your money... a lot of money... a bundle of hundred-rouble notes, and that his servant-boy saw it too.'
'That's true, gentlemen. I remember it was so.'
'Now, there's one little point presents itself. Can you inform us,' Nikolay Parfenovitch began, with extreme gentleness, 'where did you get so much money all of a sudden, when it appears from the facts, from the reckoning of time, that you had not been home?'
The prosecutor's brows contracted at the question being asked so plainly, but he did not interrupt Nikolay Parfenovitch.
'No, I didn't go home,' answered Mitya, apparently perfectly composed, but looking at the floor.
'Allow me then to repeat my question,' Nikolay Parfenovitch went on as though creeping up to the subject. 'Where were you able to procure such a sum all at once, when by your own confession, at five o'clock the same day you-'
'I was in want of ten roubles and pledged my pistols with Perhotin, and then went to Madame Hohlakov to borrow three thousand which she wouldn't give me, and so on, and all the rest of it,' Mitya interrupted sharply. 'Yes, gentlemen, I was in want of it, and suddenly thousands turned up, eh? Do you know, gentlemen, you're both afraid now ‘what if he won't tell us where he got it?’ That's just how it is. I'm not going to tell you, gentlemen. You've guessed right. You'll never know,' said Mitya, chipping out each word with extraordinary determination. The lawyers were silent for a moment.
'You must understand, Mr. Karamazov, that it is of vital importance for us to know,' said Nikolay Parfenovitch, softly and suavely.
'I understand; but still I won't tell you.'
The prosecutor, too, intervened, and again reminded the prisoner that he was at liberty to refuse to answer questions, if he thought it to his interest, and so on. But in view of the damage he might do himself by his silence, especially in a case of such importance as-
'And so on, gentlemen, and so on. Enough! I've heard that rigmarole before,' Mitya interrupted again. 'I can see for myself how important it is, and that this is the vital point, and still I won't say.'
'What is it to us? It's not our business, but yours. .You are doing yourself harm,' observed Nikolay Parfenovitch nervously.
'You see, gentlemen, joking apart'--Mitya lifted his eyes and looked firmly at them both--'I had an inkling from the first that we should come to loggerheads at this point. But at first when I began to give my evidence, it was all still far away and misty; it was all floating, and I was so simple that I began with the supposition of mutual confidence existing between us. Now I can see for myself that such confidence is out of the question, for in any case we were bound to come to this cursed stumbling-block. And now we've come to it! It's impossible and there's an end of it! But I don't blame you. You can't believe it all simply on my word. I understand that, of course.'
He relapsed into gloomy silence.
'Couldn't you, without abandoning your resolution to be silent about the chief point, could you not, at the same time, give us some slight hint as to the nature of the motives which are strong enough to induce you to refuse to answer, at a crisis so full of danger to you?'
Mitya smiled mournfully, almost dreamily.
'I'm much more good-natured than you think, gentlemen. I'll tell you the reason why and give you that hint, though you don't deserve it. I won't speak of that, gentlemen, because it would be a stain on my honour. The answer to the question where I got the money would expose me to far greater disgrace than the murder and robbing of my father, if I had murdered and robbed him. That's why I can't tell you. I can't for fear of disgrace. What, gentlemen, are you going to write that down?'
'Yes, we'll write it down,' lisped Nikolay Parfenovitch.
'You ought not to write that down about ‘disgrace.’ I only told you that in the goodness of my heart. I needn't have told you. I made you a present of it, so to speak, and you pounce upon it at once. Oh, well, write--write what you like,' he concluded, with scornful disgust. 'I'm not afraid of you and I can still hold up my head before you.'
'And can't you tell us the nature of that disgrace?' Nikolay Parfenovitch hazarded.
The prosecutor frowned darkly.
'No, no, c'est fini, don't trouble yourselves. It's not worth while soiling one's hands. I have soiled myself enough through you as it is. You're not worth it--no one is. Enough, gentlemen. I'm not going on.'
This was said too peremptorily. Nikolay Parfenovitch did not insist further, but from Ippolit Kirillovitch's eyes he saw that he had not given up hope.
'Can you not, at least, tell us what sum you had in your hands when you went into Mr. Perhotin's--how many roubles exactly?'
'I can't tell you that.'
'You spoke to Mr. Perhotin, I believe, of having received three thousand from Madame Hohlakov.'
'Perhaps I did. Enough, gentlemen. I won't say how much I had.'
'Will you be so good then as to tell us how you came here and what you have done since you arrived?'
'Oh! you might ask the people here about that. But I'll tell you if you like.'
He proceeded to do so, but we won't repeat his story. He told it dryly and curtly. Of the raptures of his love he said nothing, but told them that he abandoned his determination to shoot himself, owing to 'new factors in the case.' He told the story without going into motives or details. And this time the lawyers did not worry him much. It was obvious that there was no essential point of interest to them here.
'We shall verify all that. We will come back to it during the examination of the witnesses, which will, of course, take place in your presence,' said Nikolay Parfenovitch in conclusion. 'And now allow me to request you to lay on the table everything in your possession, especially all the money you still have about you.'
'My money, gentlemen? Certainly. I understand that that is necessary. I'm surprised, indeed, that you haven't inquired about it before. It's true I couldn't get away anywhere. I'm sitting here where I can be seen. But here's my money--count it--take it. That's all, I think.'
He turned it all out of his pockets; even the small change--two pieces of twenty copecks--he pulled out of his waistcoat pocket. They counted the money, which amounted to eight hundred and thirty-six roubles, and forty copecks.
'And is that all?' asked the investigating lawyer.
'You stated just now in your evidence that you spent three hundred roubles at Plotnikovs'. You gave Perhotin ten, your driver twenty, here you lost two hundred, then...'
Nikolay Parfenovitch reckoned it all up. Mitya helped him readily. They recollected every farthing and included it in the reckoning. Nikolay Parfenovitch hurriedly added up the total. 'With this eight hundred you must have had about fifteen hundred at first?'
'I suppose so,' snapped Mitya.
'How is it they all assert there was much more?'
'Let them assert it.'
'But you asserted it yourself.'
'Yes, I did, too.'
'We will compare all this with the evidence of other persons not yet examined. Don't be anxious about your money. It will be properly taken care of and be at your disposal at the conclusion of... what is beginning... if it appears, or, so to speak, is proved that you have undisputed right to it. Well, and now...'
Nikolay Parfenovitch suddenly got up, and informed Mitya firmly that it was his duty and obligation to conduct a minute and thorough search 'of your clothes and everything else...'
'By all means, gentlemen. I'll turn out all my pockets, if you like.'
And he did, in fact, begin turning out his pockets.
'It will be necessary to take off your clothes, too.'
'What! Undress? Ugh! Damn it! Won't you search me as I am? Can't you?'
'It's utterly impossible, Dmitri Fyodorovitch. You must take off your clothes.'
'As you like,' Mitya submitted gloomily; 'only, please, not here, but behind the curtains. Who will search them?'
'Behind the curtains, of course.'
Nikolay Parfenovitch bent his head in assent. His small face wore an expression of peculiar solemnity.
Chapter 6
