Chapter 31

Vronsky had come to the elections partly because he was bored in the country and wanted to show Anna his right to independence, and also to repay Sviiazhsky by his support at the election for all the trouble he had taken for Vronsky at the Zemstvo election, but chiefly for the strict performance of all those duties of a nobleman and landowner which he had taken upon himself. But he had not in the least expected that the election would interest him so, so keenly excite him, and that he would be so good at this kind of thing. He was quite a new man in the circle of the nobility of the province, but his success was unmistakable, and he was not wrong in supposing that he had already obtained a certain influence. This influence was due to his wealth and aristocracy; the capital house in the town lent him by his old friend Shirkov, who had a post in the department of finances and was director of a flourishing bank in Kashin; the excellent cook Vronsky had brought from the country; and his friendship with the governor, who was a schoolfellow of Vronsky - a schoolfellow he had patronized and protected indeed. But what contributed more than all to his success was his direct, equable manner with everyone, which very quickly made the majority of the noblemen reverse the current opinion of his supposed haughtiness. He was himself conscious that, except for that mad gentleman married to Kitty Shcherbatskaia, who had à propos de bottes poured out a stream of irrelevant absurdities with such spiteful fury, every nobleman with whom he had made acquaintance had become his adherent. He saw clearly, and other people recognized it, too, that he had done a great deal to secure the success of Neviedovsky. And now at his own table, celebrating Neviedovsky's election, he was experiencing an agreeable sense of triumph over the success of his candidate. The election itself had so fascinated him that, if he could succeed in getting married during the next three years, he began to think of running for office himself - much as, after winning a race ridden by a jockey, he had longed to ride a race himself.

Today he was celebrating the success of his jockey. Vronsky sat at the head of the table, on his right hand sat the young governor, a general of high rank. To all the rest he was the master of the province, who had solemnly opened the elections with his speech, and aroused a feeling of respect and even of awe in many people, as Vronsky saw; to Vronsky he was Katka Maslov - that had been his nickname in the Pages' Corps - whom he felt to be shy and tried to put at ease. On the left hand sat Neviedovsky with his youthful, stubborn, and venomous countenance. With him Vronsky was simple and deferential.

Sviiazhsky took his failure very lightheartedly. It was indeed no failure in his eyes, as he said himself, turning, glass in hand, to Neviedovsky: they could not have found a better representative of the new movement, which the nobility ought to follow. And so every honest person, as he said, was on the side of today's success and was celebrating over it.

Stepan Arkadyevich was glad, too, because he was having a good time, and because everyone was pleased. The episodes of the elections served as a good occasion for a capital dinner. Sviiazhsky comically imitated the tearful discourse of marshal, and observed, addressing Neviedovsky, that His Excellency would have to select another, more complicated method of auditing accounts than tears. Another nobleman jocosely described how footmen in stockings had been imported for the marshal's ball, and how now they would have to be sent back unless the new marshal would give a ball with footmen in stockings.

Continually during dinner they said of Neviedovsky: `Our Marshal' and `Your Excellency.'

This was said with the same pleasure with which a young wife is called `Madame' and by her husband's name. Neviedovsky affected to be not merely indifferent but scornful of this appellation, but it was obvious that he was highly delighted, and had to keep a curb on himself not to betray the triumph which was unsuitable to their new, liberal party.

In the course of dinner several telegrams were sent to people interested in the result of the election. And Stepan Arkadyevich, who was in high spirits, sent Darya Alexandrovna a telegram: `Neviedovsky elected by twenty votes. Congratulations. Tell people.' He dictated it aloud, saying: `We must let them share our rejoicing.' Darya Alexandrovna, getting the message, simply sighed over the rouble wasted on