Page 1396 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

to get the simplest thing done that depended upon the
court of wardship. The other matter, the payment of the
sums due, was met too by difficulties. After long
negotiations over the legal details, the money was at last

ready to be paid; but the notary, a most obliging person,
could not hand over the order, because it must have the
signature of the president, and the president, though he
had not given over his duties to a deputy, was at the
elections. All these worrying negotiations, this endless
going from place to place, and talking with pleasant and
excellent people, who quite saw the unpleasantness of the
petitioner’s position, but were powerless to assist him—all
these efforts that yielded no result, led to a feeling of
misery in Levin akin to the mortifying helplessness one
experiences in dreams when one tries to use physical force.
He felt this frequently as he talked to his most good-
natured solicitor. This solicitor did, it seemed, everything
possible, and strained every nerve to get him out of his
difficulties. ‘I tell you what you might try,’ he said more
than once; ‘go to so-and-so and so-and-so,’ and the
solicitor drew up a regular plan for getting round the fatal
point that hindered everything. But he would add
immediately, ‘It’ll mean some delay, anyway, but you
might try it.’ And Levin did try, and did go. Everyone was

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