The Brothers Karamazov
cerning our common acquaintance, Dmitri Fyodorovitch
Karamazov,’ Perhotin began.
But he had hardly uttered the name, when the lady’s face
showed signs of acute irritation. She almost shrieked, and
interrupted him in a fury:
‘How much longer am I to be worried by that awful man?’
she cried hysterically. ‘How dare you, sir, how could you
venture to disturb a lady who is a stranger to you, in her
own house at such an hour!... And to force yourself upon her
to talk of a man who came here, to this very drawing-room,
only three hours ago, to murder me, and went stamping out
of the room, as no one would go out of a decent house. Let
me tell you, sir, that I shall lodge a complaint against you,
that I will not let it pass. Kindly leave me at once... I am a
mother.... I... I-.’
‘Murder! then he tried to murder you, too?’
‘Why, has he killed somebody else?’ Madame Hohlakov
asked impulsively.
‘If you would kindly listen, madam, for half a moment,
I’ll explain it all in a couple of words,’ answered Perhotin,
firmly. ‘At five o’clock this afternoon Dmitri Fyodorovitch
borrowed ten roubles from me, and I know for a fact he had
no money. Yet at nine o’clock, he came to see me with a bun-
dle of hundred-rouble notes in his hand, about two or three
thousand roubles. His hands and face were all covered with
blood, and he looked like a madman. When I asked him
where he had got so much money, he answered that he had
just received it from you, that you had given him a sum of
three thousand to go to the gold mines..’