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Raskolnikov gave back the pen; but instead of getting up and

going away, he put his elbows on the table and pressed his head

in his hands. He felt as if a nail were being driven into his

skull. A strange idea suddenly occurred to him, to get up at

once, to go up to Nikodim Fomitch, and tell him everything that

had happened yesterday, and then to go with him to his lodgings

and to show him the things in the hole in the corner. The impulse

was so strong that he got up from his seat to carry it out.

"Hadn't I better think a minute?" flashed through his mind. "No,

better cast off the burden without thinking." But all at once he

stood still, rooted to the spot. Nikodim Fomitch was talking

eagerly with Ilya Petrovitch, and the words reached him: