Anna Karenina (Penguin) - Leo Tolstoy [364]
‘I don’t have the pleasure of knowing this Mr Levin,’ Vronsky said, smiling, ‘but he has probably never seen the machines he denounces. And if he has seen and tried one, it was not of foreign make but some Russian version. And what views can there be here?’
‘Turkish views, generally,’ Veslovsky said with a smile, turning to Anna.
‘I cannot defend his opinions,’ Darya Alexandrovna said, flushing, ‘but I can tell you that he’s a very educated man, and if he were here he would know how to answer you, though I’m unable to.’
‘I like him very much and we’re great friends,’ said Sviyazhsky, smiling good-naturedly. ‘Mais pardon, il est un petit peu toqué: cm for instance, he maintains that the zemstvo and the local courts - that it’s all unnecessary, and he doesn’t want to participate in any of it.’
‘That’s our Russian apathy,’ said Vronsky, pouring water from a chilled carafe into a thin glass with a stem, ‘not to feel the responsibilities imposed on us by our rights and thus to deny those responsibilities.’
‘I don’t know a man more strict in fulfilling his responsibilities,’ said Darya Alexandrovna, annoyed by Vronsky’s superior tone.
‘I, on the contrary,’ Vronsky went on, evidently touched to the quick for some reason by this conversation, ‘I, on the contrary, such as I am, feel very grateful for the honour done me, thanks to Nikolai Ivanych here’ (he indicated Sviyazhsky), ‘in electing me an honourable justice of the peace. I think that for me the responsibility of attending the sessions, of judging the case of a muzhik and his horse, is as important as anything I can do. And I will consider it an honour if I’m elected to the council. That is the only way I can pay back the benefits I enjoy as a landowner. Unfortunately, people don’t understand the significance major landowners ought to have in the state.’
Darya Alexandrovna found it strange to hear how calmly in the right he was, there at his own table. She remembered Levin, who thought the opposite, being just as resolute in his opinions at his own table. But she loved Levin and was therefore on his side.
‘So we can rely on you, Count, for the next session?’ said Sviyazhsky. ‘But you must leave early so as to be there by the eighth. Why don’t you honour me with a visit first?’
‘And I’m somewhat in agreement with your beau-frère,’ said Anna. ‘Only not in the same way,’ she added with a smile. ‘I’m afraid we’ve had too many of these social responsibilities lately. Just as there used to be so many officials that there had to be an official for every case, so now it’s all social activists. Alexei’s been here six months and he’s already a member of five or six social institutions - he’s a trustee, a judge, a councillor, a juror, and something to do with horses. Du train que cela va,cn all his time will be spent on it. And I’m afraid when there’s such a host of these affairs, it’s all just form. How many places are you a member of, Nikolai Ivanych?’ She turned to Sviyazhsky. ‘More than twenty, isn’t it?’
Anna spoke playfully, but irritation could be felt in her voice. Darya Alexandrovna, who was observing Anna and Vronsky very closely, noticed it at once. She also noticed that Vronsky’s face during this conversation immediately acquired a serious and stubborn expression. Noticing this and the fact that, to change the subject, Princess Varvara at once began talking hurriedly of some Petersburg acquaintances, and recalling Vronsky’s stray remarks in the garden about his activities, Dolly understood that the question of social activity was connected with some private quarrel between Anna and Vronsky.
The dinner, the wines, the table - it was all very fine, but it