The jailer who had brought Maslova in sat on a windowsill at some distance from them.
       The decisive moment had come for Nekhludoff. He had been incessantly blaming himself for not having told her the principal thing at the first interview, and was now determined to tell her that he would marry her. She was sitting at the further side of the table. Nekhludoff sat down opposite her. It was light in the room, and Nekhludoff for the first time saw her face quite near. He distinctly saw the crowsfeet round her eyes, the wrinkles round her mouth, and the swollen eyelids. He felt more sorry than before. Leaning over the table so as not to be beard by the jailer--a man of Jewish type with grizzly whiskers, who sat by the window--Nekhludoff said:
       "Should this petition come to nothing we shall appeal to the Emperor. All that is possible shall be done."
       "There, now, if we had had a proper advocate from the first," she interrupted. "My defendant was quite a silly. He did nothing but pay me compliments," she said, and laughed. "If it had then been known that I was acquainted with you, it would have been another matter. They think every one's a thief."
       "How strange she is to-day," Nekhludoff thought, and was just going to say what he had on his mind when she began again:
       "There's something I want to say. We have here an old woman; such a fine one, d'you know, she just surprises every one; she is imprisoned for nothing, and her son, too, and everybody knows they are innocent, though they are accused of having set fire to a house. D'you know, hearing I was acquainted with you, she says: 'Tell him to ask to see my son; he'll tell him all about it."' Thus spoke Maslova, turning her head from side to side, and glancing at Nekhludoff. "Their name's Menshoff. Well, will you do it? Such a fine old thing, you know; you can see at once she's innocent. You'll do it, there's a dear," and she smiled, glanced up at him, and then cast down her eyes.
       "All right. I'll find out about them," Nekhludoff said, more and more astonished by her free-and-easy manner. "But I was going to speak to you about myself. Do you remember what I told you last time?"
       "You said a lot last time. What was it you told me?" she said, continuing to smile and to turn her head from side to side.
       "I said I had come to ask you to forgive me," he began.
       "What's the use of that? Forgive, forgive, where's the good of--"
       "To atone for my sin, not by mere words, but in deed. I have made up my mind to marry you."
       An expression of fear suddenly came over her face. Her squinting eyes remained fixed on him, and yet seemed not to be looking at him.
       "What's that for?" she said, with an angry frown.
       "I feel that it is my duty before God to do it."
       "What God have you found now? You are not saying what you ought to. God, indeed! What God? You ought to have remembered God then," she said, and stopped with her mouth open. It was only now that Nekhludoff noticed that her breath smelled of spirits, and that he understood the cause of her excitement.
       "Try and be calm," he said.
       "Why should I be calm?" she began, quickly, flushing scarlet. "I am a convict, and you are a gentleman and a prince. There's no need for you to soil yourself by touching me. You go to your princesses; my price is a ten-rouble note."
       "However cruelly you may speak, you cannot express what I myself am feeling," he said, trembling all over; "you cannot imagine to what extent I feel myself guilty towards you.
       "Feel yourself guilty?" she said, angrily mimicking him. "You did not feel so then, but threw me 100 roubles. That's your price."
       "I know, I know; but what is to be done now?" said Nekhludoff. "I have decided not to leave you, and what I have said I shall do."
       "And I say you sha'n't," she said, and laughed aloud.
       "Katusha" he said, touching her hand.
       "You go away. I am a convict and you a prince, and you've no business here," she cried, pulling away her hand, her whole appearance transformed by her wrath. "You've got pleasure out of me in this life, and want to save yourself through me in the life to come. You are disgusting to me--your spectacles and the whole of your dirty fat mug. Go, go!" she screamed, starting to her feet.
       The jailer came up to them.
       "What are you kicking up this row for?' That won't--"
       "Let her alone, please," said Nekhludoff.
       "She must not forget herself," said the jailer. "Please wait a little," said Nekhludoff, and the jailer returned to the window.
       Maslova sat down again, dropping her eyes and firmly clasping her small hands.
       Nekhludoff stooped over her, not knowing what to do.
       "You do not believe me?" he said.
       "That you mean to marry me? It will never be. I'll rather hang myself. So there!"
       "Well, still I shall go on serving you."
