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been necessary to disturb Dmitri. Now, what I wanted to ask was: On going upstairs--was it not between seven and eight you entered the house?" "Yes," replied Raskolnikoff, and he immediately regretted an answer he ought to have avoided. "Well, in going upstairs, between seven and eight, did you not see on the second floor, in one of the rooms, when the door was wide open--you remember, I dare say?--did you not see two painters, or, at all events, one of the two? They were whitewashing the room, I believe; you must have seen them! The matter is of the utmost importance to them!" "Painters, you say? I saw none," replied Raskolnikoff slowly, trying to sound his memory: for a moment he violently strained it to discover, as quickly as he could, the trap concealed by the magistrate's question. "No, I did not see a single one; I did not even see any room standing open," he went on, delighted at having discovered the trap, "but on the fourth floor I remember noticing that the man lodging on the same landing as Alena Ivanovna was in the act of moving. I remember that very well, as I met a few soldiers carrying a sofa, and I was obliged to back against the wall; but, as for painters, I don't remember seeing a single one--I don't even remember a room that had its door open. No, I saw nothing." "But what are you talking about?" all at once exclaimed Razoumikhin, who, till that moment, had attentively listened; "it was on the very day of the murder that painters were busy in that room, while he came there two days previously! Why are you asking that question?" "Right! I have confused the dates!" cried Porphyrius, tapping his forehead. "Deuce take me! That job makes me lose my head!" he added by way of excuse, and speaking to Raskolnikoff. "It is very important that we should know if anybody saw them in that room between seven and eight. I thought I might have got that information from you without thinking any more about it. I had positively confused the days!" "You ought to be more attentive!" grumbled Razoumikhin. These last words were uttered in the anteroom, as Porphyrius very civilly led his visitors to the door. They were gloomy and morose on leaving the house, and had gone some distance before speaking. Raskolnikoff breathed like a man who had just been subjected to a severe trial. When, on the following day, precisely at eleven o'clock, Raskolnikoff called on the examining magistrate, he was astonished to
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