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“Declined!” a high boyish voice replied.
Again it began, and again “Declined.” And so it went on for about
an hour. Levin, with his elbows on the balustrade, looked and listened.
At first he wondered and wanted to know what it meant; then feeling
sure that he could not make it out he began to be bored. Then recalling
all the excitement and vindictiveness he had seen on all the faces, he
felt sad; he made up his mind to go, and went downstairs. As he
passed through the entry to the galleries he met a dejected high school
boy walking up and down with tired-looking eyes. On the stairs he
met a couple—a lady running quickly on her high heels and the jaunty
deputy prosecutor.
“I told you you weren’t late,” the deputy prosecutor was saying at
the moment when Levin moved aside to let the lady pass.
Levin was on the stairs to the way out, and was just feeling in his
waistcoat pocket for the number of his overcoat, when the secretary
overtook him.
“This way, please, Konstantin Dmitrievitch; they are voting.”
The candidate who was being voted on was Nevyedovsky, who
had so stoutly denied all idea of standing. Levin went up to the door of
the room; it was locked. The secretary knocked, the door opened, and
Levin was met by two red-faced gentlemen, who darted out.
“I can’t stand any more of it,” said one red-faced gentleman.
After them the face of the marshal of the province was poked out.
His face was dreadful-looking from exhaustion and dismay.
“I told you not to let any one out!” he cried to the doorkeeper.
“I let someone in, your excellency!”
“Mercy on us!” and with a heavy sigh the marshal of the province
walked with downcast head to the high table in the middle of the room,
his legs staggering in his white trousers.
Nevyedovsky had scored a higher majority, as they had planned,
and he was the new marshal of the province. Many people were
amused, many were pleased and happy, many were in ecstasies, many
were disgusted and unhappy. The former marshal of the province was
in a state of despair, which he could not conceal. When Nevyedovsky
went out of the room, the crowd thronged round him and followed him
enthusiastically, just as they had followed the governor who had opened
the meetings, and just as they had followed Snetkov when he was
elected.