To put a finishing-touch to it,
though the lady walked with modestly downcast eyes there was a sly and
merry smile on her face. If she had lingered a moment longer, she would
perhaps not have been allowed to enter the cathedral. But she succeeded
in slipping by, and entering the building, gradually pressed forward.

Though it was half-way through the sermon, and the dense crowd that
filled the cathedral was listening to it with absorbed and silent
attention, yet several pairs of eyes glanced with curiosity and
amazement at the new-comer. She sank on to the floor, bowed her painted
face down to it, lay there a long time, unmistakably weeping; but
raising her head again and getting up from her knees, she soon
recovered, and was diverted. Gaily and with evident and intense
enjoyment she let her eyes rove over the faces, and over the walls
of the cathedral. She looked with particular curiosity at some of the
ladies, even standing on tip-toe to look at them, and even laughed once
or twice, giggling strangely. But the sermon was over, and they brought
out the cross. The governor's wife was the first to go up to the cross,
but she stopped short two steps from it, evidently wishing to make way
for Varvara Petrovna, who, on her side, moved towards it quite directly
as though she noticed no one in front of her. There was an obvious and,
in its way, clever malice implied in this extraordinary act of deference
on the part of the governor's wife; every one felt this; Varvara
Petrovna must have felt it too; but she went on as before, apparently
noticing no one, and with the same unfaltering air of dignity kissed the
cross, and at once turned to leave the cathedral. A footman in livery
cleared the way for her, though every one stepped back spontaneously to
let her pass. But just as she was going out, in the porch the closely
packed mass of people blocked the way for a moment. Varvara Petrovna
stood still, and suddenly a strange, extraordinary creature, the woman
with the paper rose on her head, squeezed through the people, and
fell on her knees before her. Varvara Petrovna, who was not easily
disconcerted, especially in public, looked at her sternly and with
dignity.

I hasten to observe here, as briefly as possible, that though Varvara
Petrovna had become, it was said, excessively careful and even stingy,
yet sometimes she was not sparing of money, especially for benevolent
objects. She was a member of a charitable society in the ca