(25) C. P. Part 3 (Chapter I)

   Raskolnikov waved weakly to Razumihin to stop the incoherent consolations he was giving his mother and sister, took them both by the hand and gazed at then without speaking. His mother was alarmed by his expression, it revealed something immovable to her almost insane! Pulcheria began to cry.

   Dounia was pale; her hand trembled in her brothers.

   "Go home . . . with him," he said in a broken voice, pointing to Razumihin, "goodbye till to-morrow; tomorrow everything . . . . Is it long since you arrived?"

   "This evening, Rodya." answered his mother, "the train was awfully late. But Rodya, nothing would make me leave you know! I will spend the night here, near you. . . ."

   "Don't torture me !" he said with irritation.

   "I will stay with him," cried Razumihin, "I won't leave him for a moment.

   "How, can I think you!" Pulcheria said, taking Razumihin's hand, but Raskolnikov interrupted.

   "I can't have it! Don't worry me! Enough go away. . . . I can't stand it!"

   "Come, mamma, we are distressing him," Dounia whispered in dismay.

   "I've not looked at him in three years!" wept Pulcheria.

   "Stay," he stopped them again, "you keep interrupting me, and my thoughts get muddled. . . . Have you seen Luzhin?"

   "No, Rodya, but he knows of our arrival, We have heard, Rodya that Pyotr Luuzhin was so kind to visit you to-day," Pulcheria said somewhat timidly.

   "Yes . . . he was so kind . . . Dounia, I promised Luzhin I'd throw him downstairs and told him to go to hell. . . . "

   "Rodya, surely you don't mean to tell us . . ." Pulcheria began in alarm, she stopped looking at Dounia.

   Dounia was looking attentively at her brother, waiting for what comes next, Both of them had heard of the quarrel from Nastasya, she had told them all about it.

   "Dounia," Raskolnikov said with effort, "I don't want that marriage, you must refuse, so that we never hear his name again."

   "Good heavens!" cried his mother.

   "Brother think about what you are saying!" cried Douia. "You are not fit to talk now, you are tired!"

   "You think I am delirious? No. . . . You are marrying Luzhin for my sake. I won't accept the sacrifice, you must write a letter tomorrow reusing him. Let me read it in the morning and that will be the end of it!"

   "That I can't do, what right do you have," cried Dounia.

   "Dounia, you are too hasty, be quiet, tomorrow. . . ."

   "Better come away," said Pulcheria.

   "He is raving," Razumihin cried tipsily, or how would he dare! To-morrow all this nonsense will be over. . . . To-day he certainly did drive him away, That was so. And Luzhin got angry too. . . . He made speeches here, wanted to show of his learning and he went out crest fallen. . . ."

   "Then it's true?" cried Pulcheria.

   "Good-bye until to-morrow, brother,"said Dounia compassionately--"let us go, mother. . . . Good-bye Rodya."

   "Do you hear sister," he repeated after them, making a last effort, "I am not delirious; this marriage is--an infamy. Let me act like a scoundrel, but you mustn't . . . one is enough sister. It's me or Luzhin! Go now. . . ."

   "But your out of your mind!" roared Razumihin; Rakolnikov did not or could not answer. He lay down on the sofa exhausted. Dounia looked with interest at Razumihin; her black eyes flashed; Razumihin was taken by her glance.    

   Pulcheria stood overwhelmed.

   "Nothing would induce me to go," she whispered in despair to Razumihin. "I will stay here . . . escort Dounia home."

   "You'll spoil everything," Razumihin answered in the same whisper, losing patience--"come out to the stairs. Nastasya show a light! I assure you," he went on in a half-whisper on the stairs--"that he was almost beating the doctor and me this afternoon! The doctor himself gave way so as to not irritate him. I remained on guard but he dressed and slipped off. He will slip off again if you irritate him."

   "What are you saying?"

   "Your daughter can't be left in those lodgings without you."

   "I'll go to the landlady here and ask for somewhere to spend the night for Dounia and me. I can't leave him like that, I cannot!"

   This conversation was taking place on the landing outside the landlady's door. Razumihin was in extraordinary excitement. Earlier while bringing Raskolnikov home he talked freely but was aware of himself despite the quantity of drink. Now he was in a state bordering ecstasy, all he had drunk seemed to fly to his head  with redoubled effect. He stood with the two ladies, seizing both by their hands, persuading them, and giving them reasons with astonishing plainness of speech, and at almost every word he uttered, probably to emphasize his arguments, he squeezed their hands painfully as in a vice. He stared at them without the least regard to manners. They sometimes pulled their hands away, but far from noticing he drew them closer to him. If they'd told him to jump head first from the staircase, he would have done it without thought or hesitation in their service. Though Pulcheria thought the young man was really too eccentric, and pinched her hand too much, in her anxiety over her Rodya she looked on his presence as providential, and was unwilling to notice all his peculiarities. Dounia shared her anxiety, she could not see the glowing light in his eyes without wonder and alarm. It was the unbounded confidence inspired by Nastasya's account of her brother's queer friend, prevented her from running away from him, and convincing her mother to do the same. Ten minutes later, she was reassured; it was characteristic of Razumihin that he showed his true nature at once, whatever mood he might be in, so that people quickly saw the sort of man they had to deal with.

   "You can't go to the landlady that's perfect nonsense!" he cried. "If you stay, even though you are his mother, you'll drive him to a frenzy! I'll tell you what I'll do: Nastasya will stay with him now, I'll take you both home, you can't be in the streets alone! I'll run straight back here and in a quarter of an hour later, on my word of honour, I'll bring you news of how he is and all that. Then I'll fetch the doctor and let you know what he says. If there's anything wrong I'll bring you here, but if he is all right you go to bed. I'll spend the night here in the passage. Do you trust me, or not?"

   "Let us go mother," said Dounia, he will certainly do what he has promised. He has saved Rodya already."

   "You understand me, because you are an angel!" Razumihin cried in an ecstasy, "let us go Nastasya! Fly upstairs and sit with him; I'll come back in a quarter of an hour."    To continue.