had been at work all day, fell asleep during his watch. When accused, he acknowledged his fault and only said: "Do what you please with me."
Three of the best calves were poisoned. They were allowed to get into the clover aftermath without giving them water; the result was that they were blown out and died. But the muzhiks would not believe that it was the clover that did the harm; and they tried to console Levin by informing him that one of his neighbors had lost one hundred and twelve head within three days in the same way.
All these mishaps took place, not because any one wished ill either to Levin or to his estate; on the contrary, he knew that the muzhiks loved him, and called him "a simple-minded gentleman,"—prostoï barin,—which was the highest praise. But these mishaps happened simply because the muzhiks liked to work merrily and carelessly; and his interests were not only strange and incomprehensible to them, but even fatally clashed with what they thought their own true interests.
For a long time Levin had felt that there was something unsatisfactory in his methods. He saw that his canoe was leaking, but he could not find the leaks; and he did not search for them, perhaps on purpose to deceive himself. Nothing would be left him if he should allow his illusions to perish. But now he could no longer deceive himself. Not only had his system of management become uninteresting, but had begun actually to disgust him, and he felt he could no longer continue it.
Besides all this, Kitty Shcherbatsky was within thirty versts of him, and he wanted to see her, and could not.
Darya Aleksandrovna Oblonskaya, when he called on her, invited him to come:—to come with the express purpose of renewing his offer to her sister, who, as she pretended to think, now cared for him. Levin himself, after he caught the ghmpse of Kitty Shcherbatsky, felt that he had not ceased to love her; but he could not go to the Oblonskys', because he knew that she was
