a letter. Agitated, he sends her to get it, and orders her out of the room so he can read it. The letter is from his mother, Pulcheria Alexandrovna, and mostly concerns his sister Avdotya Romanovna, or Dunya. Dunya had been working as a governess in the house of the Svidrigailov family, but the husband's unfortunate attraction to her led the wife to kick Dunya out on the assumption that the girl had initiated the attraction. Marfa Petrovna, the wife, then proceeded to sully Dunya's reputation about town, until Svidrigailov himself came forward with evidence of Dunya's purity and innocence. At that point, Marfa Petrovna had completely reversed herself, and gone about restoring Dunya's honor with comic zeal. She had also arranged for a relation of hers, one Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, to meet Dunya, and this gentleman had become engaged to Dunya. Following Luzhin, Pulcheria Alexandrovna and Dunya would be coming to Petersburg shortly, and are very much looking forward to seeing Rodion. Rodya goes out to walk around and think. Though his mother puts a positive spin on everything, it is clear that Luzhin does not love Dunya and is not worthy of her, and that Dunya knows this but has resolved to marry him to materially benefit her family. Rodya, disgusted and angered, refuses to accept this self-sacrifice; but after resolving to stop the engagement, he immediately questions his own "right" to get involved. Raskolnikov realizes that he had been automatically on his way to see Dmitri Prokofych Razumikhin, his only friend from university. He decides he will see Razumikhin the day after "that," i.e. the unknown deed. He wanders about and ends up falling asleep by the side of the road. He dreams about watching a group of peasants beating an old nag viciously until the poor horse collapses and dies. He awakens in a sweat, profoundly thankful that it was only a dream. He rethinks "that," and suddenly concludes that he could never do it. Feeling better,...
