Such were Raisky’s thoughts as he walked silently by Vera’s side, no longer desiring full knowledge for his own sake, but for her salvation. Perhaps, he thought, he would best gain his end by indirect efforts to make her betray herself.
“Leonti said,” he began, “that you have been reading books out of my library. Did you read them with him?”
“Sometimes he told me of the contents of certain books; others I read with the priest, Natasha’s husband.”
“What books did you read with the priest?”
“For the moment I don’t remember, but he read the writings of the Fathers, for instance, and explained them to Natasha and me, to my great advantage. We also read with him Voltaire and Spinoza. Why do you laugh?” she asked, looking at Raisky.
“There seems a remarkable gap between the Fathers and Spinoza and Voltaire. The Encyclopædists are also included in my library. Did you read them?”
“Nikolai Ivanovich read some to us, and talked about others.”
“Did you also occupy yourselves with Feuerbach, with the Socialists and the Materialists?”
“Yes, Natasha’s husband asked us to copy out passages, which he indicated by pencil marks.”
“I think he was preparing to publish a refutation.”
“Where did you obtain the newer books that are not in my library? Not the exile,” he suggested as she gave no answer, “who lives here under police supervision, the same man about whom you wrote to me? But you are not listening.”
“Yes, I am. Who gave me the books? Sometimes one person, sometimes another here in the town.”
“Perhaps so, I had them from professors.”
The thought flashed through Raisky’s head that there might be other professors of the same kind as Monsieur Charles. But he merely asked what were the views of Nikolai Ivanovich on Spinoza and these other writers.
“He says.” replied Vera, “that these writings are the efforts of bold minds to evade the truth; they have beaten out for themselves side paths which must in the end unite with the main road. He says too, that all these attempts serve the cause of truth, in that the truth shines out with greater splendour in the end.”
“But he does not tell you where truth lies?”
By way of answer she pointed to the little chapel now in sight.
“I don’t think, I believe. And don’t you also believe he is right.”