CHAPTER III

<h2><a id="link2HCH0029"/>
  CHAPTER III
</h2>
<p>
  “Pyotr Petrovitch,” she cried, “protect me... you at least! Make this
  foolish woman understand that she can’t behave like this to a lady in
  misfortune... that there is a law for such things.... I’ll go to the
  governor-general himself.... She shall answer for it.... Remembering my
  father’s hospitality protect these orphans.”
 </p>
<p>
  “Allow me, madam.... Allow me.” Pyotr Petrovitch waved her off. “Your papa
  as you are well aware I had not the honour of knowing” (someone laughed
  aloud) “and I do not intend to take part in your everlasting squabbles
  with Amalia Ivanovna.... I have come here to speak of my own affairs...
  and I want to have a word with your stepdaughter, Sofya... Ivanovna, I
  think it is? Allow me to pass.”
 </p>
<p>
  Pyotr Petrovitch, edging by her, went to the opposite corner where Sonia
  was.
</p>
<p>
  Katerina Ivanovna remained standing where she was, as though
  thunderstruck. She could not understand how Pyotr Petrovitch could deny
  having enjoyed her father’s hospitality. Though she had invented it
  herself, she believed in it firmly by this time. She was struck too by the
  businesslike, dry and even contemptuous menacing tone of Pyotr Petrovitch.
  All the clamour gradually died away at his entrance. Not only was this
  “serious business man” strikingly incongruous with the rest of the party,
  but it was evident, too, that he had come upon some matter of consequence,
  that some exceptional cause must have brought him and that therefore
  something was going to happen. Raskolnikov, standing beside Sonia, moved
  aside to let him pass; Pyotr Petrovitch did not seem to notice him. A
  minute later Lebeziatnikov, too, appeared in the doorway; he did not come
  in, but stood still, listening with marked interest, almost wonder, and
  seemed for a time perplexed.
</p>
<p>
  “Excuse me for possibly interrupting you, but it’s a matter of some
  importance,” Pyotr Petrovitch observed, addressing the company generally.
  “I am glad indeed to find other persons present. Amalia Ivanovna, I humbly
  beg you as mistress of the house to pay careful attention to what I have
  to say to Sofya Ivanovna. Sofya Ivanovna,” he went on, addressing Sonia,
  who was very much surprised and already alarmed, “immediately after your
  visit I found that a hundred-rouble note was missing from my table, in the
  room of my friend Mr. Lebeziatnikov. If in any way whatever you know and
  will tell us where it is now, I assure you on my word of honour and call
  all present to witness that the matter shall end there. In the opposite
  case I shall be compelled to have recourse to very serious measures and
  then... you must blame yourself.”
 </p>
<p>
  Complete silence reigned in the room. Even the crying children were still.
  Sonia stood deadly pale, staring at Luzhin and unable to say a word. She
  seemed not to understand. Some seconds passed.
</p>
<p>
  “Well, how is it to be then?” asked Luzhin, looking intently at her.
</p>
<p>
  “I don’t know.... I know nothing about it,” Sonia articulated faintly at
  last.
