Chapter 39 Part One - Thirty Six

Nekhludoff got out of the prosecutor's house and drove straight to the place of detention.But Maslova was not there at all.The superintendent told Nekhludoff that she must be in the old detainee prison.Nekhludoff went up there. Maslova was indeed there.The prosecutor forgot that there was a political case about six months ago and the gendarmes exaggerated it and made it so serious that all the cells of the detention center were filled with students, doctors, workers, college girls and women doctors . The prison for detainees was far away from the place of detention, and Nekhludoff arrived there only in the evening.He wanted to approach the door of the eerie building.The sentinel did not let him pass, but rang the bell.The guard heard the bell and came out.Nekhludoff showed his permit, but the guard said he could not be let in without the permission of the warden.Nekhludoff went to the warden.On the stairs he heard the sound of a piano in the room.Someone is playing a short complex and majestic piece.A maid with gauze over one eye opened the door for him angrily.At this moment, the sound of the piano rushed out of the room and poured straight into his ears.It was a tired Liszt Rhapsody, well played but stopped at one point and then started again.Nekhludoff asked the maid whether the warden was at home.

The maid said he was not at home. "Are you coming back soon?" The rhapsody stopped again, and then rose vigorously again, until it stopped where it seemed to be magically stopped. "Let me ask." The maid left. The Rhapsody had just begun to play enthusiastically and unrestrainedly, before it reached the place where it was stopped by magic, it suddenly stopped.There were voices. "Tell him that the warden is not at home, and he won't be back today. He's gone out to be a guest. Why are you entangled!" A woman's voice came from the door.Then the rhapsody began again, and again it stopped abruptly.There was the sound of a chair being moved.The woman playing the piano must have lost her temper and wanted to reprimand this entangled intruder herself. "Papa isn't home," said a shaggy-haired, sad-faced girl who came out angrily.Her face was pale, and her eyes were tired and dull, with blue circles.His tone softened at the sight of a young man in a fancy coat. "Come in... what's the matter with you?"

"I'm going to visit a prisoner in prison." "Probably a political prisoner?" "No, not a political prisoner. I have a prosecutor's license." "Well, I don't know. Papa isn't home. Come in, please!" She beckoned him again from the small front room. "Otherwise, go to the deputy warden. He is in his office at the moment. Go and have a word with him. What is your name?" "Thank you," said Nekhludoff, and went away without answering her question. As soon as he left, before the door was closed, the majestic and joyful sound of the piano sounded again.The sound did not match the place where the piano was played and the girl who was learning the piano with a melancholy and tenacious face.Nekhludoff met a young officer with a well-oiled moustache in the yard, and asked him where the deputy warden was.It turned out that he was the deputy warden.He took the permit, looked at it, and said that it was a permit from the detention center, and he dared not allow Nekhludoff to visit the prison.Besides, it's too late...

"Come tomorrow. Everyone will be able to visit at ten o'clock. Come then, the warden himself will be at home. To-morrow you can visit in the hall or, if the warden permits, in the office." meet her." Nekhludoff's visit to the prison was unsuccessful that day, so he returned home.Nekhludoff was very excited at the thought of meeting Maslova tomorrow.He was walking down the street now, thinking not of the courtroom, but of his conversations with the prosecutor and the deputy warden.Thinking of how hard he tried to meet her, how he told the prosecutor his wish, how he went to the detention center and prison for convicts to see her, he couldn't calm down for a long time.As soon as he got home, he immediately took out the diary he hadn't touched for a long time, read a few paragraphs, and wrote the following: "I haven't kept a diary for two years, and I thought I would never do such childish things again." Actually, this is not a childish thing, but a conversation with myself, with the true holy self that exists in everyone. This I have been sleeping for a long time, so I have no one to talk to. April 20 I was a juror on the 8th, and in that courtroom, that extraordinary event woke me up. I saw her, and I saw Katyusha, whom I had played with, in a prison robe, sitting in the dock .Due to a ridiculous misunderstanding and my fault, she was sentenced to hard labor. I just went to the prosecutor, went to the prison. They won't let me in, but I decided to do everything in my power to meet her, confess to her, and even Marry her to atone for my sin. Lord, help me!

I feel very happy and my heart is full of joy. "