h similar folk! Believe
me, here we have a very mine of information! And what is it to me
whether such a man walk about the place in perfect liberty? Let him be
at ease--I know him to be my prey, and that he won't escape me! Where,
I ask you, could he go to? You may say abroad. A Pole may do so--but
my man, never! especially as I watch him, and have taken steps in
consequence. Is he likely to escape into the very heart of our
country? Not he! for there dwell coarse moujiks, and primitive
Russians, without any kind of civilization. My educated friend would
prefer going to prison, rather than be in the midst of such
surroundings. Besides, what I have been saying up to the present is
not the main point--it is the exterior and accessory aspect of the
question. He won't escape--not only because he won't know where to go
to, but especially, and above all, because he is mine from the
_psychological_ point of view. What do you think of this explanation?
In virtue of a natural law, he will not escape, even if he could do
so! Have you ever seen a butterfly close to the candle? My man will
hover incessantly round me in the same way as the butterfly gyrates
round the candle-light. Liberty will have no longer charms for him; he
will grow more and more restless, more and more amazed--let me but
give him plenty of time, and he will demean himself in a way to prove
his guilt as plainly as that twice two our four! Yes, he will keep
hovering about me, describing circles, smaller and smaller, till at
last--bang! He has flown into my clutches, and I have got him. That is
very nice. You don't think so, perhaps?"

Raskolnikoff kept silent. Pale and immovable, he continued to watch
Porphyrius's face with a labored effort of attention. "The lesson is a
good one!" he reflected. "But it is not, as yesterday, a case of the
cat playing with the mouse. Of course, he does not talk to me in this
way for the mere pleasure of showing me his hand; he is much too
intelligent for that. He must have something else in view--what can it
be? Come, friend, what you do say is only to frighten me. You have no
kind of evidence, and the man of yesterday does not exist! All you
wish is to perplex me--to enrage me, so as to enable you to make your
last move, should you catch me in such a mood, but you will not; all
your pains will be in vain! But why should he speak in such covert
terms? I presume he must be speculating on the excitability of my
nervous system. But