im.

Chapter XXI

In the course of a fortnight, Fedor Ivanitch had brought Glafira
Petrovna's little house into order and had cleared the court-yard and
the garden. From Lavriky comfortable furniture was sent him; from the
town, wine, books, and papers; horses made their appearance in the
stable; in brief Fedor Ivanitch provided himself with everything
necessary and began to live--not precisely after the manner of a country
landowner, nor precisely after the manner of a hermit. His days
passed monotonously; but he was not bored though he saw no one; he set
diligently and attentively to work at farming his estate, rode about the
neighbourhood and did some reading. He read little, however; he found it
pleasanter to listen to the tales of old Anton. Lavretsky usually sat at
the window with a pipe and a cup of cold tea. Anton stood at the door,
his hands crossed behind him, and began upon his slow, deliberate
stories of old times, of those fabulous times when oats and rye were not
sold by measure, but in great sacks, at two or three farthings a sack;
when there were impassable forests, virgin steppes stretching on every
side, even close to the town. "And now," complained the old man, whose
eightieth year had passed, "there has been so much clearing, so much
ploughing everywhere, there's nowhere you may drive now." Anton used to
tell many stories, too, of his mistress, Glafira Petrovna; how prudent
and saving she was; how a certain gentleman, a young neighbour, had
paid her court, and used to ride over to see her, and how she was even
pleased to put on her best cap, with ribbons of salmon colour, and her
yellow gown of tru-tru levantine for him; but how, later on, she had
been angry with the gentleman neighbour for his unseemly inquiry, "What,
madam, pray, might be your fortune?" and had bade them refuse him the
house; and how it was then that she had given directions that, after her
decease, everything to the last rag should pass to Fedor Ivanitch.
And, indeed, Lavretsky found all his aunt's household goods intact, not
excepting the best cap with ribbons of salmon colour, and the yellow
gown of tru-tru levantine. Of old papers and interesting documents,
upon which Lavretsky had reckoned, there seemed no trace, except one old
book, in which his grandfather, Piotr Andreitch, had inscribed in
one place, "Celebration in the city of Saint Petersburg of the peace,
concluded with the Turkish empire by his Excellency Prince