Page 749 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

though they had agreed to work the land on new
conditions, always spoke of the land, not as held in
partnership, but as rented for half the crop, and more than
once the peasants and Ryezunov himself said to Levin, ‘If

you would take a rent for the land, it would save you
trouble, and we should be more free.’ Moreover the same
peasants kept putting off, on various excuses, the building
of a cattleyard and barn on the land as agreed upon, and
delayed doing it till the winter.
It is true that Shuraev would have liked to let out the
kitchen gardens he had undertaken in small lots to the
peasants. He evidently quite misunderstood, and
apparently intentionally misunderstood, the conditions
upon which the land had been given to him.
Often, too, talking to the peasants and explaining to
them all the advantages of the plan, Levin felt that the
peasants heard nothing but the sound of his voice, and
were firmly resolved, whatever he might say, not to let
themselves be taken in. He felt this especially when he
talked to the cleverest of the peasants, Ryezunov, and
detected the gleam in Ryezunov’s eyes which showed so
plainly both ironical amusement at Levin, and the firm
conviction that, if any one were to be taken in, it would
not be he, Ryezunov. But in spite of all this Levin

748 of 1759