offensive in the eyes of such immaculate
Gladstones as Vladimir Pavlovitch Vladimirov and our local justice
of the peace--Kuzma Grigoritch Vostryakov."

Pytor Dmitritch yawned again and went on:

"And it is the way with us that you may express disapproval of the
sun or the moon, or anything you like, but God preserve you from
touching the Liberals! Heaven forbid! A Liberal is like the poisonous
dry fungus which covers you with a cloud of dust if you accidentally
touch it with your finger."

"What happened to you?"

"Nothing particular. The whole flare-up started from the merest
trifle. A teacher, a detestable person of clerical associations,
hands to Vostryakov a petition against a tavern-keeper, charging
him with insulting language and behaviour in a public place.
Everything showed that both the teacher and the tavern-keeper were
drunk as cobblers, and that they behaved equally badly. If there
had been insulting behaviour, the insult had anyway been mutual.
Vostryakov ought to have fined them both for a breach of the peace
and have turned them out of the court--that is all. But that's
not our way of doing things. With us what stands first is not the
person--not the fact itself, but the trade-mark and label. However
great a rascal a teacher may be, he is always in the right because
he is a teacher; a tavern-keeper is always in the wrong because he
is a tavern-keeper and a money-grubber. Vostryakov placed the
tavern-keeper under arrest. The man appealed to the Circuit Court;
the Circuit Court triumphantly upheld Vostryakov's decision. Well,
I stuck to my own opinion. . . . Got a little hot. . . . That was
all."

Pyotr Dmitritch spoke calmly with careless irony. In reality the
trial that was hanging over him worried him extremely. Olga Mihalovna
remembered how on his return from the unfortunate session he had
tried to conceal from his household how troubled he was, and how
dissatisfied with himself. As an intelligent man he could not help
feeling that he had gone too far in expressing his disagreement;
and how much lying had been needful to conceal that feeling from
himself and from others! How many unnecessary conversations there
had been! How much grumbling and insincere laughter at what was not
laughable! When he learned that he was to be brought up before the
Court, he seemed at once harassed and depressed; he began to sleep
badly, stood oftener than ever at the windows, drumming on the panes
with his fingers