Alexey Alexandrovitch, on coming back from church service, had

spent the whole morning indoors. He had two pieces of business

before him that morning; first, to receive and send on a

deputation from the native tribes which was on its way to

Petersburg, and now at Moscow; secondly, to write the promised

letter to the lawyer. The deputation, though it had been

summoned at Alexey Alexandrovitch's instigation, was not without

its discomforting and even dangerous aspect, and he was glad he

had found it in Moscow. The members of this deputation had not

the slightest conception of their duty and the part they were to

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play. They naïvely believed that it was their business to lay

before the commission their needs and the actual condition of

things, and to ask assistance of the government, and utterly

failed to grasp that some of their statements and requests

supported the contention of the enemy's side, and so spoiled the

whole business. Alexey Alexandrovitch was busily engaged with

them for a long while, drew up a program for them from which they

were not to depart, and on dismissing them wrote a letter to

Petersburg for the guidance of the deputation. He had his chief

support in this affair in the Countess Lidia Ivanovna. She was a

specialist in the matter of deputations, and no one knew better

than she how to manage them, and put them in the way they should

go. Having completed this task, Alexey Alexandrovitch wrote the

letter to the lawyer. Without the slightest hesitation he gave

him permission to act as he might judge best. In the letter he

enclosed three of Vronsky's notes to Anna, which were in the

portfolio he had taken away.

Since Alexey Alexandrovitch had left home with the intention of

not returning to his family again, and since he had been at the

lawyer's and had spoken, though only to one man, of his

intention, since especially he had translated the matter from the

world of real life to the world of ink and paper, he had grown

more and more used to his own intention, and by now distinctly

perceived the feasibility of its execution.

He was sealing the envelope to the lawyer, when he heard the loud

tones of Stepan Arkadyevitch's voice. Stepan Arkadyevitch was

disputing with Alexey Alexandrovitch's servant, and insisting on

being announced.

"No matter," thought Alexey Alexandrovitch, "so much the better.

I will inform him at once of my position in regard to his

sister, and explain why it is I can't dine with him."

"Come in!" he said aloud, collecting his papers, and putting them

in the blotting-paper.




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