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.)

The young proprietor, as he wrote to his aunt, had formed rules of action for his estate, and all his life and occupations were scheduled by hours, days, and months. Sunday was appointed for the reception of petitioners, domestic and manorial serfs, for the inspection of the farms of the needy peasants, and for the distribution of supplies with the consent of the Commune, which met every Sunday evening, and was to decide what aid each was to receive. More than a year passed in these occu- pations, and the young man was not entirely a novice, either in the practical or in the theoretical knowledge of farming. It was a clear June Sunday when Nekhlyudov, after drinking his coffee, and running through a chapter of " Maison Eustique," with a not... (From : Wikisource.org.)

Having almost collided with the master, the young woman deftly put down the tub, looked abashed, made a bow, glanced timidly at the master with her sparkling eyes, and trying with the sleeve of her embroidered shirt to conceal a light smile, and tripping in her leather shoes, ran up the steps. " Mother, take the yoke to Aunt Nastasya," she said, stopping in the door and turning to the old woman. The modest young proprietor looked sternly, but attentively, at the ruddy woman, frowned, and turned to the old woman, who straightened out the yoke with her crooked fingers, and, slinging it over her shoulder, obediently directed her steps to the neighboring hut. " Is your son at home ? " asked the master. The old woman bent her arched figure still... (From : Wikisource.org.)

" Come, show me your horses ! Are they in the yard ? " " Yes, 'r Grace. I have done as I have been ordered to, 'r Grace. Would we dare to disobey 'r Grace ? Yakov Alpatych commanded me not to let the horses out to pasture for the next day, as the prince wanted to inspect them, so we did not let them out. We do not dare disobey 'r Grace." As Nekhlyudov walked out of the door, Yukhvanka got the pipe down from the beds, and threw it behind the oven. His lips quivered just as restlessly, though the master was not looking at him. A lean gray mare was rummaging through some musty hay under the shed ; a two-months-old, long-legged colt of an indefinable color, with bluish feet and mouth, did not leave her mother's thin tail that was all stuck up w... (From : Wikisource.org.)

The young proprietor evidently wanted to ask the peasant people something else; he did not rise from the bench, and with indecision looked now at Churis, and now into the empty, cold oven. " Have you had your dinner ? " he finally asked them. Under Churis's mustache played a sarcastic smile, as though it amused him to hear the master ask such foolish questions ; he did not answer. " What dinner, benefactor ? " said the old woman, with a deep sigh. " We have eaten some bread. That was our dinner. There was no time to-day to go for some sorrel, and so there was nothing to make soup with, and what kvas there was I gave to the children." " To-day we have a hunger fast, your Grace," Churis chimed in, glossing his wife's words. " Bread and onions... (From : Wikisource.org.)