Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com 1
this,’ he thought with a smile, and suddenly, flinging his
hand downwards, he turned to his ‘torturers.’
‘Gentlemen,’ he cried, ‘I see that I am lost! But she? Tell
me about her, I beseech you. Surely she need not be ruined
with me? She’s innocent, you know, she was out of her mind
when she cried last night ‘It’s all my fault!’ She’s done noth-
ing, nothing! I’ve been grieving over her all night as I sat
with you.... Can’t you, won’t you tell me what you are going
to do with her now?’
‘You can set your mind quite at rest on that score, Dmitri
Fyodorovitch,’ the prosecutor answered at once, with evi-
dent alacrity. ‘We have, so far, no grounds for interfering
with the lady in whom you are so interested. I trust that it
may be the same in the later development of the case.... On
the contrary, we’ll do everything that lies in our power in
that matter. Set your mind completely at rest.’
‘Gentlemen, I thank you. I knew that you were honest,
straightforward people in spite of everything. You’ve tak-
en a load off my heart.... Well, what are we to do now? I’m
ready.’
‘Well, we ought to make haste. We must pass to examin-
ing the witnesses without delay. That must be done in your
presence and therefore-.’
‘Shouldn’t we have some tea first?’ interposed Nikolay
Parfenovitch, ‘I think we’ve deserved it!’
They decided that if tea were ready downstairs (Mihail
Makarovitch had, no doubt, gone down to get some) they
would have a glass and then ‘go on and on,’ putting off their
proper breakfast until a more favourable opportunity. Tea