Page 560 - the-brothers-karamazov

holy man!’ some cried aloud, losing their fear. ‘This is he
who should be an elder,’ others added malignantly.
‘He wouldn’t be an elder... he would refuse... he wouldn’t
serve a cursed innovation... he wouldn’t imitate their fool-
ery,’ other voices chimed in at once. And it is hard to say how
far they might have gone, but at that moment the bell rang
summoning them to service. All began crossing themselves
at once. Father Ferapont, too, got up and crossing himself
went back to his cell without looking round, still uttering
exclamations which were utterly incoherent. A few followed
him, but the greater number dispersed, hastening to ser-
vice. Father Paissy let Father Iosif read in his place and went
down. The frantic outcries of bigots could not shake him,
but his heart was suddenly filled with melancholy for some
special reason and he felt that. He stood still and suddenly
wondered, ‘Why am I sad even to dejection?’ and immedi-
ately grasped with surprise that his sudden sadness was due
to a very small and special cause. In the crowd thronging
at the entrance to the cell, he had noticed Alyosha and he
remembered that he had felt at once a pang at heart on see-
ing him. ‘Can that boy mean so much to my heart now?’ he
asked himself, wondering.
At that moment Alyosha passed him, hurrying away, but
not in the direction of the church. Their eyes met. Alyo-
sha quickly turned away his eyes and dropped them to
the ground, and from the boy’s look alone, Father Paissy
guessed what a great change was taking place in him at that
moment.
‘Have you, too, fallen into temptation?’ cried Father