"As to the opinion of my learned colleague," the Moscow doctor added ironically in conclusion "that the prisoner would, entering the court, have naturally looked at the ladies and not straight before him, I will only say that, apart from the playfulness of this theory, it is radically unsound.For though I fully agree that the prisoner, on entering the court where his fate will be decided, would not naturally look straight before him in that fixed way, and that that may really be a sign of his abnormal mental condition, at the same time I maintain that he would naturally not look to the left at the ladies, but, on the contrary, to the right to find his legal adviser, on whose help all his hopes rest and on whose defence all his future depends." The doctor expressed his opinion positively and emphatically.
But the unexpected pronouncement of Doctor Varvinsky gave the last touch of comedy to the difference of opinion between the experts.In his opinion the prisoner was now, and had been all along, in a perfectly normal condition, and, although he certainly must have been in a nervous and exceedingly excited state before his arrest, this might have been due to several perfectly obvious causes, jealousy, anger, continual drunkenness, and so on.But this nervous condition would not involve the mental abberation of which mention had just been made.As to the question whether the prisoner should have looked to the left or to the right on entering the court, "in his modest opinion," the prisoner would naturally look straight before him on entering the court, as he had in fact done, as that was where the judges, on whom his fate depended, were sitting.So that it was just by looking straight before him that he showed his perfectly normal state of mind at the present.The young doctor concluded his "modest" testimony with some heat.
"Bravo, doctor!" cried Mitya, from his seat, "just so!"Mitya, of course, was checked, but the young doctor's opinion had a decisive influence on the judges and on the public, and, as appeared afterwards, everyone agreed with him.But Doctor Herzenstube, when called as a witness, was quite unexpectedly of use to Mitya.As an old resident in the town, who had known the Karamazov family for years, he furnished some facts of great value for the prosecution, and suddenly, as though recalling something, he added:
"But the poor young man might have had a very different life, for he had a good heart both in childhood and after childhood, that I know.But the Russian proverb says, 'If a man has one head, it's good, but if another clever man comes to visit him, it would be better still, for then there will be two heads and not only one."'
"One head is good, but two are better," the prosecutor put in impatiently.He knew the old man's habit of talking slowly and deliberately, regardless of the impression he was making and of the delay he was causing, and highly prizing his flat, dull and always gleefully complacent German wit.The old man was fond of making jokes.
"Oh, yes, that's what I say," he went on stubbornly."One head is good, but two are much better, but he did not meet another head with wits, and his wits went.Where did they go? I've forgotten the word." He went on, passing his hand before his eyes, "Oh, yes, spazieren."** Promenading.
"Wandering?"
"Oh, yes, wandering, that's what I say.Well, his wits went wandering and fell in such a deep hole that he lost himself.And yet he was a grateful and sensitive boy.Oh, I remember him very well, a little chap so high, left neglected by his father in the back yard, when he ran about without boots on his feet, and his little breeches hanging by one button."A note of feeling and tenderness suddenly came into the honest old man's voice.Fetyukovitch positively started, as though scenting something, and caught at it instantly.
"Oh, yes, I was a young man then....I was...well, I was forty-five then, and had only just come here.And I was so sorry for the boy then; I asked myself why shouldn't I buy him a pound of...a pound of what? I've forgotten what it's called.A pound of what children are very fond of, what is it, what is it?" The doctor began waving his hands again."It grows on a tree and is gathered and given to everyone...""Apples?"
"Oh, no, no.You have a dozen of apples, not a pound....No, there are a lot of them, and call little.You put them in the mouth and crack.""Quite so, nuts, I say so." The doctor repeated in the calmest way as though he had been at no loss for a word."And I bought him a pound of nuts, for no one had ever bought the boy a pound of nuts before.