Mother Agnes.) She had tasted of that pure water, but
since then there had not been time for it to collect before thirsty
people came crowding in and pushing one another aside. And they had
trampled everything down and nothing was left but mud.

So he thought in rare moments of lucidity, but his usual state of mind
was one of weariness and a tender pity for himself because of that
weariness.

It was in spring, on the eve of the mid-Pentecostal feast. Father
Sergius was officiating at the Vigil Service in his hermitage church,
where the congregation was as large as the little church could
hold--about twenty people. They were all well-to-do proprietors or
merchants. Father Sergius admitted anyone, but a selection was made by
the monk in attendance and by an assistant who was sent to the hermitage
every day from the monastery. A crowd of some eighty people--pilgrims
and peasants, and especially peasant-women--stood outside waiting for
Father Sergius to come out and bless them. Meanwhile he conducted
the service, but at the point at which he went out to the tomb of his
predecessor, he staggered and would have fallen had he not been caught
by a merchant standing behind him and by the monk acting as deacon.

'What is the matter, Father Sergius? Dear man! O Lord!' exclaimed the
women. 'He is as white as a sheet!'

But Father Sergius recovered immediately, and though very pale, he waved
the merchant and the deacon aside and continued to chant the service.

Father Seraphim, the deacon, the acolytes, and Sofya Ivanovna, a lady
who always lived near the hermitage and tended Father Sergius, begged
him to bring the service to an end.

'No, there's nothing the matter,' said Father Sergius, slightly smiling
from beneath his moustache and continuing the service. 'Yes, that is the
way the Saints behave!' thought he.

'A holy man--an angel of God!' he heard just then the voice of Sofya
Ivanovna behind him, and also of the merchant who had supported him.
He did not heed their entreaties, but went on with the service. Again
crowding together they all made their way by the narrow passages back
into the little church, and there, though abbreviating it slightly,
Father Sergius completed vespers.

Immediately after the service Father Sergius, having pronounced the
benediction on those present, went over to the bench under the elm tree
at the entrance to the cave. He wished to rest and breathe the fresh
air--he felt in need of it. But