"Oh, I am very fond of him, and we are excellent friends," said Sviazhsky, smiling good-naturedly; "mais pardon, il est un petit peu toqué. For example, he considers tht zemstvo and the justices of the peace—everything—entirely useless—will have nothing to do with them."
"It's our Russian indifference!" exclaimed Vronsky, filling his goblet with ice-water from a carafe. "Not to feel the obligations which our privileges impose on us and so ignore them."
"I don't know any one who is more strict in the fulfilment of his duties," said Dolly, irritated by Vronsky's superior tone.
"I, on the contrary," continued Vronsky, evidently somewhat piqued by this conversation,—"I, on the contrary, am very grateful, as you see, for the honor which has been done me, thanks to Nikolaï Ivanovitch"—he referred to Sviazhsky—"in my appointment as honorary justice of the peace. I consider that for me the duty of going to the sessions of the court, of judging the affairs of a muzhik, are as important as anything that I could do. And I shall consider it an honor if you elect me a member of the town-council.[1] This is the only way that I can repay society for the privileges I enjoy as a landed proprietor. Unfortunately the influence which the large landed proprietors ought to wield is not fully appreciated."
Vronsky's calm assurance that he was in the right seemed very strange to Darya Aleksandrovna. She knew that Levin, whose opinions were diametrically opposite, was equally firm on his side; but she loved Levin, and so she was on his side.
"So we can depend on you at the next election, can we?" said Sviazhsky. "But we ought to leave earlier, so as to get there by the 8th. Will you do me the honor to go with me, count?"
"I pretty much agree with your beau frère," said Anna, "though for different reasons," she added, with a smile. "I am afraid that nowadays we are getting
- ↑ The Russian name for this official is glasnui.
