Levin stood in the smaller room, where they were smoking and taking light refreshments, close to his own friends, and listening to what they were saying, he conscientiously exerted all his intelligence trying to understand what was said.

Sergey Ivanovitch was the center round which the others grouped themselves.

He was listening at that moment to Sviazhsky and Hliustov, the marshal of another district, who belonged to their party.

Hliustov would not agree to go with his district to ask Snetkov to stand, while Sviazhsky was persuading him to do so, and Sergey Ivanovitch was approving of the plan.