âNo, Sonia, thatâs not it,â he began again suddenly, raising his head, as though a new and sudden train of thought had struck and as it were roused himâ ââthatâs not it! Betterâ ââ ⌠imagineâ âyes, itâs certainly betterâ âimagine that I am vain, envious, malicious, base, vindictive andâ ââ ⌠well, perhaps with a tendency to insanity. (Letâs have it all out at once! Theyâve talked of madness already, I noticed.) I told you just now I could not keep myself at the university. But do you know that perhaps I might have done? My mother would have sent me what I needed for the fees and I could have earned enough for clothes, boots and food, no doubt. Lessons had turned up at half a rouble. Razumihin works! But I turned sulky and wouldnât. (Yes, sulkiness, thatâs the right word for it!) I sat in my room like a spider. Youâve been in my den, youâve seen it.â ââ ⌠And do you know, Sonia, that low ceilings and tiny rooms cramp the soul and the mind? Ah, how I hated that garret! And yet I wouldnât go out of it! I wouldnât on purpose! I didnât go out for days together, and I wouldnât work, I wouldnât even eat, I just lay there doing nothing. If Nastasya brought me anything, I ate it, if she didnât, I went all day without; I wouldnât ask, on purpose, from sulkiness!
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