ides, she is not that sort of woman."

At last I could endure it no longer, and I interrogated him: "Well,
Yakoff, how about our neighbour?... Apparently thou hast forgotten her
altogether."

But he fairly roared at me:--"Our neighbour? Dost thou want _him_ to
jeer at me?"

"What?" I say.--Then he even clenched his fists and ... got perfectly
furious.

"Yes!" he says; and formerly he had only towered up after a fashion, but
now he began to laugh and show his teeth.--"Away! Begone!"

To whom these words were addressed I know not! My legs would hardly bear
me forth, to such a degree was I frightened. Just imagine: his face was
the colour of red copper, he was foaming at the mouth, his voice was
hoarse, exactly as though some one were choking him!... And that very
same day I went--I, the orphan of orphans--to Marfa Savishna ... and
found her in great affliction. Even her outward appearance had undergone
a change: she had grown thin in the face. But she would not talk with me
about my son. Only one thing she did say: that no human aid could effect
anything in that case. "Pray, father," she said,--and then she presented
me with one hundred rubles,--"for the poor and sick of your parish," she
said. And again she repeated: "Pray!"--O Lord! As if I had not prayed
without that--prayed day and night!

Here Father Alexyei again pulled out his handkerchief, and again wiped
away his tears, but not by stealth this time, and after resting for a
little while, he resumed his cheerless narrative.

Yakoff and I then began to descend as a snowball rolls down hill, and
both of us could see that an abyss lay at the foot of the hill; but how
were we to hold back, and what measures could we take? And it was
utterly impossible to conceal this; my entire parish was greatly
disturbed, and said: "The priest's son has gone mad; he is possessed of
devils,--and the authorities ought to be informed of all this."--And
people infallibly would have informed the authorities had not my
parishioners taken pity on me ... for which I thank them. In the
meantime winter was drawing to an end, and spring was approaching.--And
such a spring as God sent!--fair and bright, such as even the old people
could not remember: the sun shone all day long, there was no wind, and
the weather was warm! And then a happy thought occurred to me: to
persuade Yakoff to go off with me to do reverence to Mitrofany, in
Voronezh. "If that last remedy is of no avail," I thought