The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (best e book reader for android txt) 📖

Nikolay Parfenovitch went

on as though creeping up to the subject. “Where were you able to

procure such a sum all at once, when by your own confession, at five

o’clock the same day you-”

 

“I was in want of ten roubles and pledged my pistols with

Perhotin, and then went to Madame Hohlakov to borrow three thousand

which she wouldn’t give me, and so on, and all the rest of it,”

Mitya interrupted sharply. “Yes, gentlemen, I was in want of it, and

suddenly thousands turned up, eh? Do you know, gentlemen, you’re

both afraid now ‘what if he won’t tell us where he got it?’ That’s

just how it is. I’m not going to tell you, gentlemen. You’ve guessed

right. You’ll never know,” said Mitya, chipping out each word with

extraordinary determination. The lawyers were silent for a moment.

 

“You must understand, Mr. Karamazov, that it is of vital

importance for us to know,” said Nikolay Parfenovitch, softly and

suavely.

 

“I understand; but still I won’t tell you.”

 

The prosecutor, too, intervened, and again reminded the prisoner

that he was at liberty to refuse to answer questions, if he thought it

to his interest, and so on. But in view of the damage he might do

himself by his silence, especially in a case of such importance as-

 

“And so on, gentlemen, and so on. Enough! I’ve heard that

rigmarole before,” Mitya interrupted again. “I can see for myself

how important it is, and that this is the vital point, and still I

won’t say.”

 

“What is it to us? It’s not our business, but yours. .You are

doing yourself harm,” observed Nikolay Parfenovitch nervously.

 

“You see, gentlemen, joking apart”- Mitya lifted his eyes and

looked firmly at them both- “I had an inkling from the first that we

should come to loggerheads at this point. But at first when I began to

give my evidence, it was all still far away and misty; it was all

floating, and I was so simple that I began with the supposition of

mutual confidence existing between us. Now I can see for myself that

such confidence is out of the question, for in any case we were

bound to come to this cursed stumbling-block. And now we’ve come to

it! It’s impossible and there’s an end of it! But I don’t blame you.

You can’t believe it all simply on my word. I understand that, of

course.”

 

He relapsed into gloomy silence.

 

“Couldn’t you, without abandoning your resolution to be silent

about the chief point, could you not, at the same time, give us some

slight hint as to the nature of the motives which are strong enough to

induce you to refuse to answer, at a crisis so full of danger to you?”

 

Mitya smiled mournfully, almost dreamily.

 

“I’m much more good-natured than you think, gentlemen. I’ll tell

you the reason why and give you that hint, though you don’t deserve

it. I won’t speak of that, gentlemen, because it would be a stain on

my honour. The answer to the question where I got the money would

expose me to far greater disgrace than the murder and robbing of my

father, if I had murdered and robbed him. That’s why I can’t tell you.

I can’t for fear of disgrace. What, gentlemen, are you going to

write that down?”

 

“Yes, we’ll write it down,” lisped Nikolay Parfenovitch.

 

“You ought not to write that down about ‘disgrace.’ I only told

you that in the goodness of my heart. I needn’t have told you. I

made you a present of it, so to speak, and you pounce upon it at once.

Oh, well, write-write what you like,” he concluded, with scornful

disgust. “I’m not afraid of you and I can still hold up my head before

you.”

 

“And can’t you tell us the nature of that disgrace?” Nikolay

Parfenovitch hazarded.

 

The prosecutor frowned darkly.

 

“No, no, c’est fini, don’t trouble yourselves. It’s not worth

while soiling one’s hands. I have soiled myself enough through you

as it is. You’re not worth it-no one is. Enough, gentlemen. I’m not

going on.”

 

This was said too peremptorily. Nikolay Parfenovitch did not

insist further, but from Ippolit Kirillovitch’s eyes he saw that he

had not given up hope.

 

“Can you not, at least, tell us what sum you had in your hands

when you went into Mr. Perhotin’s-how many roubles exactly?”

 

“I can’t tell you that.”

 

“You spoke to Mr. Perhotin, I believe, of having received three

thousand from Madame Hohlakov.”

 

“Perhaps I did. Enough, gentlemen. I won’t say how much I had.”

 

“Will you be so good then as to tell us how you came here and what

you have done since you arrived?”

 

“Oh! you might ask the people here about that. But I’ll tell you

if you like.”

 

He proceeded to do so, but we won’t repeat his story. He told it

dryly and curtly. Of the raptures of his love he said nothing, but

told them that he abandoned his determination to shoot himself,

owing to “new factors in the case.” He told the story without going

into motives or details. And this time the lawyers did not worry him

much. It was obvious that there was no essential point of interest

to them here.

 

“We shall verify all that. We will come back to it during the

examination of the witnesses, which will, of course, take place in

your presence,” said Nikolay Parfenovitch in conclusion. “And now

allow me to request you to lay on the table everything in your

possession, especially all the money you still have about you.”

 

“My money, gentlemen? Certainly. I understand that that is

necessary. I’m surprised, indeed, that you haven’t inquired about it

before. It’s true I couldn’t get away anywhere. I’m sitting here where

I can be seen. But here’s my money-count it-take it. That’s all, I

think.”

 

He turned it all out of his pockets; even the small change-two

pieces of twenty copecks-he pulled out of his waistcoat pocket.

They counted the money, which amounted to eight hundred and thirty-six

roubles, and forty copecks.

 

“And is that all?” asked the investigating lawyer.

 

“You stated just now in your evidence that you spent three hundred

roubles at Plotnikovs’. You gave Perhotin ten, your driver twenty,

here you lost two hundred, then…”

 

Nikolay Parfenovitch reckoned it all up. Mitya helped him readily.

They recollected every farthing and included it in the reckoning.

Nikolay Parfenovitch hurriedly added up the total. “With this eight

hundred you must have had about fifteen hundred at first?”

 

“I suppose so,” snapped Mitya.

 

“How is it they all assert there was much more?”

 

“Let them assert it.”

 

“But you asserted it yourself.”

 

“Yes, I did, too.”

 

“We will compare all this with the evidence of other persons not

yet examined. Don’t be anxious about your money. It will be properly

taken care of and be at your disposal at the conclusion of… what

is beginning… if it appears, or, so to speak, is proved that you

have undisputed right to it. Well, and now…”

 

Nikolay Parfenovitch suddenly got up, and informed Mitya firmly

that it was his duty and obligation to conduct a minute and thorough

search “of your clothes and everything else…”

 

“By all means, gentlemen. I’ll turn out all my pockets, if you

like.”

 

And he did, in fact, begin turning out his pockets.

 

“It will be necessary to take off your clothes, too.”

 

“What! Undress? Ugh! Damn it! Won’t you search me as I am? Can’t

you?”

 

“It’s utterly impossible, Dmitri Fyodorovitch. You must take off

your clothes.”

 

“As you like,” Mitya submitted gloomily; “only, please, not

here, but behind the curtains. Who will search them?”

 

“Behind the curtains, of course.”

 

Nikolay Parfenovitch bent his head in assent. His small face

wore an expression of peculiar solemnity.