Ivan'itch asked explanations.
Finding one of his neighbours, who had always been a respectable,
sensible man, and a severe disciplinarian, talking in this way, he took
him aside and asked what it all meant. The neighbour explained that the
old order of things had shown itself bankrupt and was doomed, that a
new epoch was opening, that everything was to be reformed, and that
the Emperor, in accordance with a secret clause of the Treaty with the
Allies, was about to grant a Constitution! Ivan Ivan'itch listened for
a little in silence, and then, with a gesture of impatience, interrupted
the speaker: "Polno duratchitsya! enough of fun and tomfoolery. Vassili
Petrovitch, tell me seriously what you mean."

When Vassili Petrovitch vowed that he spoke in all seriousness, his
friend gazed at him with a look of intense compassion, and remarked, as
he turned away, "So you, too, have gone out of your mind!"

The utterances of Vassili Petrovitch, which his lethargic, sober-minded
friend regarded as indicating temporary insanity in the speaker,
represented fairly the mental condition of very many Russian nobles at
that time, and were not without a certain foundation. The idea about a
secret clause in the Treaty of Paris was purely imaginary, but it was
quite true that the country was entering on an epoch of great reforms,
among which the Emancipation question occupied the chief place. Of
this even the sceptical Ivan Ivan'itch was soon convinced. The Emperor
formally declared to the Noblesse of the province of Moscow that the
actual state of things could not continue forever, and called on the
landed proprietors to consider by what means the condition of their
serfs might be ameliorated. Provincial committees were formed for the
purpose of preparing definite projects, and gradually it became apparent
that the emancipation of the serfs was really at hand.

Ivan Ivan'itch was alarmed at the prospect of losing his authority
over his serfs. Though he had never been a cruel taskmaster, he had not
spared the rod when he considered it necessary, and he believed birch
twigs to be a necessary instrument in the Russian system of agriculture.
For some time he drew consolation from the thought that peasants were
not birds of the air, that they must under all circumstances require
food and clothing, and that they would be ready to serve him as
agricultural labourers; but when he learned that they were to receive
a large part of the estate for t