War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [245]
“He’s been sweating,” said Prince Andrei.
“I was coming to tell you that.”
The baby stirred slightly in his sleep, smiled, and rubbed his forehead against the pillow.
Prince Andrei looked at his sister. Princess Marya’s luminous eyes, in the dim half-light of the canopy, glistened more than usual from the happy tears that welled up in them. Princess Marya leaned towards her brother and kissed him, catching slightly in the canopy of the crib. They shook their fingers at each other and stood a little longer in the dim light of the canopy, as if reluctant to part with that world in which the three of them were separated from everything on earth. Prince Andrei was the first to leave the crib, his hair tangling in the muslin of the canopy. “Yes, this is the one thing left to me now,” he said with a sigh.
X
Soon after he was received into the brotherhood of the Masons, Pierre left for the province of Kiev, where the greater part of his peasants were, with a full set of instructions he had written out for himself about what he was to do on his estates.
On reaching Kiev, Pierre summoned all his stewards to the main office and explained his intentions and wishes to them. He told them that measures would immediately be taken for the complete liberation of the peasants from bondage, that meanwhile the peasants should not be overburdened with work, that women with children should not be sent to work, that the peasants should be given assistance, that punishments should be administered hortatorily, not corporeally, that there should be hospitals, almshouses, and schools in each village. Some of the stewards (there were half-literate managers among them) listened fearfully, taking what he said to imply that the young count was displeased with their stewardship and their concealing of money; others, after the first fright, were amused by Pierre’s lisp and the new words they had never heard before; a third group simply took pleasure in hearing how the master spoke; a fourth group, the most intelligent, the head steward among them, understood from his speech how they ought to treat the master in order to achieve their own aims.
The head steward expressed great sympathy with Pierre’s intentions; but he observed that, besides these transformations, it was generally necessary to take care of things, which were in a bad state.
Despite Count Bezukhov’s enormous wealth, ever since Pierre had received it—and he received, so it was said, a yearly income of five hundred thousand—he had felt himself much less rich than when he had received his ten thousand from the late count. In general terms he was vaguely aware of the following budget. Around eighty thousand was paid to the Council for all the estates; around thirty thousand went to the upkeep of the suburban Moscow estate, the Moscow house, and the princesses; around fifteen thousand was distributed in pensions and the same amount to charitable institutions; a hundred and fifty thousand was sent to the countess for her expenses; around seventy thousand was paid as interest on debts; the building of a new church, already begun, had been costing around ten thousand over the past two years; the rest, around a hundred thousand, got spent, he did not know how himself, and he was obliged to borrow almost every year. Besides that, every year the head steward wrote now about fires, now about poor harvests, now about the necessity of rebuilding mills and factories. And so, the first thing facing Pierre was that for which he had least ability or inclination