Page 1556 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Stepan Arkadyevitch believed most positively that the
committee in which he was trying to get an appointment
was a new, genuine, and honest public body, but that
morning when Volgarinov had— intentionally, beyond a

doubt—kept him two hours waiting with other petitioners
in his waiting room, he had suddenly felt uneasy.
Whether he was uncomfortable that he, a descendant of
Rurik, Prince Oblonsky, had been kept for two hours
waiting to see a Jew, or that for the first time in his life he
was not following the example of his ancestors in serving
the government, but was turning off into a new career,
anyway he was very uncomfortable. During those two
hours in Volgarinov’s waiting room Stepan Arkadyevitch,
stepping jauntily about the room, pulling his whiskers,
entering into conversation with the other petitioners, and
inventing an epigram on his position, assiduously
concealed from others, and even from himself, the feeling
he was experiencing.
But all the time he was uncomfortable and angry, he
could not have said why—whether because he could not
get his epigram just right, or from some other reason.
When at last Volgarinov had received him with
exaggerated politeness and unmistakable triumph at his
humiliation, and had all but refused the favor asked of

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