"So you see," pursued Nikolay Levin, painfully wrinkling his

forehead and twitching.

It was obviously difficult for him to think of what to say and

do.

"Here, do you see?"... He pointed to some sort of iron bars,

fastened together with strings, lying in a corner of the room.

"Do you see that? That's the beginning of a new thing we're

going into. It's a productive association..."

Konstantin scarcely heard him. He looked into his sickly,

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consumptive face, and he was more and more sorry for him, and he

could not force himself to listen to what his brother was telling

him about the association. He saw that this association was a

mere anchor to save him from self-contempt. Nikolay Levin went

on talking: "You know that capital oppresses the laborer. The laborers with

us, the peasants, bear all the burden of labor, and are so placed

that however much they work they can't escape from their position

of beasts of burden. All the profits of labor, on which they

might improve their position, and gain leisure for themselves,

and after that education, all the surplus values are taken from

them by the capitalists. And society's so constituted that the

harder they work, the greater the profit of the merchants and

landowners, while they stay beasts of burden to the end. And

that state of things must be changed," he finished up, and he

looked questioningly at his brother.

"Yes, of course," said Konstantin, looking at the patch of red

that had come out on his brother's projecting cheek bones.

"And so we're founding a locksmiths' association, where all the

production and profit and the chief instruments of production

will be in common."

"Where is the association to be?" asked Konstantin Levin.

"In the village of Vozdrem, Kazan government."

"But why in a village? In the villages, I think, there is plenty

of work as it is. Why a locksmiths' association in a village?"

"Why? Because the peasants are just as much slaves as they ever

were, and that's why you and Sergey Ivanovitch don't like people

to try and get them out of their slavery," said Nikolay Levin,

exasperated by the objection.

Konstantin Levin sighed, looking meanwhile about the cheerless

and dirty room. This sigh seemed to exasperate Nikolay still

more.

"I know your and Sergey Ivanovitch's aristocratic views. I know

that he applies all the power of his intellect to justify

existing evils."

"No; and what do you talk of Sergey Ivanovitch for?" said Levin,

smiling.




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