Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/77

70 me he frowned, the expression of his face becoming still more horrible. He passed me by and I was in despair. Almost immediately I heard the man retrace his steps. He was coming toward me. I looked at him and found him so much changed that I scarcely recognized in him the same man who had passed me but a few moments before. Then his face bore the impress of death, but now I saw that his countenance was transformed and bore the likeness of God.

"He came to me, and taking off his own clothes he put them on me and took me to his home. When we reached his house a woman came toward us and began to speak. The expression of the woman's face was, if possible, still more horrible than that I had seen on the face of the man. Out of her mouth proceeded a spirit of Death, and I could breathe only with difficulty for the terrible odor that oppressed me. She wanted to drive me forth into the cold night, and I knew that if she did so she