Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume VI).djvu/136

Rh asked him to sit down, and himself dropped into a chair. Markelov began, without a word, by lighting a cigarette. Nezhdanov followed his example.

'Have you had time yet to make friends with the peasants here?' Markelov asked at last.

'No; I've not had time yet.'

'You've not been here long, then?'

'I shall soon have been here a fortnight.'

'Been very busy?'

'Not very.'

Markelov coughed grimly.

'H'm! The peasants here are rather a wretched lot,' he resumed; 'an ignorant lot. They want teaching. There's great poverty, but no one to explain to them what their poverty comes from.'

'Those who were your brother-in-law's serfs, as far as I can judge, aren't poor,' remarked Nezhdanov.

'My brother-in-law's a humbug; he knows how to hoodwink people. The peasants about here are no good, certainly; but he has a factory. That's where one must make an effort. One need only stick the spade in there and the whole ant-heap will be on the move directly. Have you any books with you?'

'Yes but not many.'