</p>
<p>
  “No, you know nothing?” Luzhin repeated and again he paused for some
  seconds. “Think a moment, mademoiselle,” he began severely, but still, as
  it were, admonishing her. “Reflect, I am prepared to give you time for
  consideration. Kindly observe this: if I were not so entirely convinced I
  should not, you may be sure, with my experience venture to accuse you so
  directly. Seeing that for such direct accusation before witnesses, if
  false or even mistaken, I should myself in a certain sense be made
  responsible, I am aware of that. This morning I changed for my own
  purposes several five-per-cent securities for the sum of approximately
  three thousand roubles. The account is noted down in my pocket-book. On my
  return home I proceeded to count the money—as Mr. Lebeziatnikov will
  bear witness—and after counting two thousand three hundred roubles I
  put the rest in my pocket-book in my coat pocket. About five hundred
  roubles remained on the table and among them three notes of a hundred
  roubles each. At that moment you entered (at my invitation)—and all
  the time you were present you were exceedingly embarrassed; so that three
  times you jumped up in the middle of the conversation and tried to make
  off. Mr. Lebeziatnikov can bear witness to this. You yourself,
  mademoiselle, probably will not refuse to confirm my statement that I
  invited you through Mr. Lebeziatnikov, solely in order to discuss with you
  the hopeless and destitute position of your relative, Katerina Ivanovna
  (whose dinner I was unable to attend), and the advisability of getting up
  something of the nature of a subscription, lottery or the like, for her
  benefit. You thanked me and even shed tears. I describe all this as it
  took place, primarily to recall it to your mind and secondly to show you
  that not the slightest detail has escaped my recollection. Then I took a
  ten-rouble note from the table and handed it to you by way of first
  instalment on my part for the benefit of your relative. Mr. Lebeziatnikov
  saw all this. Then I accompanied you to the door—you being still in
  the same state of embarrassment—after which, being left alone with
  Mr. Lebeziatnikov I talked to him for ten minutes—then Mr.
  Lebeziatnikov went out and I returned to the table with the money lying on
  it, intending to count it and to put it aside, as I proposed doing before.
  To my surprise one hundred-rouble note had disappeared. Kindly consider
  the position. Mr. Lebeziatnikov I cannot suspect. I am ashamed to allude
  to such a supposition. I cannot have made a mistake in my reckoning, for
  the minute before your entrance I had finished my accounts and found the
  total correct. You will admit that recollecting your embarrassment, your
  eagerness to get away and the fact that you kept your hands for some time
  on the table, and taking into consideration your social position and the
  habits associated with it, I was, so to say, with horror and positively
  against my will, <i>compelled</i> to entertain a suspicion—a cruel,
  but justifiable suspicion! I will add further and repeat that in spite of
  my positive conviction, I realise that I run a certain risk in making this
  accusation, but as you see, I could not let it pass. I have taken action
  and I will tell you why: solely, madam, solely, owing to your black
  ingratitude! Why! I invite you for the benefit of your destitute relative,
  I present you with my donation of ten roubles and you, on the spot, repay
  me for all that with such an action. It is too bad! You need a lesson.
  Reflect! Moreover, like a true friend I beg you—and you could have
  no better friend at this moment—think what you are doing, otherwise
  I shall be immovable! Well, what do you say?”
 </p>
<p>
  “I have taken nothing,” Sonia whispered in terror, “you gave me ten
  roubles, here it is, take it.”
 </p>
<p>
  Sonia pulled her handkerchief out of her pocket, untied a corner of it,
  took out the ten-rouble note and gave it to Luzhin.
</p>
<p>
  “And the hundred roubles you do not confess to taking?” he insisted
  reproachfully, not taking the note.
</p>
<p>
  Sonia looked about her. All were looking at her with such awful, stern,
  ironical, hostile eyes. She looked at Raskolnikov... he stood against the
  wall, with his arms crossed, looking at her with glowing eyes.
</p>
<p>
  “Good God!” broke from Sonia.
</p>
<p>
  “Amalia Ivanovna, we shall have to send word to the police and therefore I
  humbly beg you meanwhile to send for the house porter,” Luzhin said softly
  and even kindly.
</p>
<p>
  “<i>Gott der Barmherzige</i>! I knew she was the thief,” cried Amalia
  Ivanovna, throwing up her hands.
</p>
<p>
  “You knew it?” Luzhin caught her up, “then I suppose you had some reason
  before this for thinking so. I beg you, worthy Amalia Ivanovna, to
  remember your words which have been uttered before witnesses.”
 </p>
<p>
  There was a buzz of loud conversation on all sides. All were in movement.
</p>
<p>
  “What!” cried Katerina Ivanovna, suddenly realising the position, and she
  rushed at Luzhin. “What! You accuse her of stealing? Sonia? Ah, the
  wretches, the wretches!”
