" _Mais pardon, il est un petit peu toque;_ he maintains, for instance, that district councils and arbitration boards are all of no use, and he is unwilling to take part in anything.

" "It's our Russian apathy," said Vronsky, pouring water from an iced decanter into a delicate glass on a high stem; "we've no sense of the duties our privileges impose upon us, and so we refuse to recognize these duties.

" "I know no man more strict in the performance of his duties," said Darya Alexandrovna, irritated by Vronsky's tone of superiority.

"For my part," pursued Vronsky, who was evidently for some reason or other keenly affected by this conversation, "such as I am, I am, on the contrary, extremely grateful for the honor they have done me, thanks to Nikolay Ivanitch" (he indicated Sviazhsky), "in electing me a justice of the peace.

I consider that for me the duty of being present at the session, of judging some peasants' quarrel about a horse, is as important as anything I can do.