0 The Brothers Karamazovyou, I say it to all men.’
His voice quivered and he stretched out his hand, but
Nikolay Parfenovitch, who happened to stand nearest to
him, with a sudden, almost nervous movement, hid his
hands behind his back. Mitya instantly noticed this, and
started. He let his outstretched hand fall at once.
‘The preliminary inquiry is not yet over,’ Nikolay Parfe-
novitch faltered, somewhat embarrassed. ‘We will continue
it in the town, and I, for my part, of course, am ready to
wish you all success... in your defence.... As a matter of fact,
Dmitri Fyodorovitch, I’ve always been disposed to regard
you as, so to speak, more unfortunate than guilty. All of us
here, if I may make bold to speak for all, we are all ready to
recognise that you are, at bottom, a young man of honour,
but, alas, one who has been carried away by certain pas-
sions to a somewhat excessive degree..’
Nikolay Parfenovitch’s little figure was positively majes-
tic by the time he had finished speaking. It struck Mitya
that in another minute this ‘boy’ would take his arm, lead
him to another corner, and renew their conversation about
‘girls.’ But many quite irrelevant and inappropriate thoughts
sometimes occur even to a prisoner when he is being led out
to execution.
‘Gentlemen, you are good, you are humane, may I see her
to say ‘good-bye’ for the last time?’ asked Mitya.
‘Certainly, but considering... in fact, now it’s impossible
except in the presence of-.’
‘Oh, well, if it must be so, it must!’
Grushenka was brought in, but the farewell was brief,