, squatting on his heels.

Two miles from the church ran the posting road. In windy weather, when
the wind was blowing from the road to the church, the inmates of the hut
caught the sound of bells.

"Lord! fancy people wanting to drive about in such weather," sighed
Raissa.

"It's government work. You've to go whether you like or not."

The murmur hung in the air and died away.

"It has driven by," said Savely, getting into bed.

But before he had time to cover himself up with the bedclothes he heard
a distinct sound of the bell. The sexton looked anxiously at his wife,
leapt out of bed and walked, waddling, to and fro by the stove. The
bell went on ringing for a little, then died away again as though it had
ceased.

"I don't hear it," said the sexton, stopping and looking at his wife
with his eyes screwed up.

But at that moment the wind rapped on the window and with it floated
a shrill jingling note. Savely turned pale, cleared his throat, and
flopped about the floor with his bare feet again.

"The postman is lost in the storm," he wheezed out glancing malignantly
at his wife. "Do you hear? The postman has lost his way!... I... I know!
Do you suppose I... don't understand?" he muttered. "I know all about
it, curse you!"

"What do you know?" Raissa asked quietly, keeping her eyes fixed on the
window.

"I know that it's all your doing, you she-devil! Your doing, damn you!
This snowstorm and the post going wrong, you've done it all--you!"

"You're mad, you silly," his wife answered calmly.

"I've been watching you for a long time past and I've seen it. From the
first day I married you I noticed that you'd bitch's blood in you!"

"Tfoo!" said Raissa, surprised, shrugging her shoulders and crossing
herself. "Cross yourself, you fool!"

"A witch is a witch," Savely pronounced in a hollow, tearful voice,
hurriedly blowing his nose on the hem of his shirt; "though you are my
wife, though you are of a clerical family, I'd say what you are even at
confession.... Why, God have mercy upon us! Last year on the Eve of the
Prophet Daniel and the Three Young Men there was a snowstorm, and
what happened then? The mechanic came in to warm himself. Then on St.
Alexey's Day the ice broke on the river and the district policeman
turned up, and he was chatting with you all night... the damned brute!
And when he came out in the morning and I looked at him, he had rings
under his eyes and his cheeks were hollow! Eh? During