________________________________________________
_ Sviazhsky took Levin's arm, and went with him to his own friends.
This time there was no avoiding Vronsky. He was standing with
Stepan Arkadyevitch and Sergey Ivanovitch, and looking straight
at Levin as he drew near.
"Delighted! I believe I've had the pleasure of meeting you . . .
at Princess Shtcherbatskaya's," he said, giving Levin his hand.
"Yes, I quite remember our meeting," said Levin, and blushing
crimson, he turned away immediately, and began talking to his
brother.
With a slight smile Vronsky went on talking to Sviazhsky,
obviously without the slightest inclination to enter into
conversation with Levin. But Levin, as he talked to his brother,
was continually looking round at Vronsky, trying to think of
something to say to him to gloss over his rudeness.
"What are we waiting for now?" asked Levin, looking at Sviazhsky
and Vronsky.
"For Snetkov. He has to refuse or to consent to stand," answered
Sviazhsky.
"Well, and what has he done, consented or not?"
"That's the point, that he's done neither," said Vronsky.
"And if he refuses, who will stand then?" asked Levin, looking at
Vronsky.
"Whoever chooses to," said Sviazhsky.
"Shall you?" asked Levin.
"Certainly not I," said Sviazhsky, looking confused, and turning
an alarmed glance at the malignant gentleman, who was standing
beside Sergey Ivanovitch.
"Who then? Nevyedovsky?" said Levin, feeling he was putting his
foot into it.
But this was worse still. Nevyedovsky and Sviazhsky were the two
candidates.
"I certainly shall not, under any circumstances," answered the
malignant gentleman.
This was Nevyedovsky himself. Sviazhsky introduced him to Levin.
"Well, you find it exciting too?" said Stepan Arkadyevitch,
winking at Vronsky. "It's something like a race. One might bet on
it."
"Yes, it is keenly exciting," said Vronsky. "And once taking the
thing up, one's eager to see it through. It's a fightl" he said,
scowling and setting his powerful jaws.
"What a capable fellow Sviazhsky is! Sees it all so clearly."
"Oh, yes!" Vronsky assented indifferently.
A silence followed, during which Vronsky--since he had to look at
something--looked at Levin, at his feet, at his uniform, then at
his face, and noticing his gloomy eyes fixed upon him, he said,
in order to say something:
"How is it that you, living constantly in the country, are not a
justice of the peace? You are not in the uniform of one."
"It's because I consider that the justice of the peace is a silly
institution," Levin answered gloomily. He had been all the time
looking for an opportunity to enter into conversation with
Vronsky, so as to smooth over his rudeness at their first
meeting.
"I don't think so, quite the contrary," Vronsky said, with quiet
surprise.
"It's a plaything," Levin cut him short. "We don't want justices
of the peace. I've never had a single thing to do with them
during eight years. And what I have had was decided wrongly by
them. The justice of the peace is over thirty miles from me. For
some matter of two roubles I should have to send a lawyer, who
costs me fifteen."
And he related how a peasant had stolen some flour from the
miller, and when the miller told him of it, had lodged a
complaint for slander. All this was utterly uncalled for and
stupid, and Levin felt it himself as he said it.
"Oh, this is such an original fellow!" said Stepan Arkadyevitch
with his most soothing, almond-oil smile. "But come along; I
think they're voting...."
And they separated.
"I can't understand," said Sergey Ivanovitch, who had observed
his brother's clumsiness, "I can't understand how any one can be
so absolutely devoid of political tact. That's where we Russians
are so deficient. The marshal of the province is our opponent,
and with him you're amf cochon, and you beg him to stand. Count
Vronsky, now ...I'm not making a friend of him; he's asked me
to dinner, and I'm not going; but he's one of our side--why make
an enemy of him? Then you ask Nevyedovsky if he's going to stand.
That's not a thing to do."
"Oh, I don't understand it at alll And it's all such nonsense,"
Levin answered gloomily.
"You say it's all such nonsense, but as soon as you have anything
to do with it, you make a muddle."
Levin did not answer, and they walked together into the big room.
The marshal of the province, though he was vaguely conscious in
the air of some trap being prepared for him, and though he had
not been called upon by all to stand, had still made up his mind
to stand. All was silence in the room. The secretary announced in
a loud voice that the captain of the guards, Mihail Stepanovitch
Snetkov, would now be balloted for as marshal of the province.
The district marshals walked carrying plates, on which were
balls, from their tables to the high table, and the election
began.
