The Brothers Karamazovcise: You have told us at last your secret, in your words, so
‘disgraceful,’ though in reality — that is, of course, com-
paratively speaking — this action, that is, the appropriation
of three thousand roubles belonging to someone else, and,
of course, only for a time is, in my view at least, only an
act of the greatest recklessness and not so disgraceful, when
one takes into consideration your character.... Even admit-
ting that it was an action in the highest degree discreditable,
still, discreditable is not ‘disgraceful.’... Many people have
already guessed, during this last month, about the three
thousand of Katerina Ivanovna’s that you have spent, and
I heard the legend myself, apart from your confession....
Mihail Makarovitch, for instance, had heard it, too, so
that indeed, it was scarcely a legend, but the gossip of the
whole town. There are indications, too, if I am not mistaken,
that you confessed this yourself to someone, I mean that
the money was Katerina Ivanovna’s, and so, it’s extremely
surprising to me that hitherto, that is, up to the present mo-
ment, you have made such an extraordinary secret of the
fifteen hundred you say you put by, apparently connecting
a feeling of positive horror with that secret.... It’s not easy to
believe that it could cost you such distress to confess such a
secret.... You cried out, just now, that Siberia would be bet-
ter than confessing it..’
The prosecutor ceased speaking. He was provoked. He
did not conceal his vexation, which was almost anger, and
gave vent to all his accumulated spleen, disconnectedly and
incoherently, without choosing words.
‘It’s not the fifteen hundred that’s the disgrace, but that I