Though he lacks any credible evidence, Shatov is planning to tell the authorities everything he knows. His doubts are put aside when his estranged wife Marie unexpectedly returns. She has returned to find work, rather than to resume anything from their “stupid past” (639). Shatov is shocked by the return of a person who could—however briefly—love him. However, she is visibly ill. To fetch her some tea, he goes to Kirillov. Pleased by Shatov’s energy, Kirillov happily hands over his tea. Shatov sits and talks with his wife, though she falls asleep “almost immediately” (643). While she sleeps, Shatov sees Erkel outside. They have a hushed conversation in which Erkel gives him a time and place at which he can hand over the society’s printing press, thereby freeing himself from any responsibilities to the revolutionaries.

Erkel is “fanatically, childishly devoted to ‘the cause’” (646). His comment about Peter leaving causes Shatov to be preoccupied, though he is also worried about his wife. When she wakes up, she criticizes him for allowing her to sleep in his bed. Her criticisms are interrupted by “a violent spasm of pain” (649). Stricken with pain, she talks to him about her plans to open a printing press.