common reception room, and oftener than on the appointed days. I was
told that it depended on you."

"Of course, mon cher, I am always ready to do anything for you,"
Maslenikoff said, touching his knees with both hands, as if desiring
to soften his own greatness. "I can do it, but you know I am caliph
only for an hour."

"So you can give me a pass that will enable me to see her?"

"It is a woman?"

"Yes."

"What is the charge against her?"

"Poisoning. But she was irregularly convicted."

"Yes, there is justice for you! Ils n'en font point d'autres," he
said, for some reason in French. "I know that you do not agree with
me, but c'est mon opinion bien arretee," he added, repeating the
opinion that had been reiterated during the past year by a retrograde,
conservative newspaper. "I know you are a liberal."

"I don't know whether I am a liberal or something else," smilingly
said Nekhludoff, who always wondered at being joined to some party, or
called a liberal only because he held that a man must not be judged
without being heard; that all are equal before the law; that it is
wrong to torture and beat people generally, especially those that are
not convicted. "I don't know whether I am a liberal or not, but I do