“Yes, I was …”
“Well, then it is a precedent for you for the future—though don’t suppose I should venture to instruct you after the articles you publish about crime!
No, I simply make bold to state it by way of fact, if I took this man or that for a criminal, why, I ask, should I worry him prematurely, even though I had evidence against him?
In one case I may be bound, for instance, to arrest a man at once, but another may be in quite a different position, you know, so why shouldn’t I let him walk about the town a bit? he-he-he!
But I see you don’t quite understand, so I’ll give you a clearer example. If I put him in prison too soon, I may very likely give him, so to speak, moral support, he-he!
You’re laughing?”
Raskolnikov had no idea of laughing. He was sitting with compressed