lexey
Alexandrovitch himself was not yet aware that his career was
over. Whether it was due to his feud with Stremov, or his
misfortune with his wife, or simply that Alexey Alexandrovitch
had reached his destined limits, it had become evident to
everyone in the course of that year that his career was at an
end. He still filled a position of consequence, he sat on many
commissions and committees, but he was a man whose day was over,
and from whom nothing was expected. Whatever he said, whatever
he proposed, was heard as though it were something long familiar,
and the very thing that was not needed. But Alexey
Alexandrovitch was not aware of this, and, on the contrary, being
cut off from direct participation in governmental activity, he
saw more clearly than ever the errors and defects in the action
of others, and thought it his duty to point out means for their
correction. Shortly after his separation from his wife, he began
writing his first note on the new judicial procedure, the first
of the endless series of notes he was destined to write in the
future.

Alexey Alexandrovitch did not merely fail to observe his hopeless
position in the official world, he was not merely free from
anxiety on this head, he was positively more satisfied than ever
with his own activity.

"He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the
Lord, how he may please the Lord: But he that is married careth
for the things that are of the world, how he may please his
wife," says the Apostle Paul, and Alexey Alexandrovitch, who was
now guided in every action by Scripture, often recalled this
text. It seemed to him that ever since he had been left without
a wife, he had in these very projects of reform been serving the
Lord more zealously than before.

The unmistakable impatience of the member of the Council trying
to get away from him did not trouble Alexey Alexandrovitch; he
gave up his exposition only when the member of the Council,
seizing his chance when one of the Imperial family was passing,
slipped away from him.

Left alone, Alexey Alexandrovitch looked down, collecting his
thoughts, then looked casually about him and walked towards the
door, where he hoped to meet Countess Lidia Ivanovna.

"And how strong they all are, how sound physically," thought
Alexey Alexandrovitch, looking at the powerfully built gentleman
of the bedchamber with his well-combed, perfumed whiskers, and at
the red neck of the prince, pinche