"The pestle was in my hand."
"Not in your pocket?
Do you remember that precisely?
Was it a violent blow you gave him?"
"It must have been a violent one. But why do you ask?"
"Would you mind sitting on the chair just as you sat on the wall then and showing us just how you moved your arm, and in what direction?"
"You're making fun of me, aren't you?" asked Mitya, looking haughtily at the speaker; but the latter did not flinch.
Mitya turned abruptly, sat astride on his chair, and swung his arm.
"This was how I struck him!
That's how I knocked him down!
What more do you want?"
"Thank you.
May I trouble you now to explain why you jumped down, with what object, and what you had in view?"
"Oh, hang it!... I jumped down to look at the man I'd hurt... I don't know what for!"
"Though you were so excited and were running away?"
"Yes, though I was excited and running away."
"You wanted to help him?"
"Help!... Yes, perhaps I did want to help him.... I don't remember."
"You don't remember?
Then you didn't quite know what you were doing?"
"Not at all. I remember everything- every detail.
I jumped down to look at him, and wiped his face with my handkerchief."
"We have seen your handkerchief.
Did you hope to restore him to consciousness?"
"I don't know whether I hoped it.
I simply wanted to make sure whether he was alive or not."
"Ah! You wanted to be sure?
Well, what then?"
"I'm not a doctor. I couldn't decide.
I ran away thinking I'd killed him. And now he's recovered."
"Excellent," commented the prosecutor. "Thank you.
That's all I wanted.
Kindly proceed."
Alas! it never entered Mitya's head to tell them, though he remembered it, that he had jumped back from pity, and standing over the prostrate figure had even uttered some words of regret:
"You've come to grief, old man- there's no help for it. Well, there you must lie."
The prosecutor could only draw one conclusion: that the man had jumped back "at such a moment and in such excitement simply with the object of ascertaining whether the only witness of his crime were dead; that he must therefore have been a man of great strength, coolness, decision, and foresight even at such a moment,"... and so on.
The prosecutor was satisfied:
"I've provoked the nervous fellow by 'trifles' and he has said more than he meant With painful effort Mitya went on.
But this time he was pulled up immediately by Nikolay Parfenovitch.
"How came you to run to the servant, Fedosya Markovna, with your hands so covered with blood, and, as it appears, your face, too?"
"Why, I didn't notice the blood at all at the time," answered Mitya.
"That's quite likely. It does happen sometimes." The prosecutor exchanged glances with Nikolay Parfenovitch.
"I simply didn't notice. You're quite right there, prosecutor," Mitya assented suddenly.
Next came the account of Mitya's sudden determination to "step aside" and make way for their happiness.
But he could not make up his mind to open his heart to them as before, and tell them about "the queen of his soul."
He disliked speaking of her before these chilly persons "who were fastening on him like bugs."
And so in response to their reiterated questions he answered briefly and abruptly:
"Well, I made up my mind to kill myself.
What had I left to live for? That question stared me in the face.
Her first rightful lover had come back, the man who wronged her but who'd hurried back to offer his love, after five years, and atone for the wrong with marriage....