<h3>Chapter 6</h3>
<p>Alexey Alexandrovitch had gained a brilliant victory at the sitting of the
Commission of the 17th of August, but in the sequel this victory cut the ground
from under his feet. The new commission for the inquiry into the condition of
the native tribes in all its branches had been formed and despatched to its
destination with an unusual speed and energy inspired by Alexey Alexandrovitch.
Within three months a report was presented. The condition of the native tribes
was investigated in its political, administrative, economic, ethnographic,
material, and religious aspects. To all these questions there were answers
admirably stated, and answers admitting no shade of doubt, since they were not
a product of human thought, always liable to error, but were all the product of
official activity. The answers were all based on official data furnished by
governors and heads of churches, and founded on the reports of district
magistrates and ecclesiastical superintendents, founded in their turn on the
reports of parochial overseers and parish priests; and so all of these answers
were unhesitating and certain. All such questions as, for instance, of the
cause of failure of crops, of the adherence of certain tribes to their ancient
beliefs, etc.—questions which, but for the convenient intervention of the
official machine, are not, and cannot be solved for ages—received full,
unhesitating solution. And this solution was in favor of Alexey
Alexandrovitch’s contention. But Stremov, who had felt stung to the quick
at the last sitting, had, on the reception of the commission’s report,
resorted to tactics which Alexey Alexandrovitch had not anticipated. Stremov,
carrying with him several members, went over to Alexey Alexandrovitch’s
side, and not contenting himself with warmly defending the measure proposed by
Karenin, proposed other more extreme measures in the same direction. These
measures, still further exaggerated in opposition to what was Alexey
Alexandrovitch’s fundamental idea, were passed by the commission, and
then the aim of Stremov’s tactics became apparent. Carried to an extreme,
the measures seemed at once to be so absurd that the highest authorities, and
public opinion, and intellectual ladies, and the newspapers, all at the same
time fell foul of them, expressing their indignation both with the measures and
their nominal father, Alexey Alexandrovitch. Stremov drew back, affecting to
have blindly followed Karenin, and to be astounded and distressed at what had
been done. This meant the defeat of Alexey Alexandrovitch. But in spite of
failing health, in spite of his domestic griefs, he did not give in. There was
a split in the commission. Some members, with Stremov at their head, justified
their mistake on the ground that they had put faith in the commission of
revision, instituted by Alexey Alexandrovitch, and maintained that the report
of the commission was rubbish, and simply so much waste paper. Alexey
Alexandrovitch, with a following of those who saw the danger of so
revolutionary an attitude to official documents, persisted in upholding the
statements obtained by the revising commission. In consequence of this, in the
higher spheres, and even in society, all was chaos, and although everyone was
interested, no one could tell whether the native tribes really were becoming
impoverished and ruined, or whether they were in a flourishing condition. The
position of Alexey Alexandrovitch, owing to this, and partly owing to the
contempt lavished on him for his wife’s infidelity, became very
precarious. And in this position he took an important resolution. To the
astonishment of the commission, he announced that he should ask permission to
go himself to investigate the question on the spot. And having obtained
permission, Alexey Alexandrovitch prepared to set off to these remote
provinces.</p>
<p>Alexey Alexandrovitch’s departure made a great sensation, the more so as
just before he started he officially returned the posting-fares allowed him for
twelve horses, to drive to his destination.</p>
<p>“I think it very noble,” Betsy said about this to the Princess
Myakaya. “Why take money for posting-horses when everyone knows that
there are railways everywhere now?”</p>
<p>But Princess Myakaya did not agree, and the Princess Tverskaya’s opinion
annoyed her indeed.</p>
<p>“It’s all very well for you to talk,” said she, “when
you have I don’t know how many millions; but I am very glad when my
husband goes on a revising tour in the summer. It’s very good for him and
pleasant traveling about, and it’s a settled arrangement for me to keep a
carriage and coachman on the money.”</p>
<p>On his way to the remote provinces Alexey Alexandrovitch stopped for three days
at Moscow.</p>
<p>The day after his arrival he was driving back from calling on the
governor-general. At the crossroads by Gazetoy Place, where there are always
crowds of carriages and sledges, Alexey Alexandrovitch suddenly heard his name
called out in such a loud and cheerful voice that he could not help looking
round. At the corner of the pavement, in a short, stylish overcoat and a
low-crowned fashionable hat, jauntily askew, with a smile that showed a gleam
of white teeth and red lips, stood Stepan Arkadyevitch, radiant, young, and
beaming. He called him vigorously and urgently, and insisted on his stopping.
He had one arm on the window of a carriage that was stopping at the corner, and
out of the window were thrust the heads of a lady in a velvet hat, and two
children. Stepan Arkadyevitch was smiling and beckoning to his brother-in-law.
The lady smiled a kindly smile too, and she too waved her hand to Alexey
Alexandrovitch. It was Dolly with her children.</p>
<p>Alexey Alexandrovitch did not want to see anyone in Moscow, and least of all
his wife’s brother. He raised his hat and would have driven on, but
Stepan Arkadyevitch told his coachman to stop, and ran across the snow to him.</p>
<p>“Well, what a shame not to have let us know! Been here long? I was at
Dussots’ yesterday and saw ‘Karenin’ on the visitors’
list, but it never entered my head that it was you,” said Stepan
Arkadyevitch, sticking his head in at the window of the carriage, “or I
should have looked you up. I am glad to see you!” he said, knocking one
foot against the other to shake the snow off. “What a shame of you not to
let us know!” he repeated.</p>
<p>“I had no time; I am very busy,” Alexey Alexandrovitch responded
dryly.</p>
<p>“Come to my wife, she does so want to see you.”</p>
<p>Alexey Alexandrovitch unfolded the rug in which his frozen feet were wrapped,
and getting out of his carriage made his way over the snow to Darya
Alexandrovna.</p>
<p>“Why, Alexey Alexandrovitch, what are you cutting us like this
for?” said Dolly, smiling.</p>
<p>“I was very busy. Delighted to see you!” he said in a tone clearly
indicating that he was annoyed by it. “How are you?”</p>
<p>“Tell me, how is my darling Anna?”</p>
<p>Alexey Alexandrovitch mumbled something and would have gone on. But Stepan
Arkadyevitch stopped him.</p>
<p>“I tell you what we’ll do tomorrow. Dolly, ask him to dinner.
We’ll ask Koznishev and Pestsov, so as to entertain him with our Moscow
celebrities.”</p>
<p>“Yes, please, do come,” said Dolly; “we will expect you at
five, or six o’clock, if you like. How is my darling Anna? How
long....”</p>
<p>“She is quite well,” Alexey Alexandrovitch mumbled, frowning.
“Delighted!” and he moved away towards his carriage.</p>
<p>“You will come?” Dolly called after him.</p>
<p>Alexey Alexandrovitch said something which Dolly could not catch in the noise
of the moving carriages.</p>
<p>“I shall come round tomorrow!” Stepan Arkadyevitch shouted to him.</p>
<p>Alexey Alexandrovitch got into his carriage, and buried himself in it so as
neither to see nor be seen.</p>
<p>“Queer fish!” said Stepan Arkadyevitch to his wife, and glancing at
his watch, he made a motion of his hand before his face, indicating a caress to
his wife and children, and walked jauntily along the pavement.</p>
<p>“Stiva! Stiva!” Dolly called, reddening.</p>
<p>He turned round.</p>
<p>“I must get coats, you know, for Grisha and Tanya. Give me the
money.”</p>
<p>“Never mind; you tell them I’ll pay the bill!” and he
vanished, nodding genially to an acquaintance who drove by.</p>
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