Mashkin Upland was mown, the last row finished, the peasants had

put on their coats and were gaily trudging home. Levin got on

his horse and, parting regretfully from the peasants, rode

homewards. On the hillside he looked back; he could not see them

in the mist that had risen from the valley; he could only hear

rough, good-humored voices, laughter, and the sound of clanking

scythes.

Sergey Ivanovitch had long ago finished dinner, and was drinking

iced lemon and water in his own room, looking through the reviews

and papers which he had only just received by post, when Levin

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rushed into the room, talking merrily, with his wet and matted

hair sticking to his forehead, and his back and chest grimed and

moist.

"We mowed the whole meadow! Oh, it is nice, delicious! And how

have you been getting on?" said Levin, completely forgetting the

disagreeable conversation of the previous day.

"Mercy! what do you look like!" said Sergey Ivanovitch, for the

first moment looking round with some dissatisfaction. "And the

door, do shut the door!" he cried. "You must have let in a dozen

at least."

Sergey Ivanovitch could not endure flies, and in his own room he

never opened the window except at night, and carefully kept the

door shut.

"Not one, on my honor. But if I have, I'll catch them. You

wouldn't believe what a pleasure it is! How have you spent the

day?"

"Very well. But have you really been mowing the whole day? I

expect you're as hungry as a wolf. Kouzma has got everything

ready for you."

"No, I don't feel hungry even. I had something to eat there.

But I'll go and wash."

"Yes, go along, go along, and I'll come to you directly," said

Sergey Ivanovitch, shaking his head as he looked at his brother.

"Go along, make haste," he added smiling, and gathering up his

books, he prepared to go too. He, too, felt suddenly

good-humored and disinclined to leave his brother's side. "But

what did you do while it was raining?"

"Rain? Why, there was scarcely a drop. I'll come directly. So

you had a nice day too? That's first-rate." And Levin went off

to change his clothes.

Five minutes later the brothers met in the dining room. Although

it seemed to Levin that he was not hungry, and he sat down to

dinner simply so as not to hurt Kouzma's feelings, yet when he

began to eat the dinner struck him as extraordinarily good.

Sergey Ivanovitch watched him with a smile.




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