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put it apart from the rest of the three thousand,’ said Mitya
firmly.
‘Why?’ smiled the prosecutor irritably. ‘What is there
disgraceful, to your thinking, in your having set aside half
of the three thousand you had discreditably, if you prefer,
‘disgracefully,’ appropriated? Your taking the three thou-
sand is more important than what you did with it. And by
the way, why did you do that — why did you set apart that
half, for what purpose, for what object did you do it? Can
you explain that to us?’
‘Oh, gentlemen, the purpose is the whole point!’ cried
Mitya. ‘I put it aside because I was vile, that is, because I
was calculating, and to be calculating in such a case is vile...
and that vileness has been going on a whole month.’
‘It’s incomprehensible.’
‘I wonder at you. But I’ll make it clearer. Perhaps it really
is incomprehensible. You see, attend to what I say. I appro-
priate three thousand entrusted to my honour; I spend it on
a spree, say I spend it all, and next morning I go to her and
say, ‘Katya, I’ve done wrong, I’ve squandered your three
thousand’; well, is that right? No, it’s not right — it’s dis-
honest and cowardly; I’m a beast, with no more self-control
than a beast, that’s so, isn’t it? But still I’m not a thief? Not
a downright thief, you’ll admit! I squandered it, but I didn’t
steal it. Now a second, rather more favourable alternative:
follow me carefully, or I may get confused again — my
head’s going round — and so, for the second alternative: I
spend here only fifteen hundred out of the three thousand,
that is, only half. Next day I go and take that half to her: