Anna Karenina - LimpidSoft

PART THREE CHAPTER 30
Chapter 30
AT the end of September the timber had been carted for building the cattleyard
on the land that had been allotted to the association of peasants, and the butter
from the cows was sold and the profits divided. In practice the system worked
capitally, or, at least, so it seemed to Levin. In order to work out the whole subject
theoretically and to complete his book, which, in Levin’s daydreams, was not merely
to effect a revolution in political economy, but to annihilate that science entirely and
to lay the foundation of a new science of the relation of the people to the soil, all that
was left to do was to make a tour abroad, and to study on the spot all that had been
done in the same direction, and to collect conclusive evidence that all that had been
done there was not what was wanted. Levin was only waiting for the delivery of his
wheat to receive the money for it and go abroad. But the rains began, preventing the
harvesting of the corn and potatoes left in the fields, and putting a stop to all work,
even to the delivery of the wheat.
The mud was impassable along the roads; two mills were carried away, and the
weather got worse and worse.
On the 30th of September the sun came out in the morning, and hoping for fine
weather, Levin began making final preparations for his journey. He gave orders for
the wheat to be delivered, sent the bailiff to the merchant to get the money owing
him, and went out himself to give some final directions on the estate before setting
off.
Having finished all his business, soaked through with the streams of water which
kept running down the leather behind his neck and his gaiters, but in the keenest
and most confident temper, Levin returned homewards in the evening. The weather
had become worse than ever towards evening; the hail lashed the drenched mare
so cruelly that she went along sideways, shaking her head and ears; but Levin was
all right under his hood, and he looked cheerfully about him at the muddy streams
running under the wheels, at the drops hanging on every bare twig, at the whiteness
of the patch of unmelted hailstones on the planks of the bridge, at the thick layer of
still juicy, fleshy leaves that lay heaped up about the stripped elm-tree. In spite of
the gloominess of nature around him, he felt peculiarly eager. The talks he had been
having with the peasants in the further village had shown that they were beginning
to get used to their new position. The old servant to whose hut he had gone to get
dry evidently approved of Levin’s plan, and of his own accord proposed to enter the
partnership by the purchase of cattle.
“I have only to go stubbornly on towards my aim, and I shall attain my end,”
thought Levin; “and it’s something to work and take trouble for. This is not a matter
of myself individually; the question of the public welfare comes into it. The whole
system of culture, the chief element in the condition of the people, must be completely
transformed. Instead of poverty, general prosperity and content; instead of
hostility, harmony and unity of interests. In short, a bloodless revolution, but a revolution
of the greatest magnitude, beginning in the little circle of our district, then the
province, then Russia, the whole world. Because a just idea cannot but be fruitful.
Yes, it’s an aim worth working for. And its being me, Kostya Levin, who went to a
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