Page 1029 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

without the slightest regret from the picture and turning
to the artist.
Noticing, however, that Mihailov was expecting a
criticism of the picture, he said:

‘Your picture has got on a great deal since I saw it last
time; and what strikes me particularly now, as it did then,
is the figure of Pilate. One so knows the man: a good-
natured, capital fellow, but an official through and
through, who does not know what it is he’s doing. But I
fancy..’
All Mihailov’s mobile face beamed at once; his eyes
sparkled. He tried to say something, but he could not
speak for excitement, and pretended to be coughing. Low
as was his opinion of Golenishtchev’s capacity for
understanding art, trifling as was the true remark upon the
fidelity of the expression of Pilate as an official, and
offensive as might have seemed the utterance of so
unimportant an observation while nothing was said of
more serious points, Mihailov was in an ecstasy of delight
at this observation. He had himself thought about Pilate’s
figure just what Golenishtchev said. The fact that this
reflection was but one of millions of reflections, which as
Mihailov knew for certain would be true, did not
diminish for him the significance of Golenishtchev’s

1028 of 1759