IX + 

Pavel Semenovich stopped and looked out of the window as if he had forgotten the story.⁠ ⁠… + 

“Well, how did it end?” asked our new companion cautiously. + 

“End?” The narrator woke up. “Of course, everything on the earth ends some way. This ended stupidly and simply. One night⁠ ⁠… my bell rang. Sharply, anxiously, nervously.⁠ ⁠… I jumped up in fright, put on my slippers⁠ ⁠… went out on the steps⁠ ⁠… there was no one there. But it occurred to me that Rogov was around the corner. I thought he must have been passing drunk and ugly and wanted to annoy me by coming at this time.⁠ ⁠… He remembered that I was asleep and he, Vanichka Rogov, my favorite pupil, was drunk on the street and wanted to inform me of it. I closed the door, went back to bed, and fell asleep. The bell rang again. I didn’t get up. Let him ring.⁠ ⁠… It rang again and again.⁠ ⁠… No, this must be something else. I put on my overcoat.⁠ ⁠… Opened the door. There stood the night watchman. His beard was covered with frost. ‘Please,’ he said. + 

“ ‘Where do you want me to go, brother?’ I asked. + 

“ ‘To Semen Nikolayevich, M. Budnikov.⁠ ⁠… They’ve had⁠ ⁠… trouble.⁠ ⁠…’ + 

“Without understanding anything, I dressed mechanically and went. A clear cold night, and late.⁠ ⁠… There were lights in the windows of M. Budnikov, whistles along the street.⁠ ⁠… What a stir for night.⁠ ⁠… I went up the steps and entered. The first thing that caught my eye was the face of Semen Nikolayevich, M. Budnikov.⁠ ⁠… Absolutely different, not at all like what he was before. He was lying on his pillow and looking somewhere into space.⁠ ⁠… That was so strange.⁠ ⁠… I stopped at the door and thought: ‘What’s this? I used to know him but he’s suddenly changed.⁠ ⁠… This isn’t the man who came once a month and drank two glasses of tea. Who worried over Yelena’s divorce, but it’s someone with other thoughts. He lay immovable, important, but he didn’t look at us or anyone, and he seemed so different.⁠ ⁠… He was afraid of no one and judged everyone; himself, that is, the old Semen Nikolayevich, and Gavrilo, Yelena, Rogov, and⁠ ⁠… yes, me too.⁠ ⁠… I suddenly understood.⁠ ⁠… + 

“Then I saw Gavrilo. By the window, in a corner, grieved but quiet.⁠ ⁠… As I suddenly understood, I walked up to him and said: + 

“ ‘Did you do this?’ + 

“ ‘Of course, Pavel Semenovich, I did.’ + 

“ ‘Why?’ + 

“ ‘I don’t know, Pavel Semenovich.⁠ ⁠…’ + 

“Then the doctor attracted my attention. He told me that there was no help.⁠ ⁠… People kept walking and driving up, coming in, sitting down, and writing statements.⁠ ⁠… It seemed so strange that the young prosecutor, such a careful and reliable man, should give orders not to let Gavrilo and Yelena go and to hold some sort of an investigation.⁠ ⁠… I remember his smile when I asked him the reason for it.⁠ ⁠… I’ll admit it was a strange question but I thought that this procedure was unnecessary.⁠ ⁠… When they started to take Gavrilo and Yelena away I involuntarily got up and asked if they were going to take me.⁠ ⁠… I later heard rumors that something was wrong with me. That was false. My head was never so clear.⁠ ⁠… The prosecutor was surprised. ‘If I may give you advice, you need to drink some water and go to bed.’ ‘But Yelena?’ I asked; ‘why her?’ ‘We will hope,’ he answered, ‘that everything will turn out in a way that’s best for her, but now⁠ ⁠… at the first inquiry⁠ ⁠… it is my painful duty.’⁠ ⁠… I still thought he was acting wrongly.⁠ ⁠… + 

