, might I ask
you whether you do not think the case is non-proven? At all events,
sufficient evidence against him is still lacking."

"What? We have as chief witness the woman who personated the deceased,
and I will have her interrogated in your presence."

Touching a bell, the Prince ordered her to be sent for.

"It is a most disgraceful affair," he went on; "and, ashamed though I am
to have to say it, some of our leading tchinovniks, including the local
Governor himself, have become implicated in the matter. Yet you tell me
that this Chichikov ought not to be confined among thieves and rascals!"
Clearly the Governor-General's wrath was very great indeed.

"Your Highness," said Murazov, "the Governor of the town is one of the
heirs under the will: wherefore he has a certain right to intervene.
Also, the fact that extraneous persons have meddled in the matter is
only what is to be expected from human nature. A rich woman dies, and
no exact, regular disposition of her property is made. Hence there comes
flocking from every side a cloud of fortune hunters. What else could one
expect? Such is human nature."

"Yes, but why should such persons go and commit fraud?" asked the
Prince irritably. "I feel as though not a single honest tchinovnik were
available--as though every one of them were a rogue."

"Your Highness, which of us is altogether beyond reproach? The
tchinovniks of our town are human beings, and no more. Some of them are
men of worth, and nearly all of them men skilled in business--though
also, unfortunately, largely inter-related."

"Now, tell me this, Athanasi Vassilievitch," said the Prince, "for you
are about the only honest man of my acquaintance. What has inspired in
you such a penchant for defending rascals?"

"This," replied Murazov. "Take any man you like of the persons whom you
thus term rascals. That man none the less remains a human being. That
being so, how can one refuse to defend him when all the time one
knows that half his errors have been committed through ignorance and
stupidity? Each of us commits faults with every step that we take;
each of us entails unhappiness upon others with every breath that we
draw--and that although we may have no evil intention whatever in our
minds. Your Highness himself has, before now, committed an injustice of
the gravest nature."

"_I_ have?" cried the Prince, taken aback by this unexpected turn given
to the conversation.

Murazov remained silent for