have to dance
attendance for a considerable time. According to his idea, he ought to
have been admitted immediately; ten minutes, however, elapsed before
he could see Porphyrius Petrovitch. In the outer room where he had
been waiting, people came and went without heeding him in the least.
In the next room, which was a kind of office, a few clerks were at
work, and it was evident that not one of them had even an idea who
Raskolnikoff might be. The young man cast a mistrustful look about
him. "Was there not," thought he, "some spy, some mysterious myrmidon
of the law, ordered to watch him, and, if necessary, to prevent his
escape?" But he noticed nothing of the kind; the clerks were all hard
at work, and the other people paid him no kind of attention. The
visitor began to become reassured. "If," thought he, "this mysterious
personage of yesterday, this specter which had risen from the bowels
of the earth, knew all, and had seen all, would they, I should like to
know, let me stand about like this? Would they not rather have
arrested me, instead of waiting till I should come of my own accord?
Hence this man has either made no kind of revelation as yet about me,
or, more probably, he knows nothing, and has seen nothing (besides how
could he have seen anything?): consequently I have misjudged, and all
that happened yesterday was nothing but an illusion of my diseased
imagination." This explanation, which had offered itself the day
before to his mind, at the time he felt most fearful, he considered a
more likely one.

Whilst thinking about all this and getting ready for a new struggle,
Raskolnikoff suddenly perceived that he was trembling; he became
indignant at the very thought that it was fear of an interview with
the hateful Porphyrius Petrovitch which led him to do so. The most
terrible thing to him was to find himself once again in presence of
this man. He hated him beyond all expression, and what he dreaded was
lest he might show this hatred. His indignation was so great that it
suddenly stopped this trembling; he therefore prepared himself to
enter with a calm and self-possessed air, promised himself to speak as
little as possible, to be very carefully on the watch in order to
check, above all things, his irascible disposition. In the midst of
these reflections, he was introduced to Porphyrius Petrovitch. The
latter was alone in his office, a room of medium dimensions,
containing a large table, facing a sofa covered wi