Page 825 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 8

Alexey Alexandrovitch, on coming back from church
service, had spent the whole morning indoors. He had
two pieces of business before him that morning; first, to
receive and send on a deputation from the native tribes
which was on its way to Petersburg, and now at Moscow;
secondly, to write the promised letter to the lawyer. The
deputation, though it had been summoned at Alexey
Alexandrovitch’s instigation, was not without its
discomforting and even dangerous aspect, and he was glad
he had found it in Moscow. The members of this
deputation had not the slightest conception of their duty
and the part they were to play. They naively believed that
it was their business to lay before the commission their
needs and the actual condition of things, and to ask
assistance of the government, and utterly failed to grasp
that some of their statements and requests supported the
contention of the enemy’s side, and so spoiled the whole
business. Alexey Alexandrovitch was busily engaged with
them for a long while, drew up a program for them from
which they were not to depart, and on dismissing them
wrote a letter to Petersburg for the guidance of the

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