Page:Leo Tolstoy - Father Sergius and Other Stories and Plays - ed. Charles Theodore Hagberg Wright (1911).djvu/63

 Rh cakes and wine. The company was composed of two lawyers, a wealthy landowner, an officer, and four ladies. One of the ladies was the wife of the officer; another was the wife of the landowner; the third was his sister, a young girl; the fourth was a divorcée, beautiful, rich, a little mad, whose ways gave rise to amazement and indignation in the town.

The night was fine, the roads smooth as a floor. They drove ten miles out of town, and then held a consultation as to whether they should turn back or go on.

"But where does this road lead?" asked Madame Makovkin, the beautiful divorcée.

"To T, twelve miles farther on," said the lawyer who was having a flirtation with Madame Makovkin.

"And beyond?"

"Then to L, past the monastery."

"Oh, the one where Father Sergius is?"

"Yes."

"The handsome hermit—Kasatsky?"

"Yes."

"Oh, messieurs et mesdames! let us go in and see Kasatsky. We can rest at T and have a bite."

"But we shan't get home to-night?"

"We'll just spend the night at Kasatsky's then."