fathers and fathers! And, besides, he was in such a frenzy. … He really may have done nothing but swing the pestle in the air, and so knocked the old man down. But it was a pity they dragged the valet in. That was simply an absurd theory! If I’d been in Fetyukovitch’s place, I should simply have said straight out: ‘He murdered him; but he is not guilty, hang it all!’
“That’s what he did, only without saying, ‘Hang it all!’ ”
“No, Mihail Semyonovitch, he almost said that, too,” put in a third voice.
“Why, gentlemen, in Lent an actress was acquitted in our town who had cut the throat of her lover’s lawful wife.”
“Oh, but she did not finish cutting it.”
“That makes no difference. She began cutting it.”
“What did you think of what he said about children? Splendid, wasn’t it?”
“Splendid!”
“And about mysticism, too!”
“Oh, drop mysticism, do!” cried someone else; “think of