Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART FOUR CHAPTER 5
Chapter 5
THE waiting-room of the celebrated Petersburg lawyer was full when Alexey
Alexandrovitch entered it. Three ladies–an old lady, a young lady, and a merchant’s
wife–and three gentlemen– one a German banker with a ring on his finger,
the second a merchant with a beard, and the third a wrathful-looking government
clerk in official uniform, with a cross on his neck– had obviously been waiting a long
while already. Two clerks were writing at tables with scratching pens. The appurtenances
of the writing-tables, about which Alexey Alexandrovitch was himself very
fastidious, were exceptionally good. He could not help observing this. One of the
clerks, without getting up, turned wrathfully to Alexey Alexandrovitch, half closing
his eyes. “What are you wanting?”
He replied that he had to see the lawyer on some business.
“He is engaged,” the clerk responded severely, and he pointed with his pen at the
persons waiting, and went on writing.
“Can’t he spare time to see me?” said Alexey Alexandrovitch.
“He has no time free; he is always busy. Kindly wait your turn.”
“Then I must trouble you to give him my card,” Alexey Alexandrovitch said with
dignity, seeing the impossibility of preserving his incognito.
The clerk took the card and, obviously not approving of what he read on it, went
to the door.
Alexey Alexandrovitch was in principle in favor of the publicity of legal proceedings,
though for some higher official considerations he disliked the application of the
principle in Russia, and disapproved of it, as far as he could disapprove of anything
instituted by authority of the Emperor. His whole life had been spent in administrative
work, and consequently, when he did not approve of anything, his disapproval
was softened by the recognition of the inevitability of mistakes and the possibility of
reform in every department. In the new public law courts he disliked the restrictions
laid on the lawyers conducting cases. But till then he had had nothing to do with
the law courts, and so had disapproved of their publicity simply in theory; now his
disapprobation was strengthened by the unpleasant impression made on him in the
lawyer’s waiting room.
“Coming immediately,” said the clerk; and two minutes later there did actually
appear in the doorway the large figure of an old solicitor who had been consulting
with the lawyer himself.
The lawyer was a little, squat, bald man, with a dark, reddish beard, light-colored
long eyebrows, and an overhanging brow. He was attired as though for a wedding,
from his cravat to his double watch-chain and varnished boots. His face was clever
and manly, but his dress was dandified and in bad taste.
“Pray walk in,” said the lawyer, addressing Alexey Alexandrovitch; and, gloomily
ushering Karenin in before him, he closed the door.
“Won’t you sit down?” He indicated an armchair at a writing table covered with
papers. He sat down himself, and, rubbing his little hands with short fingers covered
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