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By Root 1040 0

Petersburg. This was one of those cushy bribery posts, with salaries ranging from a thousand to fifty thousand a year, which had now become more numerous than before; it was a post as member of the commission of the United Agency for Mutual Credit Balance of the Southern Railway Lines and Banking Institutions.19 This post, like all such posts, called for such vast knowledge and energy as could hardly be united in one person. And since the person in whom all these qualities could be united did not exist, it would be better in any case if the post were occupied by an honest man rather than a dishonest one. And Stepan Arkadyich was not only an honest man (without emphasis), but was also an hónest man (with emphasis), with that special significance which the word has in Moscow, when they say: an hónest politician, an hónest writer, an hónest journal, an hónest institution, an honest tendency - which signifies not only that the man or institution is not dishonest, but that they are capable on occasion of sticking a pin into the government. Stepan Arkadyich belonged to those circles in Moscow in which this word had been introduced, was considered an hónest man in them, and therefore had more rights to this post than others did.

The post brought from seven to ten thousand a year, and Oblonsky could occupy it without leaving his government post. It depended on two ministers, one lady and two Jews; and, though they had been primed already, Stepan Arkadyich still had to see them all in Petersburg. Besides that, Stepan Arkadyich had promised his sister Anna to get a decisive answer from Karenin about the divorce. And so, having begged fifty roubles from Dolly, he went to Petersburg.

Sitting in Karenin’s study and listening to his proposal on the causes of the bad state of Russian finances, Stepan Arkadyich only waited for the moment when he would finish, so that he could speak about his own affairs and about Anna.

‘Yes, that’s very true,’ he said, when Alexei Alexandrovich, taking off his pince-nez, without which he was now unable to read, looked questioningly at his former brother-in-law, ‘it’s very true in detail, but all the same the principle of our time is freedom.’

‘Yes, but I put forward another principle that embraces the principle of freedom,’ said Alexei Alexandrovich, emphasizing the word ‘embraces’ and putting his pince-nez on again in order to reread to his listener the passage where that very thing was stated.

And, looking through the beautifully written, huge-margined manuscript, Alexei Alexandrovich reread the persuasive passage.

‘I oppose systems of protection, not for the sake of the profit of private persons, but for the common good-for lower and upper classes equally,’ he said, looking at Oblonsky over his pince-nez. ‘But they cannot understand it, they are concerned only with personal interest and have a passion for phrases.’

Stepan Arkadyich knew that when Karenin started talking about what they did and thought, the same ones who did not want to accept his proposals and were the cause of all the evil in Russia, it meant that he was near the end; and therefore he now willingly renounced the principle of freedom and fully agreed with him. Alexei Alexandrovich fell silent, thoughtfully leafing through his manuscript.

‘Ah, by the way,’ said Stepan Arkadyich, ‘I wanted to ask you, when you happen to see Pomorsky, to mention to him that I would like very much to get that vacant post as member of the commission of the United Agency for Mutual Credit Balance of the Southern Railway Lines.’

Stepan Arkadyich had become accustomed to the title of this post so near his heart and pronounced it quickly, without making a mistake.

Alexei Alexandrovich inquired into the activity of this new commission and fell to thinking. He was trying to make out whether there was anything in the activity of this commission that was contrary to his proposals. But since the activity of this new institution was extremely complex, and his proposals embraced an extremely vast area, he could not make it all out at once and, taking off his