Pagina 631 van 1294

"Then when you went upstairs between seven and eight, didn't you

see in a flat that stood open on a second storey, do you

remember? two workmen or at least one of them? They were painting

there, didn't you notice them? It's very, very important for

them."

"Painters? No, I didn't see them," Raskolnikov answered slowly,

as though ransacking his memory, while at the same instant he was

racking every nerve, almost swooning with anxiety to conjecture

as quickly as possible where the trap lay and not to overlook

anything. "No, I didn't see them, and I don't think I noticed a

flat like that open.... But on the fourth storey" (he had

mastered the trap now and was triumphant) "I remember now that

someone was moving out of the flat opposite Alyona Ivanovna's....

I remember... I remember it clearly. Some porters were carrying

out a sofa and they squeezed me against the wall. But painters...

no, I don't remember that there were any painters, and I don't

think that there was a flat open anywhere, no, there wasn't."