EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. Well then [looks at paper]--your name, position, religion--all that I have put down. Is it correct?
EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. You are accused of contracting a marriage with another man, knowing your husband to be alive.
EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. And also of having persuaded your husband, and bribed him with money, to commit a fraud--a pretended suicide--in order to free yourself of him.
EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. Well then, allow me to put a few questions. Did you send him 1,200 roubles in July of last year?
LISA. It was his own money, the proceeds of the sale of some things of his. At the time I parted from him, and when I was expecting a divorce, I sent him the money.
EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. Just so! Very well. That money was sent to him on the 17th of July, two days before his disappearance?
LISA. I think it was on the 17th, but I don't remember.
EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. And why was the application to the Consistorium for a divorce withdrawn, just at that time--and the lawyer told not to proceed with the case?
EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. Well, and when the police asked you to identify the body, how was it you recognised it as your husband's?
LISA. I was so excited that I did not look at the body, and I felt so sure it was he, that when they asked me I answered, "I think it is he."
EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. Yes, you did not see well, in consequence of a very natural excitement. And now may I ask why you have sent a monthly remittance to Sarátov, the very town where your first husband was living?
LISA. My husband sent that money, and I cannot say what it was for, as that is not my secret. But it was not sent to Theodore Vasílyevich, for we were firmly convinced of his death. That I can say for certain.[26]
[26] Had Tolstoy lived to give a final revision to this play, he would probably have made it clearer that Karénin sent a monthly payment to the clockmaker Evgényev, in response to the request contained in the last letter Fédya addressed to Lisa and himself; and that this money found its way to Fédya.
EXAMINING MAGISTRATE. Very well. Only allow me to remark, madam, that the fact of our being servants of the law does not prevent our being men; and believe me I quite understand your position and sympathise with you! You were tied to a man who squandered your property, was unfaithful--in short, brought misfortune....