Then began the recounting of witnesses, their removal to a separate
room, the decision on the evidence of the medical expert. Then the
secretary arose and began to read the indictment, loud and with
distinctness, but so rapidly that his incorrect sounding of the
letters l and r turned his reading into one continuous, weary drone.
The judges leaned now on one side, now on the other side of their
arm-chairs, then on the table, and again on the backs of the chairs,
or closed their eyes, or opened them and whispered to each other. One
of the gendarmes several times stifled a yawn.

The convulsions of Kartinkin's cheeks did not cease. Bochkova sat
quietly and erect, now and then scratching with her finger under her
cap.

Maslova sat motionless, listening to the reading, and looking at the
clerk; at times she shuddered and made a movement as if desiring to
object, blushed, then sighed deeply, changed the position of her
hands, glanced around and again looked at the clerk.

Nekhludoff sat on the high-backed chair in the front row, second to
the aisle, and without removing his pince-nez looked at Maslova, while
his soul was being racked by a fierce and complicated struggle.




CHAPTER X.