."

"Till what happened?" put in Nikolay Parfenovitch inquisitively, but Mitya
did not hear it.

"I have made you an awful confession," Mitya said gloomily in conclusion.
"You must appreciate it, and what's more, you must respect it, for if not,
if that leaves your souls untouched, then you've simply no respect for me,
gentlemen, I tell you that, and I shall die of shame at having confessed
it to men like you! Oh, I shall shoot myself! Yes, I see, I see already
that you don't believe me. What, you want to write that down, too?" he
cried in dismay.

"Yes, what you said just now," said Nikolay Parfenovitch, looking at him
in surprise, "that is, that up to the last hour you were still
contemplating going to Katerina Ivanovna to beg that sum from her.... I
assure you, that's a very important piece of evidence for us, Dmitri
Fyodorovitch, I mean for the whole case ... and particularly for you,
particularly important for you."

"Have mercy, gentlemen!" Mitya flung up his hands. "Don't write that,
anyway; have some shame. Here I've torn my heart asunder before you, and
you seize the opportunity and are fingering the wounds in both halves....
Oh, my God!"

In despair he hid his face in his hands.

"Don't worry yourself so, Dmitri Fyodorovitch," observed the prosecutor,
"everything that is written down will be read over to you afterwards, and
what you don't agree to we'll alter as you like. But now I'll ask you one
little question for the second time. Has no one, absolutely no one, heard
from you of that money you sewed up? That, I must tell you, is almost
impossible to believe."

"No one, no one, I told you so before, or you've not understood anything!
Let me alone!"

"Very well, this matter is bound to be explained, and there's plenty of
time for it, but meantime, consider; we have perhaps a dozen witnesses
that you yourself spread it abroad, and even shouted almost everywhere
about the three thousand you'd spent here; three thousand, not fifteen
hundred. And now, too, when you got hold of the money you had yesterday,
you gave many people to understand that you had brought three thousand
with you."

"You've got not dozens, but hundreds of witnesses, two hundred witnesses,
two hundred have heard it, thousands have heard it!" cried Mitya.

"Well, you see, all bear witness to it. And the word _all_ means
something."

"It means nothing. I talked rot, and every one began repeating it."

"But what need had you to 'ta