“Damn it all, what do you want?”
“What connection is there between the common cause and the petty intrigues of Mr. Stavrogin?” cried Liputin, boiling over. “Suppose he is in some mysterious relation to the centre, if that legendary centre really exists at all, it’s no concern of ours. And meantime a murder has been committed, the police have been roused; if they follow the thread they may find what it starts from.”
“If Stavrogin and you are caught, we shall be caught too,” added the authority on the peasantry.
“And to no good purpose for the common cause,” Virginsky concluded despondently.
“What nonsense! The murder is a chance crime; it was committed by Fedka for the sake of robbery.”
“H’m! Strange coincidence, though,” said Liputin, wriggling.
“And if you will have it, it’s all through you.”
“Through us?”
“In the first place, you, Liputin, had a share in the intrigue yourself; and the second chief point is, you were ordered to get Lebyadkin away and given money to do it; and what did you do? If you’d got him away nothing would have happened.”
“But wasn’t it you yourself who suggested the idea that it would be a good thing to set him on to read his verses?”