 </p>
<p>
  And running to Sonia she flung her wasted arms round her and held her as
  in a vise.
</p>
<p>
  “Sonia! how dared you take ten roubles from him? Foolish girl! Give it to
  me! Give me the ten roubles at once—here!”
 </p>
<p>
  And snatching the note from Sonia, Katerina Ivanovna crumpled it up and
  flung it straight into Luzhin’s face. It hit him in the eye and fell on
  the ground. Amalia Ivanovna hastened to pick it up. Pyotr Petrovitch lost
  his temper.
</p>
<p>
  “Hold that mad woman!” he shouted.
</p>
<p>
  At that moment several other persons, besides Lebeziatnikov, appeared in
  the doorway, among them the two ladies.
</p>
<p>
  “What! Mad? Am I mad? Idiot!” shrieked Katerina Ivanovna. “You are an
  idiot yourself, pettifogging lawyer, base man! Sonia, Sonia take his
  money! Sonia a thief! Why, she’d give away her last penny!” and Katerina
  Ivanovna broke into hysterical laughter. “Did you ever see such an idiot?”
   she turned from side to side. “And you too?” she suddenly saw the
  landlady, “and you too, sausage eater, you declare that she is a thief,
  you trashy Prussian hen’s leg in a crinoline! She hasn’t been out of this
  room: she came straight from you, you wretch, and sat down beside me,
  everyone saw her. She sat here, by Rodion Romanovitch. Search her! Since
  she’s not left the room, the money would have to be on her! Search her,
  search her! But if you don’t find it, then excuse me, my dear fellow,
  you’ll answer for it! I’ll go to our Sovereign, to our Sovereign, to our
  gracious Tsar himself, and throw myself at his feet, to-day, this minute!
  I am alone in the world! They would let me in! Do you think they wouldn’t?
  You’re wrong, I will get in! I will get in! You reckoned on her meekness!
  You relied upon that! But I am not so submissive, let me tell you! You’ve
  gone too far yourself. Search her, search her!”
 </p>
<p>
  And Katerina Ivanovna in a frenzy shook Luzhin and dragged him towards
  Sonia.
</p>
<p>
  “I am ready, I’ll be responsible... but calm yourself, madam, calm
  yourself. I see that you are not so submissive!... Well, well, but as to
  that...” Luzhin muttered, “that ought to be before the police... though
  indeed there are witnesses enough as it is.... I am ready.... But in any
  case it’s difficult for a man... on account of her sex.... But with the
  help of Amalia Ivanovna... though, of course, it’s not the way to do
  things.... How is it to be done?”
 </p>
<p>
  “As you will! Let anyone who likes search her!” cried Katerina Ivanovna.
  “Sonia, turn out your pockets! See! Look, monster, the pocket is empty,
  here was her handkerchief! Here is the other pocket, look! D’you see,
  d’you see?”
 </p>
<p>
  And Katerina Ivanovna turned—or rather snatched—both pockets
  inside out. But from the right pocket a piece of paper flew out and
  describing a parabola in the air fell at Luzhin’s feet. Everyone saw it,
  several cried out. Pyotr Petrovitch stooped down, picked up the paper in
  two fingers, lifted it where all could see it and opened it. It was a
  hundred-rouble note folded in eight. Pyotr Petrovitch held up the note
  showing it to everyone.
</p>
<p>
  “Thief! Out of my lodging. Police, police!” yelled Amalia Ivanovna. “They
  must to Siberia be sent! Away!”
 </p>
<p>
  Exclamations arose on all sides. Raskolnikov was silent, keeping his eyes
  fixed on Sonia, except for an occasional rapid glance at Luzhin. Sonia
  stood still, as though unconscious. She was hardly able to feel surprise.
  Suddenly the colour rushed to her cheeks; she uttered a cry and hid her
  face in her hands.
</p>
<p>
  “No, it wasn’t I! I didn’t take it! I know nothing about it,” she cried
  with a heartrending wail, and she ran to Katerina Ivanovna, who clasped
  her tightly in her arms, as though she would shelter her from all the
  world.
