Book 3 Chapter 22 Nekhludoff Sees the General

When they got to the top of the hill bank the driver turned to
Nekhludoff.

"Which hotel am I to drive to?"

"Which is the best?"

"Nothing could be better than the Siberian, but Dukeoff's is also
good."

"Drive to whichever you like."

The driver again seated himself sideways and drove faster. The
town was like all such towns. The same kind of houses with attic
windows and green roofs, the same kind of cathedral, the same
kind of shops and stores in the principal street, and even the
same kind of policemen. Only the houses were almost all of them
wooden, and the streets were not paved. In one of the chief
streets the driver stopped at the door of an hotel, but there was
no room to be had, so he drove to another. And here Nekhludoff,
after two months, found himself once again in surroundings such
as he had been accustomed to as far as comfort and cleanliness
went. Though the room he was shown to was simple enough, yet
Nekhludoff felt greatly relieved to be there after two months of
post-carts, country inns and halting stations. His first business
was to clean himself of the lice which he had never been able to
get thoroughly rid of after visiting a halting station. When he
had unpacked he went to the Russian bath, after which he made
himself fit to be seen in a town, put on a starched shirt,
trousers that had got rather creased along the seams, a
frock-coat and an overcoat, and drove to the Governor of the
district. The hotel-keeper called an isvostchik, whose well-fed
Kirghiz horse and vibrating trap soon brought Nekhludoff to the
large porch of a big building, in front of which stood sentinels
and a policeman. The house had a garden in front, and at the
back, among the naked branches of aspen and birch trees, there
grew thick and dark green pines and firs. The General was not
well, and did not receive; but Nekhludoff asked the footman to
hand in his card all the same, and the footman came back with a
favourable reply.