He rubbed his forehead, and by chance a wild, fantastic thought slipped in—what could that sudden idea mean?

“Could I have expected to set it all straight and to find a way out by means of Razumihin alone?” he asked himself in perplexity.

He pondered and rubbed his forehead, and, strange to say, after long musing, suddenly, as if it were spontaneously and by chance, a fantastic thought came into his head.