- In the snack room, excitement grows among all the noblemen.
- Levin doesn't have anything to do, because all his friends are talking to Vronsky, and other ways of passing time don't interest him.
- Feeling lonely, he spots one of the landowners he met during his visit to his friend Sviyazhsky's in Part 3, Chapter 27.
- The landowner says he doesn't understand the point of nobility elections either, and that it's an obsolete institution.
- The two of them talk about the ultimate futility of work. Try as they might, they just about break even or operate at a loss. They feel that the only real work of the nobleman can be accomplished on their own estates, and that all of this district representation is pointless.
- Sviyazhsky's approach breaks up their conversation, but they're pleased to have gotten a chance to see one another.