War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [255]
“And what’s wrong, good lady, why shouldn’t I tell him? I like him. He’s kind. God’s chosen, he gave me ten rubles, my benefactor, I remember. When I was in Kiev, Kiriusha, a holy fool21—truly a man of God, he goes barefoot winter and summer—‘Why do you go about where you don’t belong,’ he says, ‘go to Kolyazin, there’s a miracle-working icon revealed, the holy Mother of God.’ At that word I took leave of the monks and went…”
Everyone was silent, only the wanderer woman spoke in a measured voice, drawing in her breath.
“I came, my good sir, and people tell me: a great blessing has been revealed, the holy Mother of God has blessed oil dripping from her cheek…”
“Well, all right, all right, you can tell it later,” Princess Marya said, blushing.
“Allow me to ask her,” said Pierre. “Did you see it yourself?” he asked.
“Of course, good sir, I was deemed worthy. There was radiance on her face, like a heavenly light, and it dripped from the holy Mother’s cheek, just dripped and dripped…”
“But it’s a trick,” Pierre said naïvely, having listened attentively to the wanderer woman.
“Ah, good sir, what are you saying!” Pelageyushka said in horror, turning to Princess Marya for defense.
“They trick the people,” he repeated.
“Lord Jesus Christ,” the wanderer woman said, crossing herself. “Don’t say it, good sir. There was this one gener’l who didn’t believe it and said, ‘The monks are tricking you.’ As soon as he said it, he went blind. And he had a dream that the Mother of God of the Caves22 comes to him and says: ‘Believe in me and I will heal you.’ So he started begging: ‘Take me to her, take me.’ It’s the real truth I’m telling you, I saw it myself. They brought him, blind as he was, straight to her; he goes to her, falls down, says: ‘Heal me! I’ll give you everything the tsar has bestowed on me.’ I saw the medal myself, a star, set into the icon. So he got his sight back! It’s a sin to speak as you do. God will punish you,” she addressed Pierre didactically.
“How did the star get into the icon?” asked Pierre.
“So the Mother of God has been promoted to general?” said Prince Andrei, smiling.
Pelageyushka suddenly turned pale and clasped her hands.
“Good sir, good sir, it’s a sin, a sin. You have a son!” she began, her pallor suddenly turning to bright red.
“Good sir, what have you said, God forgive you!” She crossed herself. “Lord, forgive him. Good lady, what is this?…” she turned to Princess Marya. She got up and, all but in tears, began packing her bag. She was clearly frightened, and sorry for the one who had said it, and ashamed that she had received benefactions in a house where such things could be said, and sorry that she now had to be deprived of those benefactions.
“Well, what on earth did you do that for?” said Princess Marya. “Why did you come to me?…”
“No, I was joking, Pelageyushka,” said Pierre. “Princesse, ma parole, je n’ai pas voulu l’offenser,*325 I just said it. Never mind, I meant it as a joke,” he said, smiling timidly and wishing to smooth over his guilt.
Pelageyushka paused mistrustfully, but Pierre’s face showed such sincere regret and Prince Andrei looked so meekly and gravely now at Pelageyushka, now at Pierre, that she gradually calmed down.
XIV
The wanderer woman calmed down and, urged to go on, spent a long time telling about Father Amphilokhy, whose life was so holy that his dear hand smelled of incense, and about how, during her last pilgrimage to Kiev, some monks she knew gave her the keys to the caves, and how she took some rusks and spent two days in the caves with the saints. “I’d pray to one, recite a little, and go to another. I’d doze, go again and kiss the relics; and it was so quiet, dearie, so blissful, that I didn’t even feel like going out into God’s world.”
Pierre listened to her attentively and gravely. Prince Andrei left the room. And after him, Princess Marya left the people of God to finish their tea and took Pierre to the drawing room.
“You’re very kind,” she said to him.
“Ah, really, I didn’t mean to offend her,