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He tried to read, but he could not revive the very vivid interest

he had felt before in Egyptian hieroglyphics. He looked at the

book and thought of something else. He thought not of his wife,

but of a complication that had arisen in his official life, which

at the time constituted the chief interest of it. He felt that he

had penetrated more deeply than ever before into this intricate

affair, and that he had originated a leading idea-he could say it

without self-flattery-calculated to clear up the whole business,

to strengthen him in his official career, to discomfit his

enemies, and thereby to be of the greatest benefit to the

government. Directly the servant had set the tea and left the

room, Alexey Alexandrovitch got up and went to the writing-table.

Moving into the middle of the table a portfolio of papers, with a

scarcely perceptible smile of self-satisfaction, he took a pencil

from a rack and plunged into the perusal of a complex report

relating to the present complication.