ew back my
hands..." Stavrogin brought out almost with anguish, keeping his eyes
on the ground.

"Speak out! Speak out! You came to warn me of danger. You have let me
speak. You mean to-morrow to announce your marriage publicly.... Do
you suppose I don't see from your face that some new menacing idea
is dominating you?... Stavrogin, why am I condemned to believe in you
through all eternity? Could I speak like this to anyone else? I have
modesty, but I am not ashamed of my nakedness because it's Stavrogin
I am speaking to. I was not afraid of caricaturing a grand idea by
handling it because Stavrogin was listening to me.... Shan't I kiss your
footprints when you've gone? I can't tear you out of my heart, Nikolay
Stavrogin!"

"I'm sorry I can't feel affection for you, Shatov," Stavrogin replied
coldly.

"I know you can't, and I know you are not lying. Listen. I can set it
all right. I can 'catch your hare' for you."

Stavrogin did not speak.

"You're an atheist because you're a snob, a snob of the snobs. You've
lost the distinction between good and evil because you've lost touch
with your own people. A new generation is coming, straight from the
heart of the people, and you will know nothing of it, neither you nor
the Verhovenskys, father or son; nor I, for I'm a snob too--I, the son
of your serf and lackey, Pashka.... Listen. Attain to God by work; it
all lies in that; or disappear like rotten mildew. Attain to Him by
work."

"God by work? What sort of work?"

"Peasants' work. Go, give up all your wealth.... Ah! you laugh, you're
afraid of some trick?"

But Stavrogin was not laughing.

"You suppose that one may attain to God by work, and by peasants' work,"
he repeated, reflecting as though he had really come across something
new and serious which was worth considering. "By the way," he passed
suddenly to a new idea, "you reminded me just now. Do you know that
I'm not rich at all, that I've nothing to give up? I'm scarcely in
a position even to provide for Marya Timofyevna's future.... Another
thing: I came to ask you if it would be possible for you to remain near
Marya Timofyevna in the fixture, as you are the only person who has
some influence over her poor brain. I say this so as to be prepared for
anything."

"All right, all right. You're speaking of Marya Timofyevna," said
Shatov, waving one hand, while he held a candle in the other. "All
right. Afterwards, of course.... Listen. Go to Tikhon."

"To