Stavrogin went up the steps without answering.
"Stavrogin!" Verkhovensky shouted after him, "I'll give you a day ... or, say, two days... three days; more than three I can't do, and then—your answer!"
9: Stepan Trofimovich Perquisitioned
Meanwhile we had an adventure which surprised me and shocked Stepan Trofimovich. In the morning, at eight o'clock, Nastasya came running to me from him with the news that her master had been "perquisitioned." At first I could understand nothing: all I got was that he had been "perquisitioned" by officials, who had come and taken papers, and a soldier had tied them into a bundle and "carted them away in a wheelbarrow." It was wild news. I hastened at once to Stepan Trofimovich.
I found him in a surprising state: upset and greatly agitated, but at the same time with an unquestionably triumphant air. On the table, in the middle of the room, the samovar was boiling and there stood a full but untouched and forgotten glass of tea. Stepan Trofimovich was dawdling around the table and going into all the corners of the room, not conscious of his movements. He was wearing his usual red dressing jacket, but, seeing me, hastened to put on his waistcoat and frock coat—something he had never done before when any close friend found him in his dressing jacket. He seized me at once and ardently by the hand.
"Enfin un ami.'"[xcvii] (He drew a deep breath.) "Cher, I sent only to you, and no one knows anything. Nastasya must be ordered to lock the door and let no one in, except them, of course... Vous comprenez?"[xcviii]
He looked at me worriedly, as if waiting for a reply. Of course, I fell to questioning him and learned somehow from his incoherent speech, full of interruptions and unnecessary additions, that at seven o'clock in the morning a governor's official had "suddenly" come to him ...
"Pardon, j'ai oublié son nom. Il n 'est pas du pays, but I believe Lembke brought him here, quelque chose de bête et d'allemand dans la physionomie. Il s'appelle Rosenthal."[xcix]
"Not Blum?"
"Blum. Precisely the name he gave. Vous le connaissez? Quelque chose d'hébété et de très content dans la figure, pourtant très sévère, roide et sérieux,[c] A police figure, the obedient sort, je m'y connais.[ci] I was still asleep, and, imagine, he asked 'to have a glance' at my books and manuscripts, oui, je m'en souviens, il a employé ce mot.[cii] He didn't arrest me, only books ... Il se tenait à distance,[ciii] and when he began explaining his visit to me, he looked as though I... enfin, il avait l'air de croire que je tomberai sur lui immédiatement et que je commencerai à le battre comme plâtre. Tous ces gens du bas étage sont comme ça,[civ] when they're dealing with a decent man. Needless to say, I understood everything at once. Voilà vingt ans que je m'y prépare,[cv] I unlocked all the drawers for him, and gave him all the keys; I personally handed them over, I handed everything over. J'étais digne et calme.[cvi] Of the books, he took foreign editions of Herzen, a bound volume of The Bell, four copies of my poem, et, enfin, tout ça.[cvii] Then papers and letters et quelques-unes de mes ébauches historiques, critiques et politiques.[cviii] All this they carried off. Nastasya says a soldier carted it away in a wheelbarrow, and they covered it with an apron, oui, c'est cela,[cix] with an apron."
It was all raving. Who could understand any of it? Once again I showered him with questions: had Blum come alone or not? on whose behalf? by what right? how dared he? did he explain?
"Il était seul, bien seul,[cx] though there was someone else dans l'anti-chambre, oui, je m'en souviens, et puis[cxi]. . . Though there did seem to be someone else, and a guard was standing in the entryway. We must ask Nastasya; she knows it all better. J'étais surexcité, voyez-vous. Il parlait, il parlait. . . un tas de choses;[cxii] though he talked very little, it was I who kept talking ... I told him my life, from that point of view only, of course... J'étais surexcité, mais digne, je vous l'assure.[cxiii] I'm afraid, though, that I seem to have wept. The wheelbarrow they got from a shopkeeper next door."
"Oh, God, how could all this have happened! But, for God's sake, speak more precisely. Stepan Trofimovich, this is a dream, what you're telling me!"
"Cher, I'm as if in a dream myself... Savez-vous, il a prononcé le nom de Teliatnikoff,[cxiv] and I think it was he who was hiding in the entry-way. Yes, I recall he suggested the prosecutor, and it seems Dmitri Mitrych... qui me doit encore quinze roubles de pinochle soit dit en passant. Enfin, je n 'ai pas trop compris.[cxv] But I outwitted them, and what do I care about Dmitri Mitrych. I think I even started begging him very much to conceal, begging him very much, very much, I'm even afraid I humiliated myself, comment croyez-vous? Enfin, il a consenti.[cxvi] Yes, I recall it was he himself who asked that it would be better if it were concealed, because he only came 'to have a glance,' et rien de plus,[cxvii] and nothing more, nothing ... and that if they found nothing, then there'd be nothing. So that we ended it all en amis, je suis tout-à-fait content,"[cxviii]
"But, for pity's sake, he was offering you guarantees and the order proper in such cases, and you yourself refused!" I cried in friendly indignation.
"No, it's better this way, without any guarantees. And who needs a scandal? Let it be en amis for the time being... You know, in this town, if they find out... mes ennemis... et puis à quoi bon ce procureur, ce cochon de notre procureur, qui deux fois m 'a manqué de politesse et qu'on a rossé à plaisir l'autre année chez cette charmante et belle Natalia Pavlovna, quand il se cacha dans son boudoir. Et puis, mon ami,[cxix] don't contradict me, or discourage, I beg you, because nothing is more unbearable when a man is unhappy than for a hundred friends to come right then and point out to him how stupid he's been. Sit down, anyway, and have some tea, I confess I'm very tired... oughtn't I to lie down and put some vinegar to my head, what do you think?"
"Absolutely," I cried out, "and maybe even ice. You're very upset. You're pale, your hands are trembling. Lie down, rest, and wait to tell me. I'll sit here and wait."