</p>
<p>
  “Sonia! Sonia! I don’t believe it! You see, I don’t believe it!” she cried
  in the face of the obvious fact, swaying her to and fro in her arms like a
  baby, kissing her face continually, then snatching at her hands and
  kissing them, too, “you took it! How stupid these people are! Oh dear! You
  are fools, fools,” she cried, addressing the whole room, “you don’t know,
  you don’t know what a heart she has, what a girl she is! She take it, she?
  She’d sell her last rag, she’d go barefoot to help you if you needed it,
  that’s what she is! She has the yellow passport because my children were
  starving, she sold herself for us! Ah, husband, husband! Do you see? Do
  you see? What a memorial dinner for you! Merciful heavens! Defend her, why
  are you all standing still? Rodion Romanovitch, why don’t you stand up for
  her? Do you believe it, too? You are not worth her little finger, all of
  you together! Good God! Defend her now, at least!”
 </p>
<p>
  The wail of the poor, consumptive, helpless woman seemed to produce a
  great effect on her audience. The agonised, wasted, consumptive face, the
  parched blood-stained lips, the hoarse voice, the tears unrestrained as a
  child’s, the trustful, childish and yet despairing prayer for help were so
  piteous that everyone seemed to feel for her. Pyotr Petrovitch at any rate
  was at once moved to <i>compassion</i>.
</p>
<p>
  “Madam, madam, this incident does not reflect upon you!” he cried
  impressively, “no one would take upon himself to accuse you of being an
  instigator or even an accomplice in it, especially as you have proved her
  guilt by turning out her pockets, showing that you had no previous idea of
  it. I am most ready, most ready to show compassion, if poverty, so to
  speak, drove Sofya Semyonovna to it, but why did you refuse to confess,
  mademoiselle? Were you afraid of the disgrace? The first step? You lost
  your head, perhaps? One can quite understand it.... But how could you have
  lowered yourself to such an action? Gentlemen,” he addressed the whole
  company, “gentlemen! Compassionate and, so to say, commiserating these
  people, I am ready to overlook it even now in spite of the personal insult
  lavished upon me! And may this disgrace be a lesson to you for the
  future,” he said, addressing Sonia, “and I will carry the matter no
  further. Enough!”
 </p>
<p>
  Pyotr Petrovitch stole a glance at Raskolnikov. Their eyes met, and the
  fire in Raskolnikov’s seemed ready to reduce him to ashes. Meanwhile
  Katerina Ivanovna apparently heard nothing. She was kissing and hugging
  Sonia like a madwoman. The children, too, were embracing Sonia on all
  sides, and Polenka—though she did not fully understand what was
  wrong—was drowned in tears and shaking with sobs, as she hid her
  pretty little face, swollen with weeping, on Sonia’s shoulder.
</p>
<p>
  “How vile!” a loud voice cried suddenly in the doorway.
</p>
<p>
  Pyotr Petrovitch looked round quickly.
</p>
<p>
  “What vileness!” Lebeziatnikov repeated, staring him straight in the face.
</p>
<p>
  Pyotr Petrovitch gave a positive start—all noticed it and recalled
  it afterwards. Lebeziatnikov strode into the room.
</p>
<p>
  “And you dared to call me as witness?” he said, going up to Pyotr
  Petrovitch.
</p>
<p>
  “What do you mean? What are you talking about?” muttered Luzhin.
</p>
<p>
  “I mean that you... are a slanderer, that’s what my words mean!”
   Lebeziatnikov said hotly, looking sternly at him with his short-sighted
  eyes.
</p>
<p>
  He was extremely angry. Raskolnikov gazed intently at him, as though
  seizing and weighing each word. Again there was a silence. Pyotr
  Petrovitch indeed seemed almost dumbfounded for the first moment.
