Part Three: Chapter 24

by Leo Tolstoy

　　The night spent by Levin on the haycock did not pass withoutresult for him. The way in which he had been managing his landrevolted him and had lost all attraction for him. In spite ofthe magnificent harvest, never had there been, or, at least,never it seemed to him, had there been so many hindrances and somany quarrels between him and the peasants as that year, and theorigin of these failures and this hostility was now perfectlycomprehensible to him. The delight he had experienced in thework itself, and the consequent greater intimacy with thepeasants, the envy he felt of them, of their life, the desire toadopt that life, which had been to him that night not a dream butan intention, the execution of which he had thought out in detail--all this had so transformed his view of the farming of the landas he had managed it, that he could not take his former interestin it, and could not help seeing that unpleasant relation betweenhim and the workspeople which was the foundation of it all. Theherd of improved cows such as Pava, the whole land ploughed overand enriched, the nine level fields surrounded with hedges, thetwo hundred and forty acres heavily manured, the seed sown indrills, and all the rest of it--it was all splendid if only thework had been done for themselves, or for themselves and comrades--people in sympathy with them. But he saw clearly now (his workon a book of agriculture, in which the chief element in husbandrywas to have been the laborer, greatly assisted him in this) thatthe sort of farming he was carrying on was nothing but a crueland stubborn struggle between him and the laborers, in whichthere was on one side--his side--a continual intense effort tochange everything to a pattern he considered better; on the otherside, the natural order of things. And in the struggle he sawthat with immense expenditure of force on his side, and with noeffort or even intention on the other side, all that was attainedwas that the work did not go to the liking of either side, andthat splendid tools, splendid cattle and land were spoiled withno good to anyone. Worst of all, the energy expended on thiswork was not simply wasted. He could not help feeling now, sincethe meaning of this system had become clear to him, that the aimof his energy was a most unworthy one. In reality, what was thestruggle about? He was struggling for every farthing of hisshare (and he could not help it, for he had only to relax hisefforts, and he would not have had the money to pay his laborers'wages), while they were only struggling to be able to do theirwork easily and agreeably, that is to say, as they were used todoing it. It was for his interests that every laborer shouldwork as hard as possible, and that while doing so he should keephis wits about him, so as to try not to break the winnowingmachines, the horse rakes, the thrashing machines, that he shouldattend to what he was doing. What the laborer wanted was to workas pleasantly as possible, with rests, and above all, carelesslyand heedlessly, without thinking. That summer Levin saw this atevery step. He sent the men to mow some clover for hay, pickingout the worst patches where the clover was overgrown with grassand weeds and of no use for seed; again and again they mowed thebest acres of clover, justifying themselves by the pretense thatthe bailiff had told them to, and trying to pacify him with theassurance that it would be splendid hay; but he knew that it wasowing to those acres being so much easier to mow. He sent out ahay machine for pitching the hay--it was broken at the first rowbecause it was dull work for a peasant to sit on the seat infront with the great wings waving above him. And he was told,"Don't trouble, your honor, sure, the womenfolks will pitch itquick enough." The ploughs were practically useless, because itnever occurred to the laborer to raise the share when he turnedthe plough, and forcing it round, he strained the horses and toreup the ground, and Levin was begged not to mind about it. Thehorses were allowed to stray into the wheat because not a singlelaborer would consent to be night-watchman, and in spite oforders to the contrary, the laborers insisted on taking turns fornight duty, and Ivan, after working all day long, fell asleep,and was very penitent for his fault, saying, "Do what you will tome, your honor."

　　They killed three of the best calves by letting them into theclover aftermath without care as to their drinking, and nothingwould make the men believe that they had been blown out by theclover, but they told him, by way of consolation, that one of hisneighbors had lost a hundred and twelve head of cattle in threedays. All this happened, not because anyone felt ill-will toLevin or his farm; on the contrary, he knew that they liked him,thought him a simple gentleman (their highest praise); but ithappened simply because all they wanted was to work merrily andcarelessly, and his interests were not only remote andincomprehensible to them, but fatally opposed to their most justclaims. Long before, Levin had felt dissatisfaction with his ownposition in regard to the land. He saw where his boat leaked,but he did not look for the leak, perhaps purposely deceivinghimself. (Nothing would be left him if he lost faith in it.) Butnow he could deceive himself no longer. The farming of the land,as he was managing it, had become not merely unattractive butrevolting to him, and he could take no further interest in it.

　　To this now was joined the presence, only twenty-five miles off,of Kitty Shtcherbatskaya, whom he longed to see and could notsee. Darya Alexandrovna Oblonskaya had invited him, when he wasover there, to come; to come with the object of renewing hisoffer to her sister, who would, so she gave him to understand,accept him now. Levin himself had felt on seeing KittyShtcherbatskaya that he had never ceased to love her; but hecould not go over to the Oblonskys', knowing she was there. Thefact that he had made her an offer, and she had refused him,had placed an insuperable barrier between her and him. "I can'task her to be my wife merely because she can't be the wife of theman she wanted to marry," he said to himself. The thought ofthis made him cold and hostile to her. "I should not be able tospeak to her without a feeling of reproach; I could not look ather without resentment; and she will only hate me all the more,as she's bound to. And besides, how can I now, after what DaryaAlexandrovna told me, go to see them? Can I help showing that Iknow what she told me? And me to go magnanimously to forgiveher, and have pity on her! Me go through a performance beforeher of forgiving, and deigning to bestow my love on her!... Whatinduced Darya Alexandrovna to tell me that? By chance I mighthave seen her, then everything would have happened of itself;but, as it is, it's out of the question, out of the question!"

　　Darya Alexandrovna sent him a letter, asking him for aside-saddle for Kitty's use. "I'm told you have a side-saddle,"she wrote to him; "I hope you will bring it over yourself."

　　This was more than he could stand. How could a woman of anyintelligence, of any delicacy, put her sister in such ahumiliating position! He wrote ten notes, and tore them all up,and sent the saddle without any reply. To write that he would gowas impossible, because he could not go; to write that he couldnot come because something prevented him, or that he would beaway, that was still worse. He sent the saddle without ananswer, and with a sense of having done something shameful; hehanded over all the now revolting business of the estate to thebailiff, and set off next day to a remote district to see hisfriend Sviazhsky, who had splendid marshes for grouse in hisneighborhood, and had lately written to ask him to keep along-standing promise to stay with him. The grouse-marsh, in theSurovsky district, had long tempted Levin, but he had continuallyput off this visit on account of his work on the estate. Now hewas glad to get away from the neighborhood of the Shtcherbatskys,and still more from his farm work, especially on a shootingexpedition, which always in trouble served as the bestconsolation.