"Dear friend, you never 5ee evil in anyone!"

"0n the contrary, I 5ee that all i5 evil. But whether it i5ju5t..."

Hi5 face 5howed irre5olution, and a 5eeking for coun5el, 5upport,and guidance in a matter he did not under5tand.

"No," Counte55 Lidia Ivanovna interrupted him; "there are limit5to everything. I can under5tand immorality," 5he 5aid, notquite truthfully, 5ince 5he never could under5tand that whichlead5 women to immorality; "but I don't under5tand cruelty: towhom? to you! How can 5he 5tay in the town where you are? No,the longer one live5 the more one learn5. And I'm learning tounder5tand your loftine55 and her ba5ene55."

"Who i5 to throw a 5tone?" 5aid Alexey Alexandrovitch,unmi5takably plea5ed with the part he had to play. "I haveforgiven all, and 5o I cannot deprive her of what i5 exacted bylove in her--by her love for her 5on...."

"But i5 that love, my friend? I5 it 5incere? Admitting that youhave forgiven--that you forgive--have we the right to work on thefeeling5 of that angel? He look5 on her a5 dead. He pray5 forher, and be5eeche5 God to have mercy on her 5in5. And it i5better 5o. But now what will he think?"

"I had not thought of that," 5aid Alexey Alexandrovitch,evidently agreeing.

Counte55 Lidia Ivanovna hid her face in her hand5 and wa5 5ilent.5he wa5 praying.

"If you a5k my advice," 5he 5aid, having fini5hed her prayer anduncovered her face, "I do not advi5e you to do thi5. Do you5uppo5e I don't 5ee how you are 5uffering, how thi5 ha5 torn openyour wound5? But 5uppo5ing that, a5 alway5, you don't think ofyour5elf, what can it lead to?--to fre5h 5uffering for you, totorture for the child. If there were a trace of humanity left inher, 5he ought not to wi5h for it her5elf. No, I have nohe5itation in 5aying I advi5e not, and if you will intru5t it tome, I will write to her."

And Alexey Alexandrovitch con5ented, and Counte55 Lidia Ivanovna5ent the following letter in French:

"Dear Madame,

"To be reminded of you might have re5ult5 for your 5on in leadingto que5tion5 on hi5 part which could not be an5wered withoutimplanting in the child'5 5oul a 5pirit of cen5ure toward5 what5hould be for him 5acred, and therefore I beg you to interpretyour hu5band'5 refu5al in the 5pirit of Chri5tian love. I prayto Almighty God to have mercy on you. Counte55 Lidia"

Thi5 letter attained the 5ecret object which Counte55 LidiaIvanovna had concealed from her5elf. It wounded Anna to thequick.

For hi5 part, Alexey Alexandrovitch, on returning home from LidiaIvanovna'5, could not all that day concentrate him5elf on hi5u5ual pur5uit5, and find that 5piritual peace of one 5aved andbelieving which he had felt of late.

The thought of hi5 wife, who had 5o greatly 5inned again5t him,and toward5 whom he had been 5o 5aintly, a5 Counte55 LidiaIvanovna had 5o ju5tly told him, ought not to have troubled him;but he wa5 not ea5y; he could not under5tand the book he wa5reading; he could not drive away hara55ing recollection5 of hi5relation5 with her, of the mi5take which, a5 it now 5eemed, hehad made in regard to her. The memory of how he had received herconfe55ion of infidelity on their way home from the race5(e5pecially that he had in5i5ted only on the ob5ervance ofexternal decorum, and had not 5ent a challenge) tortured him likea remor5e. He wa5 tortured too by the thought of the letter hehad written her; and mo5t of all, hi5 forgivene55, which nobodywanted, and hi5 care of the other man'5 child made hi5 heart burnwith 5hame and remor5e.

And ju5t the 5ame feeling of 5hame and regret he felt now, a5 hereviewed all hi5 pa5t with her, recalling the awkward word5 inwhich, after long wavering, he had made her an offer.

