However, even in the dark, there's always something to listen to. A cricket chirps, or a mouse begins to gnaw. And so one gets on well enough without thinking of anything.

"Besides, I say my prayers," continued Loukeria, with a slight sigh. "Only I don't know many. And why should I go wearying the Lord? What is there I can ask Him for? He knows better than I do what is meet for me. He has laid upon me a cross; it is a sign of his love for me. That is how we are told to look upon such things. I say the Lord's Prayer, the Angelical Salutation, the Prayer for all who are Afflicted, and then I go on lying here without thinking at all."

Two or three minutes passed by. I did not break the silence, but sat perfectly still, on the reversed pail which served as a scanty stool. The cruel stony immobility of the unfortunate living creature who lay there before me, seemed to communicate itself to me. I felt as if I too were losing vitality.

"Loukeria," I began at last, "think over the suggestion I am going to make. Would you like me to arrange for your being removed to a hospital, -- a good hospital in town. Who knows whether it may not be possible to cure you? At all events you would not be left alone."

Loukeria's eyebrows twitched a little.

"Oh no, Barin!" she said in an uneasy whisper. "Don't send me to a hospital; don't take me from where I am. I should only suffer all the more there. How can I be cured? There was a doctor came here one day and wanted to examine me. I begged him not to. 'For Christ's sake, do not disturb me!' I said. What was the use? He began turning me over from one side to another, bending my arms and legs, and kneading them into dough, saying the while: 'I do this for the sake of science. I'm a scientific man, you see, and employed by Government. And you mustn't go putting difficulties in my way,' said he, 'for I've had a decoration given me for what I've done, and it's for the sake of such stupids as you that I labor.' He went on worriting me ever so long, then he told me the name of my complaint -- such a learned one -- and then he left me. But for a whole week afterward, there wasn't a bone in me that didn't ache.

"You said that I am alone, always alone. No, not always. People come here sometimes. I am a quiet body, in no one's way. The village girls come in here and gossip; pilgrim women turn in here on their wanderings, and tell stories about Jerusalem, and Kief, and the Holy Cities.