100 The Brothers Karamazov
len the money, no one in the world could have charged him
with murder for the sake of robbery, since no one but he
had seen the money, no one but he knew of its existence
in the house. Even if he had been accused of the murder,
it could only have been thought that he had committed it
from some other motive. But since no one had observed any
such motive in him beforehand, and everyone saw, on the
contrary, that his master was fond of him and honoured
him with his confidence, he would, of course, have been the
last to be suspected. People would have suspected first the
man who had a motive, a man who had himself declared he
had such motives, who had made no secret of it; they would,
in fact, have suspected the son of the murdered man, Dmi-
tri Fyodorovitch. Had Smerdyakov killed and robbed him,
and the son been accused of it, that would, of course, have
suited Smerdyakov. Yet are we to believe that, though plot-
ting the murder, he told that son, Dmitri, about the money,
the envelope, and the signals? Is that logical? Is that clear?
‘When the day of the murder planned by Smerdyakov
came, we have him falling downstairs in a feigned fit —
with what object? In the first place that Grigory, who had
been intending to take his medicine, might put it off and
remain on guard, seeing there was no one to look after the
house, and, in the second place, I suppose, that his master
seeing that there was no one to guard him, and in terror of
a visit from his son, might redouble his vigilance and pre-
caution. And, most of all, I suppose that he, Smerdyakov,
disabled by the fit, might be carried from the kitchen, where
he always slept, apart from all the rest, and where he could