'Schulberg is elected!'
'How?—What has happened?—By what means?—The steward said it was not so.—What has happened?'
Meanwhile Count Jarzyński was leading poor Countess Marya out of the room, who was biting her hankerchief, not to burst into tears or to faint.
'Oh what a misfortune, what a misfortune!' the assembled guests repeated, striking their foreheads.
A dull sound like people shouting for joy rose at that moment from the direction of the village. The Germans of Pognębin were thus gleefully celebrating their victory.
Count and Countess Jarzyński returned to the drawing room. He could be heard saying to his wife at the door, 'Il faut faire bonne mine,' and she had stopped crying already. Her eyes were dry and very red.
'Will you tell us how it was?' the host asked quietly.
'How could it be otherwise, Sir,' old Maciej said, 'seeing that even the Pognębin peasants voted for Schulberg?'
'Who did so?'
'What? Those here?'