was exempted from
servitude; he muttered like a woodcock and was of no use for anything.
Not much more useful was the decrepit dog who had saluted Lavretsky's
return by its barking; he had been for ten years fastened up by a heavy
chain, purchased at Glafira Petrovna's command, and was scarcely able to
move and drag the weight of it. Having looked over the house, Lavretsky
went into the garden and was very much pleased with it. It was all
overgrown with high grass, and burdock, and gooseberry and raspberry
bushes, but there was plenty of shade, and many old lime-trees, which
were remarkable for their immense size and the peculiar growth of their
branches; they had been planted too close and at some time or other--a
hundred years before--they had been lopped. At the end of the garden
was a small clear pool bordered with high reddish rushes. The traces of
human life very quickly! pass away; Glafira Petrovna's estate had not
had time to become quite wild, but already it seemed plunged in that
quiet slumber in which everything reposes on earth where there is not
the infection of man's restlessness. Fedor Ivanitch walked also through
the village; the peasant-women stared at him from the doorways of their
huts, their cheeks resting on their hands; the peasants saluted him from
a distance, the children ran out, and the dogs barked indifferently. At
last he began to feel hungry; but he did not expect his servants and his
cook till the evening; the waggons of provisions from Lavriky had not
come yet, and he had to have recourse to Anton. Anton arranged matters
at once; he caught, killed, and plucked an old hen; Apraxya gave it a
long rubbing and cleaning, and washed it like linen before putting it
into the stew-pan; when, at last, it was cooked Anton laid the cloth
and set the table, placing beside the knife and fork a three-legged
salt-cellar of tarnished plate and a cut decanter with a round glass
stopper and a narrow neck; then he announced to Lavretsky in a sing-song
voice that the meal was ready, and took his stand behind his chair,
with a napkin twisted round his right fights, and diffusing about him
a peculiar strong ancient odour, like the scent of a cypress-tree.
Lavretsky tried the soup, and took out the hen; its skin was all covered
with large blisters; a tough tendon ran up each leg; the meat had a
flavour of wood and soda. When he had finished dinner, Lavretsky said
that he would drink a cup of tea, if--"I will bring