about noon
More than once , when comparing the position of a landowner with that of an owner of serfs , Nekhludoff had compared the renting of land to the peasants instead of cultivating it with hired labour , to the old system by which serf proprietors used to exact a money payment from their serfs in place of labour . It was not a solution of the problem , and yet a step towards the solution ; it was a movement towards a less rude form of slavery . And it was in this way he meant to act . Nekhludoff reached Kousminski about noon . Trying to simplify his life in every way , he did not telegraph , but hired a cart and pair at the station . The driver was a young fellow in a nankeen coat , with a belt below his long waist . He was glad to talk to the gentleman , especially because while they were talking his broken-winded white horse and the emaciated spavined one could go at a foot-pace , which they always liked to do .