Ovsyannikov was a full, tall man, about 70 years old, with a face resembling that of Krylov. He looked like a well-to-do merchant in clothes and manner. His importance, smartness, laziness, perseverance and straightforwardness, he reminded me of the Russian boyars of pre-Petrine times. It was one of the last people of the old century. All the neighbors respected him very much. He lived with his wife in a cozy house, dressed his people in Russian and called workers, and did not impersonate a nobleman. Out of habit, Ovsyannikov adhered to old customs, but he shaved his beard and cut his hair in German.
I considered Ovsyannikov to sell bread as a sin, and during the famine in the 40th year he distributed all his supply to the neighboring landowners. Neighbors often resorted to him with a request to judge and always obeyed his advice. And he found his wife by himself. Tatyana Ilyinichna Ovsyannikova was a tall, important, and silent woman. Many poor people called her a benefactress. The correct facial features are still preserved by the remains of her famous beauty. The Ovsyannikovs had no children.
I met him at Radilov and two days later I went to see him. He received me affectionately and majestically. We talked about how people lived before, and how they live now. Against my expectation, Luka Petrovich Ovsyannikov did not praise the old time. He recalled how defenseless the courtyards were before the richer and stronger. Including remembered my late grandfather, who robbed him of a wedge of earth. I did not know what to answer to Ovsyannikov, and did not dare to look him in the face.
Ovsyannikov also spoke about his other neighbor, Stepan Niktopolyonych Komov. Komov loved to drink and treat others, and if someone refused, he threatened to shoot. Father Ovsyannikov fell in love with him. Almost Komov did not drive him into the coffin, but he died: a drunk fell from a dovecote. Ovsyannikov recalled how he lived in Moscow, he saw many nobles there, including Count Alexei Grigoryevich Orlov-Chesmensky, whose uncle Luka Petrovich served as a butler. There was a count of high stature and a powerful physique; he admitted each person to his person, and was a hunter before everything. He somehow arranged a dog race, which was attended by hunters from all over Russia. Milovidka, the dog of my grandfather, jumped all then.
I asked Ovsyannikov if he loves hunting. He replied that it was embarrassing for him to reach for the nobles - only to shame himself. Ovsyannikov was very surprised by modern nobles: people are scientists, but they know nothing about business. As an example, he cited Vasily Nikolaevich Lyubozvonov, who inherited the estate from his mother. The first time he went to the peasants dressed as a coachman, and then he began to live in his own estate as a stranger.
They served tea. Tatyana Ilyinichna spoke with her husband about her non-traveling nephew Mita. He left the service, began to compose for the peasants requests and slander, and bring to the clear water surveyors. Finally, Ovsyannikov agreed to forgive him, and Mitya entered the room. He was a guy of about 28, tall, slender and curly. He believed that he was behind the truth, he did not take from the poor and he had nothing to be ashamed of.
Suddenly the door opened and Franz Ivanovich Lezhen, my neighbor and the Oryol landowner, entered. He was born in Orleans, and came to Russia during the war with Napoleon. On the way back, he fell into the hands of Smolensk peasants who were going to drown him in the ice hole of the Gniloterka river. A landowner drove by and bought a Frenchman from the peasants. From this landowner Lezhen moved to another, married his pupil, married his daughter to the Oryol landowner Lobizanyev, and he himself moved to live in Orel. With Ovsyannikov Leger was in friendship.
