thus spoken, the monk had traced a great circle with his
eye and doughty hand, a circle which had embraced as in a frame the
mount, and the gardens fashioned and developed by ridgings of the rock,
and the downy soil which had been beaten into those ridgings, and the
silver streak of waterfall playing almost at Vitali's feet, and the
stone-hewn staircase leading to the cave of Simeon the Canaanite, and
the gilded cupolas of the new church where they had stood flashing in
the noontide sun, and the snow-white, shimmering blocks of the
guesthouse and the servants' quarters, and the glittering fishponds,
and the trees of uniform trimness, yet a uniformly regal dignity.

"Brethren," the monk had said in triumphant conclusion, "wheresoever
man may be, he will, as he so desires, be given power to overcome the
desolation of the wilds."

"And then I pressed him further," Kalinin added. "Yes, I said to him:
'Nevertheless Christ, our Lord, was not like you, for He was homeless
and a wanderer. He was one who utterly rejected your life of intensive
cultivation of the soil'" (as he related the incident Kalinin gave his
head sundry jerks from side to side which made his ears flap, to and
fro). "'Also neither for the lowly alone nor for the exalted alone did
Christ exist. Rather, He, like all great benefactors, was one who had
no particular leaning. Nay, even when He was roaming the Russian Land
in company with Saints Yuri and Nikolai, He always forbore to intrude
Himself into the villages' affairs, just as, whenever His companions
engaged in disputes concerning mankind, He never failed to maintain
silence on the subject.' Yes, thus I plagued Vitali until he shouted at
my head, 'Ah, impudence, you are a heretic!'"

By this time, the air under the lee of the stone was growing smoky and
oppressive, for the fire, with its flames looking like a bouquet
compounded of red poppies or azaleas and blooms of an aureate tint, had
begun fairly to live its beautiful existence, and was blazing, and
diffusing warmth, and laughing its bright, cheerful, intelligent laugh.
Yet from the mountains and the cloud-masses evening was descending, as
the earth emitted profound gasps of humidity, and the sea intoned its
vague, thoughtful, resonant song.

"I presume we are going to pass the night here?" Kalinin at length
queried.

"No, for my intention is, rather, to continue my journey."

"Then let us make an immediate start."

"But my direction will not