Page 801 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘He has not 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.

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