Page:Leo Tolstoy - Father Sergius and Other Stories and Plays - ed. Charles Theodore Hagberg Wright (1911).djvu/116

 110 people always listened to him, touched by what he read them, and wondering, as if it were something new, although so familiar.

If he succeeded in helping people by his advice, or by knowing how to read and write, or by settling a dispute, he did not afterwards wait to see their gratitude, for he went away directly. And little by little God began to reveal Himself within him.

One day he was walking along the road with two women and a soldier. They were stopped by a party consisting of a lady and gentleman in a trap drawn by a trotter, and another gentleman and lady riding. The gentleman beside the lady in the trap was evidently a traveller—a Frenchman—while her husband was on horseback with his daughter.

The party stopped to show the Frenchman the pilgrims, who, according to a superstition of the Russian peasantry, show their superiority by tramping instead of working. They spoke French, thinking they would not be understood.

Demandez-leur," asked the Frenchman, "s'ils sont bien sûres de ce que leur pèlerinage eat agréable à Dieu?" they were asked.

The old woman answered,—

"Just as God wills it. Our feet have arrived at the holy places, but we can't tell about our hearts."