Nekhludoff, with his aunts and the servants, went through the motions, without ceasing to look on Katiousha, who brought a censer and was standing at the door; then, in the customary fashion, kissed the priest and the aunts, and was about to retire to his room when he heard Matriena Pavlovna, the old servant of Maria Ivanovna, making preparations with Katiousha to go to church and witness the consecration of the paschal bread.  “I will go there, too,” he thought.

There was no wagon or sleigh road to the church, so Nekhludoff gave command, as he would in his own house, to have a horse saddled, and, instead of going to bed, donned a brilliant uniform and tight knee-breeches, threw on his military coat, and, mounting the snorting and constantly neighing, heavy stallion, he drove off to the church in the dark, over pools and snow mounds.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote B:  Diminutive of Maria.]

[Footnote C:  Diminutive of Sophia.]

[Footnote D:  The Russian thou cannot be rendered into English with any degree of accuracy.  The greeting to which the impulsive Nekhludoff was about to give expression is that used toward a beloved person.]

CHAPTER XV.

That morning service formed the brightest and most impressive reminiscence of Nekhludoff’s after life.

The darkness of the night was only relieved here and there by white patches of snow, and as the stallion, splashing through the mud-pools, and his ears pricked up at the sight of the fire-pots surrounding the church, entered its inclosure, the service had already begun.

The peasants, recognizing Maria Ivanovna’s nephew, led his horse to the driest spot, where he dismounted, then they escorted him to the church filled with a holiday crowd.

To the right were the male peasants; old men in homespun coats and bast shoes, and young men in new cloth caftans, bright-colored belts and boots.  To the left the women, with red silk ’kerchiefs on their heads, shag caftans with bright red sleeves, and blue, green, red, striped and dotted skirts and iron-heeled shoes.  Behind them stood the more modest women in white ’kerchiefs and gray caftans and ancient skirts, in shoes or bast slippers.  Among these and the others were dressed-up children with oiled hair.  The peasants made the sign of the cross and bowed, disheveling their hair; the women, especially the old women, gazing with their lustreless eyes on one image, before which candles burned, pressed hard with the tips of their fingers on the ’kerchief of the forehead, the shoulders and the abdomen, and, mumbling something, bent forward standing, or fell on their knees.  The children, imitating their elders, prayed fervently when they were looked at.  The gold iconostasis was aflame with innumerable candles, which surrounded a large one in the centre wound in a narrow strip of gilt paper.  The church lustre was dotted with candles, joyful melodies of volunteer singers with roaring bass and piercing contralto mingled with the chant of the choir.