rk all night. They were bound
to end in this...." His eyes flashed again. "I am fleeing away from
madness, from a delirious dream. I am fleeing away to seek for Russia.
_Existe-t-elle, la Russie? Bah! C'est vous, cher capitaine!_
I've never doubted that I should meet you somewhere on some high
adventure.... But take my umbrella, and--why must you be on foot? For
God's sake, do at least take my umbrella, for I shall hire a carriage
somewhere in any case. I am on foot because Stasie (I mean, Nastasya)
would have shouted for the benefit of the whole street if she'd found out
I was going away. So I slipped away as far as possible incognito. I don't
know; in the _Voice_ they write of there being brigands everywhere, but I
thought surely I shouldn't meet a brigand the moment I came out on the
road. _Chere Lise,_ I thought you said something of some one's being
murdered. _Oh, mon Dieu!_ You are ill!"

"Come along, come along!" cried Liza, almost in hysterics, drawing
Mavriky Nikolaevitch after her again. "Wait a minute, Stepan
Trofimovitch!" she came back suddenly to him. "Stay, poor darling, let
me sign you with the cross. Perhaps, it would be better to put you under
control, but I'd rather make the sign of the cross over you. You, too,
pray for 'poor' Liza--just a little, don't bother too much about it.
Mavriky Nikolaevitch, give that baby back his umbrella. You must give it
him. That's right.... Come, let us go, let us go!"

They reached the fatal house at the very moment when the huge crowd,
which had gathered round it, had already heard a good deal of Stavrogin,
and of how much it was to his interest to murder his wife. Yet, I
repeat, the immense majority went on listening without moving or
uttering a word. The only people who were excited were bawling drunkards
and excitable individuals of the same sort as the gesticulatory
cabinet-maker. Every one knew the latter as a man really of mild
disposition, but he was liable on occasion to get excited and to fly off
at a tangent if anything struck him in a certain way. I did not see
Liza and Mavriky Nikolaevitch arrive. Petrified with amazement, I first
noticed Liza some distance away in the crowd, and I did not at once
catch sight of Mavriky Nikolaevitch. I fancy there was a moment when
he fell two or three steps behind her or was pressed back by the crush.
Liza, forcing her way through the crowd, seeing and noticing nothing
round her, like one in a delirium, like a patient e