as fond of coming out with learned expressions.
He assured everyone, for instance, that he liked Kukolnik better than
Pushkin because there was a great deal of "protoplasm" about him. They
all sat down to play cards. Nejdanov retired to his own room, and read
and wrote until midnight.

The following day, the 9th of May, was Kolia's patron-saint's day.

Although the church was not a quarter of a mile off, the whole household
drove to mass in three open carriages with footmen at the back.
Everything was very festive and gorgeous. Sipiagin decorated himself
with his order, Valentina Mihailovna was dressed in a beautiful pale
lavender-coloured Parisian gown, and during the service read her prayers
out of a tiny little prayer hook bound in red velvet. This little book
was a matter of great concern among several old peasants, one of whom,
unable to contain himself any longer, asked of his neighbour: "What is
she doing? Lord have mercy on us! Is she casting a spell?" The sweet
scent of the flowers, which filled the whole church, mingled with the
smell of the peasant's coats, tarred boots and shoes, the whole being
drowned by the delicious, overpowering scent of incense.

In the choir the clerks and sacristans tried their very hardest to sing
well, and with the help of the men from the factory attempted something
like a concert! There was a moment when an almost painful sensation came
over the congregation. The tenor's voice (it belonged to one of the men
from the factory, who was in the last stages of consumption) rose high
above the rest, and without the slightest restraint trilled out long
chromatic flat minor notes; they were terrible these notes! but to stop
them would have meant the whole concert going to pieces. ... However,
the thing went off without any mishap. Father Kiprian, a priest of
the most patriarchal appearance, dressed in the full vestments of the
church, delivered his sermon out of a copy-book. Unfortunately, the
conscientious father had considered it necessary to introduce the names
of several very wise Assyrian kings, which caused him some trouble in
pronunciation. He succeeded in showing a certain amount of learning, but
perspired very much in the effort!

Nejdanov, who for a long time had not been inside a church, stood in a
corner amidst the peasant women, who kept casting sidelong glances at
him in between crossing themselves, bowing piously to the ground, and
wiping their babies' noses. But the pea