Page:Leskov - The Sentry and other Stories.djvu/227

 Rh but I will not go to baptize there (that is in the desert)." He even asked, they said, that he might be deprived of his office rather than be sent there. And for this disobedience for many years he had been forbidden to officiate in church, but even that did not trouble him; on the contrary he would do the most menial work with pleasure: sometimes he acted as watchman, at others as bell-ringer. He was beloved by all: by the brothers, by the laymen, and even by the heathen.

"What? I am astonished. Is it possible even by the heathen?"

"Yes, Vladyko, even some of the heathen come to see him."

"What about?"

"They respect him from the old days when he used to go and preach to them."

"What was he like then, in those old days?"

"He used to be the most successful missionary, and converted numbers of people."

"What has happened to him then? Why has he given up the work?"

"It is impossible to understand, Vladyko. Suddenly something happened to him; he returned from the desert, brought the chrismatory and the pyx, placed them on the altar and said: 'I place them here and will not take them again until the hour arrives.