Me or Luzhin — Crime and Punishment

Raskolnikov wakes from his faint to find Pulcheria and Dunya at his bedside, faces agonized and hands trembling. He cuts off Razumihin's warm consolations, grips mother and sister, and in a broken voice sends them away with him for the night. When his mother vows to stay, he cries don't torture me. Dunya whispers them out. Alone with his family gone, he rallies enough to deliver a command: he does not want that marriage; at the first opportunity tomorrow Dunya must refuse Luzhin so they never hear his name again. This marriage is an infamy. He will act like a scoundrel, but they must not. It's me or Luzhin. Go now. He turns to the wall and will not hear another word.

Razumihin bustles as nurse and host, then escorts the ladies down the dark stairs, scolding Nastasya and the landlady. He warns that Rodya slipped out today while delirious, that the Bakaleyev lodgings Luzhin chose are foul, and that the family must not tell Rodya about a letter or anything that could shock him. At the street door he learns they arrived that evening on a late train. His devotion is clumsy but fierce: he will sit up all night, chase visitors from his own party, and keep the invalid in sight.

On the pavement Razumihin, drunk from his uncle's champagne, becomes eloquent and unguarded. He kisses the ladies' hands, praises Dunya's beauty, and declares that to go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's. Then he blurts what he has seen: your fiancé is a scoundrel. Pulcheria is scandalized; Dunya flushes. He insists Luzhin is unworthy, describes the wretched rooms, and offers himself as protector while stumbling through the night air.

Zossimov follows to consult. In the ladies' new lodging he diagnoses something approaching a monomania, urges quiet and no upsetting news, and promises a calm visit at ten tomorrow. Razumihin's jealousy flickers when the doctor praises Dunya's looks. The two young men half quarrel over who may help. Razumihin swears he will bring Raskolnikov to the ladies in the morning. Dunya has heard the ultimatum and has not yet answered it.