the courts to consider."

"I confess I rejoiced this morning when the commission of execution
arrived. I felt an inward happiness, due to the fact that this foe of
mine had fallen, that he was trampled under my feet. I thought: he is
now gnashing his teeth and snapping at the heels of justice that stamp
upon his head. And I was glad if it. Yet my gladness was sinful, for no
one may rejoice at the destruction of the fallen, and the righteous
cannot be glad at the danger of a fellow creature. It was a sin for
which I must atone."

The simplest atonement, thought the lawyer, would be for him to return
the amount of the fine.

"For this I have inflicted a punishment upon myself," said Sarvoelgyi,
piously bowing his head. "Oh, I have always punished myself for any
misdemeanor, I now condemn myself to one day's fasting. My punishment
will be, to sit here beside the table and watch the whole dinner,
without touching anything myself."

It will be very fine! thought the lawyer. He is determined to fast,
while we have taken our fill yonder. So we shall all look at the whole
dinner, without tasting anything,--and Mistress Boris will sweep us out
of the house.

"My friend the magistrate's head is doubtless aching after his great
official fatigue!" Sarvoelgyi said, hitting the nail right on the head.

"It is indeed true," remarked the lawyer assuringly. The young official
was in need rather of rest than of feasting. There are good, blessed
mortals, whom two glasses of wine immediately send to sleep, and to whom
it is the most exquisite torture to be obliged to remain awake.

"My suggestion is," said the lawyer, "that it would be good for the
magistrate to repose in an armchair and rest himself, until the cleaning
of the cloister is finished, and we can again take our seats in the
carriage."

"Sleep is the gift of Heaven," said the man of piety: "it would be a sin
to steal it from a fellow-man. Kindly make yourself comfortable at once
in this room."

It was an extremely difficult process to make oneself comfortable on
that apology for an arm-chair; it seemed to have been prepared as a
resting place for ascetics and body-torturers: still the magistrate sat
down in it, craved pardon,--and fell asleep. And then he dreamed that he
saw before him again that laid-out table, where one guest sat two yards
from the other while all round holy pictures were hanging on the walls,
with their faces turned away, as if they did not wish