Page 812 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

distressed at what had been done. This meant the defeat of
Alexey Alexandrovitch. But in spite of failing health, in
spite of his domestic griefs, he did not give in. There was a
split in the commission. Some members, with Stremov at

their head, justified their mistake on the ground that they
had put faith in the commission of revision, instituted by
Alexey Alexandrovitch, and maintained that the report of
the commission was rubbish, and simply so much waste
paper. Alexey Alexandrovitch, with a following of those
who saw the danger of so revolutionary an attitude to
official documents, persisted in upholding the statements
obtained by the revising commission. In consequence of
this, in the higher spheres, and even in society, all was
chaos, and although everyone was interested, no one
could tell whether the native tribes really were becoming
impoverished and ruined, or whether they were in a
flourishing condition. The position of Alexey
Alexandrovitch, owing to this, and partly owing to the
contempt lavished on him for his wife’s infidelity, became
very precarious. And in this position he took an important
resolution. To the astonishment of the commission, he
announced that he should ask permission to go himself to
investigate the question on the spot. And having obtained

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