smocks, with embroidered shoulder-straps and red gussets, stared intently at the new worshipper, turning right round facing him. . . . And Nezhdanov looked at them, and various were his thoughts.
After the service, which lasted a very long while─for the thanksgiving of St. Nikolai the Wonder-worker, as is well known, is almost the most lengthy of all the services of the Orthodox Church─all the clergy, at Sipyagin's invitation, moved across to the manor-house. After performing a few more rites proper to the occasion─even sprinkling the rooms with holy water─they were regaled with a copious lunch, during which the edifying but rather exhausting conversation usual at such times was maintained. Both the master and the mistress of the house, though they never lunched at that time of the day, ate and drank a little. Sipyagin went so far as to tell an anecdote, thoroughly proper, but mirth-moving, and this, in face of his red ribbon and his dignity, produced an impression which might be described as comforting, and moved Father Ciprian to a sense of gratitude and amazement. In return, and also to show that he too on occasion could impart some piece of information, Father Ciprian described a conversation he had had with the bishop, when the latter made a tour of his diocese, and sum-
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