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Russia; it’s talked of in all the papers and journals. Fetyuko-
vitch agreed to come more for the glory of the thing, because
the case has become so notorious. I saw him yesterday.’
‘Well? Did you talk to him?’ Grushenka put in eagerly.
‘He listened and said nothing. He told me that he had
already formed his opinion. But he promised to give my
words consideration.’
‘Consideration! Ah, they are swindlers! They’ll ruin him.
And why did she send for the doctor?’
‘As an expert. They want to prove that Mitya’s mad and
committed the murder when he didn’t know what he was
doing,’ Alyosha smiled gently, ‘but Mitya won’t agree to
that.’
‘Yes; but that would be the truth if he had killed him!’
cried Grushenka. ‘He was mad then, perfectly mad, and
that was my fault, wretch that I am! But, of course, he didn’t
do it, he didn’t do it! And they are all against him, the whole
town. Even Fenya’s evidence went to prove he had done it.
And the people at the shop, and that official, and at the tav-
ern, too, before, people had heard him say so! They are all,
all against him, all crying out against him.’
‘Yes, there’s a fearful accumulation of evidence,’ Alyosha
observed grimly.
‘And Grigory — Grigory Vassilyevitch — sticks to his sto-
ry that the door was open, persists that he saw it — there’s
no shaking him. I went and talked to him myself. He’s rude
about it, too.’
‘Yes, that’s perhaps the strongest evidence against him,’
said Alyosha.