Pagina 774 di 1294

"Then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things

which Jesus did believed on Him."

She could read no more, closed the book and got up from her chair

quickly.

"That is all about the raising of Lazarus," she whispered

severely and abruptly, and turning away she stood motionless, not

daring to raise her eyes to him. She still trembled feverishly.

The candle-end was flickering out in the battered candlestick,

dimly lighting up in the poverty-stricken room the murderer and

the harlot who had so strangely been reading together the eternal

book. Five minutes or more passed.

"I came to speak of something," Raskolnikov said aloud, frowning.

He got up and went to Sonia. She lifted her eyes to him in

silence. His face was particularly stern and there was a sort of

savage determination in it.

"I have abandoned my family to-day," he said, "my mother and

sister. I am not going to see them. I've broken with them

completely."