Page:Leo Tolstoy - Father Sergius and Other Stories and Plays - ed. Charles Theodore Hagberg Wright (1911).djvu/107

 Rh His beautiful black eyes looked at her intently, imploringly, and shone, tears starting; and his lips quivered painfully under the gray moustache.

Praskovia Mikhailovna pressed her hand to her shrivelled breast, opened her mouth, and stared at the pilgrim with dilated eyes.

"It can't be possible! Staph—Sergius—Father Sergius!"

"Yes, it is I," said Sergius in a low voice. "But no longer Sergius or Father Sergius, but a great sinner, Stephen Kasatsky—a great sinner, a lost sinner. Take me in—help me."

"No, it can't be possible! Such great humility! Come." She stretched out her hand; but he did not take it, he only followed her.

But where could she lead him? They had very little space. She had a tiny little room for herself, hardly more than a closet; but even that she had given up to her daughter, and now Masha was sitting there rocking the baby to sleep.

"Please be seated here," she said to Sergius, pointing to a bench in the kitchen.

He sat down at once, and took off, with an evidently accustomed action, the straps of his wallet first from one shoulder and then from the other.

"Heavens! what humility! what an honour! And now"