पृष्ठ 166 / 1294

Raskolnikov was violently agitated. Of course, it was all

ordinary youthful talk and thought, such as he had often heard

before in different forms and on different themes. But why had he

happened to hear such a discussion and such ideas at the very

moment when his own brain was just conceiving... the very same

ideas? And why, just at the moment when he had brought away the

embryo of his idea from the old woman had he dropped at once upon

a conversation about her? This coincidence always seemed strange

to him. This trivial talk in a tavern had an immense influence on

him in his later action; as though there had really been in it

something preordained, some guiding hint....

*****