The Brothers Karamazov
refusing to give this or that piece of evidence. After which I
will beg you to continue.’
‘Gentlemen, I’m not angry... I... ‘Mitya muttered in a
rather disconcerted tone. ‘Well, gentlemen, you see, that
Samsonov to whom I went then..’
We will, of course, not reproduce his account of what is
known to the reader already. Mitya was impatiently anx-
ious not to omit the slightest detail. At the same time he
was in a hurry to get it over. But as he gave his evidence
it was written down, and therefore they had continually to
pull him up. Mitya disliked this, but submitted; got angry,
though still good-humouredly. He did, it is true, exclaim,
from time to time, ‘Gentlemen, that’s enough to make an
angel out of patience!’ Or, ‘Gentlemen, it’s no good your ir-
ritating me.’
But even though he exclaimed he still preserved for a
time his genially expansive mood. So he told them how
Samsonov had made a fool of him two days before. (He had
completely realised by now that he had been fooled.) The
sale of his watch for six roubles to obtain money for the jour-
ney was something new to the lawyers. They were at once
greatly interested, and even, to Mitya’s intense indignation,
thought it necessary to write the fact down as a secondary
confirmation of the circumstance that he had hardly a far-
thing in his pocket at the time. Little by little Mitya began
to grow surly. Then, after describing his journey to see Lya-
gavy, the night spent in the stifling hut, and so on, he came
to his return to the town. Here he began, without being par-
ticularly urged, to give a minute account of the agonies of