"Poisoning, but she has been unjustly condemned."
"Yes, there you have it, your justice administered by jury, ils
n'en font point d'autres," he said, for some unknown reason, in
French. "I know you do not agree with me, but it can't be helped,
c'est mon opinion bien arretee," he added, giving utterance to an
opinion he had for the last twelve months been reading in the
retrograde Conservative paper. "I know you are a Liberal."
"I don't know whether I am a Liberal or something else,"
Nekhludoff said, smiling; it always surprised him to find himself
ranked with a political party and called a Liberal, when he
maintained that a man should be heard before he was judged, that
before being tried all men were equal, that nobody at all ought
to be ill-treated and beaten, but especially those who had not
yet been condemned by law. "I don't know whether I am a Liberal
or not; but I do know that however had the present way of
conducting a trial is, it is better than the old."
"And whom have you for an advocate?"
"I have spoken to Fanarin."
"Dear me, Fanarin!" said Meslennikoff, with a grimace,
recollecting how this Fanarin had examined him as a witness at a
trial the year before and had, in the politest manner, held him
up to ridicule for half an hour.
"I should not advise you to have anything to do with him.
_Fanarin est un homme tare_."
"I have one more request to make," said Nekhludoff, without
answering him. "There's a girl whom I knew long ago, a teacher;
she is a very pitiable little thing, and is now also imprisoned,
and would like to see me. Could you give me a permission to visit
her?"
Meslennikoff bent his head on one side and considered.
"She's a political one?"
"Yes, I have been told so."
"Well, you see, only relatives get permission to visit political
prisoners. Still, I'll give you an open order. _Je sais que vous
n'abuserez pas_. What's the name of your protegee? Doukhova? _Elle
est jolie?_"
"Hideuse."
Maslennikoff shook his head disapprovingly, went up to the table,
and wrote on a sheet of paper, with a printed heading: "The
bearer, Prince Dmitri Ivanovitch Nekhludoff, is to be allowed to
interview in the prison office the meschanka Maslova, and also
the medical assistant, Doukhova," and he finished with an
elaborate flourish.
"Now you'll be able to see what order we have got there. And it
is very difficult to keep order, it is so crowded, especially
with people condemned to exile; but I watch strictly, and love
the work. You will see they are very comfortable and contented.
But one must know how to deal with them. Only a few days ago we
had a little trouble--insubordination; another would have called
it mutiny, and would have made many miserable, but with us it all
passed quietly. We must have solicitude on one hand, firmness and
power on the other," and he clenched the fat, white,
turquoise-ringed fist, which issued out of the starched cuff of
his shirt sleeve, fastened with a gold stud. "Solicitude and firm
power."