They had just come back from Moscow, and were glad to be alone. He was sitting at the writing table in his study, writing. She, wearing the dark lilac dress she had worn during the first days of their married life, and put on again today - a dress particularly remembered and loved by him - was sitting on the sofa, the same old-fashioned leather sofa which had always stood in the study in Levin's father's and grandfather's days. She was sewing at broderie anglaise. He thought and wrote, never losing the happy consciousness of her presence. His work, both on the land and on the book, in which the principles of the new land system were to be laid down, had not been abandoned; but just as formerly his work and ideas had seemed to him petty and trivial in comparison with the darkness that overspread all life, now they seemed as unimportant and petty in comparison with the life that lay before him suffused with the brilliant light of happiness. He went on with his work, but he felt now that the center of gravity of his attention had passed to something else, and that consequently he looked at his work quite differently and more clearly. Formerly this work had been for him an escape from life. Formerly he had felt that without this work his life would be too gloomy. Now this work was necessary for him so that life might not be too uniformly bright. Taking up his manuscript, reading through what he had written, he found with pleasure that the work was worth his working at. Many of his old ideas seemed to him superfluous and extreme, but many blanks became distinct to him when he reviewed the whole thing in his memory. He was writing now a new chapter on the causes of the present disadvantageous condition of agriculture in Russia. He maintained that the poverty of Russia arises not merely from the anomalous distribution of landed property and from misdirected reforms, but that what had contributed of late years to this result was a civilization from without, abnormally grafted upon Russia - especially facilities of communication such as railways, leading to centralization in towns, the development of luxury, and the consequent development of manufactures, credit, and its accompaniment of speculation - all to the detriment of agriculture. It seemed to him that in a normal development of wealth in a state all these phenomena would arise only when a considerable amount of labor had been put into agriculture, when it had come under regular, or at least definite, conditions; that the wealth of a country ought to increase proportionally, and especially in such a way that other sources of wealth should not outstrip agriculture; that in harmony with a certain stage of agriculture there should be means of communication corresponding to it, and that in our unsettled condition of the land, railways, called into being by political and not by economic needs, were premature, and, instead of promoting agriculture, as was expected of them, they were competing with agriculture and promoting the development of manufactures and credit, and so arresting its progress; and that just as the one-sided and premature development of one organ in an animal would hinder its general development, so in the general development of wealth in Russia, credit, facilities of communication, manufacturing activity, indubitably necessary in Europe, where they had arisen in their proper time, had with us only done harm, by throwing into the background the chief question, next in turn, of the organization of agriculture. .cartier love bracelet replica.
While he was at his writing, she was thinking how unnaturally cordial her husband had been to young Prince Charsky, who had, with great want of tact, flirted with her the day before they left Moscow. `He's jealous,' she thought. `My God! How sweet and silly he is! He's jealous of me! If he only knew that all others are no more to me than Piotr the cook!' she thought, looking at his head and red neck with a feeling of possession strange to herself. `Though it's a pity to take him from his work (but he has plenty of time!), I must look at his face; will he feel I'm looking at him? I wish he'd turn round.... I'll will him to!' and she opened her eyes wide, as though to intensify the influence of her gaze. .cartier love ring replica.
`Yes, they draw away all the sap and give a false resplendence,' he muttered, stopped writing, and, feeling that she was looking at him and smiling, he looked round. .Cartier Watches Replica.
`Well?' he queried, smiling, and getting up. .cartier love ring replica.
`He looked round,' she thought. .cartier love bracelet replica.
`It's nothing; I wanted you to look round,' she said, watching him, and trying to guess whether he was vexed at being interrupted or not. .cartier juste un clou replica.
`How happy we are alone together! I am, that is,' he said, going up to her with a radiant smile of happiness. .cartier love ring replica.
`I'm just as happy. I'll never go anywhere, especially not to Moscow.' .cartier love bracelet replica.
`And what were you thinking about?' .cheap wedding dresses.
`I? I was thinking... No, no, go on writing; don't break off,' she said, pursing up her lips, `and I must cut out these little holes now, do you see?' .cheap prom dresses.
She took up her scissors and began cutting them out. .cheap prom dresses.
`No; tell me - what was it?' he said, sitting down beside her and watching the circular motion of the tiny scissors. .cheap wedding dresses.
`Oh! what was I thinking about? I was thinking about Moscow, about the nape of your neck.' .cheap prom dresses.
`Why should I, of all people, have such happiness! It's unnatural. Too good,' he said kissing her hand. .Giuseppe Zanotti replica.
`I feel quite the opposite; the better things are, the more natural it seems to me.' .Replica Christian Louboutin UK.
`And you've got a little curl loose,' he said, carefully turning her head round. `A little curl, oh yes. No, no, we are busy at our work!'
Work did not progress further, and they darted apart from one another like culprits when Kouzma came in to announce that tea was ready.
`Have they come from town?' Levin asked Kouzma.
`They've just come; they're unpacking the things.'
`Come quickly,' she said to him as she went out of the study, `or else I shall read the letters without you.'
Left alone, after putting his manuscripts together in the new portfolio bought by her, he washed his hands at the new washstand with the new elegant fittings, which had all made their appearance with her. Levin smiled at his own thoughts, and shook his head disapprovingly at those thoughts; a feeling akin to remorse fretted him. There was something shameful, effeminate, Capuan, as he called it to himself, in his present mode of life. `It's not right to go on like this,' he thought. `It'll soon be three months, and I'm doing next to nothing. Today, almost for the first time, I set to work seriously - and what happened? I did nothing but begin and throw it aside. I have almost given up even my ordinary pursuits. I scarcely walk or drive about at all to look after things on my land. Either I am loath to leave her, or I see she's dull alone. And I used to think that, before marriage, life was nothing much, somehow didn't count, but that after marriage life began in earnest. And here almost three months have passed, and I have spent my time so idly and unprofitably. No, this won't do; I must begin. Of course, it's not her fault. She's not to blame in any way. I ought to be firmer myself, to maintain my masculine independence of action; or else I shall get into such ways, and she'll get used to them too.... Of course she's not to blame,' he told himself.
But it is hard for anyone who is dissatisfied not to blame someone else, and especially the person nearest of all to one, for the basis of one's dissatisfaction. And it vaguely came into Levin's mind that she herself was not to blame (she could not be to blame for anything), but what was to blame was her education, too superficial and frivolous. (`That fool Charsky: I know she wanted to stop him, but didn't know how to.') `Yes, apart from her interest in the house (that she has), apart from dress and broderie anglaise, she has no serious interests. No interest in my work, in the estate, in the peasants, nor in music, though she's rather good at it, nor in reading. She does nothing, and is perfectly satisfied.' Levin, in his heart, censured this, and did not as yet understand that she was preparing for that period of activity which was to come for her when she would at once be the wife of her husband and mistress of the house, and would bear, and nurse, and bring up children. He knew not that she was instinctively aware of this, and preparing herself for this time of terrible toil, did not reproach herself for the moments of carelessness and happiness in her love, which she was enjoying now, while gaily building her nest for the future.
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? Leo Tolstoy
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