The usher entered and announced the desire of the lawyer and Nekhludoff to be present at the hearing of the case.

“This case here,” said Wolf, “is a whole romantic story,” and he related what he knew of Nekhludoff’s relations to Maslova.

After talking awhile of the story, smoking cigarettes and finishing their tea, the Senators returned to the session-room, announced their decision in the preceding case, and began to consider Maslova’s case.

Wolf very circumstantially set forth Maslova’s appeal from the sentence, and again not without partiality, but with the evident desire to reverse the judgment.

“Have you anything to add?” the President asked Fanirin.

Fanirin rose, and, projecting his broad, starched front, with remarkable precision of expression began to discuss the errors of the court below in the application of the law on the six points raised, and permitted himself, though briefly, to touch upon the merits of the case and the crying injustice of the decision.  By the tone of his short but strong speech, he seemed to excuse himself, to insist that the honorable Senators with their power of penetration and judicial wisdom saw and understood better than he, but that he was speaking only because his duties demanded it.  After Fanirin’s speech there seemed to be no doubt left that the Senate had to reverse the judgment.  When he was through, Fanirin smiled triumphantly.  Looking at his lawyer and seeing that smile, Nekhludoff was convinced that the case was won.  But as he looked at the Senators Nekhludoff saw that Fanirin alone was smiling and triumphant.  The Senators and Associate Attorney General were neither smiling nor triumphant, but wore the air of people suffering from ennui and saying:  “Oh, we know these cases!  You are wasting your time.”  They were all evidently relieved only when the lawyer had finished, and they were no longer unnecessarily detained.  After the speech the President turned to Selenin, who plainly, briefly and accurately expressed himself against a reversal.  Then the Senators arose and went to consult.

The Senators were divided.  Wolf favored a reversal.  Be, who thoroughly understood the case, warmly argued also in favor of a reversal, and in glowing terms pictured the court scene and the misunderstanding of the jury.  Nikitin, who, as usual, stood for severity and for strict formality, was against it.  The whole case, then, depended on Skovorodnikoff’s vote.  And his vote was thrown against a reversal, principally for the reason that Nekhludoff’s determination to marry the girl on moral grounds was extremely repugnant to him.

Skovorodnikoff was a materialist, a Darwinist, and considered every manifestation of abstract morality, or, worse still, piety, not only as contemptible and absurd but as an affront to his person.  All this bustle about a fallen girl, and the presence there in the Senate of her famous counsel and Nekhludoff himself, was to him simply disgusting.  And, stuffing his mouth with his beard, and making grimaces, he in a very natural manner pretended to know nothing of the entire affair, except that the grounds of appeal were insufficient, and therefore agreed with the President to affirm the judgment.