Chapter 86 Part Two - Twenty Four

Nekhludoff and the lawyer came out of the Privy Council and walked along the sidewalk.The lawyer ordered his carriage to follow, and told Nekhludoff about the head of the bureau mentioned in the Privy Council, how he had been denounced, but instead of being sentenced to hard labor according to the law, he was sent to Siberia When the governor.After the lawyer finished the story and all the ugly inside stories, he also talked about another thing with relish: a donation that was supposed to be used for the construction of an unfinished monument they drove by this morning had been taken away by several dignitaries. Tall people embezzled, and that monument never got built.He also talked about someone's mistress made millions of windfalls on the stock exchange; someone sold his wife and someone bought it.In addition, the lawyers also told how high-ranking government officials have corrupted themselves and committed various crimes. Instead of going to jail, they still hold the top positions in the agency.Such anecdotes are obviously endless.The lawyers were delighted with their speeches, for they clearly showed that the means by which lawyers make money are quite justified in comparison with the means by which high-ranking Petersburg officials make money.The lawyer, therefore, could not help being surprised when Nekhludoff, without waiting to hear the last story of the high official's crime, took his leave, and hired a carriage to go back to his aunt's on the Strand.

Nekhludoff was very sad.He was depressed mainly because the Privy Council rejected the appeal, and the innocent Maslova had to endure unnecessary suffering; also because the rejection of the appeal made his determination to live and die with her more difficult to realize.Besides, he remembered the horrible scandals that the lawyer was talking about with relish, and the look in Selenin's eyes that couldn't stop appearing in front of him--it was so frank, noble, and lovely before, but now it became so fierce, cold, and repulsive. a long distance away.All this made him sullen. When Nekhludoff returned home, the porter handed him a note, somewhat contemptuously, which he said had been written by a woman in the porter's house.It turned out that this was Shustova's mother.She wrote that she had come wholeheartedly to thank her daughter's savior and beg him to come to a certain number on Fifth Avenue, Vasilyev Island.She also wrote that Vera very much wanted him to go.He also said that he didn't have to worry about it, and they would never desecrate his noble sentiments with words of thanks.They don't thank him, they just want to meet him.I would like to see him tomorrow morning, if possible.

The other note was written by Nekhludoff's old colleague, Bogadilev, a court aide-de-camp.Nekhludoff had entrusted him with presenting to the emperor a pleading written by Nekhludoff himself on behalf of the followers of the sect.Bogadilev wrote in bold and unrestrained handwriting that he would keep his word and present it to the emperor, but he had an idea that atoms are formed when atoms gather, and when atoms disperse, the soul perishes.The atoms that make up things are endless. Wouldn't it be better if Nekhludoff first went to the person in charge of the case and entrusted him face to face.

The impressions Nekhludoff received during his few days in Petersburg discouraged him and made him hopeless of getting anything done.The plans he had conceived in Moscow seemed to him like dreams of youth, all shattered as soon as they came into life.But now that he was in Petersburg, he thought that the original plan should still be carried out, so he decided to go to Bogadilev's house tomorrow, and then, according to his opinion, visit the person who could influence the case of the sectarian. He had just taken the certificate of sectarian out of his purse, and was about to read it over again, when Countess Charsky's footman knocked at the door and invited him upstairs to tea.

Nekhludoff said he would go at once.He put the certificate back into his purse and went to his aunt.He happened to look out of the window into the street as he went upstairs, and saw Mariette's bay horses, and was delighted, absolutely. ② A form of contradiction.Refers to intensified contradictions. , couldn't help but want to laugh. Mariette was wearing a hat, but instead of a black dress, she was wearing a fancy light-colored dress.With a cup of tea in her hand, she was sitting beside the Countess's armchair, talking in a high-pitched voice, and her beautiful smiling eyes sparkled.When Nekhludoff came in, Mariette had just said something ridiculous, an indecent joke - Nekhludoff could hear it from the laughter - which made the good-natured, hairy-mouthed Countess Charsky laughed so hard that her fat body trembled.Mariette showed a particularly mischievous look, with her smiling mouth slightly curled up, turning her energetic and radiant face away, silently looking at the hostess who was talking to her.

Nekhludoff understood from the few words he had heard that they were talking about the second-largest news in Petersburg at that time, the anecdote about the new governor of Siberia.It was on this matter that Mariette said something so funny that the countess couldn't stop laughing for a long time. "You're killing me laughing," she said, coughing with laughter. Nekhludoff greeted them and sat down beside them.He was about to criticize Mariette for his frivolous behavior, but Mariette noticed that he was stern and a little unhappy.She immediately changed her complexion, and even her whole mood, to please him.Ever since she had met him, she had tried to do so.At this moment she suddenly became serious, dissatisfied with her life, as if she was looking for something, pursuing something.She was not feigning it, but she was really feeling the same way Nekhludoff did, although she could not say what it was.

She asked him how things were going.He told the story of his failure to appeal to the Privy Council, and how he met Serenin. "Ah! What a pure soul! What a brave knight. A pure soul," the two ladies used the upper-class epithets for Selenin. "What kind of person is his wife?" asked Nekhludoff. "Her? Oh, I don't want to speak ill of her. But she doesn't know him. Why, does he also claim dismissal?" asked Mariette, with genuine sympathy. "It's too bad, I pity her!" she added with a sigh. Nekhludoff frowned, and wanted to change the subject by talking about Shustova, who was imprisoned in the fortress and released only after her intercession.He thanked Mariette for having made love in front of her husband.Then he wanted to say that this woman and her family were suffering just because no one thought of them, which was terrible to think about, but she stopped him and immediately expressed her indignation.

"You don't have to tell me that," she said. "I was taken aback when my husband told me she could be released. Why should she be locked up if she's innocent?" She said exactly what Nekhludoff wanted to say. "It's really unreasonable, unreasonable!" Countess Charsky found it amused to see Mariette flirting with her nephew. "Listen to me," said the countess, waiting for them to fall silent, "tomorrow evening you go to Allin's house, where Kisewett is going to preach. You go too," she said, turning to Mariette. "He noticed you," she said to her nephew. "I told him everything you said, and he said it was a good sign that you would come to Christ. You must go. Mariette, you tell him to go. You go yourself."

"I, Countess, first of all, have no right to direct the prince's actions," said Marietta, looking at Nekhludoff, and expressing with this look that she was treating the countess as well as the evangelicals. In terms of attitude, there is a complete tacit understanding between them, "Second, you know, I don't like it very much..." "No matter what you do, you are always the best and make up your own mind." "How can I make up my own mind? I'm as religious as a country girl," she said, smiling. "Third," she went on, "I'm going to the French theater to-morrow..."

"Ah! You saw that... oh, what's her name?" said Countess Charsky. Marietta said the name of the famous French actress. "You must go and see her, she is so good." "Then who should I go to first, my aunt, the actress first, or the missionary first?" "Please don't pick on me." "I think it's better to look at the missionaries first, and then the French actresses, otherwise you won't be interested in listening to the sermons at all," said Nekhludoff. "No, it's better to see the French opera first, and then go to the confession," said Mariette.

"Hmph, don't make fun of me. Preaching is preaching, acting is acting. To save your soul, you don't need to stretch your face two feet long and cry endlessly. As long as a person has faith, his heart will be happy. " "You, my aunt, can preach as well as any missionary." "I think so," Marietta said with a smile, "you can come to my box tomorrow." "I'm afraid I won't be able to go..." A footman came in to announce a visitor and interrupted their conversation.It was the secretary of the charity presided over by the countess. "Oh, that's a very dull man. I'd better go and see him over there. I'll be right back. Get him some tea, Mariette," said the countess, going briskly into the drawing-room. Marietta took off her glove, revealing a strong, flat hand with a ring on the ring finger. "Would you like tea?" she said, picking up the silver teapot on the spirit lamp, and cocking her little finger curiously. Her face was serious and melancholy. "I respect people's opinions, but they always confuse me with my status, which makes me feel very uncomfortable." Marietta seemed on the verge of tears as she spoke the last words.Her words, when one thought about them carefully, meant nothing, or had no special meaning, but Nekhludoff found them unusually deep, sincere, and kind.This was because Nekhludoff was completely fascinated by the watery eyes of this young, beautiful, well-dressed woman when she said this. Nekhludoff looked at her in silence, unable to take his eyes off her face. "You think I don't know you, or what's going on in your heart. Everyone knows what you do. It's an open secret. I admire your actions, and I admire you." "Honestly, there's not much to admire, I've done very little." "It doesn't matter. I understand your mood, and I understand her... well, okay, okay, let's not talk about it," Mariet noticed the unhappy look on his face, and stopped talking. "But I also understand that you have seen with your own eyes all the miseries, all the horrors of prison," said Mariette, intent on charming him, and guessing with her feminine sensibility what he valued, "do you want to Helping those who suffer, who have suffered because of their cruelty and cruelty, have suffered so much...I know that someone can give their life for it, and I would really like to do it myself. But everyone has their own Life……" "Are you dissatisfied with your life?" "Me?" Mariette asked, as if she couldn't understand how anyone could ask such a question. "I should be satisfied, and in fact I am. But there is a worm awakening in my heart..." "It must not be allowed to sleep any more, and its cries must be believed," said Nekhludoff, taking her rhetoric for the truth. Afterwards Nekhludoff often thought of the conversation with her, and felt very ashamed.He thought of her words, which were more flattering than false, and the pathetic look on her face when he described the horrors of the prison and the impressions of the country. When the countess came back, they had already talked very speculatively, as if they were old friends.Not only old friends, but extremely close friends.And among a crowd of people who didn't know them, they were the only ones who could understand each other. They speak of the injustice of those in power, of the misery of the unfortunate, of the poverty of the people, and while they are talking they move their eyes as if to ask, "Can you love me?" and the other responds, "I can. "The charm of the opposite sex attracts them to each other in a charming way that cannot be imagined. Before leaving, Mariette told him that she was always willing to serve him, and asked him to go to the theater to find her tomorrow, even if it was only for a minute, because she still had an important matter to talk to him. "Well, when shall I see you again?" she added with a sigh.Then carefully put the glove on the ringed hand. "You said you would come." Nekhludoff agreed. That night Nekhludoff was alone in his room.He lay down on the bed, put out the candle, but could not sleep for a long time.He thought of Maslova, of the decision of the Privy Council, of his determination to go with her, of his renunciation of the land.Suddenly, as if against these thoughts, he saw Mariette's face, her sigh, her eyes when she said "When will I see you again," and her smile.These images are so clear, as if he really saw her.He couldn't help laughing. "I'm going to Siberia, is that okay? I want to give up my property, is that okay? ' he asked himself. On this bright Petersburg night, with moonlight filtering in through the cracks in the curtains, his answers to these questions were vacillating.His mind was in turmoil.He wanted to evoke the original mood and continue to think about the original things, but he could no longer convince himself. "What if all this is just my imagination, I can't live like that, and I regret my actions, what should I do?" He asked himself, but he couldn't answer, feeling a kind of trouble and despair that he hadn't felt for a long time.He couldn't figure out these problems, but gradually fell into a painful dreamland, just like he did after losing a large sum of money in gambling.