“Just so. A carriage is waiting.”
“May I take the clerk?”
“The orders are, ‘without any witnesses.’”
“Where is it, if I may ask?”
“I cannot answer. You will know all afterwards. Now, only one thing; there must be no delay, and the most profound secrecy,” said Oushakoff, with a haughty inclination of his head, although in earnest of his request, he pressed with both his hands his cocked hat, dripping with the rain, to his breast.
“May I at least tell my household, and allay their anxiety?”
Oushakoff knit his brows, and silently shook his head. The priest took the cross and books, called to Vâra in the attic to shut the door, and by the time his niece had descended, the carriage was rolling noisily away in the street. Driving up to the palings of the church, Father Peter woke up the clerk, went into the church, and took the chalice.