excellency that they are legally
married..." ("It's all the same," Paklin thought; "I said that I would
lie and so here I am. Never mind!")

Sipiagin moved his head from left to right on the back of his chair.

"It does not interest me in the least, sir. It only makes one foolish
marriage the more in the world--that's all. But what is this urgent
matter to which I am indebted for the pleasure of your visit?"

"Ugh! you cursed director of a department!" Paklin thought, "I'll soon
make you pull a different face!" "Your wife's brother," he said aloud,
"Mr. Markelov, has been seized by the peasants whom he had been inciting
to rebellion, and is now under arrest in the governor's house."

Sipiagin jumped up a second time.

"What... what did you say?" he blurted out, not at all in his accustomed
ministerial baritones, but in an extremely undignified manner.

"I said that your brother-in-law has been seized and is in chains. As
soon as I heard of it, I procured horses and came straight away to tell
you. I thought that I might be rendering a service to you and to the
unfortunate man whom you may be able to save!"

"I am extremely grateful to you," Sipiagin said in the same feeble tone
of voice, and violently pressing a bell, shaped like a mushroom, he
filled the whole house with its clear metallic ring. "I am extremely
grateful to you," he repeated more sharply, "but I must tell you that
a man who can bring himself to trample under foot all laws, human
and divine, were he a hundred times related to me--is in my eyes not
unfortunate; he is a criminal!"

A footman came in quickly.

"Your orders, sir?

"The carriage! the carriage and four horses this minute! I am going to
town. Philip and Stepan are to come with me!" The footman disappeared.
"Yes, sir, my brother-in-law is a criminal! I am going to town not to
save him! Oh, no!"

"But, your excellency--"

"Such are my principles, my dear sir, and I beg you not to annoy me by
your objections!"

Sipiagin began pacing up and down the room, while Paklin stared with
all his might. "Ugh! you devil!" he thought, "I heard that you were a
liberal, but you're just like a hungry lion!"

The door was flung open and Valentina Mihailovna came into the room with
hurried steps, followed by Kollomietzev.

"What is the matter, Boris? Why have you ordered the carriage? Are you
going to town? What has happened?"

Sipiagin went up to his wife and took her by the arm, between the el