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 peasant girls
in their new coats and beaded head-dresses, and the boys in their
embroidered shirts, with girdles round their waists, stared
intently at the new worshipper, turning their faces straight
towards him...Nejdanov, too, looked at them, and many things rose
up in his mind.

After mass, which lasted a very long time--the service of St.
Nikolai the Miraculous is well known to he one of the longest in
the Orthodox Church--all the clergy, at Sipiagin's invitation,
returned to his house, and, after going through several
additional ceremonies, such as sprinkling the room with holy
water, they all sat down to an abundant breakfast, interspersed
with the usual congratulations and rather wearisome talk. The
host and hostess, who never took breakfast at such an early hour,
broke the rule on this occasion. Sipiagin even went so far as to
relate an anecdote, quite proper, of course, but nevertheless
amusing, in spite of his dignity and red ribbon, and caused
Father Kiprian to be filled with gratitude and amazement. To show
that he, too, could tell something worth hearing on occasion, the
good father related a conversation he had had with the bishop,
when the latter, on a tour round his diocese, had invited all the
clergy of the district to come and see him at the monastery in
the town. " He is very severe with us," Father Kiprian assured
everyone. "First he questioned us about our parish, about our