Anna Karenina (Dole)/Part Six/Chapter 26
CHAPTER XXVI
In September Levin returned to Moscow for Kitty's confinement.
He had already been there a whole month without anything to do, when Sergyeï Ivanovitch, who had an estate in the government of Kashin, and who took a great interest in the approaching elections, was getting ready to make the journey. He took with him his brother, who had a parcel of land in the Seleznevsky district, and who, moreover, had some very important business to transact in regard to a trusteeship and the receipt of certain money in Kashin in behalf of his sister, who lived abroad.
Levin was even at the last moment in a state of uncertainty, but Kitty, seeing that he was bored in Moscow, not only urged him to go, but without his knowledge bought him a noble's uniform at an expense of eighty rubles. And these eighty rubles paid out for the uniform constituted the chief reason which induced Levin to go. He therefore went to Kashin.
He had been at Kashin six days, present at every session of the electors, and employing himself in his sister's affairs, which did not progress at all satisfactorily. All the marshals of nobility were absorbed in the elections, and it was impossible to accomplish the very simple business which depended on his guardianship. The other matter—the receipt of some money—in the same way caused him great delay. After long parleyings concerning the removal of an interdict, the money was ready to be paid over; but the notary, a most obliging man, could not deliver the paper, because the signature of the president was necessary, and the president, neglecting his duties, was at the sessions of the nobles. All these annoyances, this wandering from place to place, these talks with very pleasant good men, who thoroughly appreciated the disagreeable position of the petitioner but could not help him, all this endeavor which brought no result, produced on Levin's mind a most painful impression, analogous to that tormenting impotence which one sometimes experiences in a nightmare when one wants to employ physical force and is unable to do so. He frequently experienced this when talking with that most obliging of men, the solicitor. This solicitor, it seemed, was doing everything in his power and was exerting all his mental energies to get Levin out of his difficulties.
"Try this way or that way," he would say, "or go to this place or to that place;" and the solicitor would lay out a whole plan for avoiding the fatal obstacle that stood in the way. But immediately he would add, "Still there's a delay; however, try it." And Levin would go flying off in this direction or that, and doing whatever he was told to do. All were good and kind, but it seemed as if the obstacles, even after he had passed them, kept growing up again and cutting off his path.
Especially annoying was it to him that he could never know with whom he was really contending, for whose profit it was that he could never bring his business to a conclusion. And no one seemed to know this either. Not even the solicitor knew this. If Levin could have understood, as he understood why it was impossible to get at the office of a railway otherwise than by standing in line, it would not have been humiliating and vexatious, but, as regarded the obstacles that stood in his way, not one could tell him why they existed.
But Levin had greatly changed since his marriage. He had learned patience, and if he could not comprehend why all this was arranged as it was, then he told himself, since he did not know all about it, he was not in a position to judge, that apparently it was unavoidable; and he strove not to lose his temper.
Now that he was present at the elections, he endeavored not to be severe in his criticisms, nor to enter into controversies, but as far as he could to understand the matters which excellent and honorable men whom he thoroughly respected found so serious and so absorbing. Since his marriage Levin had opened his eyes to so many new and serious sides of life which had hitherto seemed to him, in his superficial view of them, of no great importance, that now in the matter of the elections he looked for a serious significance and found one.
Sergyeï Ivanovitch explained to him the idea and significance of the change which was proposed to the electors. The governmental predvodityel, or marshal of nobility, had charge of very many matters of public importance,—as, for example, guardianships, such as the one which Levin himself was now trying to bring into a satisfactory shape,—and large sums of money and the direction of the gymnasia, or schools for women, and for the peasantry and the military and the training of the people for their new duties, and finally of the zemstvo, or popular assembly. Now the present marshal, Snetkof, was a man of the old aristocratic stamp, who had squandered an enormous property, was a very worthy and honorable man in his way, but wholly incapable of comprehending the new needs of the present time. He always on every occasion took the side of the nobles; he always cast the whole weight of his influence against the extension of popular education and he gave the zemstvo, which was coming to have such an enormous significance, a partisan character.
It was considered necessary to put in his place a new and active man, imbued with the most enlightened modern ideas, and to manage the business so as to extract from all the rights given to the noblesse,[1] not as the noblesse, but simply as a constituent part of the zemstvo, such advantages of self-government as were possible.
In the rich government of Kashin, which always took the lead in every advance, such forces were now concentrated that the business now before the assembled nobles would be likely to set an example for all the other departments, indeed for all Russia, And therefore the business had a great importance.
It was proposed to elect as marshal instead of Snetkof, either Sviazhsky, or, still better, Nevyedovsky, a man of eminent understanding, formerly a professor, who was an intimate friend of Sergyeï Ivanovitch's.
The sobranie, or provincial assembly, was opened by a speech from the governor, who urged the nobility to elect the necessary functionaries, not from partisan reasons, but for merit and for the public weal; and he hoped that the nobility of the department of Kashin would do their duty, as they had always done, and thus deserve their monarch's confidence.
Having finished his speech, the governor left the hall, and the noblemen, tumultuously and eagerly, and some of them even enthusiastically, followed him, and surrounded him while he was putting on his shuba, and talking in a friendly way with the government marshal.
Levin, anxious to see everybody and miss nothing, was in the midst of the throng, and he heard the governor say, "Please tell Marya Ivanovna that my wife is very sorry, but she had to go to the asylum."
Then all the nobles gayly took their shubas, and went in a body to the cathedral.
In the cathedral Levin, together with the rest, raised his hand and repeated, after the protopope, the solemn oaths by which they swore to fulfil their duties. The church service always impressed Levin, and when he joined with this throng of men, old and young, in repeating the words, "I kiss the cross," he felt stirred.
On the second and third day the assembly was occupied with the moneys meant for the educational establishments for the nobility and for women, which Sergyeï Ivanovitch declared had no especial importance, and Levin, who had his own business to attend to, was not present.
On the fourth day the verifying of the government accounts came up, and here, for the first time, the new party came into direct collision with the old. The commission, whose duty it was to verify these accounts, announced to the assembly that the money was all accounted for. The government marshal arose, and with tears in his eyes thanked the nobility for their confidence in him. The nobles loudly congratulated him, and shook hands with him.
But at this time one noble belonging to Sergyeï Ivanovitch's party declared that he had heard that the commission, for fear of affronting the government marshal, had not properly performed the verification of the accounts. One of the members of the commission unguardedly admitted this. Then a very small and very young-looking, but very sarcastic, gentleman began to say that it would probably be agreeable for the government marshal to give an account of his expenditures, and that the excessive delicacy of the members of the commission had deprived him of that moral satisfaction. Thereupon the members of the commission withdrew their report, and Sergyeï Ivanovitch began logically to prove that it was necessary to acknowledge that the expenditures had been verified or that they had not been verified, and he went into a long exposition of the dilemma.
A chatterer from the opposite party replied to Sergyeï Ivanovitch. Then Sviazhsky spoke, and was followed by the sarcastic gentleman. The proceedings were tedious, and no end was reached. Levin was surprised that they discussed this so long, and all the more because, when he asked Sergyeï Ivanovitch whether Snetkof were suspected of peculation, he replied:—
"Oh, he's an honest man. But we must shake this old-fashioned patriarchal way of managing business."
On the fifth day occurred the election of the district marshals. The session was a stormy one for many of the districts. In the uyezd or district of Seleznevskoye, Sviazhsky was unanimously elected by acclamation, and he gave a grand dinner the same evening.
- ↑ Dvorianstvo.