Chapter 65 part two - three

Nekhludoff left Kuzminskoye by car and came to the estate that his two aunts had let him inherit, where he had known Katyusha.He wished very much to dispose of the estate here as he had done in Kuzminskoe.Besides, he wanted to find out as much as possible about Katyusha and about her and his child: was the child really dead?How did he die?He came to Barnovo early in the morning.When his carriage drove into the manor, what struck him first was the desolation and desolation of all the buildings, especially the main house.The original green tin roof has not been painted for a long time, and it is red with rust; some pieces of the tin roof are curled up, probably lifted by the storm.Some of the wall panels around the main house have been pried away, mainly where the nails are rusted and easy to pry off.Both the front porch and the back porch have decayed and collapsed, leaving only the beams.He remembered the back porch especially well.A few of the windows had been boarded up with glass damage.It turned out that the housekeeper's wing, the kitchen and the stables were dilapidated and gray in color.Only the garden has not declined, it is more verdant and lush, the branches and leaves are sparse, and the flowers are blooming; from outside the wall, you can see cherry blossoms, apple blossoms and plum blossoms in full bloom, and the white flowers are like floating clouds in the sky.The lilacs weaving the fence were in full bloom as they had been twelve years ago, when Nekhludoff had played tag with sixteen-year-old Katyusha.He stumbled among the lilac bushes and was stung by a nettle.A larch that Aunt Sophia planted next to the main house was as small as a wooden peg, but now it has grown into a tree, with soft yellow-green pine needles growing on its branches.The water ran from bank to bank and rushed down over the mill lock.The mottled cows and horses of the farmhouse graze on the grassland on the opposite bank.The butler was a seminary student who had not yet graduated. He greeted Nekhludoff in the yard with a smile, invited him to the tent, and walked behind the partition with a smile, as if to signify that there was something special about it. Things are waiting for him.Someone chattered behind the partition, then fell silent again.After receiving the money for the drink, the coachman clanged the carriage out of the yard, and then the surroundings fell silent again.After a while, a girl in an embroidered blouse ran by the window. She was barefoot and had pompoms on her ears for earrings.A farmer ran after her, the nails of his big boots jingling on the trampled ground.

-------- ①The original text is fourteen years ago, and Katyusha's age is eighteen, which seems to be inconsistent with the context.In Mao De's English translation, it was changed to twelve years ago, and Katyusha's age was changed to sixteen years old, which is more in line with the plot of the whole book. Here, the changes are also imitated by Mao De. Nekhludoff sat at the window, looking out at the garden, and listening to all the sounds.The fresh spring air and the smell of the plowed earth came in from the small double windows, and the wind gently blew the hair on his sweaty forehead and the note paper on the knife-scarred window sill.On the river, there was the sound of women smashing their clothes, and the scientific and philosophical theories proposed by naive falsificationism emerged one after another.It is believed that due to various conditions, it melts into one piece and floats on the sunny river.There was the regular sound of running water pouring down from the mill.A fly flew past Nekhludoff's ear, buzzing loudly and frightfully.

It suddenly occurred to Nekhludoff that long ago, when he was very young and simple-hearted, he had been here too, and heard the pounding of clothes on the river amidst the rhythmic noise of the mill; The hair on the wet brow and the note on the knife-scarred windowsill; and one such fly flitted terrifiedly past his ear.He not only thought of the scene when he was eighteen, but also felt that he was as vigorous, pure-hearted, and ambitious as he was back then, but he felt that it was impossible to reappear like a dream, and he felt extremely melancholy. "Master, when do you have dinner?" the butler asked with a smile.

"As you like, I'm not hungry. I'm going to walk around the village." "Would you like to go to the house first to have a look, I have tidied everything in the house. Go and have a look, if it looks..." "No, I'll see you later, please tell me first, is there a woman named Matrona here?" Matrona is Katyusha's aunt. "Yes, of course there is. I live in the village. I really can't do anything about her. She sells bootleg liquor. I know about it, I have exposed her, I have reprimanded her, but I can't bear to sue her at the government: I'm too old , a married woman, and grandchildren,” said the butler, with a smile on his face all the time, wanting to please his master, and full of confidence that his master sees things the same as he does.

"Where does she live? I want to find her." "Live at the end of the village, the third house from the edge of the village. There is a brick house on the left, and her hut is behind the brick house. Better let me take you there," said the butler, smiling happily. "No, thank you, I've found it myself. I'd like you to call the peasants for a meeting, and I'll talk to them about the land," said Nekhludoff.He intends to settle matters with the peasants here, as in Kuzminskoe, and preferably tonight.