Resurrection, Leo Tolstoy [top 5 books to read .txt] 📗

of his heart, he knew he had no right to. Now he would not act in this way, and would alter the arrangement in Kousmínski also. And he formed a project in his mind to let the land to the peasants, and to acknowledge the rent they paid for it to be their property, to be kept to pay the taxes and for communal uses. This was, of course, not the single-tax system, still it was as near an approach to it as could be had under existing circumstances. His chief consideration, however, was that in this way he would no longer profit by the possession of landed property.

When he returned to the house the foreman, with a specially pleasant smile, asked him if he would not have his dinner now, expressing the fear that the feast his wife was preparing, with the help of the girl with the earrings, might be overdone.

The table was covered with a coarse, unbleached cloth and an embroidered towel was laid on it in lieu of a napkin. A vieux-saxe soup tureen with a broken handle stood on the table, full of potato soup, the stock made of the fowl that had put out and drawn in his black leg, and was now cut, or rather chopped, in pieces, which were here and there covered with hairs. After the soup more of the same fowl with the hairs was served roasted, and then curd pasties, very greasy, and with a great deal of sugar. Little appetising as all this was, Nekhlúdoff hardly noticed what he was eating; he was occupied with the thought which had in a moment dispersed the sadness with which he had returned from the village.

The foreman’s wife kept looking in at the door, whilst the frightened maid with the earrings brought in the dishes; and the foreman smiled more and more joyfully, priding himself on his wife’s culinary skill. After dinner, Nekhlúdoff succeeded, with some trouble, in making the foreman sit down. In order to revise his own thoughts, and to express them to someone, he explained his project of letting the land to the peasants, and asked the foreman for his opinion. The foreman, smiling as if he had thought all this himself long ago, and was very pleased to hear it, did not really understand it at all. This was not because Nekhlúdoff did not express himself clearly, but because according to this project it turned out that Nekhlúdoff was giving up his own profit for the profit of others, and the thought that everyone is only concerned about his own profit, to the harm of others, was so deeply rooted in the foreman’s conceptions that he imagined he did not understand something when Nekhlúdoff said that all the income from the land must be placed to form the communal capital of the peasants.

“Oh, I see; then you, of course, will receive the percentages from that capital,” said the foreman, brightening up.

“Dear me! no. Don’t you see, I am giving up the land altogether.”

“But then you will not get any income,” said the foreman, smiling no longer.

“Yes, I am going to give it up.”

The foreman sighed heavily, and then began smiling again. Now he understood. He understood that Nekhlúdoff was not quite normal, and at once began to consider how he himself could profit by Nekhlúdoff’s project of giving up the land, and tried to see this project in such a way that he might reap some advantage from it. But when he saw that this was impossible he grew sorrowful, and the project ceased to interest him, and he continued to smile only in order to please the master.

Seeing that the foreman did not understand him, Nekhlúdoff let him go and sat down by the windowsill, that was all cut about and inked over, and began to put his project down on paper.

The sun went down behind the limes, that were covered with fresh green, and the mosquitoes swarmed in, stinging Nekhlúdoff. Just as he finished his notes, he heard the lowing of cattle and the creaking of opening gates from the village, and the voices of the peasants gathering together for the meeting. He told the foreman not to call the peasants up to the office, as he meant to go into the village himself and meet the men where they would assemble. Having hurriedly drank a cup of tea offered him by the foreman, Nekhlúdoff went to the village.

VII

From the crowd assembled in front of the house of the village elder came the sound of voices; but as soon as Nekhlúdoff came up the talking ceased, and all the peasants took off their caps, just as those in Kousmínski had done. The peasants here were of a much poorer class than those in Kousmínski. The men wore shoes made of bark and homespun shirts and coats. Some had come straight from their work in their shirts and with bare feet.

Nekhlúdoff made an effort, and began his speech by telling the peasants of his intention to give up his land to them altogether. The peasants were silent, and the expression on their faces did not undergo any change.

“Because I hold,” said Nekhlúdoff, “and believe that everyone has a right to the use of the land.”

“That’s certain. That’s so, exactly,” said several voices.

Nekhlúdoff went on to say that the revenue from the land ought to be divided among all, and that he would therefore suggest that they should rent the land at a price fixed by themselves, the rent to form a communal fund for their own use. Words of approval and agreement were still to be heard, but the serious faces of the peasants grew still more serious, and the eyes that had been fixed on the gentleman dropped, as if they were unwilling to put him to shame by letting him see that everyone had understood his trick, and that no one would be deceived by him.

Nekhlúdoff spoke clearly,