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The assistant took the card and, evidently disapproving of its content, went through the door.

Alexei Alexandrovich sympathized with open courts in principle, but he did not entirely sympathize with certain details of their application in our country, owing to higher official attitudes which were known to him, and he condemned them in so far as he could condemn anything ratified in the highest places. His whole life had been spent in administrative activity, and therefore, whenever he did not sympathize with anything, his lack of sympathy was softened by recognition of the inevitability of mistakes and the possibility of correcting them in each case. In the new court institutions he did not approve of the circumstances in which the legal profession had been placed.4 But till now he had never dealt with lawyers and his disapproval had been merely theoretical, while now it was increased by the unpleasant impression he received in the lawyer’s waiting room.

‘He’ll come at once,’ the assistant said; and indeed, two minutes later the long figure of an old jurist who had been consulting with the lawyer appeared in the doorway, along with the lawyer himself.

The lawyer was a short, stocky, bald-headed man with a reddish-black beard, light and bushy eyebrows and a prominent forehead. He was dressed up like a bridegroom, from his tie and double watch-chain to his patent-leather boots. He had an intelligent, peasant-like face, but his outfit was foppish and in bad taste.

‘Kindly come in,’ said the lawyer, addressing Alexei Alexandrovich. And, gloomily allowing Karenin to pass, he closed the door.

‘If you please?’ He indicated an armchair by the paper-laden desk and himself sat down in the presiding seat, rubbing his small, stubby-fingered hands overgrown with white hairs and inclining his head to one side. But he had no sooner settled in this position than a moth flew over the desk. With a dexterity one would not have expected of him, the lawyer spread his arms, caught the moth, and resumed his former position.

‘Before I begin talking about my case,’ Alexei Alexandrovich said, his eyes following in surprise the lawyer’s movement, ‘I must observe that the matter I have to discuss with you must remain secret.’

A barely noticeable smile parted the lawyer’s drooping reddish moustaches.

‘I would not be a lawyer if I was unable to keep the secrets confided to me. But if you would like some assurance ...’

Alexei Alexandrovich glanced at his face and saw that his grey, intelligent eyes were laughing and seemed to know everything already.

‘You know my name?’ Alexei Alexandrovich continued.

‘I know you and your useful’ - he caught another moth - ‘activity, as every Russian does,’ the lawyer said with a bow.

Alexei Alexandrovich drew a breath, gathering his courage. But, once resolved, he now went on in his squeaky voice, without timidity, without faltering, and emphasizing certain words.

‘I have the misfortune,’ Alexei Alexandrovich began, ‘of being a deceived husband, and I wish to break relations with my wife legally - that is, to be divorced, but in such a way that my son does not stay with his mother.’

The lawyer’s grey eyes tried not to laugh, but they leaped with irrepressible joy, and Alexei Alexandrovich could see that it was not only the joy of a man who was receiving a profitable commission- here there was triumph and delight, there was a gleam that resembled the sinister gleam he had seen in his wife’s eyes.

‘You desire my assistance in carrying through the divorce?’

‘Yes, precisely,’ said Alexei Alexandrovich, ‘but I must warn you that I risk abusing your attention. I have come only to ask your advice in a preliminary way. I desire the divorce, but I give importance to the forms in which it is possible. It is very likely that, if the forms do not fit my requirements, I will renounce a formal suit.’

‘Oh, that is always so,’ said the lawyer, ‘and it is always in your power.’

The lawyer dropped his eyes to Alexei Alexandrovich’s feet, sensing that