‘One district will be enough, and Sviyazhsky’s obviously already in the opposition,’ he said in words that everyone except Levin could understand.
‘So, Kostya, it seems you’ve acquired a taste for it, too?’ he added, turning to Levin and taking him under the arm. Levin would even have been glad to acquire a taste for it, but he could not understand what the point was and, moving a few steps away from the talkers, he voiced his perplexity to Stepan Arkadyich as to why the provincial marshal should be nominated.
‘O
‘If all the districts nominated the provincial marshal, as at the previous elections, he would be elected unanimously. That must not happen. Now eight districts have agreed to nominate him. If the other two refuse to nominate him, Snetkov may refuse to stand. And then the old party may choose someone else from among themselves, and all our calculations will go for naught. But if Sviyazhsky’s district alone does not nominate him, Snetkov will stand. He will even be chosen, and they will purposely give him more votes to mislead the opposition, and when our candidate is put forward, they will give him more votes.’
Levin understood, but not completely, and was about to ask a few more questions, when everyone suddenly started talking and moving noisily into the big room.
‘What is it? What? Whom? A warrant? For whom? What? They refute it? There’s no warrant. Flerov’s not admitted. What if he is on trial? That way no one will be admitted. It’s mean. The law!’ came from all sides, and along with the rest, who hurried from everywhere and were afraid of missing something, Levin went to the big room and, jostled by the noblemen, approached the governor’s table, around which a heated discussion was going on between the provincial marshal, Sviyazhsky and other leaders.
XXVIII
Levin was standing quite far away. Beside him stood one nobleman who was wheezing and breathing heavily and another whose thick soles creaked, preventing him from hearing well. He could only hear the marshal’s soft voice from afar, then the shrill voice of the venomous nobleman, and then Sviyazhsky’s voice. They were arguing, as far as he could gather, about the meaning of an article of the law and especially of the words: ‘being under investigation’.
The crowd parted to make way as Sergei Ivanovich approached the table. Sergei Ivanovich, after waiting for the venomous nobleman to finish his speech, said it seemed to him that the right thing to do would be to consult the article of the law, and he asked the secretary to find it. In the article it said that in case of disagreement there should be a vote.
Sergei Ivanovich read the article and began to explain its meaning, but here a tall, fat, slightly stooping landowner with a dyed moustache, in a tight uniform with a collar that propped his neck up from behind, interrupted him. He came up to the table and, rapping on it with his signet ring, shouted loudly: ‘To the vote! Cast your ballots! No point talking! Cast your ballots!’
Here several voices started talking, and the tall nobleman with the signet ring, growing more and more angry, shouted louder and louder. But it was impossible to make out what he was saying.
He was saying the same thing that Sergei Ivanovich had suggested; but he obviously hated him and his whole party, and that feeling of hatred communicated itself to the whole party and provoked a response of the same anger, though more decent, from the other side. Shouts arose, and for a moment everything was so confused that the provincial marshal had to call for order.
‘To the vote! To the vote! Every nobleman will understand. We shed our blood ... The monarch’s trust ... Don’t count the marshal, he’s no one to give orders ... That’s not the point ... The vote, if you please! Disgusting! ...’ Angry, furious cries came from all sides. The looks and faces were still more angry and furious than the talk. They expressed irreconcilable hatred. Levin had no idea what it was all about and was astonished at the passion with which they discussed the question of whether the opinion about Flerov should or should not be put to the vote. As Sergei Ivanovich later explained to him, he had forgotten the syllogism that for the common good it was necessary to bring down the provincial marshal; to bring down the provincial marshal, a majority of the votes was necessary; for a majority of the votes, Flerov had to be given the right to a voice; to have Flerov’s eligibility recognized, they had to explain how to understand the article of the law.
‘One vote could decide the whole thing, and you must be serious and consistent if you want to serve the common cause,’ Sergei Ivanovich concluded.
