; next Vera Efremovna and Maria Pavlovna, and the
boy who was born in the prison.

The visitors also filed out. The old man with the blue eye-glasses
started with a heavy gait, and after him came Nekhludoff.

"What a peculiar state of things!" said the talkative young man to
Nekhludoff on the stairs, as though continuing the interrupted
conversation. "It is fortunate that the captain is a kind-hearted
man, and does not enforce the rules. But for him it would be
tantalizing. As it is, they talk together and relieve their feelings."

When Nekhludoff, talking to this man, who gave his name as Medyntzev,
reached the entrance-hall, the inspector, with weary countenance,
approached him.

"So, if you wish to see Maslova, then please call to-morrow," he said,
evidently desiring to be pleasant.

"Very well," said Nekhludoff, and hastened away. As on the former
occasion, besides pity he was seized with a feeling of doubt and a
sort of moral nausea.

"What is all that for?" he asked himself, but found no answer.

CHAPTER LV.

On the following day Nekhludoff drove to the lawyer and told him of
the Menshovs' case, asking him to take up their defense. The lawyer
listened to him attentively, and said that if the facts were really as
told to Nekhludoff, he would undertake their defense without
compensation. Nekhludoff also told him of the hundred and thirty men
kept in prison through some misunderstanding, and asked him whose
fault he thought it was. The lawyer was silent for a short while,
evidently desiring to give an accurate answer.

"Whose fault it is? No one's," he said decisively. "If you ask the
prosecutor, he will tell you that it is Maslenikoff's fault, and if
you ask Maslenikoff, he will tell you that it is the prosecutor's
fault. It is no one's fault."

"I will go to Maslenikoff and tell him."

"That is useless," the lawyer retorted, smiling. "He is--he is not
your friend or relative, is he? He is such a blockhead, and, saving
your presence, at the same time such a sly beast!"

Nekhludoff recalled what Maslenikoff had said about the lawyer, made
no answer, and, taking leave, directed his steps toward Maslenikoff's
residence.

Two things Nekhludoff wanted of Maslenikoff. First, to obtain
Maslova's transfer to the hospital, and to help, if possible, the
hundred and thirty unfortunates. Although it was hard for him to be
dealing with this man, and especially to ask favors of him, yet it was
the only w