the position I have the honour to occupy in relation to you. To saynothing of your strange and offensive setting me on a level with animpertinent boy, you admit the possibility of breaking your promise tome. You say 'you
or he,' showing thereby of how little consequence Iam in your eyes... I cannot let this pass considering the relationshipand... the obligations existing between us."
"What!" cried Dounia, flushing. "I set your interest beside all that hashitherto been most precious in my life, what has made up the _whole_ ofmy life, and here you are offended at my making too _little_ account ofyou."
Raskolnikov smiled sarcastically, Razumihin fidgeted, but PyotrPetrovitch did not accept the reproof; on the contrary, at every word hebecame more persistent and irritable, as though he relished it.
"Love for the future partner of your life, for your husband, ought tooutweigh your love for your brother," he pronounced sententiously, "andin any case I cannot be put on the same level.... Although I said soemphatically that I would not speak openly in your brother's presence,nevertheless, I intend now to ask your honoured mother for a necessaryexplanation on a point of great importance closely affecting my dignity.Your son," he turned to Pulcheria Alexandrovna, "yesterday in thepresence of Mr. Razsudkin (or... I think that's it? excuse me I haveforgotten your surname," he bowed politely to Razumihin) "insulted me bymisrepresenting the idea I expressed to you in a private conversation,drinking coffee, that is, that marriage with a poor girl who has hadexperience of trouble is more advantageous from the conjugal point ofview than with one who has lived in luxury, since it is more profitablefor the moral character. Your son intentionally exaggerated thesignificance of my words and made them ridiculous, accusing me ofmalicious intentions, and, as far as I could see, relied upon yourcorrespondence with him. I shall consider myself happy, PulcheriaAlexandrovna, if it is possible for you to convince me of an oppositeconclusion, and thereby considerately reassure me. Kindly let me knowin what terms precisely you repeated my words in your letter to RodionRomanovitch."
"I don't remember," faltered Pulcheria Alexandrovna. "I repeated them asI understood them. I don't know how Rodya repeated them to you, perhapshe exaggerated."
"He could not have exaggerated them, except at your instigation."
"Pyotr Petrovitch," Pulcheria Alexandrovna declared with dignity, "theproof that Dounia and I did not take your words in a very bad sense isthe fact that we are here."
"Good, mother," said Dounia approvingly.
"Then this is my fault again," said Luzhin, aggrieved.
"Well, Pyotr Petrovitch, you keep blaming Rodion, but you yourself havejust written what was false about him," Pulcheria Alexandrovna added,gaining courage.
"I don't remember writing anything false."
"You wrote," Raskolnikov said sharply, not turning to Luzhin, "that Igave money yesterday not to the widow of the man who was killed, as wasthe fact, but to his daughter (whom I had never seen till yesterday).You wrote this to make dissension between me and my family, and for thatobject added coarse expressions about the conduct of a girl whom youdon't know. All that is mean slander."
"Excuse me, sir," said Luzhin, quivering with fury. "I enlarged uponyour qualities and conduct in my letter solely in response to yoursister's and mother's inquiries, how I found you, and what impressionyou made on me. As for what you've alluded to in my letter, be so goodas to point out one word of falsehood, show, that is, that you didn'tthrow away your money, and that there are not worthless persons in thatfamily, however unfortunate."
"To my thinking, you, with all your virtues, are not worth the littlefinger of that unfortunate girl at whom you throw stones."
"Would you go so far then as to let her associate with your mother andsister?"
"I have done so already, if you care to know. I made her sit down to-daywith mother and Dounia."
"Rodya!" cried Pulcheria Alexandrovna. Dounia crimsoned, Razumihinknitted his brows. Luzhin smiled with lofty sarcasm.
"You may see for yourself, Avdotya Romanovna," he said, "whether it ispossible for us to agree. I hope now that this question is at an end,once and for all. I will withdraw, that I may not hinder the pleasuresof family intimacy, and the discussion of secrets." He got up from hischair and took his hat. "But in withdrawing, I venture to requestthat for the future I may be spared similar meetings, and, so tosay, compromises. I appeal particularly to you, honoured PulcheriaAlexandrovna, on this subject, the more as my letter was addressed toyou and to no one else."
