In the morning Konstantin Levin left Moscow, and towards evening he reached home. On the journey in the train he talked to his neighbors about politics and the new railways, and, just as in Moscow, he was overcome by a sense of confusion of ideas, dissatisfaction with himself, shame of something or other. But when he got out at his own station, when he saw his one-eyed coachman, Ignat, with the collar of his coat turned up; when, in the dim light reflected by the station fires, he saw his own sledge1, his own horses with their tails tied up, in their harness trimmed with rings and tassels2; when the coachman Ignat, as he put in his luggage, told him the village news, that the contractor3 had arrived, and that Pava had calved,--he felt that little by little the confusion was clearing up, and the shame and self-dissatisfaction were passing away. He felt this at the mere4 sight of Ignat and the horses; but when he had put on the sheepskin brought for him, had sat down wrapped in the sledge, and had driven off pondering on the work that lay before him in the village, and staring at the side-horse, that had been his saddle-horse, past his prime now, but a spirited beast from the Don, he began to see what had happened to him in quite a different light. He felt himself, and did not want to be any one else. All he wanted now was to be better than before. In the first place he resolved that from that day he would give up hoping for any extraordinary happiness, such as marriage must have given him, and consequently he would not so disdain5 what he really had. Secondly6, he would never again let himself give way to low passion, the memory of which had so tortured him when he had been making up his mind to make an offer. Then remembering his brother Nikolay, he resolved to himself that he would never allow himself to forget him, that he would follow him up, and not lose sight of him, so as to be ready to help when things should go ill with him. And that would be soon, he felt. Then, too, his brother's talk of communism, which he had treated so lightly at the time, now made him think. He considered a revolution in economic conditions nonsense. But he always felt the injustice7 of his own abundance in comparison with the poverty of the peasants, and now he determined8 that so as to feel quite in the right, though he had worked hard and lived by no means luxuriously9 before, he would now work still harder, and would allow himself even less luxury. And all this seemed to him so easy a conquest over himself that he spent the whole drive in the pleasantest daydreams10. With a resolute11 feeling of hope in a new, better life, he reached home before nine o'clock at night.
The snow of the little quadrangle before the house was lit up by a light in the bedroom windows of his old nurse, Agafea Mihalovna, who performed the duties of housekeeper12 in his house. She was not yet asleep. Kouzma, waked up by her, came sidling sleepily out onto the steps. A setter bitch, Laska, ran out too, almost upsetting Kouzma, and whining13, turned round about Levin's knees, jumping up and longing14, but not daring, to put her forepaws on his chest.
"You're soon back again, sir," said Agafea Mihalovna.
"I got tired of it, Agafea Mihalovna. With friends, one is well; but at home, one is better," he answered, and went into his study.
The study was slowly lit up as the candle was brought in. The familiar details came out: the stag's horns, the bookshelves, the looking-glass, the stove with its ventilator, which had long wanted mending, his father's sofa, a large table, on the table an open book, a broken ash tray, a manuscript book with his handwriting. As he saw all this, there came over him for an instant a doubt of the possibility of arranging the new life, of which he had been dreaming on the road. All these traces of his life seemed to clutch him, and to say to him: "No, you're not going to get away from us, and you're not going to be different, but you're going to be the same as you've always been; with doubts, everlasting15 dissatisfaction with yourself, vain efforts to amend16, and falls, and everlasting expectation, of a happiness which you won't get, and which isn't possible for you."
This the tings said to him, but another voice in his heart was telling him that he must not fall under the sway of the past, and that one can do anything with oneself. And hearing that voice, he went into the corner where stood his two heavy dumbbells, and began brandishing17 them like a gymnast, trying to restore his confident temper. There was a creak of steps at the door. He hastily put down the dumbbells.
The bailiff came in, and said everything, thank God, was doing well; but informed him that the buckwheat in the new drying machine had been a little scorched18. This piece of news irritated Levin. The new drying machine had been constructed and partly invented by Levin. The bailiff had always been against the drying machine, and now it was with suppressed triumph that he announced that the buckwheat had been scorched. Levin was firmly convinced that if the buckwheat had been scorched, it was only because the precautions had not been taken, for which he had hundreds of times given orders. He was annoyed, and reprimanded the bailiff. But there had been an important and joyful19 event: Pava, his best cow, an expensive beast, bought at a show, had calved.
"Kouzma, give me my sheepskin. And you tell them to take a lantern. I'll come and look at her," he said to the bailiff.
The cowhouse for the more valuable cows was just behind the house. Walking across the yard, passing a snowdrift by the lilac tree, he went into the cowhouse. There was the warm, steamy smell of dung when the frozen door was opened, and the cows, astonished at the unfamiliar20 light of the lantern, stirred on the fresh straw. He caught a glimpse of the broad, smooth, black and piebald back of Hollandka. Berkoot, the bull, was lying down with his ring in his lip, and seemed about to get up, but thought better of it, and only gave two snorts as they passed by him. Pava, a perfect beauty, huge as a hippopotamus21, with her back turned to them, prevented their seeing the calf22, as she sniffed23 her all over.
Levin went into the pen, looked Pava over, and lifted the red and spotted24 calf onto her long, tottering25 legs. Pava, uneasy, began lowing, but when Levin put the calf close to her she was soothed26, and, sighing heavily, began licking her with her rough tongue. The calf, fumbling27, poked28 her nose under her mother's udder, and stiffened29 her tail out straight.
"Here, bring the light, Fyodor, this way," said Levin, examining the calf. "Like the mother! though the color takes after the father; but that's nothing. Very good. Long and broad in the haunch. Vassily Fedorovitch, isn't she splendid?" he said to the bailiff, quite forgiving him for the buckwheat under the influence of his delight in the calf.
"How could she fail to be? Oh, Semyon the contractor came the day after you left. You must settle with him, Konstantin Dmitrievitch," said the bailiff. "I did inform you about the machine."
This question was enough to take Levin back to all the details of his work on the estate, which was on a large scale, and complicated. He went straight from the cowhouse to the counting house, and after a little conversation with the bailiff and Semyon the contractor, he went back to the house and straight upstairs to the drawing room.
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1
sledge
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| n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往 | |
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2
tassels
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| n.穗( tassel的名词复数 )；流苏状物；（植物的）穗；玉蜀黍的穗状雄花v.抽穗， （玉米）长穗须( tassel的第三人称单数 )；使抽穗， （为了使作物茁壮生长）摘去穗状雄花；用流苏装饰 | |
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contractor
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| n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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luxuriously
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| adv.奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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daydreams
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| n.白日梦( daydream的名词复数 )v.想入非非，空想( daydream的第三人称单数 ) | |
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resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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13
whining
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| n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚 | |
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14
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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16
amend
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| vt.修改，修订，改进；n.[pl.]赔罪，赔偿 | |
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brandishing
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| v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀 | |
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18
scorched
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
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joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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20
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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21
hippopotamus
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| n.河马 | |
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calf
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| n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮 | |
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23
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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25
tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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fumbling
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| n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理 | |
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poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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