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Just now, since his disenchantment with farming, Levin was

particularly glad to stay with Sviazhsky. Apart from the fact

that the sight of this happy and affectionate couple, so pleased

with themselves and everyone else, and their well-ordered home

had always a cheering effect on Levin, he felt a longing, now

that he was so dissatisfied with his own life, to get at that

secret in Sviazhsky that gave him such clearness, definiteness,

and good courage in life. Moreover, Levin knew that at

Sviazhsky's he should meet the landowners of the neighborhood,

and it was particularly interesting for him just now to hear and

take part in those rural conversations concerning crops,

laborers' wages, and so on, which, he was aware, are

conventionally regarded as something very low, but which seemed

to him just now to constitute the one subject of importance. "It

was not, perhaps, of importance in the days of serfdom, and it

may not be of importance in England.