</p>
<p>
  “If you mean that for me,...” he began, stammering. “But what’s the matter
  with you? Are you out of your mind?”
 </p>
<p>
  “I’m in my mind, but you are a scoundrel! Ah, how vile! I have heard
  everything. I kept waiting on purpose to understand it, for I must own
  even now it is not quite logical.... What you have done it all for I can’t
  understand.”
 </p>
<p>
  “Why, what have I done then? Give over talking in your nonsensical
  riddles! Or maybe you are drunk!”
 </p>
<p>
  “You may be a drunkard, perhaps, vile man, but I am not! I never touch
  vodka, for it’s against my convictions. Would you believe it, he, he
  himself, with his own hands gave Sofya Semyonovna that hundred-rouble note—I
  saw it, I was a witness, I’ll take my oath! He did it, he!” repeated
  Lebeziatnikov, addressing all.
</p>
<p>
  “Are you crazy, milksop?” squealed Luzhin. “She is herself before you—she
  herself here declared just now before everyone that I gave her only ten
  roubles. How could I have given it to her?”
 </p>
<p>
  “I saw it, I saw it,” Lebeziatnikov repeated, “and though it is against my
  principles, I am ready this very minute to take any oath you like before
  the court, for I saw how you slipped it in her pocket. Only like a fool I
  thought you did it out of kindness! When you were saying good-bye to her
  at the door, while you held her hand in one hand, with the other, the
  left, you slipped the note into her pocket. I saw it, I saw it!”
 </p>
<p>
  Luzhin turned pale.
</p>
<p>
  “What lies!” he cried impudently, “why, how could you, standing by the
  window, see the note? You fancied it with your short-sighted eyes. You are
  raving!”
 </p>
<p>
  “No, I didn’t fancy it. And though I was standing some way off, I saw it
  all. And though it certainly would be hard to distinguish a note from the
  window—that’s true—I knew for certain that it was a
  hundred-rouble note, because, when you were going to give Sofya Semyonovna
  ten roubles, you took up from the table a hundred-rouble note (I saw it
  because I was standing near then, and an idea struck me at once, so that I
  did not forget you had it in your hand). You folded it and kept it in your
  hand all the time. I didn’t think of it again until, when you were getting
  up, you changed it from your right hand to your left and nearly dropped
  it! I noticed it because the same idea struck me again, that you meant to
  do her a kindness without my seeing. You can fancy how I watched you and I
  saw how you succeeded in slipping it into her pocket. I saw it, I saw it,
  I’ll take my oath.”
 </p>
<p>
  Lebeziatnikov was almost breathless. Exclamations arose on all hands
  chiefly expressive of wonder, but some were menacing in tone. They all
  crowded round Pyotr Petrovitch. Katerina Ivanovna flew to Lebeziatnikov.
</p>
<p>
  “I was mistaken in you! Protect her! You are the only one to take her
  part! She is an orphan. God has sent you!”
 </p>
<p>
  Katerina Ivanovna, hardly knowing what she was doing, sank on her knees
  before him.
</p>
<p>
  “A pack of nonsense!” yelled Luzhin, roused to fury, “it’s all nonsense
  you’ve been talking! ‘An idea struck you, you didn’t think, you noticed’—what
  does it amount to? So I gave it to her on the sly on purpose? What for?
  With what object? What have I to do with this...?”
