صفحة 732 من 1294

Dounia smiled and held out her hand, but the look of anxiety did

not leave her face. Pulcheria Alexandrovna gazed at her timidly,

but the three thousand roubles had obviously a soothing effect on

her.

A quarter of an hour later, they were all engaged in a lively

conversation. Even Raskolnikov listened attentively for some

time, though he did not talk. Razumihin was the speaker.

"And why, why should you go away?" he flowed on ecstatically.

"And what are you to do in a little town? The great thing is, you

are all here together and you need one another--you do need one

another, believe me. For a time, anyway.... Take me into

partnership, and I assure you we'll plan a capital enterprise.

Listen! I'll explain it all in detail to you, the whole project!

It all flashed into my head this morning, before anything had

happened... I tell you what; I have an uncle, I must introduce

him to you (a most accommodating and respectable old man). This

uncle has got a capital of a thousand roubles, and he lives on

his pension and has no need of that money. For the last two years

he has been bothering me to borrow it from him and pay him six

per cent interest. I know what that means; he simply wants to

help me. Last year I had no need of it, but this year I resolved

to borrow it as soon as he arrived.