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It was getting dusk when Prince Andrew and Pierre drove up
to the front entrance of the house at Bald Hills. As they approached
the house, Prince Andrew with asmile drew Pierre's attention to
a commotion going on at the back porch. A woman, bent with age,
with a wallet on her back, and a short, long-haired, young man
in a black garment had rushed back to the gate on seeing the carriage
driving up. Two women ran out after them, and all four, looking
round at the carriage, ran in dismay up the steps of the back
porch.
"Those are Mary's 'God's folk,'" said Prince Andrew.
"They have mistaken us for my father. This is the one matter
in which she disobeys him. He orders these pilgrims to be driven
away, but she receives them."
"But what are 'God's folk'?" asked Pierre.
Prince Andrew had no time to answer. The servants came out
to meet them, and he asked where the old prince was and whether
he was expected back soon.
The old prince had gone to the town and was expected back
any minute.
Prince Andrew led Pierre to his own apartments, which were
always kept in perfect order and readiness for him in his father's
house; he himself went to the nursery.
"Let us go and see my sister," he said to Pierre
when he returned. "I have not found her yet, she is hiding
now, sitting with her 'God's folk.' It will serve her right, she
will be confused, but you will see her 'God's folk.' It's really
very curious."
"What are 'God's folk'?" asked Pierre.
"Come, and you'll see for yourself."
Princess Mary really was disconcerted and red patches came
on her face when they went in. In her snug room, with lamps burning
before the icon stand, a young lad with a long nose and long hair,
wearing a monk's cassock, sat on the sofa beside her, behind a
samovar. Near them, in an armchair, sat a thin, shriveled, old
woman, with a meek expression on her childlike face.
"Andrew, why didn't you warn me?" said the princess,
with mild reproach, as she stood before her pilgrims like a hen
before her chickens.
"Charmee de vous voir. Je suis tres contente de vous
voir,"* she said to Pierre as he kissed her hand. She had
known him as a child, and now his friendship with Andrew, his
misfortune with his wife, and above all his kindly, simple face
disposed her favorably toward him. She looked at him with her
beautiful radiant eyes and seemed to say, "I like you very
much, but please don't laugh at my people." After exchanging
the first greetings, they sat down.
*"Delighted to see you. I am very glad to see you."
"Ah, and Ivanushka is here too!" said Prince Andrew,
glancing with a smile at the young pilgrim.
"Andrew!" said Princess Mary, imploringly. "Il
faut que vous sachiez que c'est une femme,"* said Prince
Andrew to Pierre.
"Andrew, au nom de Dieu!"*[2] Princess Mary repeated.
*"You must know that this is a woman."
*[2] "For heaven's sake."
It was evident that Prince Andrew's ironical tone toward the
pilgrims and Princess Mary's helpless attempts to protect them
were their customary long-established relations on the matter.
"Mais, ma bonne amie," said Prince Andrew, "vous
devriez au contraire m'etre reconnaissante de ce que j'explique
a Pierre votre intimite avec ce jeune homme."*
*"But, my dear, you ought on the contrary to be grateful
to me for explaining to Pierre your intimacy with this young man."
"Really?" said Pierre, gazing over his spectacles
with curiosity and seriousness (for which Princess Mary was specially
grateful to him) into Ivanushka's face, who, seeing that she was
being spoken about, looked round at them all with crafty eyes.
Princess Mary's embarrassment on her people's account was
quite unnecessary. They were not in the least abashed. The old
woman, lowering her eyes but casting side glances at the newcomers,
had turned her cup upside down and placed a nibbled bit of sugar
beside it, and sat quietly in her armchair, though hoping to be
offered another cup of tea. Ivanushka, sipping out of her saucer,
looked with sly womanish eyes from under her brows at the young
men.
"Where have you been? To Kiev?" Prince Andrew asked
the old woman.
