“Well, of course, we’re married,” said Theodosia.  “But why should he go through the ceremony if he is not to live with her?”

“Why, indeed!  Don’t be a fool!  You know if he marries her she’ll roll in wealth,” said Korableva.

“He says, ‘Wherever they take you, I’ll follow,’” said Maslova.  “If he does, it’s well; if he does not, well also.  I am not going to ask him to.  Now he is going to try and arrange the matter in Petersburg.  He is related to all the Ministers there.  But, all the same, I have no need of him,” she continued.

“Of course not,” suddenly agreed Korableva, evidently thinking about something else as she sat examining her bag.  “Well, shall we have a drop?”

“You have some,” replied Maslova.  “I won’t.”

END OF BOOK I.

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

PROPERTY IN LAND.

It was possible for Maslova’s case to come before the Senate in a fortnight, at which time Nekhludoff meant to go to Petersburg, and, if need be, to appeal to the Emperor (as the advocate who had drawn up the petition advised) should the appeal be disregarded (and, according to the advocate, it was best to be prepared for that, since the causes for appeal were so slight).  The party of convicts, among whom was Maslova, would very likely leave in the beginning of June.  In order to be able to follow her to Siberia, as Nekhludoff was firmly resolved to do, he was now obliged to visit his estates, and settle matters there.  Nekhludoff first went to the nearest, Kousminski, a large estate that lay in the black earth district, and from which he derived the greatest part of his income.

He had lived on that estate in his childhood and youth, and had been there twice since, and once, at his mother’s request, he had taken a German steward there, and had with him verified the accounts.  The state of things there and the peasants’ relations to the management, i.e., the landlord, had therefore been long known to him.  The relations of the peasants to the administration were those of utter dependence on that management.  Nekhludoff knew all this when still a university student, he had confessed and preached Henry Georgeism, and, on the basis of that teaching, had given the land inherited from his father to the peasants.  It is true that after entering the army, when he got into the habit of spending 20,000 roubles a year, those former occupations ceased to be regarded as a duty, and were forgotten, and he not only left off asking himself where the money his mother allowed him came from, but even avoided thinking about it.  But his mother’s death, the coming into the property, and the necessity of managing it, again raised the question as to what his position in reference to private property in land was.  A month before Nekhludoff would have answered that he had not the strength to alter the existing order