A Morning of a Landed Proprietor

Chapter 20
In the small room which Nekhlyudov occupied, stood an old leather divan studded with brass nails, several chairs of the same description, an open antiquated card- table, with incrustations, indentations, and a brass rim, on which lay papers, and an antiquated, yellow, open English grand, with worn, narrow keys. Between the windows hung a large mirror in an old gilt carved frame. On the floor, near the table, lay stacks of papers, books, and accounts. The room bore altogether a disorderly aspect, and was devoid of character; and this living disorder formed a sharp contrast to the affected, old- fashioned, aristocratic arrangement of the other rooms of the large house. Upon entering the room Nekhlyudov angrily threw his hat upon the table, and sat down on a chair which stood in front of the grand, and crossed his legs and dropped his head. " Well, will you have your breakfast, your Grace ? " said, upon entering the room, a tall,... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Chapter 19
" Where are these dreams ? " now thought the youth, as he approached his house after his visits. " It is now more than a year that I have been seeking happiness upon this road, and what have I found ? It is true, at times I feel that I might be satisfied with myself, but it is a kind of dry, mental satisfaction. Yes and no, I am simply dissatisfied with myself ! I am dissatisfied because I have found no happiness here, and yet I wish, I passionately wish for happiness. I have not experienced enjoyment, and have already cut off from me everything which gives it. Why ? For what ? Who has been better off for it ? My aunt was right when she said that it is easier to find happiness than to give it to others. " Have my peasants grown richer ? Have they been morally educated and developed ? Not in the least. They are not better off, but I feel worse with every day. If I only saw any success in my undertaking, if... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Chapter 18
" My God ! My God ! " thought Nekhlyudov, making his way with long strides to the house through the shady avenues of the weed-grown garden, and absent-mindedly tearing off leaves and branches on his way. " Is it possible all my dreams of the aims and duties of my life have been absurd ? Why do I feel so oppressed and melancholy, as though I were dissatisfied with myself, whereas I had imagined that the moment I entered on the path, I would continually experience that fullness of a morally satisfied feeling which I had experienced when these thoughts came to me for the first time ? " He transferred himself, in imagination, with extraordinary vividness and clearness, a year back, to that blissful moment. He had risen early in the morning before everybody in the house, painfully agitated by some secret, inexpressible impulses of youth ; had aimlessly walked into the garden, thence into the forest ; and, amid th... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Chapter 17
When they entered the hut, the old man bowed again, wiped off the bench in the front corner with the flap of his coat, and, smiling, asked : " What may we serve to you, your Grace ? " The hut was white (with a chimney), spacious, and had both hanging and bench beds. The fresh aspen-wood beams, between which the moss-caulking had just begun to fade, had not yet turned black ; the new benches and beds had not yet become smooth, and the floor was not yet stamped down. A young, haggard peasant woman, with an oval, pensive face, Ilya's wife, was sitting on the bench-bed, and rocking with her foot a cradle that hung down from the ceiling by a long pole. In the cradle a suckling babe lay stretched out, and slept, barely breathing, and closing its eyes. Another, a plump, red-cheeked woman, Karp's wife, stood, with her sunburnt arms bared above the elbows, near the oven, and cut onions into a wooden bowl. A third, a pock... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Chapter 16
" I WANTED to ask your Grace about my children," said the old man, accidentally or purposely paying no attention to the master's angry look. " What ? " " Thank the Lord, we are well off for horses, and we have a hired man, so there will be no trouble about the manorial dues." " What of it ? " " If you would be kind enough to let my sons substitute money payment for their manorial labor, Ilyushka and Ignat would take out three troykas to do some teaming all summer. They may be able to earn something." " Where will they go ? " " Wherever it may be," replied Ilyushka, who had in the meantime tied the horses under the shed, and had come up to his father. " The Kadma boys took eight troykas out to Eomen, and they made a good living, and brought back home thirty rubles for each troyka ; and they say fodder is cheap in Odessa." " It is precisely this that I wanted to talk to you abo... (From : Wikisource.org.)

"I WILL do so," Nekhlyiidov said to himself with cheerful self-satisfaction, and, recalling that he had to visit yet the rich peasant, Dutlov, he directed his steps to a tall and spacious building, with two chimneys, which stood in the middle of the village. As he was getting near it, he met, near the neighboring hut, a tall, slatternly woman, of some forty years of age, who came out to see him. " A pleasant holiday, sir," the woman said, without the least timidity, stopping near him, smiling pleasantly, and bowing. " Good morning, nurse," he answered. " How are you getting on ? I am going to see your neighbor." " Yes, your Grace, that is good. But why do you not deign to call on us ? My old man would be ever so happy to see you." " Well, I... (From : Wikisource.org.)

" о MY orphanhood ! " said Arina, drawing a deep breath. She stopped, and angrily looked at her son. Davydka immediately wheeled around and, with difficulty lifting his fat leg, in an immense dirty bast shoe, over the threshold, was lost in the opposite door. " What am I going to do with him, father ? " continued Arina, turning to the master. " You see yourself what he is ! He is not a bad peasant : he does not drink, is peace- ful, and would not harm a child, — it would be a sin to say otherwise ; there is nothing bad about him, and God only knows what it is that has befallen him that he has become his own enemy. He himself is not satisfied with it. Really, father, it makes my heart bleed when I see how he worries about it hims... (From : Wikisource.org.)

" Had I not better go home ? " thought Nekhlyudov, walking up to Dutlov's gate, and feeling an indefinable melancholy and moral fatigue. Just then the new plank gate opened before him with a creak, and a fine-looking, ruddy, light-complexioned lad, of about eighteen years of age, in driver's attire, appeared in the gateway, leading behind him a set of three stout- legged, sweaty, shaggy horses ; boldly shaking his flaxen hair, he bowed to the master. " Is your father at home, Пуа ? " asked Nekhlyudov. " He is with the bees, back of the yard," answered the lad, leading one horse after another through the half-open gate. " No, I will stick to my determination ; I will make the proposition to him, and will do my part," though... (From : Wikisource.org.)

NEKHLYUDOV bent his head, and passed through the low gate underneath the shady shed to the apiary, which was back of the yard. The small space, surrounded by straw and a wicker fence which admitted the sunlight, where stood symmetrically arranged the beehives, covered with small boards, and surrounded by golden bees circling noisilу about them, was all bathed in the hot, brilliant rays of the June sun. A well-trodden path led from the gate through the middle of the apiary to a wooden-roofed cross with a brass-foil image upon it, which shone glaringly in the sun. A few stately linden-trees, which towered with their curly tops above the straw thatch of the neighboring yard, rustled their fresh dark green foliage almost inaudibly, on acc... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Prince Nekhlyudov was nineteen years old when he came from the Third Course of the university to pass his vacation on his estate, and remained there by himself all summer. In the autumn he wrote in his unformed childish hand to his aunt, Countess Byeloryetski, who, in his opinion, was his best friend and the most brilliant woman in the world. The letter was in French, and ran as follows : " Dear Auntie : — I have made a resolution on which the fate of my whole life must depend. I will leave the university in order to devote myself to country life, because I feel that I was born for it. For God's sake, dear auntie, do not laugh at me! You will say that I am young ; and, indeed, I may still be a child, but this does not prevent me from ... (From : Wikisource.org.)