Pagina 606 de 1294

"Now he is off, beating the drum! Catch hold of him, do!" laughed

Porfiry. "Can you imagine," he turned to Raskolnikov, "six people

holding forth like that last night, in one room, with punch as a

preliminary! No, brother, you are wrong, environment accounts for

a great deal in crime; I can assure you of that."

"Oh, I know it does, but just tell me: a man of forty violates a

child of ten; was it environment drove him to it?"

"Well, strictly speaking, it did," Porfiry observed with

noteworthy gravity; "a crime of that nature may be very well

ascribed to the influence of environment."

Razumihin was almost in a frenzy. "Oh, if you like," he roared.

"I'll prove to you that your white eyelashes may very well be

ascribed to the Church of Ivan the Great's being two hundred and

fifty feet high, and I will prove it clearly, exactly,

progressively, and even with a Liberal tendency! I undertake to!

Will you bet on it?"

"Done! Let's hear, please, how he will prove it!"