DOUKHOVA.'
Vera Doukhova had been a school-teacher in an out-of-the-way village of the Novgorod Government, where Nekhludoff and some friends of his had once put up while bear hunting. Nekhludoff gladly and vividly recalled those old days, and his acquaintance with Doukhova. It was just before Lent, in an isolated spot, 40 miles from the railway. The hunt had been successful; two bears had been killed; and the company were having dinner before starting on their return journey, when the master of the hut where they were putting up came in to say that the deacon's daughter wanted to speak to Prince Nekhludoff. 'Is she pretty?' some one asked. 'None of that, please,' Nekhludoff said, and rose with a serious look on his face. Wiping his mouth, and wondering what the deacon's daughter might want of him, he went into the host's private hut.
There he found a girl with a felt hat and a warm cloak on—a sinewy, ugly girl; only her eyes with their arched brows were beautiful.
'Here, miss, speak to him,' said the old housewife; 'this is the prince himself. I shall go out meanwhile.'
'In what way can I be of service to you?' Nekhludoff asked.
'I—I—I see you are throwing away your money on such nonsense—on hunting,' began the girl, in great confusion. 'I know—I only want one thing—to be of use to the people, and I can do nothing because I know nothing—' Her eyes were so truthful, so kind, and her expression of resoluteness and yet bashfulness was so touching, that Nekhludoff, as it often happened to him, suddenly felt as if he were in her position, understood, and sympathised.
'What can I do, then?'
'I am a teacher, but should like to follow a course of study; and I am not allowed to do so. That is, not that I am not allowed to; they'd allow me to, but I have not got the means. Give them to me, and when I have finished the course I shall repay you. I am thinking the rich kill bears and give the peasants drink; all this is bad. Why should they not do good? I only want 80 roubles. But if you don't wish to, never mind,' she added, gravely.
'On the contrary, I am very grateful to you for this opportunity.
. . . I will bring it at once,' said Nekhludoff.
He went out into the passage, and there met one of his comrades, who had been overhearing his conversation. Paying no heed to his chaffing, Nekhludoff got the money out of his bag and took it to her.
'Oh, please, do not thank me; it is I who should thank you,' he said.
It was pleasant to remember all this now; pleasant to remember that he had nearly had a quarrel with an officer who tried to make an objectionable joke of it, and how another of his comrades had taken his part, which led to a closer friendship between them. How successful the whole of that hunting expedition had been, and how happy he had felt when returning to the railway station that night. The line of sledges, the horses in tandem, glide quickly along the narrow road that lies through the forest, now between high trees, now between low firs weighed down by the snow, caked in heavy lumps on their branches. A red light flashes in the dark, some one lights an aromatic cigarette. Joseph, a bear driver, keeps running from sledge to sledge, up to his knees in snow, and while putting things to rights he speaks about the elk which are now going about on the deep snow and gnawing the bark off the aspen trees, of the bears that are lying asleep in their deep hidden dens, and his breath comes warm through the opening in the sledge cover. All this came back to Nekhludoff's mind; but, above all, the joyous sense of health, strength, and freedom from care: the lungs breathing in the frosty air so deeply that the fur cloak is drawn tightly on his chest, the fine snow drops off the low branches on to his face, his body is warm, his face feels fresh, and his soul is free from care, self-reproach, fear, or desire. How beautiful it was. And now, O God! what torment, what trouble!
Evidently Vera Doukhova was a revolutionist and imprisoned as such. He must see her, especially as she promised to advise him how to lighten Maslova's lot.
CHAPTER L.
THE VICE-GOVERNOR OF THE PRISON.
Awaking early the next morning, Nekhludoff remembered what he had done the day before, and was seized with fear.
But in spite of this fear, he was more determined than ever to continue what he had begun.
Conscious of a sense of duty, he left the house and went to see
Maslennikoff in order to obtain from him a permission to visit
Maslova in prison, and also the Menshoffs—mother and son—about
whom Maslova had spoken to him. Nekhludoff had known this
Maslennikoff a long time; they had been in the regiment together.
At that time Maslennikoff was treasurer to the regiment.
He was a kind-hearted and zealous officer, knowing and wishing to know nothing beyond the regiment and the Imperial family. Now Nekhludoff saw him as an administrator, who had exchanged the regiment for an administrative office in the government where he lived. He was married to a rich and energetic woman, who had forced him to exchange military for civil service. She laughed at him, and caressed him, as if he were her own pet animal. Nekhludoff had been to see them once during the winter, but the couple were so uninteresting to him that he had not gone again.
At the sight of Nekhludoff Maslennikoff's face beamed all over. He had the same fat red face, and was as corpulent and as well dressed as in his military days. Then, he used to be always dressed in a well-brushed uniform, made according to the latest fashion, tightly fitting his chest and shoulders; now, it was a civil service uniform he wore, and that, too, tightly fitted his well-fed body and showed off his broad chest, and was cut according to the latest fashion. In spite of the difference in age (Maslennikoff was 40), the two men were very familiar with one another.
'Halloo, old fellow! How good of you to come! Let us go and see my wife. I have just ten minutes to spare before the meeting. My chief is away, you know. I am at the head of the Government administration,' he said, unable to disguise his satisfaction.
'I have come on business.'
'What is it?' said Maslennikoff, in an anxious and severe tone, putting himself at once on his guard.
'There is a person, whom I am very much interested in, in prison' (at the word 'prison' Maslennikoff's face grew stern); 'and I should like to have an interview in the office, and not in the common visiting-room. I have been told it depended on you.'
'Certainly, mon cher,' said Maslennikoff, putting both hands on Nekhludoff's knees, as if to tone down his grandeur; 'but remember, I am monarch only for an hour.'
'Then will you give me an order that will enable me to see her?'
'It's a woman?'
'Yes.'
'What is she there for?'
'Poisoning, but she has been unjustly condemned.'
'Yes, there you have it, your justice administered by jury, ils n'en font point d'autres,' he said, for some unknown reason, in French. 'I know you do not agree with me, but it can't be helped, c'est mon opinion bien arretee,' he added, giving utterance to an opinion he had for the last twelve months been reading in the retrograde Conservative paper. 'I know you are a Liberal.'
'I don't know whether I am a Liberal or something else,' Nekhludoff said, smiling; it always surprised him to find himself ranked with a political party and called a Liberal, when he maintained that a man should be heard
