the law."

"My dear boy! laws are not made for men like you. I do feel so sorry for
you.... C'est affreux, tu sais!"

He gave a peculiar ring. An adjutant appeared.

"My dear baron, do please make some arrangement there..." He told him
what he wanted and the baron vanished. "Only think, mon cher ami, the
peasants nearly killed him. They tied his hands behind him, flung him
in a cart, and brought him here! And he's not in the least bit angry
or indignant with them you know! He was so calm altogether that I was
amazed! But you will see for yourself. C'est un fanatique tranquille."

"Ce sont les pires," Kollomietzev remarked sarcastically. The governor
looked up at him from under his eyebrows. "By the way, I must have a
word with you, Simion Petrovitch."

"Yes; what about?"

"I don't like things at all--"

"What things?"

"You know that peasant who owed you money and came here to complain--"

"Well?"

"He's hanged himself."

"When?"

"It's of no consequence when; but it's an ugly affair."

Kollomietzev merely shrugged his shoulders and moved away to the window
with a graceful swing of the body. At this moment the adjutant brought
in Markelov.

The governor had been right; he was unnaturally calm. Even his habitual
moroseness had given place to an expression of weary indifference, which
did not change when he caught sight of his brother-in-law. Only in the
glance which he threw on the German adjutant, who was escorting him,
there was a momentary flash of the old hatred he felt towards such
people. His coat had been torn in several places and hurriedly stitched
up with coarse thread; his forehead, eyebrows, and the bridge of his
nose were covered with small scars caked with clotted blood. He had not
washed, but had combed his hair.

"Sergai Mihailovitch!" Sipiagin began excitedly, taking a step or two
towards him and extending his right hand, only so that he might touch
him or stop him if he made a movement in advance, "Sergai Mihailovitch!
I am not here to tell you of our amazement, our deep distress--you can
have no doubt of that! You wanted to ruin yourself and have done so!
But I've come to tell you... that... that... to give you the chance of
hearing sound common-sense through the voice of honour and friendship.
You can still mitigate your lot and, believe me, I will do all in
my power to help you, as the honoured head of this province can bear
witness!" At this point Sipiagin raised his voice. "A r