Just then the general, and former minister, Countess Tcharsky’s husband, a tall, broad-shouldered man, came into the room.

“Ah, Dmitri, how d’you do?” he said, turning his freshly-shaved cheek to Nekhludoff to be kissed.  “When did you get here?” And he silently kissed his wife on the forehead.

“Non il est impayable,” the Countess said, turning to her husband.  “He wants me to go and wash clothes and live on potatoes.  He is an awful fool, but all the same do what he is going to ask of you.  A terrible simpleton,” she added.  “Have you heard?  Kamenskaya is in such despair that they fear for her life,” she said to her husband.  “You should go and call there.”

“Yes; it is dreadful,” said her husband.

“Go along, then, and talk to him.  I must write some letters.”

Hardly had Nekhludoff stepped into the room next the drawing-room than she called him back.

“Shall I write to Mariette, then?”

“Please, ma tante.”

“I shall leave a blank for what you want to say about the short-haired one, and she will give her husband his orders, and he’ll do it.  Do not think me wicked; they are all so disgusting, your prologues, but je ne leur veux pas de mal, bother them.  Well, go, but be sure to stay at home this evening to hear Kiesewetter, and we shall have some prayers.  And if only you do not resist cela vous fera beaucoup de bien.  I know your poor mother and all of you were always very backward in these things.”

CHAPTER XV.

AN AVERAGE STATESMAN.

Count Ivan Michaelovitch had been a minister, and was a man of strong convictions.  The convictions of Count Ivan Michaelovitch consisted in the belief that, just as it was natural for a bird to feed on worms, to be clothed in feathers and down, and to fly in the air, so it was natural for him to feed on the choicest and most expensive food, prepared by highly-paid cooks, to wear the most comfortable and most expensive clothing, to drive with the best and fastest horses, and that, therefore, all these things should be ready found for him.  Besides this, Count Ivan Michaelovitch considered that the more money he could get out of the treasury by all sorts of means, the more orders he had, including different diamond insignia of something or other, and the oftener he spoke to highly-placed individuals of both sexes, so much the better it was.

All the rest Count Ivan Michaelovitch considered insignificant and uninteresting beside these dogmas.  All the rest might be as it was, or just the reverse.  Count Ivan Michaelovitch lived and acted according to these lights for 40 years, and at the end of 40 years reached the position of a Minister of State.  The chief qualities that enabled Count Ivan Michaelovitch to reach this position were his capacity of understanding the meaning of documents and laws and of drawing up,