Page 1405 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

ask Snetkov to stand, while Sviazhsky was persuading him
to do so, and Sergey Ivanovitch was approving of the plan.
Levin could not make out why the opposition was to ask
the marshal to stand whom they wanted to supersede.

Stepan Arkadyevitch, who had just been drinking and
taking some lunch, came up to them in his uniform of a
gentleman of the bedchamber, wiping his lips with a
perfumed handkerchief of bordered batiste.
‘We are placing our forces,’ he said, pulling out his
whiskers, ‘Sergey Ivanovitch!’
And listening to the conversation, he supported
Sviazhsky’s contention.
‘One district’s enough, and Sviazhsky’s obviously of the
opposition,’ he said, words evidently intelligible to all
except Levin.
‘Why, Kostya, you here too! I suppose you’re
converted, eh?’ he added, turning to Levin and drawing
his arm through his. Levin would have been glad indeed
to be converted, but could not make out what the point
was, and retreating a few steps from the speakers, he
explained to Stepan Arkadyevitch his inability to
understand why the marshal of the province should be
asked to stand.

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