re not an Ivan Filipovitch. You are
beautiful and proud as a God; you are seeking nothing for yourself,
with the halo of a victim round you, 'in hiding.' The great thing is
the legend. You'll conquer them, you'll have only to look, and you will
conquer them. He is 'in hiding,' and will come forth bringing a new
truth. And, meanwhile, we'll pass two or three judgments as wise
as Solomon's. The groups, you know, the quintets--we've no need of
newspapers. If out of ten thousand petitions only one is granted, all
would come with petitions. In every parish, every peasant will know that
there is somewhere a hollow tree where petitions are to be put. And the
whole land will resound with the cry, 'A new just law is to come,' and
the sea will be troubled and the whole gimcrack show will f all to the
ground, and then we shall consider how to build up an edifice of stone.
For the first time! We are going to build it, we, and only we!"

"Madness," said Stavrogin.

"Why, why don't you want it? Are you afraid? That's why I caught at you,
because you are afraid of nothing. Is it unreasonable? But you see, so
far I am Columbus without America. Would Columbus without America seem
reasonable?"

Stavrogin did not speak. Meanwhile they had reached the house and
stopped at the entrance.

"Listen," Verhovensky bent down to his ear. "I'll do it for you without
the money. I'll settle Marya Timofyevna to-morrow!... Without the money,
and to-morrow I'll bring you Liza. Will you have Liza to-morrow?"

"Is he really mad?" Stavrogin wondered smiling. The front door was
opened.

"Stavrogin--is America ours?" said Verhovensky, seizing his hand for the
last time.

"What for?" said Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch, gravely and sternly.

"You don't care, I knew that!" cried Verhovensky in an access of furious
anger. "You are lying, you miserable, profligate, perverted, little
aristocrat! I don't believe you, you've the appetite of a wolf!...
Understand that you've cost me such a price, I can't give you up now!
There's no one on earth but you! I invented you abroad; I invented it
all, looking at you. If I hadn't watched you from my corner, nothing of
all this would have entered my head!"

* The reference is to the legend current in the sect of
Flagellants.--Translator's note.

Stavrogin went up the steps without answering.

"Stavrogin!" Verhovensky called after him, "I give you a day... two,
then... three, then; more than three I can't--an