“The two were taken away. I went back to my rooms and sat down on the steps. It was cold.⁠ ⁠… A clear, autumn, quiet night with a clear, white frost.⁠ ⁠… The stars were sparkling and whispering in the sky. They had such a special expression and meaning.⁠ ⁠… You could hear their mysterious whisper, though you couldn’t make out what they said.⁠ ⁠… It was both a distant tremor of alarm and also quiet and neighborly sympathy. + 

“I really wasn’t surprised when Rogov came up quietly and timidly sat down beside me on the steps. He sat a long time without saying a word.⁠ ⁠… I don’t remember whether he did say anything, but I knew the whole story.⁠ ⁠… He had no thoughts of murder. He wanted ‘to win Yelena’s case with M. Budnikov’ for himself. He had to get hold of the ticket, on which, as he supposed, was an endorsement.⁠ ⁠… This clever scheme pleased him: to get hold by illegal means of the proof of a legal right. He saw something humorous in it. The illegal procuring of legal proof in the form of a hypothetical endorsement.⁠ ⁠… That’s why he worked his way into Budnikov’s confidence through the business of the divorce.⁠ ⁠… He found out everything about the place and sent one of his obedient clients from the ‘Crags’ to take the proper box. Gavrilo was to open the door of M. Budnikov’s apartment with a second key, which Budnikov, through strange oversight, had failed to take back from him. Instead of waiting at the door, Gavrilo had gone upstairs. I could have sworn I had seen him walk along with his heavy tread, his dark head, and the deep hatred in his soul.⁠ ⁠… And how he reached the door and how M. Budnikov awoke and apparently was not even frightened but suddenly understood the whole situation. + 

“I still saw that moment in the past, when two students ran into my rooms on just such a bright night, and I faced them in my shame and weakness.⁠ ⁠… What a fire⁠ ⁠… evil and sarcastic⁠ ⁠… was blazing in the eyes of one.⁠ ⁠… + 

“It seemed to me that I had discovered that which was the bond of union among all things: these lofty, flashing stars, the living murmur of the wind among the branches, my memories, and this deed.⁠ ⁠… When I was young I had often had this sensation.⁠ ⁠… When my fresh mind was trying to solve all questions and gain a larger truth. Another time you will seem to be right at the threshold and everything is about to be cleared up, when it all vanishes. + 

“We sat a long time. Finally Rogov got up. + 

“ ‘Where are you going now?’ I asked. + 

“ ‘I don’t know,’ was the answer, ‘what I must do.⁠ ⁠… I think I’ll have to join Gavrilo and Yelena.⁠ ⁠…’ + 

“There he stood. I understood so much more clearly than usual, and I suddenly realized that he was waiting for me to shake hands. I held out my hand and he suddenly seized it, and it was a long time before he let it go.⁠ ⁠… + 

“He broke away and left⁠ ⁠… straight down the street. I looked after him, as long as I could make out the slender figure of my former pupil.⁠ ⁠…” + 

For some time the silence in the compartment was interrupted only by the rattling of the train and a long whistle. The door slammed, and a conductor walked along the corridor and called out: + 

“Station of N⁠⸺⁠sk. Ten minutes’ wait.” + 

Pavel Semenovich hurriedly got up, picked up a small valise, and, with a sad smile at his audience, he got out of the train. I began to make preparations to leave and so did the gentleman in the gold glasses. Petr Petrovich remained alone. He looked after Pavel Semenovich and, when the door was shut behind him, he smiled at the gentleman in the gold glasses, shook his head, and, running his finger around his forehead, he said: + 

“He always was a crank.⁠ ⁠… Now I think he’s not all there. I’ve heard that he threw up his position and now goes around and gives private lessons.” + 

The gentleman in the gold glasses looked steadily at him but said nothing. + 

We got out of the train. + 

From the point of view of a reporter the case was uninteresting. The jurors acquitted Gavrilo (Yelena was not tried); Rogov was convicted of being the instigator, but mercy was recommended. The judge several times had to stop the witness Pavel Semenovich Padorin, former teacher, who constantly wandered away from facts, in order to express opinions which were irrelevant and had nothing to do with the case.⁠ ⁠… + 