though clumsily, intelligible State papers, and of
spelling them correctly; secondly, his very stately
appearance, which enabled him, when necessary, to
seem not only extremely proud, but unapproachable
and majestic, while at other times he could be abjectly
and almost passionately servile; thirdly, the absence
of any general principles or rules, either of personal
or administrative morality, which made it possible
for him either to agree or disagree with anybody according
to what was wanted at the time. When acting thus
his only endeavour was to sustain the appearance of
good breeding and not to seem too plainly inconsistent.
As for his actions being moral or not, in themselves,
or whether they were going to result in the highest
welfare or greatest evil for the whole of the Russian
Empire, or even the entire world, that was quite indifferent
to him. When he became minister, not only those
dependent on him (and there were great many of them)
and people connected with him, but many strangers
and even he himself were convinced that he was a very
clever statesman. But after some time had elapsed
and he had done nothing and had nothing to show, and
when in accordance with the law of the struggle for
existence others, like himself, who had learnt to write
and understand documents, stately and unprincipled
officials, had displaced him, he turned out to be
not only far from clever but very limited and badly
educated. Though self-assured, his views hardly
reaching the level of those in the leading articles
of the Conservative papers, it became apparent that
there was nothing in him to distinguish him from those
other badly-educated and self-assured officials who
had pushed him out, and he himself saw it. But
this did not shake his conviction that he had to receive
a great deal of money out of the Treasury every year,
and new decorations for his dress clothes. This
conviction was so firm that no one had the pluck to
refuse these things to him, and he received yearly,
partly in form of a pension, partly as a salary for
being a member in a Government institution and chairman
of all sorts of committees and councils, several tens
of thousands of roubles, besides the right—highly
prized by him—of sewing all sorts of new
cords to his shoulders and trousers, and ribbons to
wear under and enamel stars to fix on to his dress
coat. In consequence of this Count Ivan Michaelovitch
had very high connections.
Count Ivan Michaelovitch listened to Nekhludoff as
he was wont to listen to the reports of the permanent
secretary of his department, and, having heard him,
said he would give him two notes, one to the Senator
Wolff, of the Appeal Department. “All sorts
of things are reported of him, but dans tous les cas
c’est un homme tres comme ii faut,” he
said. “He is indebted to me, and will do
all that is possible.” The other note Count
Ivan Michaelovitch gave Nekhludoff was to an influential
member of the Petition Committee. The story of
Theodosia Birukoff as told by Nekhludoff interested
him very much. When Nekhludoff said that he thought
of writing to the Empress, the Count replied that it
certainly was a very touching story, and might, if
occasion presented itself, he told her, but he could
not promise. Let the petition be handed in in
due form.