Page 269 sur 2288

He heard Agafea Mihalovna talking of how Prohor had forgotten his

duty to God, and with the money Levin had given him to buy a

horse, had been drinking without stopping, and had beaten his

wife till he'd half killed her. He listened, and read his book,

and recalled the whole train of ideas suggested by his reading.

It was Tyndall's _Treatise on Heat_. He recalled his own

criticisms of Tyndall of his complacent satisfaction in the

cleverness of his experiments, and for his lack of philosophic

insight. And suddenly there floated into his mind the joyful

thought: "In two years' time I shall have two Dutch cows; Pava

herself will perhaps still be alive, a dozen young daughters of

Berkoot and the three others-how lovely!"