<h3>Chapter 14</h3>
<p>As he neared Petersburg, Alexey Alexandrovitch not only adhered entirely to his
decision, but was even composing in his head the letter he would write to his
wife. Going into the porter’s room, Alexey Alexandrovitch glanced at the
letters and papers brought from his office, and directed that they should be
brought to him in his study.</p>
<p>“The horses can be taken out and I will see no one,” he said in
answer to the porter, with a certain pleasure, indicative of his agreeable
frame of mind, emphasizing the words, “see no one.”</p>
<p>In his study Alexey Alexandrovitch walked up and down twice, and stopped at an
immense writing-table, on which six candles had already been lighted by the
valet who had preceded him. He cracked his knuckles and sat down, sorting out
his writing appurtenances. Putting his elbows on the table, he bent his head on
one side, thought a minute, and began to write, without pausing for a second.
He wrote without using any form of address to her, and wrote in French, making
use of the plural “<i>vous</i>,” which has not the same note of
coldness as the corresponding Russian form.</p>
<blockquote> <div> <p>
“At our last conversation, I notified you of my intention to communicate
to you my decision in regard to the subject of that conversation. Having
carefully considered everything, I am writing now with the object of fulfilling
that promise. My decision is as follows. Whatever your conduct may have been, I
do not consider myself justified in breaking the ties in which we are bound by
a Higher Power. The family cannot be broken up by a whim, a caprice, or even by
the sin of one of the partners in the marriage, and our life must go on as it
has done in the past. This is essential for me, for you, and for our son. I am
fully persuaded that you have repented and do repent of what has called forth
the present letter, and that you will cooperate with me in eradicating the
cause of our estrangement, and forgetting the past. In the contrary event, you
can conjecture what awaits you and your son. All this I hope to discuss more in
detail in a personal interview. As the season is drawing to a close, I would
beg you to return to Petersburg as quickly as possible, not later than Tuesday.
All necessary preparations shall be made for your arrival here. I beg you to
note that I attach particular significance to compliance with this request.</p>
<p>A. Karenin</p>
<p>“<i>P.S.</i>—I enclose the money which may be needed for your
expenses.”</p>
</div> </blockquote> <p>
He read the letter through and felt pleased with it, and especially that he had
remembered to enclose money: there was not a harsh word, not a reproach in it,
nor was there undue indulgence. Most of all, it was a golden bridge for return.
Folding the letter and smoothing it with a massive ivory knife, and putting it
in an envelope with the money, he rang the bell with the gratification it
always afforded him to use the well arranged appointments of his writing-table.</p>
<p>“Give this to the courier to be delivered to Anna Arkadyevna tomorrow at
the summer villa,” he said, getting up.</p>
<p>“Certainly, your excellency; tea to be served in the study?”</p>
<p>Alexey Alexandrovitch ordered tea to be brought to the study, and playing with
the massive paper-knife, he moved to his easy chair, near which there had been
placed ready for him a lamp and the French work on Egyptian hieroglyphics that
he had begun. Over the easy chair there hung in a gold frame an oval portrait
of Anna, a fine painting by a celebrated artist. Alexey Alexandrovitch glanced
at it. The unfathomable eyes gazed ironically and insolently at him.
