th shiny leather, a
bureau, a cupboard standing in a corner, and a few chairs: all this
furniture, provided by the State, was of yellow wood. In the wall, or
rather in the wainscoting of the other end, there was a closed door,
which led one to think that there were other rooms behind it. As soon
as Porphyrius Petrovitch had seen Raskolnikoff enter his office, he
went to close the door which had given him admission, and both stood
facing one another. The magistrate received his visitor to all
appearances in a pleasant and affable manner, and it was only at the
expiration of a few moments that the latter observed the magistrate's
somewhat embarrassed manner--he seemed to have been disturbed in a
more or less clandestine occupation.

"Good! my respectable friend! Here you are then--in our latitudes!"
commenced Porphyrius, holding out both hands. "Pray, be seated,
_batuchka_! But, perhaps, you don't like being called respectable?
Therefore, _batuchka_, for short! Pray, don't think me familiar. Sit
down here on the sofa."

Raskolnikoff did so without taking his eyes off the judge. "These
words 'in our latitudes,' these excuses for his familiarity, this
expression 'for short,' what could be the meaning of all this? He held
out his hands to me without shaking mine, withdrawing them before I
could do so," thought Raskolnikoff mistrustfully. Both watched each
other, but no sooner did their eyes meet than they both turned them
aside with the rapidity of a flash of lightning.

"I have called with this paper--about the---- If you please. Is it
correct, or must another form be drawn up?" "What, what paper? Oh,
yes! Do not put yourself out. It is perfectly correct," answered
Porphyrius somewhat hurriedly, before he had even examined it; then,
after having cast a glance on it, he said, speaking very rapidly:
"Quite right, that is all that is required," and placed the sheet on
the table. A moment later he locked it up in his bureau, chattering
about other things.

"Yesterday," observed Raskolnikoff, "you had, I fancy, a wish to
examine me formally--with reference to my dealings with--the victim?
At least so it seemed to me!"

"Why did I say, 'So it seemed?'" reflected the young man all of a
sudden. "After all, what can be the harm of it? Why should I distress
myself about that!" he added, mentally, a moment afterwards. The very
fact of his proximity to Porphyrius, with whom he had scarcely as yet
interchanged a word, had immeasu