Part 3, Chapter 5 — the workman from Porfiry's

Late at night, alone in the garret, Raskolnikov is in a state of lucid dread. The Porfiry interview from earlier in the day has not stopped replaying in his head. A soft step comes up the staircase. The door opens; a small, neatly-dressed working-man — about fifty, an artisan from the courtyard of the murder building — is in the doorway. He does not come in. He stands on the threshold looking at Raskolnikov for several long seconds. Then he says, in a flat voice, "Murderer." He says nothing else. He turns. He walks down the stairs. Raskolnikov goes to the door and looks down the staircase; the man is already gone.

He sits on the sofa shaking. He lies down and falls into a half-sleep that is also a hallucination. He is back in the pawnbroker's apartment. The old woman is sitting in her chair. He hits her with the axe; she does not fall. He hits her again; she begins to laugh, a low giggling laugh, with her head bent over toward her shoulder. He hits her over and over. The laugh fills the apartment. He looks behind him: the doorway is full of people watching, the staircase below is full of people watching, the whole building has been watching.

He wakes shouting. He is alone. The early dawn light is coming in through the window. He sits up. He tries to think clearly. He cannot. Then a real knock at the door. A man steps in, calmly, without ceremony — a man Raskolnikov has never seen before in his life. The man bows, sits down on a chair, and introduces himself: Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov.