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man of the bedchamber of colossal proportions.
“No; he’s looking older,” said the gentleman of the bedchamber.
“From overwork. He’s always drawing up projects nowadays. He
won’t let a poor devil go nowadays till he’s explained it all to him under
heads.”
“Looking older, did you say? Il fait des passions. I believe Count-
ess Lidia Ivanovna’s jealous now of his wife.”
“Oh, come now, please don’t say any harm of Countess Lidia
Ivanovna.”
“Why, is there any harm in her being in love with Karenin?”
“But is it true Madame Karenina’s here?”
“Well, not here in the palace, but in Petersburg. I met her yester-
day with Alexey Vronsky, bras dessous, bras dessous, in the Morsky.”
“C’est un homme qui n’a pas...” the gentleman of the bedchamber
was beginning, but he stopped to make room, bowing, for a member of
the Imperial family to pass.
Thus people talked incessantly of Alexey Alexandrovitch, finding
fault with him and laughing at him, while he, blocking up the way of
the member of the Imperial Council he had captured, was explaining
to him point by point his new financial project, never interrupting his
discourse for an instant for fear he should escape.
Almost at the same time that his wife left Alexey Alexandrovitch
there had come to him that bitterest moment in the life of an official—
the moment when his upward career comes to a full stop. This full stop
had arrived and everyone perceived it, but Alexey Alexandrovitch
himself was not yet aware that his career was over. Whether it was due
to his feud with Stremov, or his misfortune with his wife, or simply that
Alexey Alexandrovitch had reached his destined limits, it had become
evident to everyone in the course of that year that his career was at an
end. He still filled a position of consequence, he sat on many commis-
sions and committees, but he was a man whose day was over, and from
whom nothing was expected. Whatever he said, whatever he pro-
posed, was heard as though it were something long familiar, and the
very thing that was not needed. But Alexey Alexandrovitch was not
aware of this, and, on the contrary, being cut off from direct participa-
tion in governmental activity, he saw more clearly than ever the errors
and defects in the action of others, and thought it his duty to point out
means for their correction. Shortly after his separation from his wife, he
began writing his first note on the new judicial procedure, the first of
the endless series of notes he was destined to write in the future.
Alexey Alexandrovitch did not merely fail to observe his hopeless
position in the official world, he was not merely free from anxiety on
this head, he was positively more satisfied than ever with his own
activity.
“He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord,
how he may please the Lord: But he that is married careth for the
things that are of the world, how he may please his wife,” says the
Apostle Paul, and Alexey Alexandrovitch, who was now guided in
every action by Scripture, often recalled this text. It seemed to him that
ever since he had been left without a wife, he had in these very projects
of reform been serving the Lord more zealously than before.
The unmistakable impatience of the member of the Council trying
to get away from him did not trouble Alexey Alexandrovitch; he gave
up his exposition only when the member of the Council, seizing his
chance when one of the Imperial family was passing, slipped away
from him.
Left alone, Alexey Alexandrovitch looked down, collecting his
thoughts, then looked casually about him and walked towards the door,