       "That's your affair, only I don't want anything from you. I am telling you the plain truth," she said. "Oh, why did I not die then?" she added, and began to cry piteously.
       Nekhludoff could not speak; her tears infected him.
       She lifted her eyes, looked at him in surprise, and began to wipe her tears with her kerchief.
       The jailer came up again and reminded them that it was time to part.
       Maslova rose.
       "You are excited. If it is possible, I shall come again tomorrow; you think it over," said Nekhludoff.
       She gave him no answer and, without looking up, followed the jailer out of the room.
       "Well, lass, you'll have rare times now," Korableva said, when Maslova returned to the cell. "Seems he's mighty sweet on you; make the most of it while he's after you. He'll help you out. Rich people can do anything."
       "Yes, that's so," remarked the watchman's wife, with her musical voice. "When a poor man thinks of getting married, there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip; but a rich man need only make up his mind and it's done. We knew a toff like that duckie. What d'you think he did?"
       "Well, have you spoken about my affairs?" the old woman asked.
       But Maslova gave her fellow-prisoners no answer; she lay down on the shelf bedstead, her squinting eyes fixed on a corner of the room, and lay there until the evening.
       A painful struggle went on in her soul. What Nekhludoff had told her called up the memory of that world in which she had suffered and which she had left without having understood, hating it. She now feared to wake from the trance in which she was living. Not having arrived at any conclusion when evening came, she again bought some vodka and drank with her companions.

book i
   Chapter I. Maslova in Prison.
   Chapter II. Maslova's Early Life.
   Chapter III. Nekhludoff.
   Chapter IV. Missy.
   Chapter V. The Jurymen.
   Chapter VI. The Judges.
   Chapter VII. The Officials of the Court.
   Chapter VIII. Swearing in the Jury.
   Chapter IX. The Trial--the Prisoners Questioned.
   Chapter X. The Trial--the Indictment.
   Chapter XI. The Trial--Maslova Cross-Examined.
   Chapter XII. Twelve Years Before.
   Chapter XIII. Life in the Army.
   Chapter XIV. The Second Meeting with Maslova.
   Chapter XV. The Early Mass.
   Chapter XVI. The First Step.
   Chapter XVII. Nekhludoff and Katusha.
   Chapter XVIII. Afterwards.
   Chapter XIX. The Trial--Resumption.
   Chapter XX. . The Trial--the Medical Report.
   Chapter XXI. The Trial--the Prosecutor and the Advocates.
   Chapter XXII. The Trial--the Summing Up.
   Chapter XXIII. The Trial--the Verdict.
   Chapter XXIV. The Trial--the Sentence.
   Chapter XXV. Nekhludoff Consults an Advocate.
   Chapter XXVI. The House of Korchagin.
   Chapter XXVII. Missy's Mother.
   Chapter XXVIII. The Awakening.
   Chapter XXIX. Maslova in Prison.
   Chapter XXX. The Cell.
   Chapter XXXI. The Prisoners.
   Chapter XXXII. A Prison Quarrel.
   Chapter XXXIII. The Leaven at Work--Nekhludoff's Domestic Changes.
   Chapter XXXIV. The Absurdity of Law--Reflections of a Juryman.
   Chapter XXXV. The Procureur--Nekhludoff Refuses to Serve.
   Chapter XXXVI. Nekhludoff Endeavours to Visit Maslova.
   Chapter XXXVII. Maslova Recalls the Past.
   Chapter XXXVIII. Sunday in Prison--Preparing for Mass.
   Chapter XXXIX. The Prison Church--Blind Leaders of the Blind.
   Chapter XL. The Husks of Religion.
   Chapter XLI. Visiting Day--the Men's Ward.
   Chapter XLII. Visiting Day--the Women's Ward.
   Chapter XLIII. Nekhludoff Visits Maslova.
   Chapter XLIV. Maslova's View of Life.
   Chapter XLV. Fanarin, the Advocate--the Petition.
   Chapter XLVI. A Prison Flogging.
   Chapter XLVII. Nekhludoff Again Visits Maslova.
   Chapter XLVIII. Maslova Refuses to Marry.
   Chapter XLIX. Vera Doukhova.
   Chapter L. The Vice-Governor of the Prison.
   Chapter LI. The Cells.
