After filling for three years the post of president of one of the

government boards at Moscow, Stepan Arkadyevitch had won the

respect, as well as the liking, of his fellow-officials,

subordinates, and superiors, and all who had had business with

him. The principal qualities in Stepan Arkadyevitch which had

gained him this universal respect in the service consisted, in

the first place, of his extreme indulgence for others, founded on

a consciousness of his own shortcomings; secondly, of his perfect

liberalism--not the liberalism he read of in the papers, but the

liberalism that was in his blood, in virtue of which he treated

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all men perfectly equally and exactly the same, whatever their

fortune or calling might be; and thirdly--the most important

point--his complete indifference to the business in which he was

engaged, in consequence of which he was never carried away, and

never made mistakes.

On reaching the offices of the board, Stepan Arkadyevitch,

escorted by a deferential porter with a portfolio, went into his

little private room, put on his uniform, and went into the

boardroom. The clerks and copyists all rose, greeting him with

good-humored deference. Stepan Arkadyevitch moved quickly, as

ever, to his place, shook hands with his colleagues, and sat

down. He made a joke or two, and talked just as much as was

consistent with due decorum, and began work. No one knew better

than Stepan Arkadyevitch how to hit on the exact line between

freedom, simplicity, and official stiffness necessary for the

agreeable conduct of business. A secretary, with the

good-humored deference common to every one in Stepan

Arkadyevitch's office, came up with papers, and began to speak in

the familiar and easy tone which had been introduced by Stepan

Arkadyevitch.

"We have succeeded in getting the information from the government

department of Penza. Here, would you care?...."

"You've got them at last?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch, laying his

finger on the paper. "Now, gentlemen...."

And the sitting of the board began.

"If they knew," he thought, bending his head with a significant

air as he listened to the report, "what a guilty little boy their

president was half an hour ago." And his eyes were laughing

during the reading of the report. Till two o'clock the sitting

would go on without a break, and at two o'clock there would be an

interval and luncheon.

It was not yet two, when the large glass doors of the boardroom

suddenly opened and someone came in.

All the officials sitting on the further side under the portrait

of the Tsar and the eagle, delighted at any distraction, looked

round at the door; but the doorkeeper standing at the door at

once drove out the intruder, and closed the glass door after him.




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