"I have, good sir," she answered garrulously. "Just
at Christmastime I was deemed worthy to partake of the holy and
heavenly sacrament at the shrine of the saint. And now I'm from
Kolyazin, master, where a great and wonderful blessing has been
revealed."
"And was Ivanushka with you?"
"I go by myself, benefactor," said Ivanushka, trying
to speak in a bass voice. "I only came across Pelageya in
Yukhnovo..."
Pelageya interrupted her companion; she evidently wished to
tell what she had seen.
"In Kolyazin, master, a wonderful blessing has been revealed."
"What is it? Some new relics?" asked Prince Andrew.
"Andrew, do leave off," said Princess Mary. "Don't
tell him, Pelageya."
"No... why not, my dear, why shouldn't I? I like him.
He is kind, he is one of God's chosen, he's a benefactor, he once
gave me ten rubles, I remember. When I was in Kiev, Crazy Cyril
says to me (he's one of God's own and goes barefoot summer and
winter), he says, 'Why are you not going to the right place? Go
to Kolyazin where a wonder-working icon of the Holy Mother of
God has been revealed.' On hearing those words I said good-by
to the holy folk and went."
All were silent, only the pilgrim woman went on in measured
tones, drawing in her breath.
"So I come, master, and the people say to me: 'A great
blessing has been revealed, holy oil trickles from the cheeks
of our blessed Mother, the Holy Virgin Mother of God'...."
"All right, all right, you can tell us afterwards,"
said Princess Mary, flushing.
"Let me ask her," said Pierre. "Did you see
it yourselves?" he inquired.
"Oh, yes, master, I was found worthy. Such a brightness
on the face like the light of heaven, and from the blessed Mother's
cheek it drops and drops...."
"But, dear me, that must be a fraud!" said Pierre,
naively, who had listened attentively to the pilgrim.
"Oh, master, what are you saying?" exclaimed the
horrified Pelageya, turning to Princess Mary for support.
"They impose on the people," he repeated.
"Lord Jesus Christ!" exclaimed the pilgrim woman,
crossing herself. "Oh, don't speak so, master! There was
a general who did not believe, and said, 'The monks cheat,' and
as soon as he'd said it he went blind. And he dreamed that the
Holy Virgin Mother of the Kiev catacombs came to him and said,
'Believe in me and I will make you whole.' So he begged: 'Take
me to her, take me to her.' It's the real truth I'm telling you,
I saw it myself. So he was brought, quite blind, straight to her,
and he goes up to her and falls down and says, 'Make me whole,'
says he, 'and I'll give thee what the Tsar bestowed on me.' I
saw it myself, master, the star is fixed into the icon. Well,
and what do you think? He received his sight! It's a sin to speak
so. God will punish you," she said admonishingly, turning
to Pierre.
"How did the star get into the icon?" Pierre asked.
"And was the Holy Mother promoted to the rank of general?"
said Prince Andrew, with a smile.
Pelageya suddenly grew quite pale and clasped her hands.
"Oh, master, master, what a sin! And you who have a son!"
she began, her pallor suddenly turning to a vivid red. "Master,
what have you said? God forgive you!" And she crossed herself.
"Lord forgive him! My dear, what does it mean?..." she
asked, turning to Princess Mary. She got up and, almost crying,
began to arrange her wallet. She evidently felt frightened and
ashamed to have accepted charity in a house where such things
could be said, and was at the same time sorry to have now to forgo
the charity of this house.
"Now, why need you do it?" said Princess Mary. "Why
did you come to me?..."
"Come, Pelageya, I was joking," said Pierre. "Princesse,
ma parole, je n'ai pas voulu l'offenser.* I did not mean anything,
I was only joking," he said, smiling shyly and trying to
efface his offense. "It was all my fault, and Andrew was
only joking."
*"Princess, on my word, I did not wish to offend her."
Pelageya stopped doubtfully, but in Pierre's face there was
such a look of sincere penitence, and Prince Andrew glanced so
meekly now at her and now at Pierre, that she was gradually reassured.
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