Wouldn't it?
Wouldn't it?
I notice that you've begun to be very attentive... you interesting young man...."
Svidrigailov struck the table with his fist impatiently.
He was flushed.
Raskolnikov saw clearly that the glass or glass and a half of champagne that he had sipped almost unconsciously was affecting him--and he resolved to take advantage of the opportunity.
He felt very suspicious of Svidrigailov.
"Well, after what you have said, I am fully convinced that you have come to Petersburg with designs on my sister," he said directly to Svidrigailov, in order to irritate him further.
"Oh, nonsense," said Svidrigailov, seeming to rouse himself. "Why, I told you... besides your sister can't endure me."
"Yes, I am certain that she can't, but that's not the point."
"Are you so sure that she can't?" Svidrigailov screwed up his eyes and smiled mockingly. "You are right, she doesn't love me, but you can never be sure of what has passed between husband and wife or lover and mistress.
There's always a little corner which remains a secret to the world and is only known to those two.
Will you answer for it that Avdotya Romanovna regarded me with aversion?"
"From some words you've dropped, I notice that you still have designs--and of course evil ones--on Dounia and mean to carry them out promptly."
"What, have I dropped words like that?" Svidrigailov asked in naive dismay, taking not the slightest notice of the epithet bestowed on his designs.
"Why, you are dropping them even now.
Why are you so frightened?
What are you so afraid of now?"
"Me--afraid?
Afraid of you?
You have rather to be afraid of me, _cher ami_.
But what nonsense....
I've drunk too much though, I see that. I was almost saying too much again.
Damn the wine!
Hi! there, water!"
He snatched up the champagne bottle and flung it without ceremony out of the window.
Philip brought the water.
"That's all nonsense!" said Svidrigailov, wetting a towel and putting it to his head. "But I can answer you in one word and annihilate all your suspicions.
Do you know that I am going to get married?"
"You told me so before."
"Did I?
I've forgotten.
But I couldn't have told you so for certain for I had not even seen my betrothed; I only meant to.
But now I really have a betrothed and it's a settled thing, and if it weren't that I have business that can't be put off, I would have taken you to see them at once, for I should like to ask your advice.
Ach, hang it, only ten minutes left!
See, look at the watch. But I must tell you, for it's an interesting story, my marriage, in its own way. Where are you off to?
Going again?"
"No, I'm not going away now."
"Not at all?
We shall see.
I'll take you there, I'll show you my betrothed, only not now. For you'll soon have to be off.
You have to go to the right and I to the left.
Do you know that Madame Resslich, the woman I am lodging with now, eh?
I know what you're thinking, that she's the woman whose girl they say drowned herself in the winter.
Come, are you listening?
She arranged it all for me. You're bored, she said, you want something to fill up your time.
For, you know, I am a gloomy, depressed person.
Do you think I'm light-hearted?
No, I'm gloomy. I do no harm, but sit in a corner without speaking a word for three days at a time.
And that Resslich is a sly hussy, I tell you. I know what she has got in her mind; she thinks I shall get sick of it, abandon my wife and depart, and she'll get hold of her and make a profit out of her--in our class, of course, or higher.