"Put it in the right side," whispered Stepan Arkadyevitch, as
with his brother Levin followed the marshal of his district to
the table. But Levin had forgotten by now the calculations that
had been explained to him, and was afraid Stepan Arkadyevitch
might be mistaken in saying "the right side." Surely Snetkov was
the enemy. As he went up, he held the ball in his right hand, but
thinking he was wrong, just at the box he changed to the left
hand, and undoubtedly put the ball to the left. An adept in the
business, standing at the box and seeing by the mere action of
the elbow where each put his ball, scowled with annoyance. It was
no good for him to use his insight.
Everything was still, and the counting of the balls was heard.
Then a single voice rose and proclaimed the numbers for and
against. The marshal had been voted for by a considerable
majority. All was noise and eager movement towards the doors.
Snetkov came in, and the nobles thronged round him,
congratulating him.
"Well, now is it over?" Levin asked Sergey Ivanovitch.
"It's only just beginning," Sviazhsky said, replying for Sergey
Ivanovitch with a smile. "Some other candidate may receive more
votes than the marshal."
Levin had quite forgotten about that. Now he could only remember
that there was some sort of trickery in it, but he was too bored
to think what it was exactly. He felt depressed, and longed to
get out of the crowd.
As no one was paying any attention to him, and no one apparently
needed him, he quietly slipped away into the little room where
the refreshments were, and again had a great sense of comfort
when he saw the waiters. The little old waiter pressed him to
have something, and Levin agreed. After eating a cutlet with
beans and talking to the waiters of their former masters, Levin,
not wishing to go back to the hall, where it was all so
distasteful to him, proceeded to walk through the galleries. The
galleries were full of fashionably dressed ladies, leaning over
the balustrade and trying not to lose a single word of what was
being said below. With the ladies were sitting and standing smart
lawyers, high school teachers in spectacles, and officers.
Everywhere they were talking of the election, and of how worried
the marshal was, and how splendid the discussions had been. In
one group Levin heard his brother's praises. One lady was telling
a lawyer:
"How glad I am I heard Koznishev! It's worth losing one's dinner.
He's exquisite! So clear and distinct, all of it! There's not one
of you in the law- courts that speaks like that. The only one is
Meidel, and he's not so eloquent by a long way."
Finding a free place, Levin leaned over the balustrade and began
looking and listening.
All the noblemen were sitting railed off behind barriers
according to their districts. In the middle of the room stood a
man in a uniform, who shouted in a loud, high voice:
"As a candidate for the marshalship of the nobility of the
province we call upon staff-captain Yevgeney Ivanovitch Apuhtin!"
A dead silence followed, and then a weak old voice was heard:
"Declined!"
"We call upon the privy councilor Pyotr Petrovitch Bol," the
voice began again.
"Declined!" a high boyish voice replied.
Again it began, and again "Declined." And so it went on for about
an hour. Levin, with his elbows on the balustrade, looked and
listened. At first he wondered and wanted to know what it meant;
then feeling sure that he could not make it out he began to be
bored. Then recalling all the excitement and vindictiveness he
had seen on all the faces, he felt sad; he made up his mind to
go, and went down-stairs. As he passed through the entry to the
galleries he met a dejected high school boy walking up and down
with tired-looking eyes. On the stairs he met a couple--a lady
running quickly on her high heels and the jaunty deputy
prosecutor.
"I told you you weren't late," the deputy prosecutor was saying
at the moment when Levin moved aside to let the lady pass.
Levin was on the stairs to the way out, and was just feeling in
his waistcoat pocket for the number of his overcoat, when the
secretary overtook him.
"This way, please, Konstantin Dmitrievitch; they are voting."
The candidate who was being voted on was Nevyedovsky, who had so
stoutly denied all idea of standing. Levin went up to the door of
the room; it was locked. The secretary knocked, the door opened,
and Levin was met by two red-faced gentlemen, who darted out.
"I can't stand any more of it," said one red-faced gentleman.
After them the face of the marshal of the province was poked out.
His face was dreadful-looking from exhaustion and dismay.
"I told you not to let any one out!" he cried to the doorkeeper.
"I let some one in, your excellency!"
"Mercy on us!" and with a heavy sigh the marshal of the province
walked with downcast head to the high table in the middle of the
room, his legs staggering in his white trousers.
Nevyedovsky had scored a higher majority, as they had planned,
and he was the new marshal of the province. Many people were
amused, many were pleased and happy, many were in ecstasies, many
were disgusted and unhappy. The former marshal of the province
was in a state of despair, which he could not conceal. When
Nevyedovsky went out of the room, the crowd thronged round him
and followed him enthusiastically, just as they had followed the
governor who had opened the meetings, and just as they had
followed Snetkov when he was elected. _
Read next: Part six: Chapter 31
Read previous: Part six: Chapter 29
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