Resurrection

Everything seemed to have been told; but no, the president could

not forego his right of speaking as yet. It was so pleasant to

hear the impressive tones of his own voice, and therefore he

found it necessary to say a few words more about the importance

of the rights given to the jury, how carefully they should use

the rights and how they ought not to abuse them, about their

being on their oath, that they were the conscience of society,

that the secrecy of the debating-room should be considered

sacred, etc.

From the time the president commenced his speech, Maslova watched

him without moving her eyes as if afraid of losing a single word;

so that Nekhludoff was not afraid of meeting her eyes and kept

looking at her all the time. And his mind passed through those

phases in which a face which we have not seen for many years

first strikes us with the outward changes brought about during

the time of separation, and then gradually becomes more and more

like its old self, when the changes made by time seem to

disappear, and before our spiritual eyes rises only the principal

expression of one exceptional, unique individuality. Yes, though

dressed in a prison cloak, and in spite of the developed figure,

the fulness of the bosom and lower part of the face, in spite of

a few wrinkles on the forehead and temples and the swollen eyes,

this was certainly the same Katusha who, on that Easter eve, had

so innocently looked up to him whom she loved, with her fond,

laughing eyes full of joy and life.

"What a strange coincidence that after ten years, during which I

never saw her, this case should have come up today when I am on

the jury, and that it is in the prisoners' dock that I see her

again! And how will it end? Oh, dear, if they would only get on

quicker."

Still he would not give in to the feelings of repentance which

began to arise within him. He tried to consider it all as a

coincidence, which would pass without infringing his manner of

life. He felt himself in the position of a puppy, when its

master, taking it by the scruff of its neck, rubs its nose in the

mess it has made. The puppy whines, draws back and wants to get

away as far as possible from the effects of its misdeed, but the

pitiless master does not let go.

And so, Nekhludoff, feeling all the repulsiveness of what he had

done, felt also the powerful hand of the Master, but he did not

feel the whole significance of his action yet and would not

recognise the Master's hand. He did not wish to believe that it

was the effect of his deed that lay before him, but the pitiless

hand of the Master held him and he felt he could not get away. He

was still keeping up his courage and sat on his chair in the

first row in his usual self-possessed pose, one leg carelessly

thrown over the other, and playing with his pince-nez. Yet all

the while, in the depths of his soul, he felt the cruelty,

cowardice and baseness, not only of this particular action of his

but of his whole self-willed, depraved, cruel, idle life; and

that dreadful veil which had in some unaccountable manner hidden

from him this sin of his and the whole of his subsequent life was

beginning to shake, and he caught glimpses of what was covered by

that veil.