‘So you really were seriously counting on me?’ Stavrogin asked with a malicious smile. ‘Why are you laughing, and so maliciously? Don’t try to frighten me. I’m like a child now, and I can be frightened to death by just such a smile.
Pyotr does not know that his madness has reduced him to a state similar to Marya Timofeyevna's. And many similarities can be drawn there too. Marya took Stavrogin for a Prince and a saviour. Here Pyotr supposes him to be a king. He was begging when he thought Stavrogin would leave him. Peculiarly, it seems now that the character closest to being Pyotr's double, is Stavrogin's fucking wife.
