Rag pickers and costermongers of all kinds were crowding round the taverns in the dirty and stinking courtyards of the Hay Market.

Raskolnikov particularly liked this place and the neighbouring alleys, when he wandered aimlessly in the streets.

Here his rags did not attract contemptuous attention, and one could walk about in any attire without scandalising people.

At the corner of an alley a huckster and his wife had two tables set out with tapes, thread, cotton handkerchiefs, etc.

They, too, had got up to go home, but were lingering in conversation with a friend, who had just come up to them.