d even
bragged aloud before every one that he'd go and take his property from
Fyodor Pavlovitch. I didn't say that openly to the prosecutor when I was
being examined, but quite the contrary, I brought him to it by a hint, as
though I didn't see it myself, and as though he'd thought of it himself
and I hadn't prompted him; so that Mr. Prosecutor's mouth positively
watered at my suggestion."
"But can you possibly have thought of all that on the spot?" cried Ivan,
overcome with astonishment. He looked at Smerdyakov again with alarm.
"Mercy on us! Could any one think of it all in such a desperate hurry? It
was all thought out beforehand."
"Well ... well, it was the devil helped you!" Ivan cried again. "No, you
are not a fool, you are far cleverer than I thought...."
He got up, obviously intending to walk across the room. He was in terrible
distress. But as the table blocked his way, and there was hardly room to
pass between the table and the wall, he only turned round where he stood
and sat down again. Perhaps the impossibility of moving irritated him, as
he suddenly cried out almost as furiously as before.
"Listen, you miserable, contemptible creature! Don't you understand that
if I haven't killed you, it's simply because I am keeping you to answer
to-morrow at the trial. God sees," Ivan raised his hand, "perhaps I, too,
was guilty; perhaps I really had a secret desire for my father's ...
death, but I swear I was not as guilty as you think, and perhaps I didn't
urge you on at all. No, no, I didn't urge you on! But no matter, I will
give evidence against myself to-morrow at the trial. I'm determined to! I
shall tell everything, everything. But we'll make our appearance together.
And whatever you may say against me at the trial, whatever evidence you
give, I'll face it; I am not afraid of you. I'll confirm it all myself!
But you must confess, too! You must, you must; we'll go together. That's
how it shall be!"
Ivan said this solemnly and resolutely and from his flashing eyes alone it
could be seen that it would be so.
"You are ill, I see; you are quite ill. Your eyes are yellow," Smerdyakov
commented, without the least irony, with apparent sympathy in fact.
"We'll go together," Ivan repeated. "And if you won't go, no matter, I'll
go alone."
Smerdyakov paused as though pondering.
"There'll be nothing of the sort, and you won't go," he concluded at last
positively.
"You don't understand me," Ivan exclai
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