" "Oh, come, you say yourself Ivan has begun looking after the cattle better.

" "All I say is," answered Agafea Mihalovna, evidently not speaking at random, but in strict sequence of idea, "that you ought to get married, that's what I say.

" Agafea Mihalovna's allusion to the very subject he had only just been thinking about, hurt and stung him.

Levin scowled, and without answering her, he sat down again to his work, repeating to himself all that he had been thinking of the real significance of that work.