‘Andrey, for heaven’s sake!’ repeated Princess Marya.
It was clear that Prince Andrey’s mockery of the pilgrims and Princess Marya’s ineffectual way of standing up for them had become their normal way of carrying on with each other.
‘Oh, my dear girl,’ said Prince Andrey, ‘it’s the other way round – you ought to thank me for telling Pierre all about your close relations with this young person.’
‘Indeed?’ said Pierre, looking with curiosity and seriousness (for which Princess Marya felt especially grateful) at Ivanushka’s face, while he, aware that he was the subject under discussion, watched them all with a crafty look in his eyes.
Princess Marya need not have felt any embarrassment on behalf of
‘Where have you been? In Kiev?’ Prince Andrey asked the old woman.
‘Oh yes, good sir,’ answered the old woman, and once started she prattled on. ‘ ’Twas the very day of Christmas that I was deemed a worthy partaker in the holy, heavenly sacrament at the shrine of the saints. But now I comes from Kolyazin, good sir, where a great blessing has been revealed.’
‘Did Ivanushka come with you?’
‘No, I was travelling alone, benefactor,’ said Ivanushka, putting on a deep voice. ‘I joined up with Pelageyushka at Yukhnovo . . .’
Pelageyushka cut in on her companion, evidently eager to describe what she had seen. ‘Yes, sir, it was in Kolyazin. A great blessing was revealed.’
‘What was it – found some more relics?’ asked Prince Andrey.
‘Stop it, Andrey,’ said Princess Marya. ‘Pelageyushka, don’t tell them.’
‘Oh, why shouldn’t I tell him, ma’am? I likes him. He’s a good gentleman, God’s chosen, he’s my benefactor. Gave me ten roubles, he did, as I remember. When I was in Kiev, crazy Cyril, he says to me (now there’s a man of God, barefoot he goes winter and summer), you’re going the wrong way, he says, you go to Kolyazin, they got an icon there, a holy Mother of God, works miracles it does, it’s all just been revealed. So I drops everything, I says goodbye to the good holy people, and I’m off . . .’
Nobody spoke. The only sounds came from the pilgrim woman as she sucked in her breath and droned on with her story. ‘And when I gets there, good sir, folks says to me as how a great blessing has been revealed and drops of holy oil be trickling down the cheeks of the Holy Mother of God . . .’
‘Yes, yes, that’s very good. We can hear the rest later,’ said Princess Marya, flushing.
‘May I just ask her something?’ said Pierre. ‘Did you see it yourself?’ he asked.
‘Bless you, good sir, to be sure I was found worthy enough. Such a glow on the face, like the light of heaven, and all down the Holy Mother’s cheeks comes little drops, more and more little drops . . .’
‘Well, it must be a trick,’ said Pierre naively, after listening closely to the old woman.
‘Oh, sir, what are you saying?’ said Pelageyushka, turning in horror to Princess Marya for support.
‘They do play tricks on ordinary people,’ he repeated.
‘Lord Jesus Christ!’ said the pilgrim woman, crossing herself. ‘Oh, please don’t talk like that, sir. There was a general once just like that, didn’t believe, and one day he says, “The monks is cheating us,” and the minute he says it, he was struck blind. And then the Holy Mother of the Kiev catacombs comes to him in a dream and says: “Believe in me and I shall make thee whole.” And so he begged and prayed them, “Take me to her, take me to her.” This is the holy truth I tell you, which I’ve seen with my own eyes. They carried him to her, blind as he was. He came before her, fell down on his knees and said, “Make me whole and I shall give thee,” says he, “all that the Tsar has bestowed on me.” I saw it myself, good sir – the icon with a star fixed in it. And lo! – his sight was restored! It’s a sin to speak as you do. God will punish you,’ she admonished Pierre.
‘How did the star get into the icon?’ asked Pierre.
‘Did the Holy Mother get promotion? They could have made her a general,’ said Prince Andrey with a smile.
Pelageyushka suddenly turned pale, wringing her hands.
