Page:The Tsar's Window.djvu/48

 "You will find them in every peasant's hut," he continued; "and any one who enters salutes the icon before any member of the family. The jewels in some of these are magnificent,"—moving nearer to one as he spoke.

"What a pity it is," I exclaimed, "that the church is not better lighted, so that the beauty and richness of it might strike the observer at once, instead of his being obliged to search for them."

For, little by little, new glories had revealed themselves to me. I stood under the great, dusky dome, and looked up at the masses of gold, bronze, and painting, which at first were merely vague shadows, but gradually made themselves visible, though the painting in the top, by Bruloff, was lost in the distance.

A man in uniform came up to us, and began to tell us in French to observe the iconastase at the east end. If there is any object in this world which is odious, it is a commissionnaire. He rattled off his lesson, telling us that the bread and wine were kept behind that screen; and when we would have made our way round to the back of it, he stopped us politely, saying that women were not allowed to penetrate into that sanctum sanctorum. So we had to be contented with a survey from the front. Doors of silver-gilt arabesque, in open-work, with mosaic pictures, and columns of malachite and lapis-lazuli compose the lower part. Above there is a mass of jasper, agate, porphyry, bronze, malachite, and painting.

"It is gorgeously beautiful," I sighed, "but if we could only have seen the back of it!"