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Here was the flat on the second storey where Nikolay and Dmitri

had been working. "It's shut up and the door newly painted. So

it's to let." Then the third storey and the fourth. "Here!" He

was perplexed to find the door of the flat wide open. There were

men there, he could hear voices; he had not expected that. After

brief hesitation he mounted the last stairs and went into the

flat. It, too, was being done up; there were workmen in it. This

seemed to amaze him; he somehow fancied that he would find

everything as he left it, even perhaps the corpses in the same

places on the floor. And now, bare walls, no furniture; it seemed

strange. He walked to the window and sat down on the window-sill.

There were two workmen, both young fellows, but one much younger

than the other. They were papering the walls with a new white

paper covered with lilac flowers, instead of the old, dirty,

yellow one. Raskolnikov for some reason felt horribly annoyed by

this.