Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/75



was only now that Simeon and Matreona began to understand whom they had fed and clad—that they had been entertaining an angel unawares; and they cried from feelings of mingled fear and joy, while the angel continued:

"I was left alone and naked in the field, without any previous knowledge of human needs. I had never known either cold or hunger, and all at once I became endowed with human attributes. I felt both hungry and cold and did not know what to do. I saw a chapel which had been built and dedicated to the service of God. I went there expecting at least to find a place of shelter; but instead I found the door locked, and that it was impossible to enter. In despair I seated myself at the rear of the chapel, that I