Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com and poignant grief of the morning was no longer aching in
his soul. As soon as he came in, he fell down before the cof-
fin as before a holy shrine, but joy, joy was glowing in his
mind and in his heart. The one window of the cell was open,
the air was fresh and cool. ‘So the smell must have become
stronger, if they opened the window,’ thought Alyosha. But
even this thought of the smell of corruption, which had
seemed to him so awful and humiliating a few hours before,
no longer made him feel miserable or indignant. He began
quietly praying, but he soon felt that he was praying almost
mechanically. Fragments of thought floated through his
soul, flashed like stars and went out again at once, to be suc-
ceeded by others. But yet there was reigning in his soul a
sense of the wholeness of things — something steadfast and
comforting — and he was aware of it himself. Sometimes he
began praying ardently, he longed to pour out his thankful-
ness and love...
But when he had begun to pray, he passed suddenly to
something else, and sank into thought, forgetting both the
prayer and what had interrupted it. He began listening to
what Father Paissy was reading, but worn out with exhaus-
tion he gradually began to doze.
‘And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Gali-
lee,’ read Father Paissy. ‘And the mother of Jesus was there;
And both Jesus was there; And both Jesus was called, and
his disciples, to the marriage.’
‘Marriage? What’s that?... A marriage!’ floated whirl-
ing through Alyosha’s mind. ‘There is happiness for her,
too... She has gone to the feast.... No, she has not taken the