The child, a girl with long, golden curls, was an entire stranger to
her father, mainly because she was brought up not in accord with his
desires. The result was the customary misunderstanding between the
husband and wife, and even in a want of desire to understand each
other, and a quiet, silent struggle, hidden from strangers and
tempered by propriety, which made Selenin's life at home very
burdensome. So that his family life turned out to be "not the thing,
you know," in still greater degree than his service or the Court
appointment.

These were the reasons why his eyes were always sad. And this was why,
seeing Nekhludoff, whom he had known before all these lies had
fastened themselves upon him, he thought of himself as he had been
then, and more than ever felt the discord between his character and
his surroundings, and he became painfully sad. The same feeling came
over Nekhludoff, after the first impression of joy at meeting an old
friend.

That was why, having promised that they would meet each other, neither
sought that meeting, nor had they seen each other on this visit of
Nekhludoff to St. Petersburg.

CHAPTER XV.

On leaving the Senate, Nekhludoff and his lawyer walked along the
sidewalk. Fanirin told his driver to follow him, and he began to
relate to Nekhludoff how the mistress of so-and-so had made millions
on 'Change, how so-and-so had sold, and another had bought, his wife.
He also related some stories of swindling and all sorts of crimes
committed by well-known people who were not occupying cells in prison,
but presidents' chairs in various institutions. These stories, of
which he seemed to possess an inexhaustible source, afforded the
lawyer great pleasure, as showing most conclusively that the means
employed by him as a lawyer to make money were perfectly innocent in
comparison with those used by the more noted public men of St.
Petersburg. And the lawyer was greatly surprised when Nekhludoff, in
the middle of one of these stories, hailed a trap, took leave and
drove home. Nekhludoff was very sad. He was sad because the Senate's
judgment continued the unreasonable suffering of the innocent Maslova,
and also because it made it more difficult for him to carry out his
unalterable intention of joining his fate to hers. His sadness
increased as the lawyer related with so much pleasure the frightful
stories of the prevailing wickedness. Besides, the unkind, cold,
repelling gaze of the once cha