Page 719 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

couple, so pleased with themselves and everyone else, and
their well-ordered home had always a cheering effect on
Levin, he felt a longing, now that he was so dissatisfied
with his own life, to get at that secret in Sviazhsky that

gave him such clearness, definiteness, and good courage in
life. Moreover, Levin knew that at Sviazhsky’s he should
meet the landowners of the neighborhood, and it was
particularly interesting for him just now to hear and take
part in those rural conversations concerning crops,
laborers’ wages, and so on, which, he was aware, are
conventionally regarded as something very low, but which
seemed to him just now to constitute the one subject of
importance. ‘It was not, perhaps, of importance in the days
of serfdom, and it may not be of importance in England.
In both cases the conditions of agriculture are firmly
established; but among us now, when everything has been
turned upside down and is only just taking shape, the
question what form these conditions will take is the one
question of importance in Russia,’ thought Levin.
The shooting turned out to be worse than Levin had
expected. The marsh was dry and there were no grouse at
all. He walked about the whole day and only brought
back three birds, but to make up for that—he brought
back, as he always did from shooting, an excellent

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