To Konstantin Levin the country was the background of life, that is of pleasures, endeavors, labor.

To Sergey Ivanovitch the country meant on one hand rest from work, on the other a valuable antidote to the corrupt influences of town, which he took with satisfaction and a sense of its utility.

To Konstantin Levin the country was good first because it afforded a field for labor, of the usefulness of which there could be no doubt.

To Sergey Ivanovitch the country was particularly good, because there it was possible and fitting to do nothing.

Moreover, Sergey Ivanovitch's attitude to the peasants rather piqued Konstantin.