It was already late, and Nekhludoff drove home, that is, to his aunt’s.

CHAPTER XII.

Maslova’s case was to be heard the following day, and Nekhludoff went to the Senate.  He met Fanirin at the entrance to the magnificent Senate building, where several carriages were already waiting.  Walking up the grand, solemn staircase to the second floor, the lawyer, who was familiar with all the passages, turned into a room to the left, on the door of which was carved the year of the institution of the Code.  The lawyer removed his overcoat, remaining in his dress-coat and black tie on a white bosom, and with cheerful self-confidence walked into the next room.  There were about fifteen spectators present, among whom were a young woman in a pince-nez, and a gray-haired lady.  A gray-haired old man of patriarchal mien, wearing a box-coat and gray trousers, and attended by two men, attracted particular attention.  He crossed the room and entered a wardrobe.

An usher, a handsome man with red cheeks and in a pompous uniform, approached Fanirin with a piece of paper in his hand and asked him in what case he appeared.  Being told that in Maslova’s case, the usher made a note of something and went away.  At that time the door of the wardrobe opened and the patriarchal looking old man came forth, no longer in the coat, but in a brilliant uniform which made him resemble a bird.  His uniform evidently embarrassed the old man, and he walked into the room opposite the entrance with quicker than his ordinary step.

Fanirin pointed him out to Nekhludoff as Be, “a most honorable gentleman.”  The spectators, including Fanirin, went into the next room and seated themselves behind the grating on benches reserved for spectators.  Only the St. Petersburg lawyer took a seat behind a desk on the other side of the grating.

The session room of the Senate was smaller than the room of the Circuit Court, was furnished in simpler style, only the table behind which the Senators sat was of crimson plush instead of green cloth, bordered with gold lace.

There were four Senators.  The President, Nikitin, with a closely shaved, narrow face and steel-gray eyes; Wolf, with thin lips and small white hands, with which he was turning over the papers before him; then Skovorodnikoff, stout, massive and pock-marked, and a very learned jurist, and finally, Be, the same partriarchal old man, who was the last to arrive.  Immediately behind the Senators came the Chief Secretary and Associate Attorney General.  He was a young man of medium height, shaved, lean, with a very dark face and black, sad eyes.  Nekhludoff recognized him, notwithstanding his strange uniform and the fact that he had not seen him for about six years, as one of his best friends during his student life.

“Is the associate’s name Selenin?” he asked the lawyer.

“Yes, why?”

“I know him very well; he is an excellent man——­”