It's time for you to go." "Listen, Shatov, what am I to gather from all this ?" "Oh, gather what you like!" he answered in a weary and disgusted voice, and he sat down to his writing-table.
I went away.

An improbable idea was growing stronger and stronger in my mind.

I thought of the next day with distress....
VII This "next day," the very Sunday which was to decide Stepan Trofimovitch's fate irrevocably, was one of the most memorable days in my chronicle.

It was a day of surprises, a day that solved past riddles and suggested new ones, a day of startling revelations, and still more hopeless perplexity.

In the morning, as the reader is already aware, I had by Varvara Petrovna's particular request to accompany my friend on his visit to her, and at three o'clock in the afternoon I had to be with Lizaveta Nikolaevna in order to tell her--I did not know what--and to assist her--I did not know how.