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- CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 287
frankly at the start that I cannot look at it in any other light,
and if you have the least regard for me, all this business must
be ended to-day, however hard that may be. I repeat that if my
brother is to blame he will ask your forgiveness."
"I am surprised at your putting the question like that," said
Luzhin, getting more and more irritated. "Esteeming, and so to
say, adoring you, I may at the same time, very well indeed, be
able to dislike some member of your family. Though I lay claim
to the happiness of your hand, I cannot accept duties incom-
patible with . . ."
"Ah, don't be so ready to take offence, Pyotr Petrovitch,"
Dounia interrupted with feeling, "and be the sensible and gen-
erous man I have always considered, and wish to consider, you to
be. I've given you a great promise, I am your betrothed. Trust
me in this matter and, believe me, I shall be capable of judging
impartially. My assuming the part of judge is as much a sur-
prise for my brother as for you. When I insisted on his coming
to our interview to-day after your letter, I told him nothing of
what I meant to do. Understand that, if you are not reconciled,
I must choose between you — it must be either you or he. That is
how the question rests on your side and on his. I don't want to
be mistaken in my choice, and I must not be. For your sake I
must break off with my brother, for my brother's sake I must
break off with you. I can find out for certain now whether he
is a brother to me, and I want to know it; and of you, whether
I am dear to you, whether you esteem me, whether you are the
husband for me."
"Avdotya Romanovna," Luzhin declared huflSly, "youi
words are of too much consequence to me; I will say more, they
are offensive in view of the position I have the honour to
occupy in relation to you. To say nothing of your strange and
offensive setting me on a level with an imf>ertinent boy, you
admit the p)ossibility of breaking your promise to me. You say
'you or he,' showing thereby of how little consequence I am in
your eyes ... I cannot let this pass considering the relationship
and . . .the obligations existing between us."
"What!" cried Dounia, flushing. "I set your interest beside all
that has hitherto been most precious in my life, what has made
up the whole of my life, and here you are offended at my
making too little account of you."
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