to do that?” Meanwhile Darya Frantsevna, a malicious woman well known to the police, had already made a few enquiries through the landlady. “Well then,” mocked Katerina Ivanovna, “what are you saving exactly? Precious jewels?” But blame her not, my good sir, blame her not! This was said not in soundness of mind, but in a tumult of feeling, in sickness and to the crying of unfed children, and it was said more to offend than for its precise meaning . . . For such is Katerina Ivanovna’s character, and the moment the children start crying, albeit from hunger, she immediately beats them. Come six o’clock, I saw Sonechka get to her feet, cover her head, put on her little burnous and leave the apartment, and by nine she was back again. She went straight to Katerina Ivanovna and laid out thirty roubles on the table without saying a word. Not a word, not even a glance. She just took our big, green drap de dames23 shawl (we have one between us, made of drap de dames), buried her head and face in it and lay down on the bed, her face to the wall, her little shoulders and body a-quivering . . . As for me, sir, I was in the same state as before, with my feet up . . . And that, young man, was when I saw Katerina Ivanovna walk over to Sonechka’s little bed, also without saying a word, and kneel at the foot of the bed for the rest of the evening, kissing Sonechka’s feet, not wanting to get up, and, in the end, they both fell asleep just like that, in each other’s arms . . . both of them . . . both . . . yes, sir . . . and as for me . . . I was tipsy and had my feet up.’
Marmeladov fell silent – his voice just seemed to break off. Then, with sudden haste, he poured out a glass, drank it and cleared his throat.
‘And ever since then, good sir,’ he went on after a pause, ‘in consequence of a certain unfavourable circumstance and certain malicious reports, in which activity Darya Frantsevna proved especially zealous, alleging that she had not been shown due respect – ever since then my daughter, Sofya Semyonovna, has been obliged to take the yellow ticket, on account of which she could remain with us no longer. For our landlady, Amalia Fyodorovna, would not allow it (though she had previously assisted Darya Frantsevna), and Mr Lebezyatnikov himself . . . H’m . . . Well, it was on account of Sonya that he had that rumpus with Katerina Ivanovna. First he tried his luck with Sonechka, then he suddenly got up on his high horse: “Am I, a man of considerable education, to live under one roof with the likes of her?” Well, Katerina Ivanovna didn’t let that pass; she stepped in . . . and that was that . . . Sonechka usually comes by at dusk now, helps out Katerina Ivanovna and brings us what she can . . . She lives at Kapernaumov’s, the tailor’s, rents a room there, and Kapernaumov is lame and tongue-tied, and his entire numerous brood is also tongue-tied. And his wife, she too is tongue-tied . . . They squeeze into a single room, while Sonya has one of her own, with a partition . . . H’m, yes . . . The poorest of people and tied of tongue . . . yes indeed . . . So I got up bright and early, put on my rags, raised my hands to heaven and set off to see His Excellency Ivan Afanasyevich. Perhaps you know His Excellency Ivan Afanasyevich? . . . No? Then you do not know a godly man! He is wax . . . wax before the face of the Lord; as wax melteth!24 He was even moved to tears after deigning to hear me out. “Well, Marmeladov,” he says, “you’ve already disappointed me once . . . Now I’m giving you a second chance as my personal responsibility,” (those were his very words) “so remember that, and be off with you!” I kissed the dust at his feet – in my mind, of course, for in reality he would not have allowed it, being a dignitary and a man of the latest thinking in matters of state and education – and when I