"Yes, that was awkward of him."
"He was in too great a hurry."
"He is a nervous man."
"We laugh, but what must the prisoner be feeling?"
"Yes, what must it be for Mitya?"
In a third group:
"What lady is that, the fat one, with the lorgnette, sitting at the end?"
"She is a general's wife, divorced, I know her."
"That's why she has the lorgnette."
"She is not good for much."
"Oh no, she is a piquante little woman."
"Two places beyond her there is a little fair woman, she is prettier."
"They caught him smartly at Mokroe, didn't they, eh?"
"Oh, it was smart enough.
We've heard it before, how often he has told the story at people's houses!
"And he couldn't resist doing it now.
That's vanity."
"He is a man with a grievance, he he!"
"Yes, and quick to take offence.
And there was too much rhetoric, such long sentences."
"Yes, he tries to alarm us, he kept trying to alarm us.
Do you remember about the troika?
Something about 'They have Hamlets, but we have, so far, only Karamazovs!'
That was cleverly said!"
"That was to propitiate the liberals.
He is afraid of them."
"Yes, and he is afraid of the lawyer, too."
"Yes, what will Fetyukovitch say?"
"Whatever he says, he won't get round our peasants."
"Don't you think so?"
A fourth group:
"What he said about the troika was good, that piece about the other nations."
"And that was true what he said about other nations not standing it."
"What do you mean?"
"Why, in the English Parliment a Member got up last week and speaking about the Nihilists asked the Ministry whether it was not high time to intervene, to educate this barbarous people.
Ippolit was thinking of him, I know he was.
He was talking about that last week."
"Not an easy job."
"Not an easy job?
Why not?"
"Why, we'd shut up Kronstadt and not let them have any corn.
Where would they get it?"
"In America.
They get it from America now."
"Nonsense!"
But the bell rang, all rushed to their places.
Fetyukovitch mounted the tribune.
Chapter 10.
The Speech for the Defence.
An Argument that Cuts Both Ways