Pulcheria Alexandrovna was a little offended.
"You seem to think we are completely under your authority, PyotrPetrovitch. Dounia has told you the reason your desire was disregarded,she had the best intentions. And indeed you write as though you werelaying commands upon me. Are we to consider every desire of yours asa command? Let me tell you on the contrary that you ought to showparticular delicacy and consideration for us now, because we have thrownup everything, and have come here relying on you, and so we are in anycase in a sense in your hands."
"That is not quite true, Pulcheria Alexandrovna, especially at thepresent moment, when the news has come of Marfa Petrovna's legacy, whichseems indeed very apropos, judging from the new tone you take to me," headded sarcastically.
"Judging from that remark, we may certainly presume that you werereckoning on our helplessness," Dounia observed irritably.
"But now in any case I cannot reckon on it, and I particularly desirenot to hinder your discussion of the secret proposals of ArkadyIvanovitch Svidrigailov, which he has entrusted to your brother andwhich have, I perceive, a great and possibly a very agreeable interestfor you."
"Good heavens!" cried Pulcheria Alexandrovna.
Razumihin could not sit still on his chair.
"Aren't you ashamed now, sister?" asked Raskolnikov.
"I am ashamed, Rodya," said Dounia. "Pyotr Petrovitch, go away," sheturned to him, white with anger.
Pyotr Petrovitch had apparently not at all expected such a conclusion.He had too much confidence in himself, in his power and in thehelplessness of his victims. He could not believe it even now. He turnedpale, and his lips quivered.
"Avdotya Romanovna, if I go out of this door now, after such adismissal, then, you may reckon on it, I will never come back. Considerwhat you are doing. My word is not to be shaken."
"What insolence!" cried Dounia, springing up from her seat. "I don'twant you to come back again."
"What! So that's how it stands!" cried Luzhin, utterly unable to thelast moment to believe in the rupture and so completely thrown out ofhis reckoning now. "So that's how it stands! But do you know, AvdotyaRomanovna, that I might protest?"
"What right have you to speak to her like that?" Pulcheria Alexandrovnaintervened hotly. "And what can you protest about? What rights have you?Am I to give my Dounia to a man like you? Go away, leave us altogether!We are to blame for having agreed to a wrong action, and I aboveall...."
"But you have bound me, Pulcheria Alexandrovna," Luzhin stormed in afrenzy, "by your promise, and now you deny it and... besides... I havebeen led on account of that into expenses...."
This last complaint was so characteristic of Pyotr Petrovitch, thatRaskolnikov, pale with anger and with the effort of restraining it,could not help breaking into laughter. But Pulcheria Alexandrovna wasfurious.
"Expenses? What expenses? Are you speaking of our trunk? But theconductor brought it for nothing for you. Mercy on us, we have boundyou! What are you thinking about, Pyotr Petrovitch, it was you bound us,hand and foot, not we!"
"Enough, mother, no more please," Avdotya Romanovna implored. "PyotrPetrovitch, do be kind and go!"
"I am going, but one last word," he said, quite unable to controlhimself. "Your mamma seems to have entirely forgotten that I made up mymind to take you, so to speak, after the gossip of the town had spreadall over the district in regard to your reputation. Disregarding publicopinion for your sake and reinstating your reputation, I certainlymight very well reckon on a fitting return, and might indeed look forgratitude on your part. And my eyes have only now been opened! I seemyself that I may have acted very, very recklessly in disregarding theuniversal verdict...."
"Does the fellow want his head smashed?" cr
ied Razumihin, jumping up.
"You are a mean and spiteful man!" cried Dounia.
"Not a word! Not a movement!" cried Raskolnikov, holding Razumihin back;then going close up to Luzhin, "Kindly leave the room!" he said quietlyand distinctly, "and not a word more or..."
Pyotr Petrovitch gazed at him for some seconds with a pale face thatworked with anger, then he turned, went out, and rarely has any mancarried away in his heart such vindictive hatred as he felt againstRaskolnikov. Him, and him alone, he blamed for everything. It isnoteworthy that as he went downstairs he still imagined that his casewas perhaps not utterly lost, and that, so far as the ladies wereconcerned, all might "very well indeed" be set right again.