ugh him; but his zeal attracted me. Besides, he was the master of
such resources; so much good might be done, so much real usefulness
through him.... I was installed in his house and went with him to the
country. My plans, brother, were on a vast scale; I dreamed of various
reforms, innovations...'

'Just as at the Lasunsky's, do you remember, Dmitri?' responded
Lezhnyov, with an indulgent smile.

'Ah, but then I knew in my heart that nothing would come of my words;
but this time... an altogether different field of activity lay open
before me.... I took with me books on agriculture... to tell the truth,
I did not read one of them through.... Well, I set to work. At first it
did not progress as I had expected; but afterwards it did get on in a
way. My new friend looked on and said nothing; he did not interfere with
me, at least not to any noticeable extent. He accepted my suggestions,
and carried them out, but with a stubborn sullenness, a secret want of
faith; and he bent everything his own way. He prized extremely every
idea of his own. He got to it with difficulty, like a ladybird on a
blade of grass, and he would sit and sit upon it, as though pluming his
wings and getting ready for a flight, and suddenly he would fall off
and begin crawling again.... Don't be surprised at these comparisons; at
that time they were always crowding on my imagination. So I struggled on
there for two years. The work did not progress much in spite of all my
efforts. I began to be tired of it, my friend bored me; I had come to
sneer at him, and he stifled me like a featherbed; his want of faith had
changed into a dumb resentment; a feeling of hostility had laid hold
of both of us; we could scarcely now speak of anything; he quietly but
incessantly tried to show me that he was not under my influence;
my arrangements were either set aside or altogether transformed. I
realised, at last, that I was playing the part of a toady in the noble
landowner's house by providing him with intellectual amusement. It was
very bitter to me to have wasted my time and strength for nothing,
most bitter to feel that I had again and again been deceived in my
expectations. I knew very well what I was losing if I went away; but
I could not control myself, and one day after a painful and revolting
scene of which I was a witness, and which showed my friend in a most
disadvantageous light, I quarrelled with him finally, went away, and
threw up this newfangled pedant