ecause it was "inevitable." But,
on the other hand, the mass of free-and-easy people and the mass too of
those whom Pyotr Stepanovitch and I had suspected of coming in without
tickets, seemed even bigger than in the afternoon. So far they were all
sitting in the refreshment bar, and had gone straight there on arriving,
as though it were the meeting-place they had agreed upon. So at least it
seemed to me. The refreshment bar had been placed in a large room,
the last of several opening out of one another. Here Prohoritch was
installed with all the attractions of the club cuisine and with a
tempting display of drinks and dainties. I noticed several persons whose
coats were almost in rags and whose get-up was altogether suspicious and
utterly unsuitable for a ball. They had evidently been with great pains
brought to a state of partial sobriety which would not last long; and
goodness knows where they had been brought from, they were not local
people. I knew, of course, that it was part of Yulia Mihailovna's idea
that the ball should be of the most democratic character, and that "even
working people and shopmen should not be excluded if any one of that
class chanced to pay for a ticket." She could bravely utter such words
in her committee with absolute security that none of the working people
of our town, who all lived in extreme poverty, would dream of taking a
ticket. But in spite of the democratic sentiments of the committee, I
could hardly believe that such sinister-looking and shabby people could
have been admitted in the regular way. But who could have admitted them,
and with what object? Lyamshin and Liputin had already been deprived of
their steward's rosettes, though they were present at the ball, as they
were taking part in the "literary quadrille." But, to my amazement,
Liputin's place was taken by the divinity student, who had caused
the greatest scandal at the matinee by his skirmish with Stepan
Trofimovitch; and Lyamshin's was taken by Pyotr Stepanovitch himself.
What was to be looked for under the circumstances?

I tried to listen to the conversation. I was struck by the wildness
of some ideas I heard expressed. It was maintained in one group, for
instance, that Yulia Mihailovna had arranged Liza's elopement with
Stavrogin and had been paid by the latter for doing so. Even the sum
paid was mentioned. It was asserted that she had arranged the whole fete
with a view to it, and that that was the reason why half the