 </p>
<p>
  “What for? That’s what I can’t understand, but that what I am telling you
  is the fact, that’s certain! So far from my being mistaken, you infamous
  criminal man, I remember how, on account of it, a question occurred to me
  at once, just when I was thanking you and pressing your hand. What made
  you put it secretly in her pocket? Why you did it secretly, I mean? Could
  it be simply to conceal it from me, knowing that my convictions are
  opposed to yours and that I do not approve of private benevolence, which
  effects no radical cure? Well, I decided that you really were ashamed of
  giving such a large sum before me. Perhaps, too, I thought, he wants to
  give her a surprise, when she finds a whole hundred-rouble note in her
  pocket. (For I know, some benevolent people are very fond of decking out
  their charitable actions in that way.) Then the idea struck me, too, that
  you wanted to test her, to see whether, when she found it, she would come
  to thank you. Then, too, that you wanted to avoid thanks and that, as the
  saying is, your right hand should not know... something of that sort, in
  fact. I thought of so many possibilities that I put off considering it,
  but still thought it indelicate to show you that I knew your secret. But
  another idea struck me again that Sofya Semyonovna might easily lose the
  money before she noticed it, that was why I decided to come in here to
  call her out of the room and to tell her that you put a hundred roubles in
  her pocket. But on my way I went first to Madame Kobilatnikov’s to take
  them the ‘General Treatise on the Positive Method’ and especially to
  recommend Piderit’s article (and also Wagner’s); then I come on here and
  what a state of things I find! Now could I, could I, have all these ideas
  and reflections if I had not seen you put the hundred-rouble note in her
  pocket?”
 </p>
<p>
  When Lebeziatnikov finished his long-winded harangue with the logical
  deduction at the end, he was quite tired, and the perspiration streamed
  from his face. He could not, alas, even express himself correctly in
  Russian, though he knew no other language, so that he was quite exhausted,
  almost emaciated after this heroic exploit. But his speech produced a
  powerful effect. He had spoken with such vehemence, with such conviction
  that everyone obviously believed him. Pyotr Petrovitch felt that things
  were going badly with him.
</p>
<p>
  “What is it to do with me if silly ideas did occur to you?” he shouted,
  “that’s no evidence. You may have dreamt it, that’s all! And I tell you,
  you are lying, sir. You are lying and slandering from some spite against
  me, simply from pique, because I did not agree with your free-thinking,
  godless, social propositions!”
 </p>
<p>
  But this retort did not benefit Pyotr Petrovitch. Murmurs of disapproval
  were heard on all sides.
</p>
<p>
  “Ah, that’s your line now, is it!” cried Lebeziatnikov, “that’s nonsense!
  Call the police and I’ll take my oath! There’s only one thing I can’t
  understand: what made him risk such a contemptible action. Oh, pitiful,
  despicable man!”
 </p>
<p>
  “I can explain why he risked such an action, and if necessary, I, too,
  will swear to it,” Raskolnikov said at last in a firm voice, and he
  stepped forward.
</p>
<p>
  He appeared to be firm and composed. Everyone felt clearly, from the very
  look of him that he really knew about it and that the mystery would be
  solved.
</p>
<p>
  “Now I can explain it all to myself,” said Raskolnikov, addressing
  Lebeziatnikov. “From the very beginning of the business, I suspected that
  there was some scoundrelly intrigue at the bottom of it. I began to
  suspect it from some special circumstances known to me only, which I will
  explain at once to everyone: they account for everything. Your valuable
  evidence has finally made everything clear to me. I beg all, all to
  listen. This gentleman (he pointed to Luzhin) was recently engaged to be
  married to a young lady—my sister, Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikov.
  But coming to Petersburg he quarrelled with me, the day before yesterday,
  at our first meeting and I drove him out of my room—I have two
  witnesses to prove it. He is a very spiteful man.... The day before
  yesterday I did not know that he was staying here, in your room, and that
  consequently on the very day we quarrelled—the day before yesterday—he
  saw me give Katerina Ivanovna some money for the funeral, as a friend of
  the late Mr. Marmeladov. He at once wrote a note to my mother and informed
  her that I had given away all my money, not to Katerina Ivanovna but to
  Sofya Semyonovna, and referred in a most contemptible way to the...
  character of Sofya Semyonovna, that is, hinted at the character of my
  attitude to Sofya Semyonovna. All this you understand was with the object
  of dividing me from my mother and sister, by insinuating that I was
  squandering on unworthy objects the money which they had sent me and which
  was all they had. Yesterday evening, before my mother and sister and in
  his presence, I declared that I had given the money to Katerina Ivanovna
  for the funeral and not to Sofya Semyonovna and that I had no acquaintance
  with Sofya Semyonovna and had never seen her before, indeed. At the same
  time I added that he, Pyotr Petrovitch Luzhin, with all his virtues, was
  not worth Sofya Semyonovna’s little finger, though he spoke so ill of her.
