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keep her out of his hands, and how are we to get her home?”
|
The policeman saw it all in a flash. The stout gentleman was easy to
|
understand, he turned to consider the girl. The policeman bent over to
|
examine her more closely, and his face worked with genuine compassion.
|
“Ah, what a pity!” he said, shaking his head--“why, she is quite a
|
child! She has been deceived, you can see that at once. Listen, lady,”
|
he began addressing her, “where do you live?” The girl opened her weary
|
and sleepy-looking eyes, gazed blankly at the speaker and waved her
|
hand.
|
“Here,” said Raskolnikov feeling in his pocket and finding twenty
|
copecks, “here, call a cab and tell him to drive her to her address. The
|
only thing is to find out her address!”
|
“Missy, missy!” the policeman began again, taking the money. “I’ll fetch
|
you a cab and take you home myself. Where shall I take you, eh? Where do
|
you live?”
|
“Go away! They won’t let me alone,” the girl muttered, and once more
|
waved her hand.
|
“Ach, ach, how shocking! It’s shameful, missy, it’s a shame!” He shook
|
his head again, shocked, sympathetic and indignant.
|
“It’s a difficult job,” the policeman said to Raskolnikov, and as he
|
did so, he looked him up and down in a rapid glance. He, too, must have
|
seemed a strange figure to him: dressed in rags and handing him money!
|
“Did you meet her far from here?” he asked him.
|
“I tell you she was walking in front of me, staggering, just here, in
|
the boulevard. She only just reached the seat and sank down on it.”
|
“Ah, the shameful things that are done in the world nowadays, God have
|
mercy on us! An innocent creature like that, drunk already! She has been
|
deceived, that’s a sure thing. See how her dress has been torn too....
|
Ah, the vice one sees nowadays! And as likely as not she belongs to
|
gentlefolk too, poor ones maybe.... There are many like that nowadays.
|
She looks refined, too, as though she were a lady,” and he bent over her
|
once more.
|
Perhaps he had daughters growing up like that, “looking like ladies and
|
refined” with pretensions to gentility and smartness....
|
“The chief thing is,” Raskolnikov persisted, “to keep her out of this
|
scoundrel’s hands! Why should he outrage her! It’s as clear as day what
|
he is after; ah, the brute, he is not moving off!”
|
Raskolnikov spoke aloud and pointed to him. The gentleman heard him,
|
and seemed about to fly into a rage again, but thought better of it, and
|
confined himself to a contemptuous look. He then walked slowly another
|
ten paces away and again halted.
|
“Keep her out of his hands we can,” said the constable thoughtfully,
|
“if only she’d tell us where to take her, but as it is.... Missy, hey,
|
missy!” he bent over her once more.
|
She opened her eyes fully all of a sudden, looked at him intently, as
|
though realising something, got up from the seat and walked away in the
|
direction from which she had come. “Oh shameful wretches, they won’t let
|
me alone!” she said, waving her hand again. She walked quickly, though
|
staggering as before. The dandy followed her, but along another avenue,
|
keeping his eye on her.
|
“Don’t be anxious, I won’t let him have her,” the policeman said
|
resolutely, and he set off after them.
|
“Ah, the vice one sees nowadays!” he repeated aloud, sighing.
|
At that moment something seemed to sting Raskolnikov; in an instant a
|
complete revulsion of feeling came over him.
|
“Hey, here!” he shouted after the policeman.
|
The latter turned round.
|
“Let them be! What is it to do with you? Let her go! Let him amuse
|
himself.” He pointed at the dandy, “What is it to do with you?”
|
The policeman was bewildered, and stared at him open-eyed. Raskolnikov
|
laughed.
|
“Well!” ejaculated the policeman, with a gesture of contempt, and he
|
walked after the dandy and the girl, probably taking Raskolnikov for a
|
madman or something even worse.
|
“He has carried off my twenty copecks,” Raskolnikov murmured angrily
|
when he was left alone. “Well, let him take as much from the other
|
fellow to allow him to have the girl and so let it end. And why did I
|
want to interfere? Is it for me to help? Have I any right to help? Let
|
them devour each other alive--what is it to me? How did I dare to give him
|
twenty copecks? Were they mine?”
|
In spite of those strange words he felt very wretched. He sat down on
|
the deserted seat. His thoughts strayed aimlessly.... He found it hard
|
to fix his mind on anything at that moment. He longed to forget himself
|
altogether, to forget everything, and then to wake up and begin life
|
anew....
|
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