in so long as your free intention is carried out."

"And am I to take on myself all the nasty things you've done?"

"Listen, Kirillov, are you afraid? If you want to cry off, say so at
once."

"I am not afraid."

"I ask because you are making so many inquiries."

"Are you going soon?"

"Asking questions again?"

Kirillov scanned him contemptuously.

"You see," Pyotr Stepanovitch went on, getting angrier and angrier, and
unable to take the right tone, "you want me to go away, to be alone, to
concentrate yourself, but all that's a bad sign for you--for you above
all. You want to think a great deal. To my mind you'd better not think.
And really you make me uneasy."

"There's only one thing I hate, that at such a moment I should have a
reptile like you beside me."

"Oh, that doesn't matter. I'll go away at the time and stand on the
steps if you like. If you are so concerned about trifles when it comes
to dying, then... it's all a very bad sign. I'll go out on to the
steps and you can imagine I know nothing about it, and that I am a man
infinitely below you."

"No, not infinitely; you've got abilities, but there's a lot you don't
understand because you are a low man."

"Delighted, delighted. I told you already I am delighted to provide
entertainment... at such a moment."

"You don't understand anything."

"That is, I... well, I listen with respect, anyway."

"You can do nothing; even now you can't hide your petty spite, though
it's not to your interest to show it. You'll make me cross, and then I
may want another six months." Pyotr Stepanovitch looked at his watch.
"I never understood your theory, but I know you didn't invent it for our
sakes, so I suppose you would carry it out apart from us. And I know too
that you haven't mastered the idea but the idea has mastered you, so you
won't put it off."

"What? The idea has mastered me?"

"Yes."

"And not I mastered the idea? That's good. You have a little sense. Only
you tease me and I am proud."

"That's a good thing, that's a good thing. Just what you need, to be
proud."

"Enough. You've drunk your tea; go away."

"Damn it all, I suppose I must"--Pyotr Stepanovitch got up--"though
it's early. Listen, Kirillov. Shall I find that man--you know whom I
mean--at Myasnitchiha's? Or has she too been lying?"

"You won't find him, because he is here and not there."

"Here! Damn it all, where?"

"Sitting in the kitchen, eating and drinking."

"How dar