Insufferably insolent and challenging was the effect in Alexey
Alexandrovitch’s eyes of the black lace about the head, admirably touched
in by the painter, the black hair and handsome white hand with one finger
lifted, covered with rings. After looking at the portrait for a minute, Alexey
Alexandrovitch shuddered so that his lips quivered and he uttered the sound
“brrr,” and turned away. He made haste to sit down in his easy
chair and opened the book. He tried to read, but he could not revive the very
vivid interest he had felt before in Egyptian hieroglyphics. He looked at the
book and thought of something else. He thought not of his wife, but of a
complication that had arisen in his official life, which at the time
constituted the chief interest of it. He felt that he had penetrated more
deeply than ever before into this intricate affair, and that he had originated
a leading idea—he could say it without self-flattery—calculated to
clear up the whole business, to strengthen him in his official career, to
discomfit his enemies, and thereby to be of the greatest benefit to the
government. Directly the servant had set the tea and left the room, Alexey
Alexandrovitch got up and went to the writing-table. Moving into the middle of
the table a portfolio of papers, with a scarcely perceptible smile of
self-satisfaction, he took a pencil from a rack and plunged into the perusal of
a complex report relating to the present complication. The complication was of
this nature: Alexey Alexandrovitch’s characteristic quality as a
politician, that special individual qualification that every rising functionary
possesses, the qualification that with his unflagging ambition, his reserve,
his honesty, and with his self-confidence had made his career, was his contempt
for red tape, his cutting down of correspondence, his direct contact, wherever
possible, with the living fact, and his economy. It happened that the famous
Commission of the 2nd of June had set on foot an inquiry into the irrigation of
lands in the Zaraisky province, which fell under Alexey Alexandrovitch’s
department, and was a glaring example of fruitless expenditure and paper
reforms. Alexey Alexandrovitch was aware of the truth of this. The irrigation
of these lands in the Zaraisky province had been initiated by the predecessor
of Alexey Alexandrovitch’s predecessor. And vast sums of money had
actually been spent and were still being spent on this business, and utterly
unproductively, and the whole business could obviously lead to nothing
whatever. Alexey Alexandrovitch had perceived this at once on entering office,
and would have liked to lay hands on the Board of Irrigation. But at first,
when he did not yet feel secure in his position, he knew it would affect too
many interests, and would be injudicious. Later on he had been engrossed in
other questions, and had simply forgotten the Board of Irrigation. It went of
itself, like all such boards, by the mere force of inertia. (Many people gained
their livelihood by the Board of Irrigation, especially one highly
conscientious and musical family: all the daughters played on stringed
instruments, and Alexey Alexandrovitch knew the family and had stood godfather
to one of the elder daughters.) The raising of this question by a hostile
department was in Alexey Alexandrovitch’s opinion a dishonorable
proceeding, seeing that in every department there were things similar and
worse, which no one inquired into, for well-known reasons of official
etiquette. However, now that the glove had been thrown down to him, he had
boldly picked it up and demanded the appointment of a special commission to
investigate and verify the working of the Board of Irrigation of the lands in
the Zaraisky province. But in compensation he gave no quarter to the enemy
either. He demanded the appointment of another special commission to inquire
into the question of the Native Tribes Organization Committee. The question of
the Native Tribes had been brought up incidentally in the Commission of the 2nd
of June, and had been pressed forward actively by Alexey Alexandrovitch as one
admitting of no delay on account of the deplorable condition of the native
tribes. In the commission this question had been a ground of contention between
several departments. The department hostile to Alexey Alexandrovitch proved
that the condition of the native tribes was exceedingly flourishing, that the
proposed reconstruction might be the ruin of their prosperity, and that if
there were anything wrong, it arose mainly from the failure on the part of
Alexey Alexandrovitch’s department to carry out the measures prescribed
by law. Now Alexey Alexandrovitch intended to demand: First, that a new
commission should be formed which should be empowered to investigate the
condition of the native tribes on the spot; secondly, if it should appear that
the condition of the native tribes actually was such as it appeared to be from
the official documents in the hands of the committee, that another new
scientific commission should be appointed to investigate the deplorable
condition of the native tribes from the—(1) political, (2)
administrative, (3) economic, (4) ethnographical, (5) material, and (6)
religious points of view; thirdly, that evidence should be required from the
rival department of the measures that had been taken during the last ten years
by that department for averting the disastrous conditions in which the native
tribes were now placed; and fourthly and finally, that that department explain
why it had, as appeared from the evidence before the committee, from No. 17,015
and 18,038, from December 5, 1863, and June 7, 1864, acted in direct
contravention of the intent of the law T... Act 18, and the note to Act 36. A
flash of eagerness suffused the face of Alexey Alexandrovitch as he rapidly
wrote out a synopsis of these ideas for his own benefit. Having filled a sheet
of paper, he got up, rang, and sent a note to the chief secretary of his
department to look up certain necessary facts for him. Getting up and walking
about the room, he glanced again at the portrait, frowned, and smiled
contemptuously. After reading a little more of the book on Egyptian
hieroglyphics, and renewing his interest in it, Alexey Alexandrovitch went to
bed at eleven o’clock, and recollecting as he lay in bed the incident
with his wife, he saw it now in by no means such a gloomy light.</p>
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