ation, in that, as all of us have
perceived, a lad bereft of wit, the same radiant lad whom all of us
have known, has here abided in the closest of communion with the
Blessed Dispenser of life on earth."

Then I moved away, for upon my heart there was pressing a burden of
unendurable sorrow, and I was yearning, oh, so terribly, to see
Nilushka once more.

The back portion of Felitzata's cot stood a little sunken into the
ground, so that the front portion had its cold window panes and raised
sash tilted a trifle towards the remote heavens. I bent my head, and
entered by the open door. Near the threshold Nilushka was lying on a
narrow chest against the wall. The folds of a dark-red pillow of
fustian under the head set off to perfection the pale blue tint of his
round, innocent face under its corona of golden curls; and though the
eyes were closed, and the lips pressed tightly together, he still
seemed to be smiling in his old quiet, but joyous, way. In general, the
tall, thin figure on the mattress of dark felt, with its bare legs, and
its slender hands and wrists folded across the breast, reminded me less
of an angel than of a certain image of the Holy Child with which a
blackened old ikon had rendered me familiar from my boyhood upwards.

Everything amid the purple gloom was still. Even the flies were
forbearing to buzz. Only from the street was there grating through the
shaded window the strong, roguish voice of Felitzata as it traced the
strange, lugubrious word-pattern:

With my bosom pressed to the warm, grey earth,
To thee, grey earth, to thee, Oh my mother of old,
I beseech thee, I who am a mother like thee,
And a mother in pain, to enfold in thy arms
This my son, this my dead son, this my ruby,
This my drop of my heart's blood, this my--

Suddenly I caught sight of Antipa standing in the doorway. He was
wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. Presently in a gruff and
unsteady voice he said:

"It is all very fine for you to weep, good woman, but the present is
not the right moment to sing such verses as those--they were meant,
rather, to be sung in a graveyard at the side of a tomb. Well, tell me
everything without reserve. Important is it that I should know
EVERYTHING."

Whereafter, having crossed himself with a faltering hand, he carefully
scrutinised the corpse, and at last let his eyes halt upon the lad's
sweet features. Then he muttered sadly:

"How extraordinarily he has grown! Yes