  To his question—would I let Sofya Semyonovna sit down beside my
  sister, I answered that I had already done so that day. Irritated that my
  mother and sister were unwilling to quarrel with me at his insinuations,
  he gradually began being unpardonably rude to them. A final rupture took
  place and he was turned out of the house. All this happened yesterday
  evening. Now I beg your special attention: consider: if he had now
  succeeded in proving that Sofya Semyonovna was a thief, he would have
  shown to my mother and sister that he was almost right in his suspicions,
  that he had reason to be angry at my putting my sister on a level with
  Sofya Semyonovna, that, in attacking me, he was protecting and preserving
  the honour of my sister, his betrothed. In fact he might even, through all
  this, have been able to estrange me from my family, and no doubt he hoped
  to be restored to favour with them; to say nothing of revenging himself on
  me personally, for he has grounds for supposing that the honour and
  happiness of Sofya Semyonovna are very precious to me. That was what he
  was working for! That’s how I understand it. That’s the whole reason for
  it and there can be no other!”
 </p>
<p>
  It was like this, or somewhat like this, that Raskolnikov wound up his
  speech which was followed very attentively, though often interrupted by
  exclamations from his audience. But in spite of interruptions he spoke
  clearly, calmly, exactly, firmly. His decisive voice, his tone of
  conviction and his stern face made a great impression on everyone.
</p>
<p>
  “Yes, yes, that’s it,” Lebeziatnikov assented gleefully, “that must be it,
  for he asked me, as soon as Sofya Semyonovna came into our room, whether
  you were here, whether I had seen you among Katerina Ivanovna’s guests. He
  called me aside to the window and asked me in secret. It was essential for
  him that you should be here! That’s it, that’s it!”
 </p>
<p>
  Luzhin smiled contemptuously and did not speak. But he was very pale. He
  seemed to be deliberating on some means of escape. Perhaps he would have
  been glad to give up everything and get away, but at the moment this was
  scarcely possible. It would have implied admitting the truth of the
  accusations brought against him. Moreover, the company, which had already
  been excited by drink, was now too much stirred to allow it. The
  commissariat clerk, though indeed he had not grasped the whole position,
  was shouting louder than anyone and was making some suggestions very
  unpleasant to Luzhin. But not all those present were drunk; lodgers came
  in from all the rooms. The three Poles were tremendously excited and were
  continually shouting at him: “The <i>pan</i> is a <i>lajdak</i>!” and
  muttering threats in Polish. Sonia had been listening with strained
  attention, though she too seemed unable to grasp it all; she seemed as
  though she had just returned to consciousness. She did not take her eyes
  off Raskolnikov, feeling that all her safety lay in him. Katerina Ivanovna
  breathed hard and painfully and seemed fearfully exhausted. Amalia
  Ivanovna stood looking more stupid than anyone, with her mouth wide open,
  unable to make out what had happened. She only saw that Pyotr Petrovitch
  had somehow come to grief.
</p>
<p>
  Raskolnikov was attempting to speak again, but they did not let him.
  Everyone was crowding round Luzhin with threats and shouts of abuse. But
  Pyotr Petrovitch was not intimidated. Seeing that his accusation of Sonia
  had completely failed, he had recourse to insolence:
</p>
<p>
  “Allow me, gentlemen, allow me! Don’t squeeze, let me pass!” he said,
  making his way through the crowd. “And no threats, if you please! I assure
  you it will be useless, you will gain nothing by it. On the contrary,
  you’ll have to answer, gentlemen, for violently obstructing the course of
  justice. The thief has been more than unmasked, and I shall prosecute. Our
  judges are not so blind and... not so drunk, and will not believe the
  testimony of two notorious infidels, agitators, and atheists, who accuse
  me from motives of personal revenge which they are foolish enough to
  admit.... Yes, allow me to pass!”
