Stavrogin suddenly laughed.
"I am laughing at my monkey," he explained at once.
"Ah! You saw that I was putting it on!" cried Pyotr Stepanovitch, laughing too, with great enjoyment. "I did it to amuse you!
Only fancy, as soon as you came out to me I guessed from your face that you'd been 'unlucky.'
A complete fiasco, perhaps. Eh?
There! I'll bet anything," he cried, almost gasping with delight, "that you've been sitting side by side in the drawing-room all night wasting your precious time discussing something lofty and elevated.... There, forgive me, forgive me; it's not my business. I felt sure yesterday that it would all end in foolishness.
I brought her to you simply to amuse you, and to show you that you wouldn't have a dull time with me. I shall be of use to you a hundred times in that way. I always like pleasing people.
If you don't want her now, which was what I was reckoning on when I came, then..."
"So you brought her simply for my amusement?"
"Why, what else?"
"Not to make me kill my wife?"
"Come. You've not killed her?
What a tragic fellow you are!
"It's just the same; you killed her."
"I didn't kill her!
I tell you I had no hand in it....
You are beginning to make me uneasy, though...."
"Go on. You said, 'if you don't want her now, then... '"
"Then, leave it to me, of course.
I can quite easily marry her off to Mavriky Nikolaevitch, though I didn't make him sit down by the fence. Don't take that notion into your head.
I am afraid of him, now.
You talk about my droshky, but I simply dashed by.... What if he has a revolver?
It's a good thing I brought mine.
Here it is." He brought a revolver out of his pocket, showed it, and hid it again at once. "I took it as I was coming such a long way.... But I'll arrange all that for you in a twinkling: her little heart is aching at this moment for Mavriky; it should be, anyway.... And, do you know, I am really rather sorry for her?
If I take her to Mavriky she will begin about you directly; she will praise you to him and abuse him to his face. You know the heart of woman!
There you are, laughing again!
I am awfully glad that you are so cheerful now.
Come, let's go.
I'll begin with Mavriky right away, and about them... those who've been murdered... hadn't we better keep quiet now?
She'll hear later on, anyway."
"What will she hear?
Who's been murdered?
What were you saying about Mavriky Nikolaevitch?" said Liza, suddenly opening the door.
"Ah! You've been listening?"
"What were you saying just now about Mavriky Nikolaevitch?
Has he been murdered?"
"Ah! Then you didn't hear?
Don't distress yourself, Mavriky Nikolaevitch is alive and well, and you can satisfy yourself of it in an instant, for he is here by the wayside, by the garden fence... and I believe he's been sitting there all night. He is drenched through in his greatcoat! He saw me as I drove past."
"That's not true.
You said 'murdered.'... Who's been murdered?" she insisted with agonising mistrust.
"The only people who have been murdered are my wife, her brother Lebyadkin, and their servant," Stavrogin brought out firmly.
Liza trembled and turned terribly pale.
"A strange brutal outrage, Lizaveta Nikolaevna. A simple case of robbery," Pyotr Stepanovitch rattled off at once "Simply robbery, under cover of the fire. The crime was committed by Fedka the convict, and it was all that fool Lebyadkin's fault for showing every one his money.... I rushed here with the news... it fell on me like a thunderbolt.
Stavrogin could hardly stand when I told him.
We were deliberating here whether to tell you at once or not?"
"Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch, is he telling the truth?" Liza articulated faintly.
"No; it's false."
"False?" said Pyotr Stepanovitch, starting.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Heavens! I shall go mad!" cried Liza.