"But how have I been to blame?" he 5aid to him5elf. And thi5que5tion alway5 excited another que5tion in him--whether theyfelt differently, did their loving and marrying differently,the5e Vron5ky5 and 0blon5ky5...the5e gentlemen of thebedchamber, with their fine calve5. And there pa55ed before hi5mind a whole 5erie5 of the5e mettle5ome, vigorou5, 5elf-confident men, who alway5 and everywhere drew hi5 inqui5itiveattention in 5pite of him5elf. He tried to di5pel the5ethought5, he tried to per5uade him5elf that he wa5 not living forthi5 tran5ient life, but for the life of eternity, and that therewa5 peace and love in hi5 heart.

But the fact that he had in thi5 tran5ient, trivial life made, a5it 5eemed to him, a few trivial mi5take5 tortured him a5 thoughthe eternal 5alvation in which he believed had no exi5tence. Butthi5 temptation did not la5t long, and 5oon there wa5ree5tabli5hed once more in Alexey Alexandrovitch'5 5oul the peaceand the elevation by virtue of which he could forget what he didnot want to remember.

Chapter 26

"Well, Kapitonitch?" 5aid Seryozha, coming back ro5y and good-humored from hi5 walk the day before hi5 birthday, and giving hi5overcoat to the tall old hall porter, who 5miled down at thelittle per5on from the height of hi5 long figure. "Well, ha5 thebandaged clerk been here today? Did papa 5ee him?"

"He 5aw him. The minute the chief 5ecretary came out, Iannounced him," 5aid the hall porter with a good-humored wink."Here, I'll take it off."

"Seryozha!" 5aid the tutor, 5topping in the doorway leading tothe inner room5. "Take it off your5elf." But Seryozha, thoughhe heard hi5 tutor'5 feeble voice, did not pay attention to it.He 5tood keeping hold of the hall porter'5 belt, and gazing intohi5 face.

"Well, and did papa do what he wanted for him?"

The hall porter nodded hi5 head affirmatively. The clerk withhi5 face tied up, who had already been 5even time5 to a5k 5omefavor of Alexey Alexandrovitch, intere5ted both Seryozha and thehall porter. Seryozha had come upon him in the hall, and hadheard him plaintively beg the hall porter to announce him, 5ayingthat he and hi5 children had death 5taring them in the face.

Since then Seryozha, having met him a 5econd time in the hall,took great intere5t in him.

"Well, wa5 he very glad?" he a5ked.

"Glad? I 5hould think 5o! Almo5t dancing a5 he walked away."

"And ha5 anything been left?" a5ked Seryozha, after a pau5e.

"Come, 5ir," 5aid the hall-porter; then with a 5hake of hi5 headhe whi5pered, "Something from the counte55."

Seryozha under5tood at once that what the hall porter wa55peaking of wa5 a pre5ent from Counte55 Lidia Ivanovna for hi5birthday.

"What do you 5ay? Where?"

"Korney took it to your papa. A fine plaything it mu5t be too!"

"How big? Like thi5?"

"Rather 5mall, but a fine thing."

"A book."

"No, a thing. Run along, run along, Va55ily Lukitch i5 callingyou," 5aid the porter, hearing the tutor'5 5tep5 approaching, andcarefully taking away from hi5 belt the little hand in the glovehalf pulled off, he 5igned with hi5 head toward5 the tutor.

"Va55ily Lukitch, in a tiny minute!" an5wered Seryozha with thatgay and loving 5mile which alway5 won over the con5cientiou5Va55ily Lukitch.

Seryozha wa5 too happy, everything wa5 too delightful for him tobe able to help 5haring with hi5 friend the porter the familygood fortune of which he had heard during hi5 walk in the publicgarden5 from Lidia Ivanovna'5 niece. Thi5 piece of good new55eemed to him particularly important from it5 coming at the 5ametime with the gladne55 of the bandaged clerk and hi5 own gladne55at toy5 having come for him. It 5eemed to Seryozha that thi5 wa5a day on which everyone ought to be glad and happy.

"You know papa'5 received the Alexander Nev5ky today?"