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CHAPTER XX.

VALERIAN THE AGNOSTIC.

PAUL was putting his horse into his cart for his return home, when Morkovin hurriedly appeared, hatless, and breathless with fright, to say that two gentlemen were inquiring for him, one of whom looked like a Government official. An official was an object of terror to poor Morkovin.

He and Paul went into the house, and found Valerian, who had brought with him the secretary of the justice of peace.

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We have some business to talk over with you," said Valerian. "We want to take action for the murder of Loukyan; and I am come to ask your opinion as a representative of the Stundists."

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"Of course I approve of it," cried Paul eagerly. What do you think, Morkovin ?" Morkovin waved his hands deprecatingly. "Don't ask me," he said; "nothing

will come of it. You will only get into trouble."

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"Nonsense!" declared Valerian; our laws will not allow of such barbarities. Anyhow, such a scandalous case must not be left to pass unnoticed like that."

"But what can you do against them?

Morkovin persisted.

and hang together.

"They are all one lot

You will present your

petition to the Public Prosecutor; but as the case belongs to the Ecclesiastical Department, it will be sent on to the Consistory, to this same Father Paissy himself. I tell you a raven does not pick out a raven's eyes. You will

get into trouble, that is all.”

But it is the right thing to do," said Valerian; "if we are all afraid of getting into trouble every sort of wrong will prosper. I could not rest without doing something."

His opinion prevailed. Together with Paul he drew up a draft of the complaint to the Public Prosecutor. In it were related the facts of the case, as far as they knew them, and an investigation was urgently required.

The secretary willingly undertook to re-write the petition with the customary formalities,

and to send it down to Valerian for his signature. It was decided that Paul, as Stundist, should be kept out of it.

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Valerian had come to Kovylsk in a return post-carriage; so he willingly accepted Paul's offer to drive him home in his cart. The afternoon had come before they started on their long drive. It was a clear, sunny day in autumn, and the summer heat was gone. From the fields rose a thin white mist, which was driven to and fro by a slight breeze, here and there looking as if semi-transparent sails were gliding over the waves of a green sea.

The far-off woodlands were wrapped in dark blue, and were already mingling indistinguishably with the blue horizon. The road stretched before them, a long white line, altogether lost in the distance. Paul dropped the reins, leaving his horse full freedom; the beast was going home, and knew it. Paul was longing to have an earnest conversation with the man whom he had hitherto instinctively avoided.

The feeling of distrust Valerian had evoked in him was replaced by one of deep gratitude and sympathy. Without his timely aid he would never have seen Loukyan again. Though

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Valerian had never approached the subject of religion with him, Paul now felt convinced that he could not be an unbeliever. Scholars and philosophers might have their own modes of speech; but he no longer doubted that Valerian believed in his own way, and that in secret he was full of sympathy with the Stundists. His mother had always told him it was so; and now he was fully satisfied she was right. Paul was five years younger than Valerian, and with all the eagerness of youth, he began to talk to him of Loukyan's glorious death, and of the good news he had heard in Kovylsk of the spread of Stundism. There had been many conversions lately, in spite of the growing persecution—a relentless and deadly persecution, which seemed to have its spies everywhere. It seemed only to deepen the enthusiasm among the brethren, and to awaken sympathy for them among the orthodox.

"God's truth penetrates everywhere, even into the cathedrals and the prisons," said Paul; "as it was in the days of Nero, when St. Paul was put to death, so it is now."

"Indeed ?" said Valerian, in a tone of curiosity.

R

Paul told him of a prison warder and some old colleagues of Morkovin who had lately joined the Stundists. Valerian listened attentively; the spread of Stundism among the peasantry was profoundly interesting to him. He saw in it a field where his own political propagandism ought to find good soil. This confirmed Paul in his ingenuous supposition that Valerian was a believer, and it gave him courage to speak plainly.

"I want to ask you a question, Valerian Petrovitch," he began, looking away from his companion; "do not be angry with me. I speak to you from my heart."

Pray ask me any question. Why should I be angry?" replied Valerian encouragingly. What, then, are your views about religion?" asked Paul, turning his honest and serious gaze upon him; "I hear people talk all sorts of nonsense about you, and I have partly believed it. But now I know you better. You are like Loukyan, always ready to help anyone who is in need of help, as if they were your brethren. Now you are willing to get yourself into trouble for Loukyan's sake. How can it be that you should care so much