Book 2 Chapter 14 An Aristocratic Circle

Nekhludoff had four matters to attend to in Petersburg. The first
was the appeal to the Senate in Maslova's case; the second, to
hand in Theodosia Birukoff's petition to the committee; the
third, to comply with Vera Doukhova's requests--i.e., try to get
her friend Shoustova released from prison, and get permission for
a mother to visit her son in prison. Vera Doukhova had written to
him about this, and he was going to the Gendarmerie Office to
attend to these two matters, which he counted as one.

The fourth matter he meant to attend to was the case of some
sectarians who had been separated from their families and exiled
to the Caucasus because they read and discussed the Gospels. It
was not so much to them as to himself he had promised to do all
he could to clear up this affair.

Since his last visit to Maslennikoff, and especially since he had
been in the country, Nekhludoff had not exactly formed a
resolution but felt with his whole nature a loathing for that
society in which he had lived till then, that society which so
carefully hides the sufferings of millions in order to assure
ease and pleasure to a small number of people, that the people
belonging to this society do not and cannot see these sufferings,
nor the cruelty and wickedness of their life. Nekhludoff could no
longer move in this society without feeling ill at ease and
reproaching himself. And yet all the ties of relationship and
friendship, and his own habits, were drawing him back into this
society. Besides, that which alone interested him now, his desire
to help Maslova and the other sufferers, made it necessary to ask
for help and service from persons belonging to that society,
persons whom he not only could not respect, but who often aroused
in him indignation and a feeling of contempt.