Page:Leskov - The Sentry and other Stories.djvu/233

 Rh in order to change my tone towards him I said:

"So what you are suspected of is not true, You have not seen any miracles?"

But he answered:

"Why should it not be true, Vladyko?"

"How so? Then you have seen miracles?"

"Who has not seen miracles, Vladyko?"

"Yet "

"Why 'yet'? Wherever you look there are miracles—there is water in the clouds, the earth is borne up by the air like a feather; here we are, you and I—dust and ashes—but we move about and think; that is also a miracle to me; we shall die and turn to dust, but our soul will go to Him who has placed it in us. It is a miracle to me that it will go naked, without anything? Who will give it wings to fly away like a dove and rest there?"

"Well, we will leave that for others to discuss; but answer me quite plainly. Have you ever in your life had any unusual manifestations or anything else of that nature?"

"In a measure, I have."

"Well, what were they?"

"Vladyko," he replied, "from my childhood I have been greatly favoured by the grace of God and though unworthy, I was twice the object of wonderful interventions."