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Chapter 4

In the Dark

W

HERE was he running? ‘Where could she be except

at Fyodor Pavlovitch’s? She must have run straight to

him from Samsonov’s, that was clear now. The whole in-

trigue, the whole deceit was evident.’... It all rushed whirling

through his mind. He did not run to Marya Kondratyev-

na’s. ‘There was no need to go there... not the slightest need...

he must raise no alarm... they would run and tell directly....

Marya Kondratyevna was clearly in the plot, Smerdyakov

too, he too, all had been bought over!’

He formed another plan of action: he ran a long way

round Fyodor Pavlovitch’s house, crossing the lane, running

down Dmitrovsky Street, then over the little bridge, and so

came straight to the deserted alley at the back, which was

empty and uninhabited, with, on one side the hurdle fence

of a neighbour’s kitchen-garden, on the other the strong

high fence that ran all round Fyodor Pavlovitch’s garden.

Here he chose a spot, apparently the very place, where ac-

cording to the tradition, he knew Lizaveta had once climbed

over it: ‘If she could climb over it,’ the thought, God knows

why, occurred to him, ‘surely I can.’ He did in fact jump up,