," Nikolay Parfenovitch went on as
though creeping up to the subject. "Where were you able to procure such a
sum all at once, when by your own confession, at five o'clock the same day
you--"

"I was in want of ten roubles and pledged my pistols with Perhotin, and
then went to Madame Hohlakov to borrow three thousand which she wouldn't
give me, and so on, and all the rest of it," Mitya interrupted sharply.
"Yes, gentlemen, I was in want of it, and suddenly thousands turned up,
eh? Do you know, gentlemen, you're both afraid now 'what if he won't tell
us where he got it?' That's just how it is. I'm not going to tell you,
gentlemen. You've guessed right. You'll never know," said Mitya, chipping
out each word with extraordinary determination. The lawyers were silent
for a moment.

"You must understand, Mr. Karamazov, that it is of vital importance for us
to know," said Nikolay Parfenovitch, softly and suavely.

"I understand; but still I won't tell you."

The prosecutor, too, intervened, and again reminded the prisoner that he
was at liberty to refuse to answer questions, if he thought it to his
interest, and so on. But in view of the damage he might do himself by his
silence, especially in a case of such importance as--

"And so on, gentlemen, and so on. Enough! I've heard that rigmarole
before," Mitya interrupted again. "I can see for myself how important it
is, and that this is the vital point, and still I won't say."

"What is it to us? It's not our business, but yours. You are doing
yourself harm," observed Nikolay Parfenovitch nervously.

"You see, gentlemen, joking apart"--Mitya lifted his eyes and looked firmly
at them both--"I had an inkling from the first that we should come to
loggerheads at this point. But at first when I began to give my evidence,
it was all still far away and misty; it was all floating, and I was so
simple that I began with the supposition of mutual confidence existing
between us. Now I can see for myself that such confidence is out of the
question, for in any case we were bound to come to this cursed
stumbling-block. And now we've come to it! It's impossible and there's an
end of it! But I don't blame you. You can't believe it all simply on my
word. I understand that, of course."

He relapsed into gloomy silence.

"Couldn't you, without abandoning your resolution to be silent about the
chief point, could you not, at the same time, give us some slight hint as
to the nature of the moti