been necessary to disturb Dmitri. Now, what I wanted to ask was: On
going upstairs--was it not between seven and eight you entered the
house?"

"Yes," replied Raskolnikoff, and he immediately regretted an answer he
ought to have avoided.

"Well, in going upstairs, between seven and eight, did you not see on
the second floor, in one of the rooms, when the door was wide
open--you remember, I dare say?--did you not see two painters, or, at
all events, one of the two? They were whitewashing the room, I
believe; you must have seen them! The matter is of the utmost
importance to them!"

"Painters, you say? I saw none," replied Raskolnikoff slowly, trying
to sound his memory: for a moment he violently strained it to
discover, as quickly as he could, the trap concealed by the
magistrate's question. "No, I did not see a single one; I did not even
see any room standing open," he went on, delighted at having
discovered the trap, "but on the fourth floor I remember noticing that
the man lodging on the same landing as Alena Ivanovna was in the act
of moving. I remember that very well, as I met a few soldiers carrying
a sofa, and I was obliged to back against the wall; but, as for
painters, I don't remember seeing a single one--I don't even remember
a room that had its door open. No, I saw nothing."

"But what are you talking about?" all at once exclaimed Razoumikhin,
who, till that moment, had attentively listened; "it was on the very
day of the murder that painters were busy in that room, while he came
there two days previously! Why are you asking that question?"

"Right! I have confused the dates!" cried Porphyrius, tapping his
forehead. "Deuce take me! That job makes me lose my head!" he added by
way of excuse, and speaking to Raskolnikoff. "It is very important
that we should know if anybody saw them in that room between seven and
eight. I thought I might have got that information from you without
thinking any more about it. I had positively confused the days!"

"You ought to be more attentive!" grumbled Razoumikhin.

These last words were uttered in the anteroom, as Porphyrius very
civilly led his visitors to the door. They were gloomy and morose on
leaving the house, and had gone some distance before speaking.
Raskolnikoff breathed like a man who had just been subjected to a
severe trial.

When, on the following day, precisely at eleven o'clock, Raskolnikoff
called on the examining magistrate, he was astonished to