“He is a most ingenious attorney,” he said.

He was listened to with respect, and some attempted to interrupt him with some remarks, but he cut them short as if he alone knew the true facts.

Although Nekhludoff arrived late, there was a long wait before him, which was caused by the failure of one of the judges to appear.

CHAPTER VI.

The presiding justice arrived early.  He was a tall, stout man, with long, grayish side-whiskers.  He was married, but, like his wife, led a very dissolute life.  They did not interfere with each other.  On the morning in question he received a note from a Swiss governess, who had lived in his house during the summer, and was now passing on her way from the South to St. Petersburg.  She wrote that she would be in town between three and six o’clock p.m., and wait for him at the “Hotel Italia.”  He was, therefore, anxious to end his day’s sitting before six o’clock, that he might meet the red-haired Clara Vasilievna.

Entering his private chamber, and locking the door behind him, he produced from the lower shelf of a book-case two dumb-bells, made twenty motions upward, forward, sidewise and downward, and three times lowered himself, holding the bells above his head.

“Nothing so refreshes one as a cold-water bath and exercise,” he thought, feeling with his left hand, on the fourth finger of which was a gold ring, the biceps of his right arm.  He had to go through two more movements (these exercises he went through every day before court opened), when the door rattled.  Some one was attempting to open it.  The judge quickly replaced the dumb-bells and opened the door.

“I beg your pardon,” he said.

One of the members of the court, wearing gold eye-glasses, of medium height, with high shoulders and frowning countenance, entered.

“Matvei Nikitich is late again,” said the newcomer, with an air of displeasure.

“Yes,” said the presiding judge, donning his robes.  “He is always late.”

“It is a shame,” said the member, and sat down angrily, then lighted a cigarette.

This member of the court, a very punctilious man, had this morning had an unpleasant encounter with his wife, which was caused by her spending her monthly allowance before the month was up.  She asked for a sum of money in advance, and he refused.  The result was a quarrel.  She said that unless he gave her the money there would be no dinner that night, and that he would have to dine outside.  He departed in fear that she would carry out her threat, as anything might be expected from her.

“Is it worth while leading a good, moral life?” he thought, as he looked at the beaming, healthy, joyful and good-natured presiding justice, who, spreading his elbows, stroked his long, gray whiskers; “he is always contented and cheerful, while I am suffering.”

The secretary entered and handed the presiding justice a document.