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.Hereceived Nekhludoff very gravely, and told him plainly that hecould not grant an outsider the permission to interview theprisoners without a special order from his chief.To Nekhludoff'sremark that he had been allowed to visit the prisoners even inthe cities he answered:"That may be so, but I do not allow it," and his tone implied,"You city gentlemen may think to surprise and perplex us, but wein Eastern Siberia also know what the law is, and may even teachit you." The copy of a document straight from the Emperor's ownoffice did not have any effect on the prison inspector either.Hedecidedly refused to let Nekhludoff come inside the prison walls.He only smiled contemptuously at Nekhludoff's naive conclusion,that the copy he had received would suffice to set Maslova free,and declared that a direct order from his own superiors would beneeded before any one could be set at liberty.The only things heagreed to do were to communicate to Maslova that a mitigation hadarrived for her, and to promise that he would not detain her anhour after the order from his chief to liberate her would arrive.He would also give no news of Kryltzoff, saying he could not eventell if there was such a prisoner; and so Nekhludoff, havingaccomplished next to nothing, got into his trap and drove back tohis hotel.The strictness of the inspector was chiefly due to the fact thatan epidemic of typhus had broken out in the prison, owing totwice the number of persons that it was intended for beingcrowded in it.The isvostchik who drove Nekhludoff said, "Quite alot of people are dying in the prison every day, some kind ofdisease having sprung up among them, so that as many as twentywere buried in one day."CHAPTER XXIV.THE GENERAL'S HOUSEHOLD.In spite of his ineffectual attempt at the prison, Nekhludoff,still in the same vigorous, energetic frame of mind, went to theGovernor's office to see if the original of the document hadarrived for Maslova.It had not arrived, so Nekhludoff went backGet any book for free on: www.Abika.com The Resurrection 356to the hotel and wrote without delay to Selenin and the advocateabout it.When he had finished writing he looked at his watch andsaw it was time to go to the General's dinner party.On the way he again began wondering how Katusha would receive thenews of the mitigation of her sentence.Where she would besettled? How he should live with her? What about Simonson? Whatwould his relations to her be? He remembered the change that hadtaken place in her, and this reminded him of her past."I mustforget it for the present," he thought, and again hastened todrive her out of his mind."When the time comes I shall see," hesaid to himself, and began to think of what he ought to say tothe General.The dinner at the General's, with the luxury habitual to thelives of the wealthy and those of high rank, to which Nekhludoffhad been accustomed, was extremely enjoyable after he had been solong deprived not only of luxury but even of the most ordinarycomforts.The mistress of the house was a Petersburg grande dameof the old school, a maid of honour at the court of Nicholas I.,who spoke French quite naturally and Russian very unnaturally.She held herself very erect and, moving her hands, she kept herelbows close to her waist.She was quietly and, somewhat sadlyconsiderate for her husband, and extremely kind to all hervisitors, though with a tinge of difference in her behaviouraccording to their position.She received Nekhludoff as if hewere one of them, and her fine, almost imperceptible flatterymade him once again aware of his virtues and gave him a feelingof satisfaction.She made him feel that she knew of that honestthough rather singular step of his which had brought him toSiberia, and held him to be an exceptional man.This refinedflattery and the elegance and luxury of the General's house hadthe effect of making Nekhludoff succumb to the enjoyment of thehandsome surroundings, the delicate dishes and the case andpleasure of intercourse with educated people of his own class, sothat the surroundings in the midst of which he had lived for thelast months seemed a dream from which he had awakened to reality.Besides those of the household, the General's daughter and herhusband and an aide-de-camp, there were an Englishman, a merchantinterested in gold mines, and the governor of a distant Siberiantown.All these people seemed pleasant to Nekhludoff.TheEnglishman, a healthy man with a rosy complexion, who spoke verybad French, but whose command of his own language was very goodand oratorically impressive, who had seen a great deal, was veryinteresting to listen to when he spoke about America, India,Japan and Siberia.The young merchant interested in the gold mines, the son of apeasant, whose evening dress was made in London, who had diamondstuds to his shirt, possessed a fine library, contributed freelyto philanthropic work, and held liberal European views, seemedpleasant to Nekhludoff as a sample of a quite new and good typeof civilised European culture, grafted on a healthy, uncultivatedpeasant stem.The governor of the distant Siberian town was that same man whohad been so much talked about in Petersburg at the timeGet any book for free on: www.Abika.com The Resurrection 357Nekhludoff was there.He was plump, with thin, curly hair, softblue eyes, carefully-tended white hands, with rings on thefingers, a pleasant smile, and very big in the lower part of hisbody.The master of the house valued this governor because of allthe officials he was the only one who would not be bribed.Themistress of the house, who was very fond of music and a very goodpianist herself, valued him because he was a good musician andplayed duets with her.Nekhludoff was in such good humour that even this man was notunpleasant to him, in spite of what he knew of his vices.Thebright, energetic aide-de-camp, with his bluey grey chin, who wascontinually offering his services, pleased Nekhludoff by his goodnature.But it was the charming young couple, the General'sdaughter and her husband, who pleased Nekhludoff best.Thedaughter was a plain-looking, simple-minded young woman, whollyabsorbed in her two children.Her husband, whom she had fallen inlove with and married after a long struggle with her parents, wasa Liberal, who had taken honours at the Moscow University, amodest and intellectual young man in Government service, who madeup statistics and studied chiefly the foreign tribes, which heliked and tried to save from dying out.All of them were not only kind and attentive to Nekhludoff, butevidently pleased to see him, as a new and interestingacquaintance.The General, who came in to dinner in uniform andwith a white cross round his neck, greeted Nekhludoff as afriend, and asked the visitors to the side table to take a glassof vodka and something to whet their appetites.The General askedNekhludoff what he had been doing since he left that morning, andNekhludoff told him he had been to the post-office and receivedthe news of the mitigation of that person's sentence that he hadspoken of in the morning, and again asked for a permission tovisit the prison.The General, apparently displeased that business should bementioned at dinner, frowned and said nothing."Have a glass of vodka" he said, addressing the Englishman, whohad just come up to the table.The Englishman drank a glass, andsaid he had been to see the cathedral and the factory, but wouldlike to visit the great transportation prison."Oh, that will just fit in," said the General to Nekhludoff."You will he able to go together
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