Page 597 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

elder had come now to announce that the hay had been
cut, and that, fearing rain, they had invited the counting-
house clerk over, had divided the crop in his presence, and
had raked together eleven stacks as the owner’s share.

From the vague answers to his question how much hay
had been cut on the principal meadow, from the hurry of
the village elder who had made the division, not asking
leave, from the whole tone of the peasant, Levin perceived
that there was something wrong in the division of the hay,
and made up his mind to drive over himself to look into
the matter.
Arriving for dinner at the village, and leaving his horse
at the cottage of an old friend of his, the husband of his
brother’s wet-nurse, Levin went to see the old man in his
bee-house, wanting to find out from him the truth about
the hay. Parmenitch, a talkative, comely old man, gave
Levin a very warm welcome, showed him all he was
doing, told him everything about his bees and the swarms
of that year; but gave vague and unwilling answers to
Levin’s inquiries about the mowing. This confirmed Levin
still more in his suspicions. He went to the hay fields and
examined the stacks. The haystacks could not possibly
contain fifty wagon-loads each, and to convict the peasants
Levin ordered the wagons that had carried the hay to be

596 of 1759