Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART FIVE CHAPTER 24
Alexey Alexandrovitch himself was not yet aware that his career was over. Whether
it was due to his feud with Stremov, or his misfortune with his wife, or simply that
Alexey Alexandrovitch had reached his destined limits, it had become evident to
everyone in the course of that year that his career was at an end. He still filled a
position of consequence, he sat on many commissions and committees, but he was
a man whose day was over, and from whom nothing was expected. Whatever he
said, whatever he proposed, was heard as though it were something long familiar,
and the very thing that was not needed. But Alexey Alexandrovitch was not aware
of this, and, on the contrary, being cut off from direct participation in governmental
activity, he saw more clearly than ever the errors and defects in the action of others,
and thought it his duty to point out means for their correction. Shortly after his separation
from his wife, he began writing his first note on the new judicial procedure,
the first of the endless series of notes he was destined to write in the future.
Alexey Alexandrovitch did not merely fail to observe his hopeless position in the
official world, he was not merely free from anxiety on this head, he was positively
more satisfied than ever with his own activity.
“He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may
please the Lord: But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world,
how he may please his wife,” says the Apostle Paul, and Alexey Alexandrovitch,
who was now guided in every action by Scripture, often recalled this text. It seemed
to him that ever since he had been left without a wife, he had in these very projects
of reform been serving the Lord more zealously than before.
The unmistakable impatience of the member of the Council trying to get away
from him did not trouble Alexey Alexandrovitch; he gave up his exposition only
when the member of the Council, seizing his chance when one of the Imperial family
was passing, slipped away from him.
Left alone, Alexey Alexandrovitch looked down, collecting his thoughts, then
looked casually about him and walked towards the door, where he hoped to meet
Countess Lidia Ivanovna.
“And how strong they all are, how sound physically,” thought Alexey Alexandrovitch,
looking at the powerfully built gentleman of the bedchamber with his wellcombed,
perfumed whiskers, and at the red neck of the prince, pinched by his tight
uniform. He had to pass them on his way. “Truly is it said that all the world is
evil,” he thought, with another sidelong glance at the calves of the gentleman of the
bedchamber.
Moving forward deliberately, Alexey Alexandrovitch bowed with his customary
air of weariness and dignity to the gentleman who had been talking about him, and
looking towards the door, his eyes sought Countess Lidia Ivanovna.
“Ah! Alexey Alexandrovitch!” said the little old man, with a malicious light in his
eyes, at the moment when Karenin was on a level with them, and was nodding with
a frigid gesture, “I haven’t congratulated you yet,” said the old man, pointing to his
newly received ribbon.
“Thank you,” answered Alexey Alexandrovitch. “What an exquisite day to-day,”
he added, laying emphasis in his peculiar way on the word exquisite.
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