Ilya stretched out his neck and looked at the book with blinking eyes.
"You don't believe it?" cried Jakov. "How silly you are!"
"Not silly, only cowardly," said the church servant, quietly, "because he cannot look God in the face."
He turned his dull eyes from the ceiling to Ilya's face, and went on sternly as though he would shatter him with words.
"There are parts that are more difficult than that one. The third verse of the twenty-second chapter says plainly: 'Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous? or is it gain to Him that thou makest thy ways perfect?' You need to think very diligently, so as not to go astray in these matters and to understand them."
"And you, do you understand?" asked Lunev softly.
"He?" cried Jakov. "Nikita Jegarowitch understands everything."
But the church servant said, sinking his voice lower:
"For me, it's too late already. It is time for me to understand death; they've taken off my leg, but it's swelling higher up, and the other leg is swelling, and my breast, and I shall soon die of it."
His eyes stared steadily at Ilya and he continued slowly and quietly: