"Now you'll be able to see what order we have got there. And itis very difficult to keep order, it is so crowded, especiallywith people condemned to exile; but I watch strictly, and lovethe work. You will see they are very comfortable and contented.But one must know how to deal with them. Only a few days ago wehad a little trouble--insubordination; another would have calledit mutiny, and would have made many miserable, but with us it allpassed quietly. We must have solicitude on one hand, firmness andpower on the other," and he clenched the fat, white,turquoise-ringed fist, which issued out of the starched cuff ofhis shirt sleeve, fastened with a gold stud. "Solicitude and firmpower."

It consisted of the following. The priest, having dressed in astrange and very inconvenient garb, made of gold cloth, cut andarranged little bits of bread on a saucer, and then put them intoa cup with wine, repeating at the same time different names andprayers. Meanwhile the deacon first read Slavonic prayers,difficult to understand in themselves, and rendered still moreincomprehensible by being read very fast, and then sang them turnand turn about with the convicts. The contents of the prayerswere chiefly the desire for the welfare of the Emperor and hisfamily. These petitions were repeated many times, separately andtogether with other prayers, the people kneeling. Besides this,several verses from the Acts of the Apostles were read by thedeacon in a peculiarly strained voice, which made it impossibleto understand what he read, and then the priest read verydistinctly a part of the Gospel according to St. Mark, in whichit said that Christ, having risen from the dead before flying upto heaven to sit down at His Father's right hand, first showedHimself to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had driven sevendevils, and then to eleven of His disciples, and ordered them topreach the Gospel to the whole creation, and the priest addedthat if any one did not believe this he would perish, but he thatbelieved it and was baptised should be saved, and should besidesdrive out devils and cure people by laying his hands on them,should talk in strange tongues, should take up serpents, and ifhe drank poison should not die, but remain well.

An old-fashioned inlaid mahogany arm-chair stood in the corner ofthe room, and this chair, which Nekhludoff remembered standing inhis mother's bedroom, suddenly raised a perfectly unexpectedsensation in his soul. He was suddenly filled with regret at thethought of the house that would tumble to ruin, and the gardenthat would run wild, and the forest that would be cut down, andall these farmyards, stables, sheds, machines, horses, cows whichhe knew had cost so much effort, though not to himself, toacquire and to keep. It had seemed easy to give up all this, butnow it was hard, not only to give this, but even to let the landand lose half his income. And at once a consideration, whichproved that it was unreasonable to let the land to the peasants,and thus to destroy his property, came to his service. "I mustnot hold property in land. If I possess no property in land, Icannot keep up the house and farm. And, besides, I am going toSiberia, and shall not need either the house or the estate," saidone voice. "All this is so," said another voice, "but you are notgoing to spend all your life in Siberia. You may marry, and havechildren, and must hand the estate on to them in as good acondition as you received it. There is a duty to the land, too.To give up, to destroy everything is very easy; to acquire itvery difficult. Above all, you must consider your future life,and what you will do with yourself, and you must dispose of yourproperty accordingly. And are you really firm in your resolve?And then, are you really acting according to your conscience, orare you acting in order to be admired of men?" Nekhludoff askedhimself all this, and had to acknowledge that he was influencedby the thought of what people would say about him. And the morehe thought about it the more questions arose, and the moreunsolvable they seemed.