   Chapter LII. No. 21.
   Chapter LIII. Victims of Government.
   Chapter LIV. Prisoners and Friends.
   Chapter LV. Vera Doukhova Explains.
   Chapter LVI. Nekhludoff and the Prisoners.
   Chapter LVII. The Vice-Governor's "At-Home".
   Chapter LVIII. The Vice-Governor Suspicious.
   Chapter LIX. Nekhludoff's Third Interview with Maslova in Prison.
book ii
   Chapter I. Property in Land.
   Chapter II. Efforts at Land Restoration.
   Chapter III. Old Associations.
   Chapter IV. The Peasants' Lot.
   Chapter V. Maslova's Aunt.
   Chapter VI. Reflections of a Landlord.
   Chapter VII. The Disinherited.
   Chapter VIII. God's Peace in the Heart.
   Chapter IX. The Land Settlement.
   Chapter X. Nekhludoff Returns to Town.
   Chapter XI. An Advocate's Views on Judges and Prosecutors.
   Chapter XII. Why the Peasants Flock to Town.
   Chapter XIII. Nurse Maslova.
   Chapter XIV. An Aristocratic Circle.
   Chapter XV. An Average Statesman.
   Chapter XVI. An Up-to-Date Senator.
   Chapter XVII. Countess Katerina Ivanovna's Dinner Party.
   Chapter XVIII. Officialdom.
   Chapter XIX. An Old General of Repute.
   Chapter XX. Maslova's Appeal.
   Chapter XXI. The Appeal Dismissed.
   Chapter XXII. An Old Friend.
   Chapter XXIII. The Public Prosecutor.
   Chapter XXIV. Mariette Tempts Nekhludoff.
   Chapter XXV. Lydia Shoustova's Home.
   Chapter XXVI. Lydia's Aunt.
   Chapter XXVII. The State Church and the People.
   Chapter XXVIII. The Meaning of Mariette's Attraction.
   Chapter XXIX. For Her Sake and for God's.
   Chapter XXX. The Astonishing Institution Called Criminal Law.
   Chapter XXXI. Nekhludoff's Sister and Her Husband.
   Chapter XXXII. Nekhludoff's Anarchism.
   Chapter XXXIII. The Aim of the Law.
   Chapter XXXIV. The Prisoners Start for Siberia.
   Chapter XXXV. Not Men but Strange and Terrible Creatures?
   Chapter XXXVI. The Tender Mercies of the Lord.
   Chapter XXXVII. Spilled Like Water on the Ground.
   Chapter XXXVIII. The Convict Train.
   Chapter XXXIX. Brother and Sister.
   Chapter XL. The Fundamental Law of Human Life.
   Chapter XLI. Taras's Story.
   Chapter XLII. Le Vrai Grand Monde.
book iii
   Chapter I. Maslova Makes New Friends.
   Chapter II. An Incident of the March.
   Chapter III. Mary Pavlovna.
   Chapter IV. Simonson.
   Chapter V. The Political Prisoners.
   Chapter VI. Kryltzoff's Story.
   Chapter VII. Nekhludoff Seeks an Interview with Maslova.
   Chapter VIII. Nekhludoff and the Officer.
   Chapter IX. The Political Prisoners.
   Chapter X. Makar Devkin.
   Chapter XI. Maslova and her Companions.
   Chapter XII. Nabatoff and Markel.
   Chapter XIII. Love Affairs of the Exiles.
   Chapter XIV. Conversations in Prison.
   Chapter XV. Novodvoroff.
   Chapter XVI. Simonson Speaks to Nekhludoff.
   Chapter XVII. "I Have Nothing More to Say."
   Chapter XVIII. Neveroff's Fate.
   Chapter XIX. Why is it Done?
   Chapter XX. The Journey Resumed.
   Chapter XXI. "Just a Worthless Tramp."
   Chapter XXII. Nekhludoff Sees the General.
   Chapter XXIII. The Sentence Commuted.
   Chapter XXIV. The General's Household.
   Chapter XXV. Maslova's Decision.
   Chapter XXVI. The English Visitor.
   Chapter XXVII. Kryltzoff at Rest.
   Chapter XXVIII. A New Life Dawns for Nekhludoff.