 </p>
<p>
  “Don’t let me find a trace of you in my room! Kindly leave at once, and
  everything is at an end between us! When I think of the trouble I’ve been
  taking, the way I’ve been expounding... all this fortnight!”
 </p>
<p>
  “I told you myself to-day that I was going, when you tried to keep me; now
  I will simply add that you are a fool. I advise you to see a doctor for
  your brains and your short sight. Let me pass, gentlemen!”
 </p>
<p>
  He forced his way through. But the commissariat clerk was unwilling to let
  him off so easily: he picked up a glass from the table, brandished it in
  the air and flung it at Pyotr Petrovitch; but the glass flew straight at
  Amalia Ivanovna. She screamed, and the clerk, overbalancing, fell heavily
  under the table. Pyotr Petrovitch made his way to his room and half an
  hour later had left the house. Sonia, timid by nature, had felt before
  that day that she could be ill-treated more easily than anyone, and that
  she could be wronged with impunity. Yet till that moment she had fancied
  that she might escape misfortune by care, gentleness and submissiveness
  before everyone. Her disappointment was too great. She could, of course,
  bear with patience and almost without murmur anything, even this. But for
  the first minute she felt it too bitter. In spite of her triumph and her
  justification—when her first terror and stupefaction had passed and
  she could understand it all clearly—the feeling of her helplessness
  and of the wrong done to her made her heart throb with anguish and she was
  overcome with hysterical weeping. At last, unable to bear any more, she
  rushed out of the room and ran home, almost immediately after Luzhin’s
  departure. When amidst loud laughter the glass flew at Amalia Ivanovna, it
  was more than the landlady could endure. With a shriek she rushed like a
  fury at Katerina Ivanovna, considering her to blame for everything.
</p>
<p>
  “Out of my lodgings! At once! Quick march!”
 </p>
<p>
  And with these words she began snatching up everything she could lay her
  hands on that belonged to Katerina Ivanovna, and throwing it on the floor.
  Katerina Ivanovna, pale, almost fainting, and gasping for breath, jumped
  up from the bed where she had sunk in exhaustion and darted at Amalia
  Ivanovna. But the battle was too unequal: the landlady waved her away like
  a feather.
</p>
<p>
  “What! As though that godless calumny was not enough—this vile
  creature attacks me! What! On the day of my husband’s funeral I am turned
  out of my lodging! After eating my bread and salt she turns me into the
  street, with my orphans! Where am I to go?” wailed the poor woman, sobbing
  and gasping. “Good God!” she cried with flashing eyes, “is there no
  justice upon earth? Whom should you protect if not us orphans? We shall
  see! There is law and justice on earth, there is, I will find it! Wait a
  bit, godless creature! Polenka, stay with the children, I’ll come back.
  Wait for me, if you have to wait in the street. We will see whether there
  is justice on earth!”
 </p>
<p>
  And throwing over her head that green shawl which Marmeladov had mentioned
  to Raskolnikov, Katerina Ivanovna squeezed her way through the disorderly
  and drunken crowd of lodgers who still filled the room, and, wailing and
  tearful, she ran into the street—with a vague intention of going at
  once somewhere to find justice. Polenka with the two little ones in her
  arms crouched, terrified, on the trunk in the corner of the room, where
  she waited trembling for her mother to come back. Amalia Ivanovna raged
  about the room, shrieking, lamenting and throwing everything she came
  across on the floor. The lodgers talked incoherently, some commented to
  the best of their ability on what had happened, others quarrelled and
  swore at one another, while others struck up a song....
</p>
<p>
  “Now it’s time for me to go,” thought Raskolnikov. “Well, Sofya
  Semyonovna, we shall see what you’ll say now!”
 </p>
<p>
  And he set off in the direction of Sonia’s lodgings.
</p>