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The prosecutor’s brows contracted at the question being
asked so plainly, but he did not interrupt Nikolay Parfeno-
vitch.
‘No, I didn’t go home,’ answered Mitya, apparently per-
fectly composed, but looking at the floor.
‘Allow me then to repeat my question,’ Nikolay Parfeno-
vitch went on as though creeping up to the subject. ‘Where
were you able to procure such a sum all at once, when by
your own confession, at five o’clock the same day you-.’
‘I was in want of ten roubles and pledged my pistols with
Perhotin, and then went to Madame Hohlakov to borrow
three thousand which she wouldn’t give me, and so on, and
all the rest of it,’ Mitya interrupted sharply. ‘Yes, gentlemen,
I was in want of it, and suddenly thousands turned up, eh?
Do you know, gentlemen, you’re both afraid now ‘what if he
won’t tell us where he got it?’ That’s just how it is. I’m not go-
ing to tell you, gentlemen. You’ve guessed right. You’ll never
know,’ said Mitya, chipping out each word with extraordi-
nary determination. The lawyers were silent for a moment.
‘You must understand, Mr. Karamazov, that it is of vi-
tal importance for us to know,’ said Nikolay Parfenovitch,
softly and suavely.
‘I understand; but still I won’t tell you.’
The prosecutor, too, intervened, and again reminded the
prisoner that he was at liberty to refuse to answer questions,
if he thought it to his interest, and so on. But in view of the
damage he might do himself by his silence, especially in a
case of such importance as-
‘And so on, gentlemen, and so on. Enough! I’ve heard

0 The Brothers Karamazov