The Brothers Karamazov
I’ve looked at it. I’d only heard of it from Smerdyakov.... He
was the only one who knew where the old man kept it hid-
den, I didn’t know...’ Mitya was completely breathless.
‘But you told us yourself that the envelope was under
your deceased father’s pillow. You especially stated that it
was under the pillow, so you must have known it.’
‘We’ve got it written down,’ confirmed Nikolay Parfeno-
vitch.
‘Nonsense! It’s absurd! I’d no idea it was under the pil-
low. And perhaps it wasn’t under the pillow at all.... It was
just a chance guess that it was under the pillow. What does
Smerdyakov say? Have you asked him where it was? What
does Smerdyakov say? That’s the chief point.... And I went
out of my way to tell lies against myself.... I told you with-
out thinking that it was under the pillow, and now you- Oh,
you know how one says the wrong thing, without mean-
ing it. No one knew but Smerdyakov, only Smerdyakov,
and no one else.... He didn’t even tell me where it was! But
it’s his doing, his doing; there’s no doubt about it, he mur-
dered him, that’s as clear as daylight now,’ Mitya exclaimed
more and more frantically, repeating himself incoherently,
and growing more and more exasperated and excited. ‘You
must understand that, and arrest him at once.... He must
have killed him while I was running away and while Grig-
ory was unconscious, that’s clear now.... He gave the signal
and father opened to him... for no one but he knew the sig-
nal, and without the signal father would never have opened
the door...’
‘But you’re again forgetting the circumstance,’ the pros-