Page 681 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

‘But why so?’ Vronsky mentioned a few men who
were in power. ‘Why aren’t they independent men?’
‘Simply because they have not, or have not had from
birth, an independent fortune; they’ve not had a name,

they’ve not been close to the sun and center as we have.
They can be bought either by money or by favor. And
they have to find a support for themselves in inventing a
policy. And they bring forward some notion, some policy
that they don’t believe in, that does harm; and the whole
policy is really only a means to a government house and so
much income. Cela n’est pas plus fin que ca, when you
get a peep at their cards. I may be inferior to them,
stupider perhaps, though I don’t see why I should be
inferior to them. But you and I have one important
advantage over them for certain, in being more difficult to
buy. And such men are more needed than ever.’
Vronsky listened attentively, but he was not so much
interested by the meaning of the words as by the attitude
of Serpuhovskoy who was already contemplating a
struggle with the existing powers, and already had his likes
and dislikes in that higher world, while his own interest in
the governing world did not go beyond the interests of his
regiment. Vronsky felt, too, how powerful Serpuhovskoy
might become through his unmistakable faculty for

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