s well, and has forgotten his mother, it's
humiliating and unseemly for his mother to stand at his door begging for
kindness.' She returned home and took to her bed; now she is in a fever.
'I see,' she said, 'that he has time for _his girl_.' She means by _your
girl_ Sofya Semyonovna, your betrothed or your mistress, I don't know. I
went at once to Sofya Semyonovna's, for I wanted to know what was going
on. I looked round, I saw the coffin, the children crying, and
Sofya Semyonovna trying them on mourning dresses. No sign of you. I
apologised, came away, and reported to Avdotya Romanovna. So that's all
nonsense and you haven't got a girl; the most likely thing is that you
are mad. But here you sit, guzzling boiled beef as though you'd not had
a bite for three days. Though as far as that goes, madmen eat too, but
though you have not said a word to me yet... you are not mad! That I'd
swear! Above all, you are not mad! So you may go to hell, all of you,
for there's some mystery, some secret about it, and I don't intend to
worry my brains over your secrets. So I've simply come to swear at you,"
he finished, getting up, "to relieve my mind. And I know what to do
now."

"What do you mean to do now?"

"What business is it of yours what I mean to do?"

"You are going in for a drinking bout."

"How... how did you know?"

"Why, it's pretty plain."

Razumihin paused for a minute.

"You always have been a very rational person and you've never been mad,
never," he observed suddenly with warmth. "You're right: I shall drink.
Good-bye!"

And he moved to go out.

"I was talking with my sister--the day before yesterday, I think it
was--about you, Razumihin."

"About me! But... where can you have seen her the day before yesterday?"
Razumihin stopped short and even turned a little pale.

One could see that his heart was throbbing slowly and violently.

"She came here by herself, sat there and talked to me."

"She did!"

"Yes."

"What did you say to her... I mean, about me?"

"I told her you were a very good, honest, and industrious man. I didn't
tell her you love her, because she knows that herself."

"She knows that herself?"

"Well, it's pretty plain. Wherever I might go, whatever happened to me,
you would remain to look after them. I, so to speak, give them into your
keeping, Razumihin. I say this because I know quite well how you love
her, and am convinced of the purity of your heart. I know that she too
may l