Page 367 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

to so many yards the acre.’ He says those words without
understanding them himself.’
‘I wouldn’t attempt to teach you what you write about
in your office,’ said he, ‘and if need arose, I should come

to you to ask about it. But you’re so positive you know all
the lore of the forest. It’s difficult. Have you counted the
trees?’
‘How count the trees?’ said Stepan Arkadyevitch,
laughing, still trying to draw his friend out of his ill-
temper. ‘Count the sands of the sea, number the stars.
Some higher power might do it.’
‘Oh, well, the higher power of Ryabinin can. Not a
single merchant ever buys a forest without counting the
trees, unless they get it given them for nothing, as you’re
doing now. I know your forest. I go there every year
shooting, and your forest’s worth a hundred and fifty
roubles and acre paid down, while he’s giving you sixty by
installments. So that in fact you’re making him a present of
thirty thousand.’
‘Come, don’t let your imagination run away with you,’
said Stepan Arkadyevitch piteously. ‘Why was it none
would give it, then?’
‘Why, because he has an understanding with the
merchants; he’s bought them off. I’ve had to do with all of

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