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Chapter 5 Lebeziatnikov looked perturbed. Ive come to you, Sofya Semyonovna, he began. Excuse me I thought I should find you, he said, addressing Raskolnikov suddenly, that is, I didnt mean anything of that sort But I just thought Katerina Ivanovna has gone out of her mind, he blurted out suddenly, turning from Raskolnikov to Sonia. Sonia screamed. At least it seems so. But we dont know what to do, you see! She came backshe seems to have been turned out somewhere, perhaps beaten. So it seems at least, She had run to your fathers former chief, she didnt find him at home: he was dining at some other generals. Only fancy, she rushed off there, to the other generals, and, imagine, she was so persistent that she managed to get the chief to see her, had him fetched out from dinner, it seems. You can imagine what happened. She was turned out, of course; but, according to her own story, she abused him and threw something at him. One may well believe it. How it is she wasnt taken up, I cant understand! Now she is telling everyone, including Amalia Ivanovna; but its difficult to understand her, she is screaming and flinging herself about. Oh yes, she shouts that since everyone has abandoned her, she will take the children and go into the street with a barrel-organ, and the children will sing and dance, and she too, and collect money, and will go every day under the generals window to let everyone see well-born children, whose father was an official, begging in the street. She keeps beating the children and they are all crying. She is teaching Lida to sing My Village, the boy to dance, Polenka the same. She is tearing up all the clothes, and making them little caps like actors; she means to carry a tin basin and make it tinkle, instead of music. She wont listen to anything. Imagine the state of things! Its beyond anything! Lebeziatnikov would have gone on, but Sonia, who had heard him almost breathless, snatched up her cloak and hat, and ran out of the room, putting on her things as she went. Raskolnikov followed her and Lebeziatnikov came after him. She has certainly gone mad! he said to Raskolnikov, as they went out into the street. I didnt want to frighten Sofya Semyonovna, so I said it seemed like it, but there isnt a doubt of it. They say that in consumption the tubercles sometimes occur in the brain; its a pity I know nothing of medicine. I did try to persuade her, but she wouldnt listen. Did you talk to her about the tubercles? Not precisely of the tubercles. Besides, she wouldnt have understood! But what I say is, that if you convince a person logically that he has nothing to cry about, hell stop crying. Thats clear. Is it your conviction that he wont? Life would be too easy if it were so, answered Raskolnikov. Excuse me, excuse me; of course it would be rather difficult for Katerina Ivanovna to understand, but do you know that in Paris they have been conducting serious experiments as to the possibility of curing the insane, simply by logical argument? One professor there, a scientific man of standing, lately dead, believed in the possibility of such treatment. His idea was that theres nothing really wrong with the physical organism of the insane, and that insanity is, so to say, a logical mistake, an error of judgment, an incorrect view of things. He gradually showed the madman his error and, would you believe it, they say he was successful? But as he made use of douches too, how far success was due to that treatment remains uncertain. So it seems at least. Raskolnikov had long ceased to listen. Reaching the house where he lived, he nodded to Lebeziatnikov and went in at the gate. Lebeziatnikov woke up with a start, looked about him and hurried on. Raskolnikov went into his little room and stood still in the middle of it. Why had he come back here? He looked at the yellow and tattered paper, at the dust, at his sofa. From the yard came a loud continuous |
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