is rolling up the
whites, now he is raising his hand, he is calling me."

"Yakoff, Yakoff, thou shouldst try to pray; this obsession would
disperse. Let God arise and His enemies shall be scattered!"

"I have tried," says he, "but it has no effect."

"Wait, wait, Yakoff, do not lose thy courage. I will fumigate with
incense; I will recite a prayer; I will sprinkle holy water around
thee."

Yakoff merely waved his hand. "I believe neither in thy incense nor in
holy water; they don't help worth a farthing. I cannot get rid of him
now. Ever since he came to me last summer, on one accursed day, he has
been my constant visitor, and he cannot be driven away, Understand this,
father, and do not wonder any longer at my behaviour--and do not torment
me."

"On what day did he come to thee?" I ask him, and all the while I am
making the sign of the cross over him. "Was it not when thou didst write
about thy doubts?"

Yakoff put away my hand.

"Let me alone, dear father," says he, "don't excite me to wrath lest
worse should come of it. I'm not far from laying hands on myself, as it
is."

You can imagine, my dear sir, how I felt when I heard that.... I
remember that I wept all night. "How have I deserved such wrath from the
Lord?" I thought to myself.

At this point Father Alexyei drew from his pocket a checked handkerchief
and began to blow his nose, and stealthily wiped his eyes, by the way.

A bad time began for us then [he went on]. I could think of but one
thing: how to prevent him from running away, or--which the Lord
forbid!--of actually doing himself some harm! I watched his every step,
and was afraid to enter into conversation.--And there dwelt near us at
that time a neighbour, the widow of a colonel, Marfa Savishna was her
name; I cherished a great respect for her, because she was a quiet,
sensible woman, in spite of the fact that she was young and comely. I
was in the habit of going to her house frequently, and she did not
despise my vocation.[24] Not knowing, in my grief and anguish, what to
do, I just told her all about it.--At first she was greatly alarmed, and
even thoroughly frightened; but later on she became thoughtful. For a
long time she deigned to sit thus, in silence; and then she expressed a
wish to see my son and converse with him. And I felt that I ought
without fail to comply with her wish; for it was not feminine curiosity
which prompted it in this case, but something else.

On returning home