Late at night, when we had said good-bye and were already a good distance away from each other, I suddenly heard Olyessia’s voice behind me: ‘Vanichka! Wait a moment.... I want to tell you something.’
I turned and went to meet her. Olyessia quickly ran up to me. Already the thin notched silver sickle of the young moon stood in the sky, and by its light I saw that Olyessia’s eyes were full of big brimming tears.
‘What is it, Olyessia?’ I asked anxiously.
She seized my hands and began to kiss them in turn.
‘Darling ... how sweet you are! How good you are!’ she said with a trembling voice. ‘I was just walking and thinking how much you love me.... You see I want awfully to do something that you would like very, very much.’
‘Olyessia ... my precious girl, be calm——’
‘Tell me,’ she continued, ‘would you be very glad if I went to church some time? Tell me the truth, the real truth.’
I was thinking. A superstitious thought suddenly crossed my mind that some misfortune would come of it.
‘Why don’t you answer? Tell me quickly; would you be glad, or is it all the same to you?’
‘How can I say, Olyessia?’ I began doubtfully. ‘Well, yes.... I would be glad. I’ve said many times that a man may disbelieve, doubt, even laugh finally. But a woman ... a woman must be religious without any sophistication. I always feel something touching, feminine, beautiful in the simple tender confidence with which a woman surrenders herself to the protection of God.’