Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy

Nekhlúdoff had four matters to attend to in Petersburg. The first was the appeal to the Senate in Máslova's case; the second, to hand in Theodosia Birukóff's petition to the committee; the third, to comply with Véra Doúkhova's requests -- i.e., try to get her friend Shoústova released from prison, and get permission for a mother to visit her son in prison. Véra Doúkhova 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.